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How to make an STS "Shorty Shifter"


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No.. you did it correct. You should thread the die over the existing threads.. then continue down the shaft.

Well, I had the right idea, but somehow messed up execution.

I ground the flange off the shaft with a bench grinder...
Phen--

How did you grind the flange down? Is the area on the shaft where the flange was flush with the rest of the shaft?

I did the same, but there is a chance that I did nto grind it down far enough. I was trying to leave enough material to have some material to compose the new threads, btu no excess beyond that.

 

Like I said, I may not have ground down enough.

 

Since I am using a Momo aftermarket knob, I should have just ground it down and cut it off without re-threading it. Then I could have marked the locations of the 3 Momo set screws and just re-installed it at any height I wanted.

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Excellent point.

 

You need to grind the flange all the way down.

A die will cut threads... but it won'd reduce the diameter of a shaft.... so if you still have a "thicker" part, you'll either screw up the threads or break the die.

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  • 8 months later...

Did this mod over the weekend, love it. I strongly recomend this to everyone. Hats of to the OP.

 

I did not have a 12mm x1.25 die, so I used a 1/2 20 die. If your using the stock shift knob the threads inside are plastic and the 1/2' thread works fine.

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  • 5 months later...
Did this mod over the weekend.. Love it! The only recommendation I would make to the OP is that if you do not have a dye holder to use a 1" deep socket instead of a wrench. For all those worried about the difficulty of threading the shifter material, it is a mild steel and not that difficult to thread the dye down to your desired length.
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just did this last night. also made it a short throw by cutting the bottom below the fulcrum and welding in an 3/4" peice to extend it. what a huge difference over factory. feels like how it should have been made instead of that telephone post called an oe shifter.
I'm a native of South Carolina. I am a dying breed.
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  • 10 months later...
So.. I have to ask, has anyone else tried this mod? With ~350 or so hits on the thread, I am amased that only one other person has gotten out the hack saw.

I have done this on a multitude of cars I have owned, and it has worked great everytime, I can't do it with my legacy, it's an automatic :mad:

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  • 3 months later...
To bring this thread back yet again, I just did this to my 2.5i and took off about 2 inches (1.9") from the shifter. I wish I left about a half inch more, but oh well. The hardest / longest part was grinding down that darn flange, everything else was cake. Definitely worth it!
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Just finished this up in less than an hour. The feel is so much sportier! Should have come this way from the factory. Got the rethreading die for 5$. Only part that gave me trouble was the snap ring. Other than that, it was pretty easy with the OP instructions. +1 for a great walkthrough.

Now I just need to find the time to lengthen the rod below the pivot point to make it a true STS.

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I'll be doing this with the stock shifter in my Impreza, as well as the shifter in the LGT when I buy it.

 

I hate having to reach around the shifter to do anything with the stereo or climate control. It's irritating.

 

These things require so little effort to shift I doubt I'll even notice a change.

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  • 3 months later...

I just performed the DIY STS MOD on my factory shifter (2005 LGT) and many thanks to jah64 for outlining this Walkthrough.

I have to say that I am quite impressed and a bit surprised as to how much better it feels! I was never very interested in the STS units that move the shifter pivot point up as it increases the speed of syncro engagement. This is only my opinion of course.

I would like to make an offer to the community for anyone who would like to perform this mod, but don't feel that they want to do the machining/threading required. I have a development machine shop availlable at work and was able to trim the swaged area on a lathe and I used a cut-off saw to make a square cut at the 35mm.

You would need to send me a PM to set this up. I would be able to turn these around in a day, but if anyone would want to donate a stock shift lever to the cause, I could have one ready and waiting. The maximim that can be shortened is 35mm, but if someone wanted to try less, such as 25mm, that would be a non-issue.

 

I would request that return postage money be included (whatever it costs you to mail it to me) for the return trip.

 

A couple of words of caution: Be careful when sliding out the lever, as the white spherical bearing cup has two light duty o-rings that secure it and the bottom one pops off very easily and could be lost. The other caution is regarding re-assembly, when threading the shifter knob back on, the boot can bunch up and get caught between the shifter and the knob area. Just work the boot down as you thread the knob on.

 

HarryD

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  • 1 year later...

Performed this mod a few weeks ago. It feels amazing and slowly started modding more. Unfortunately, when I rethreaded my shifter I was in a rush (because I was using the tools from work and had to drive my car back home) and rethreaded it 1/2 x 18 and I've had a hard time with that. The half inch was just slightly oversized so the threads on mine weren't deep enough to really catch and only threaded about a 3/4 up the neck of my knob. Very recently I decided to attack it again and while still being too cheap to purchase the correct dye, massacred my momo knob and I must say I love the way it looks and feels. I cut the neck off of my momo (i hate the boot attached look anyways) and heated up the plastic all the way to the top (they stop probably a 3/8 from the top). I hadn't even had my knob all the way down the first time. Long story short, I have a really really short feeling and semi-looking shifter and it's all thanks to this thread, even if I didn't quite follow directions. Thanks man!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/13/yvutu7a5.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/13/8upege3y.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/13/u5yvu3am.jpg

 

Sorry about the quality I was getting ready to roll out to work..

 

 

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Thanks man. I love the way it feels and looks especially with the plastidip...It took a while to get used to though and was weird when I had an Arizona tea can in my cup holder cuz i had to reach over it but its awesome...

 

 

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So.. I have to ask, has anyone else tried this mod? With ~350 or so hits on the thread, I am amased that only one other person has gotten out the hack saw.

 

I tried this on my old 91 legacy wagon and I love it. In my case I went the super cheapo route with mine. The 91 shifter is about 3 inches too long and fairly sloppy, with long shift throws. I didnt remove the shifter to do mine. I took some tie down straps to stabilize the shaft and sawed the thing off with it in the car. I tried to rethread the shaft to fit the ebay shift knob I had bought and would have had to turn down the shaft to do that. So I rethought the thing, took the adapter bushing out of the shift and discovered that standard pipe threads on a short piece of galvanized steel pipe threaded right into the shift knob. Then, I had to resize the the piece of pipe so it would slide over the shaft of the shifter. I put the pipe in a vice and reamed out the id of the pipe to fit the shifter. The only thing left to do then was clean the inside of the pipe and outside of the shifter shaft and mix up a batch of JB weld to glue them together. Been working great for a couple months with no issues. I love the shift feel now, looks and feels like a mazda miata shifter...all for less than $20 including the sexy 6spd marked shift knob

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