How to make 2G lude / 3G Accord shortshifter
By: MustardCat
How to go from:
3rd gear:
4th gear:
To:
3rd gear:
4th gear:
Well some of you may already know how to make a short shifter, but who cares here is how I made mine. Keep in mind this is a "true" short shifter and is 10x better than "fake" ones where you just cut and inch or two off the top. (I've used both kinds and there is no comparison.)
This particular shifter came out of my dead 2g lude, and is being installed into my 3g accord. The 2g lude and 3g accord a practically the same when it comes to the shifter stuff so this info in valid for 2g ludes as well. I actually think this info should be valid for any lever shifted Honda.
Tools needed:
Basic hand tools metric sockets, ratchets, and wrenches
Welder
Some type of saw to cut the shifter and scrap metal
Snap ring pliers for the snap ring holding the shifter in, you need compressing pliers
New grease for the shifter joint
Ok, to get the stock shifter out:
1. Get the front of the car in the air (Use jack stands!11!!) The higher the better IMO, also I would set a block behind the rear wheel for added safety.
2. Unbolt the downpipe from the rest of the exhaust, then take the exhaust off of the front 2 hangars. Just let it sit.
3. Unbolt the front exhaust heat shield
4. Now take the 12mm nut and bolt out of where it's bolted to the bottom of the shifter, your done down here.
5. Take the center console off in the interior, and pull off the rubber shifter boots.
6. Once those are off you should be able to see a snap ring holding the shifter in, take it out.
7. Now just pull the shifter up and it should come out, it may need a bit of a tug the first time.
Here is the stock shifter:
Now what your going to do is take a little bit off the top helf (Above the pivot ball) and extend the bottom half a bit (Below the pivot ball.)
By extending the bottom you decrease how far you must push the top of the shifter. Because since the bottom is now longer it moves a greater distance with less input from the top.
You don't actually need to shorten the top to make a true short shifter, but most prefer it because the stock ones seems a bit too tall IMO. So that part is actually up to you.
Now to do mine I first cut the top half off right above where it was originally welded on, then I cut another inch off the lower part of the top half. Next I welded the shortened top half back on. Simple and you don't need to mess with rethreading anything.
Now to do the bottom you need some steel rod about the same diameter as the shifter. Actually since you never seen this part while driving, any scrap metal could be used if it's thick enough. I used an old bolt that I cut the head off.
Next cut the lower half of the shifter off, close to the ball joint. (Not too close though.)
At this point it's decision time, exactly how short you want the shifts depends on how much you lengthen the bottom part of the shifter. I added about 1" to the length and the shifts are freakin short as hell, maybe too short. I think if I were to do it again I would only lengthen it maybe 1/2" or 3/4". Also think of your driving style, if you make the shifts freakishly short you need to be on the ball when your driving, especially when down shifting because this does make it easier to stick it in the wrong gear if your not paying attention.
Once you decide how much you want to add weld the new piece in between the ball joint and the part you cut off. Remember to keep the lower part square to the top like before you cut it off so the shifter isn't sitting crooked once it's installed.
At this point it's just about done. Here's what mine looked like:
What I did next is I painted the parts that I welded for rust protection:
Here's a stock one next to the new one, for comparison:
Ok, now you need to make sure the shifter isn't so long that it hits the heat shield for the exhaust, reinstall the shifter and hook up the arm to the shifting lever. Now install the exhaust heat shield, and make sure the shifter will go into each gear without the bottom hitting the shield. If you extended the bottom so much that it is hitting it, then you need to take the shield off and hammer on it a bit to get the needed clearance.
If all is well at that point you should be able to put everything back on and be finished. If you have a 3G Accord and extended the bottom allot, scroll down.
Animated 1st to reverse:
Now a word to those with 3G Accords that extended the bottom of the shifter 1" or more.
This could be a problem with the ludes too, but the shifter arms for it are pretty straight so I don't really think so.
I made mine so long that not only was it hitting the heat shield, the shifter arms were hitting each other! Here's what I did.
I used a torch on the arms to heat them red hot, then I hammered them where they were hitting to get the last bit of clearance, worked good! After wards I just sprayed some black paint on them to keep the rust away. Pics:
