Short Shifter Installation [DIY]

Posted by on May 12, 2010 in Civic, DIY, Featured | View Comments

This short shifter installation guide is for the EK and EG Honda civic chassis (slight diffrences on the EG chassis is just the interior center console removal. It should also be pretty relevant to DC2 chassis as well). Theres alot of misconceptions about short shifters in general. Some include hacksawed shifters working better, it destroys syncros, it ruins transmissions. Short shifters are not just shorter on the top, but longer on the bottom which keeps a correct placement of the gear knob, so hacksawed shifters are not better, it just makes your knob sit lower. Short shifters do not destroy syncros or ruin transmissions, poor drivers do. More info here.

Short Shifter Installation Parts Needed

  • Jack Stands/Car Ramps
  • Temporary Jack
  • Metric Socket Set (3/8 and 1/4 drive preferred)
  • Metric Hex Key Set
  • Optional: Metric Combination Wrenches
  • Vice Grips
  • Phillips Screwdriver
  • Grease
  • Skunk2 Short Shifter
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Steps to do Inside the Car

  1. Before you jack up the car is to do all the interior bits first.
  2. Remove the center console 3 screws on each side.
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  3. Remove your gear knob. Its threaded on like a nut, so just turn it.
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  4. Pull apart your center console from between forward and rear portions.
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  5. Pull the front portion out, be careful with the front section where the cup holder/pocket is.
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  6. You should be left with something like this.
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  7. Now remove the rubber boot from the chassis and shifter. Flip it up from the outside as shown. Careful with taking it off, any rips will net a trip to your nearest Honda dealer for parts.
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    Steps to do underneath the car

    Please use Jackstands or Ramps to elevate the car, Temporary Jacks are exactly what there called, TEMPORARY. The way I did it was to drop the exhaust; some people prefer to take the whole linkage out, but I had my rear bumper off anyway to clean out all the caked up sand and dirt up there.
  8. First I used a temporary jack to lift up the exhaust by the resonator, just to take some of the pressure off the rubber hangers
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  9. Slide the rubber hangers off the mounts. You might need to remove the left rear wheel.
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  10. You can leave the exhaust resting on the LCAs.
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  11. Loosen the shift linkage from the shifter.
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  12. Now Loosen the two 8mm nuts, you won’t be able to get them off as you’ll soon see.
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  13. Now remove the two 10mm bolts, at this point the other linkage will drop. If its stuck there, just tap it a bit and it’ll come down.
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  14. Heres why that 8mm nut wouldn’t come off…
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  15. Gentle vise-grips on the two flat sides fixes that problem.
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  16. Now that the shifter is out, you can take the retainer plate off. Be careful not to tear the rubber boot. Wetting the rubber boot helps with easing it off.
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  17. Now take the rubber boot off the shifter, go slow again wetting it helps.
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  18. Comparison of the OEM single bend vs Skunk2 Dual Bend
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  19. Spread some grease on the ball.  Don’t forget some lube on the inside of the rubber boot too .
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  20. Slide the boot onto the shifter.
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  21. Since were out from under the car, prep the new Skunk2 bolt with 2 of the rubber washers from the OEM shifter (it should help protect the bearing from the elements). This is the order I installed it in. The spacer on the top is only used for DC2 applications.
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  22. Back to the shifter, put the retainer plate back on the boot. It only bolts up one way, its also a good time to make sure your shifter is facing the right way, leaning toward the back.
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  23. Bolt up the 8mm nuts with the vise-grips.
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  24. Bolt up the 10mm bolts, and slide the Skunk2 bolt into the shifter with all the hardware shown before.
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  25. Tighten down the nylon locknut with a deep socket and hex key (Combination wrenches work too, but I’m lazy). After that slip all the exhaust hangers back on.
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  26. Lower the car, and jump in and put the rubber boot back on. Try it out, make sure theres no binding. It will be stiffer than what your used too, this is due to the solid bearings on the Skunk2 piece.
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  27. Now, just put all the center console pieces back on, reverse how you took them out.
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[source]

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  • http://www.facebook.com/EricMitz Eric Mitz

    Awesome writeup! Very detailed, and great pictures

  • Hashiriya

    Just used this DIY to install my short-shifter. Thank you very much!

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