Quote:
Originally Posted by mattssi
That's awesome. Would love to see some more reviews or install photos if someone dared...
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Just finished the install up. The process itself isn't too bad and there isn't anything overly technical.
The AS instructions are actually pretty good, have pics of the clips, and still apply for our gen. Pop off shift knob, leather boot, center console, remove the foams and rubber boot. Underneath remove exhaust, the heat shield just behind the tranny, and drop the drive shaft (3 bolts).
The dogbone/selector rod has clips you can pop off on both ends, then the pins just slide out of the shifter and the dogbone coupler on the tranny side.
You can then remove the 'jesus' clips and pins holding the front of the carrier to the tranny, then the rear carrier bushing bolts. Push the drive shaft back and to the passenger side, and you can drop the whole carrier w the shifter in it down and out w a bit of swearing and varying angles. Then you need to remove the retaining clip around the selector housing coupler on the tranny, so you can pop the pin it's holding in place out. The coupler then comes off, and you'll use the new coupler and clip that came w the AS SSK.
With the carrier and shifter out, you can try to rotate the white plastic retainer counter clockwise from the top, or you can just stick 2 straight slots on either side in the gap in the aluminum housing and compress the white plastic. The shifter pops out the top. New shifter and bushings go in.
Like I said the process isn't overly technical, but unless you've done a beem shifter before, I'd plan for most of the day. The odd clips, weird angles, and learning about all the connections by feel made things pretty tedious. If you like DIY, you got this. Paying someone who has done it before and won't spend hours swearing at the car sounds a fine path to me lol. If you take it on..
- The drive shaft bolts are in a triangle pattern, so one is likely going to be an annoying angle up on the top side of the tunnel. If your rear wheels are hanging, release the parking brake and put it in neutral, spin the tires a bit to rotate the drive shaft. Impact will help break the bolts loose.
- Various length flat heads and pry bars w slight angles help for the jesus clips and retaining clips.
- When removing or reinserting the pin holding the coupler on, push the dogbone forward towards the tranny to relieve the pressure, there is foam in the coupler causing resistance. I used a short bolt to push the pin out from the top.
- Put the retaining clip on the selector rod coupler before putting the dogbone in place and putting the coupler on. Getting the retaining clip over the coupler while it's up there is a nightmare, easier to just push it forward on the housing and have it fall into the groove. Last pic is of the gold coupler, you can see the retaining clip around it, pin is under that.
- I couldn't find the drive shaft torque specs, just went w the standard for those bolts, which is 100nm.
For what most people care about though.. This thing is amaze. It makes the shifting much notchier and more solid feeling. I went with a 20% reduction, feels great. No concern about missing gates w the less lateral movement.
The loss of leverage is noticeable going into first, it takes a tad more force, since you normally are only moving it 'half' distance from N -> 1. All other shifts where you full swing it's not noticeable at all. The extra bump required for 1st isn't a thought next to how amazing the shifts feel now.