My 5spd knob was bothering me. A) its too big, and B) it's ridiculously high on the shifter. I was thinking of getting something different but most aftermarket stuff is metal and I always freeze my hand to them. They don't look so great when they are under my hat because they get so cold. So I set off to mod the existing knob. Check out the photo link below for all the steps. Step1. Notice how high that thing is. Step 2. I used a dial caliper and measured the knob which is 3 inches. Step3. I measured the inside of the hole on the knob and its 1.9 inches. Oh boy there's an entire inch to gain! Step 4. I believe I used a 5/16 drill bit to drill into the knob. The drill bit SHOULD NOT be bigger than 5/16 or it will drill out the threads. Inside the knob you will just drill through a thin wall and find out that the top one inch of the knob is hollow. Step5. I used a 1/2 inch drill bit to go in about 3/4 of an inch. This leaves space for the shifter shaft to go inside the knob. BE CAREFUL on this step! If you drill to far or fast it will drill out all of the threads in an instant and your beat. Step 6. Clean out any debris left from the drilling as this will just cause problems threading the ball back on. Step 7. Screw it back on. On my car it was a bit difficult and you have to be careful not to go so far that it will pop the metal cap off the top. I screwed it down until it became very difficult which was about 3/4 of an inch. 3/4 of an inch was the same depth I went with the 1/2 inch bit.hmmmm. Part 2 of step 7 is to admire and enjoy that bottle of wine you just happened to have sitting in the cup holder. Thanks to the member binaryh4x for the inspiration. Total time 6 minutes- total cost nothing- and I don't have my hand frozen to a cool looking block of metal.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...gn/ssphoto.jpg

 

not to burst your bubble, but thats not a short shifter, thats a shortened height shifter, and your throw really hasn't changed, a short shifter affects the length of the throws, not always the height...

 

i thought he was going to bring up using balsa wood or something. lol

 

It's not a short shifter, but the shifts are shortened due to the overall shortened stick now.

 

guess the mod (if you wanna call it that) would work on AT and call it
a shorter shifter. i had a razo knob long time ago that could change
height. it felt good at its shortest height on my AT car that i had at
the time.

 

Yeamans17-sure a shortened height shifter produces a shorter throw.Next time you shift grab the shifter silly low down by the boot. Your hand will move dramatically less than at the normal height. Imagine you taped a 2' broom handle to your shifter and grabbed it at the top. How far would your arm have to move to product the same travel at the transmission.

 

yes, it shortens the throw, but its not a "short shifter" you most likely only lessened the throw by at best an 1/8th of an inch

 

It's funny what people get hung up on...
some the idea of "shortened shifter" vs "short shifter"
others...dial calipers vs digital calipers....haahaaaahahaaa c'mon anyone else notice, i thought it was funny...heehee.....k I am gunna go hide now...

I bet you do notice the diff though, not only in the small shift throw diff but also in the "at rest" and "lazy" position.

I love the simple stuff.....congrats!

 

well, the concept is right... the shorter height does make it a
shorter shift gate to gate.

wat we're accustomed to is changing the length of the shifter
BELOW the pivot point and that has been the definition of a
true "short shifter."

now on AT you probably can't (or very difficult to do) change
the length of the shaft below the pivot point... thus i used the
shorter shaft method as the OP, and called it a 'shorter shifter.'

short shifter/shorter shifter bascially can achieve the same goal...
to make the shift travel shorter... but a true short shifter can
more efficiently achieve the goal without altering the shifter height.

some people (like me) do not like short shaft shifters cause the
knob gets farther away from the steering wheel.

on my other car (G35 coupe), i raised the shift knob to get it
closer to the steering wheel. even so, the gates are still closer
than my FitS's stock 5MT's strokes.

 

Nice DIY with some original thinking. Bottom line the shifter handle moves through less travel with your hand in the new position no matter what you call it.

 

I like the forward thinking on this. I to like the stock knob and will have to try this over the weekend. Short shift or shortened shift, either way i like it so +1 for you my friend.

 

x2 pho duh wynn

 

Yknow what's also a wicked-awesome DIY mod? Cut your stock suspension springs and you can get your car as LOW as you want!!!! I kid you not, you can slam your FIT and ride like real life playas, drifters, dragers, ganstas and stunnas within 3hrs. You won't regret it. You'll be smashing your front lip spoiler on speed-bumps in no time at all!!!!!11!!!one!!!!!!!1!!!!twentyfour!!!!!!

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Sounds stupid right? So does hacking your stock shift lever. Either get a REAL SS or leave it alone. PLEASE.

 

lol. this man speaks the truth!

 

It looks like the poster installed Skunk2 "Short Throw Shift Spacer Kit". I had it installed also. It raises up the whole shifter by whatever the inches the spacers are, and it creates a little gap between the boot and the knob. I can tell why the poster would want to drill the knob and get it back down a little bit because the gap is really annoying.

 

Yeah and dont do any mods to your car...you tell em...hahaahaaaa
That made me laugh....good show...cuz like when people actually pay mucho $$$ to lower thier car so it now has problems encountering everyday situations.... ...Thats a RIOT!!! Although it can be sexy and increase performance for those still willing to exploit it after all that.
good job on the short(er) shifter its for you and you like it, and it was slick and cheap
no real safety hazzard present (we can all shift with just the rod if need be) and it looks and probably feels good.
...no harm no foul! enjoy ...

oh and for all you ladies dont paint your fingernails...just get the press on colored ones or just paint the fake ones! HAAAHAahahahaaaa I am dying here...hahaaaaa... you guys have such great senses of humor.

 

lol at cutting springs

 

Yeah, that mod may shorten the length from gate-to-gate, but it doesn't reduce any effort on the throw itself, in fact it may make it worse.

That's one of the big benefits of an actual short shift lever. Less action = quicker shift times. If you were to take the stock lever and whittle it down to say, 2 inches in length, you would actually be making it HARDER to shift even though the length from each gate wouldn't be as long.

 

Oh man tough crowd out here in Fit land. Here's some notes on my earlier post:
1) Balsa wood- now thats funny.
2)Ugly space between shifter and knob GONE.
3)Space needed for my arm to travel between wheel and shifter is 3/4 inch more. When I autocross however my hand is usually on the shifter most of the time so it doesn't bother me.
4)I'm not well hung so having my shifter shorter makes me feel like more of a man in comparison and that makes me drive faster.
5)The shifter is "harder" to throw but this is a honda. It still takes almost no effort.
6) Ok so maybe the throw is shorter only by 1/16 of inch. But hey it only cost a whopping free cents.
7)No need to remove any panels and it took less time than needed to write this.
8) So its ok to spend $400 to buy a cold-air intake to increase horsepower by 5% but if I shorten my throw by 5% for FREE I'm crazy?
9) No animals were hurt in this modification. No need to get so upset.
10) I'm gonna take the money I saved on that Skunk2 kit and go down To PepBoys so I can buy one of those fake chrome chain license plate frames, tint my back windows purple and leave the air bubbles in, and then cut some black electrical tape by hand to make a huge TYPE-R sticker. Just to drive you guys crazy. haha

 

Screw the haters. You did a mod that as you said was a whopping free cents THAT WORKS. Unbelievable that the haters get so upset they have to compare your cheap, efficient, effective mod to some dumbas* cutting the spring rant. Ignore them