Unofficial BMW E30 Short-Shifting 2-piece Shifter[click on images for larger versions] |
As many folks here know, the older BMWs, 1986 and older, have a sheet metal mounting plate for their shifter, and a 2-piece design shift lever. The newer style, either late 1986 or 1987-2003, has an aluminum arm and a 1-piece design shift lever.
The newer style is very cool as you may easily mix-and-match with other models to inexpensively ( aprox $50 ) build your own short shifter. Or get a factory style 1-piece shift lever custom built to your specification by Ron Stygar. See Ron's web page for more details. Replacing a shift lever.
For example, the Z3 1.9 shift lever gives a nice shift reduction for the E30. The M-Z3 Roadster shift lever, is perfect for the E36 M3 application, and probably all E36s.
Notice the difference in lengths above and below the pivot point with the new Z3 1.9 shift lever, vs the older 2-piece E30 6cyl shift lever
Folks with the older style have been out of luck so far, or have had to buy the expensive style setup just for their application.
Last night I was looking at my 1986 325e (challenge car), and looking at the 2-piece shift lever, and realized the pivot ball is the exact same size as the newer style shift lever.
So in theory, if you could just get that old style bushing mount, on the new style shift lever, you'd have the best of both worlds.
Looking at the old mount, I saw that you could just cut a notch in the upper half of the bushing and retainer ring, and then you could slip it over the 1-piece shift lever.
Everything else is just a normal assembly of the shift lever. Sweet!
Dale
List of parts:
