Why are short shifters bad for the tranny? Told some people what I had heard about them not being good for the tranny and they didn't believe me. Would like some info to educate them (after you guys educate me )

 

Well, the whole idea of them is to shift faster. Shifting faster forces the trans to move faster then it was really ment to, which can wear out the innards quicker. That's pretty much the basics of it.

 

I thought it was more of a mechanical problem but I can't remember. I never got one.

 

it could be bad but you'll be hard pressed to find any evidence of how much of an illeffect it will have on the transmission.

like if it reduces the life of the tranny by a 100miles or 1000miles.

if it reduced the trannys life by 1000 or 10000. i could care less

 

Most people claim that a short shifter will wear out the syncros. I see no reason why. A true short shifter (i.e. it changes the throws by moving its pivot point, not just shortening the lever) shortens the distance needed for the shifter to move the shift linkage by increasing the amount of effort required. Maybe if a driver is more likely to drive like an idiot and bang out shifts all the damn time there would be some ill effects, but the linkage moves the exact same distance even though the throws of the shifter are changed. In a car with a longitudinally mounted transmission where the shifter is actually a part of the gearbox the only difference is that it's attatched to the shift fork itself instead of via a linkage. The same thing hapenns if you shorten the throws though, the shift fork moves exactly the same amount as with the stock shifter.

 

i've had my ss in my car for over 3 yrs. and about 60k miles. haven't noticed any damage to the tranny.

 

what "they" say is that it will wear out synchros faster. but i haven't seen any evidence or proof of that.. :dunno:

 

I think it would be hard to do. For one thing, it probably takes a while to do any noticeable damage. Also, chances are if they installed a short shifter they were racing around drivin all crazy-like so any damage could be from abuse or other things. :dunno: I say don't worry about it. A short shifter is a factory option on WRXs so it can't be that bad.

 

agreed.. even my woman's c230 came with the short shifter option.