Installed B&M 45163 short shift kit in 370Z yesterday...

The HACK

We didn't take as many pictures as I thought we did, but I'll post the high-lights here. I've installed one of these in a 350Z before, while the steps are similar, there are a couple of tricky spots on the 370Z you need to address.

First, the knob is darn near impossible to remove without damaging it. There's ample amount of blue loc-tite on the threads and the factory isolator piece on the upper stick has enough give to make it very hard to break the loc-tite bond. We ended up removing the entire piece with the knob and boot still attached and worked on it in a vice on the work-bench with a long leverage to get the knob off. See assembly_knobremoval.jpg:



Here's a shot prior to our molestation of the car:



The console with the leather boot was simple enough to remove, apply some upward pressure from the rear end of the console and the clips will release. Most of the steps to remove the boot is very similar to the procedure on the 350Z:

Shift Boot Installation - Nissan 350Z & 370Z Wiki

Removing the OEM assembly is a little bit different on the 370Z. If you compare the 350Z console area and the 370Z console area, you'll see that once the console has been removed the 370Z only has a small opening compared tot he 350Z. There's a metal plate holding down a large rubber boot, and the plate is secured by 4 10mm screws. The two screws toward the front are easily removed, the two in the rear are covered by the back half of the center console. The arrow indicate front of car.



The center console needs to move back about 2 inches to gain access to the screws. Remove the two screws at the base of the console in front of the shifter, remove the two knee bolsters, remove the 2 screws at the back and base of the center console (you may need to move the seats up to gain access), the console should pull up and rear-ward to clear the two screws. You may not be able to completely remove the center console with the hand-brake assembly and boot in place. You just need to move it back far enough to remove the two screws. Once the aluminum plate is out of the way, you should be able to remove all the rubber boot off of the shifter assembly. There's 3 screws holding down a 5 sided plate with a square opening. Remove the screws, there's a spring underneath the assembly so watch out, the whole assembly will pop up once you remove the screws.



Now you've got to get underneath the car, find the bottom of the stick linkage and the selector linkage, and remove the bolt attaching the two linkages. Now you can remove the whole assembly away from the car.

You'll need to file away about a 1/4" wide and 1/8" deep slot in the pivot cup on the upper left side (front driver side) to allow the gear selector lever to go into reverse (since the B&M lower stick is a lot beefier than the OEM one). The cup is made of pretty light and soft aluminum, any metal file will do.

Assemble the B&M stick, insert the metal bearing into the bottom linkage, install the blue collar on top, place 5 sided plate on top and assemble onto stock pivot cup.



Do not tighten the three allen bolts completely. You'll need to get back down underneath the car and attach the selector linkage back onto the bottom of the stick linkage with the bolt you removed earlier. Now, with the assembly installed, you'll need to shift the stick into each gear and make sure it does not come in contact with the square opening on the 5 sided plate. It is vital to adjust the plate right, otherwise you'll have noises in gear as the stick bounce against the plate. Once the plate is properly adjusted, tighten all allen bolts.

Put all the rubber boots back on in order. There's a small, 5 sided boot that goes on first, then the big, flat and floppy boot, then the last boot. See attached image(s):





Getting the top aluminum plate on is a little tricky. You must get the two rubber boot to line up and the holes for the screw to line up to the holes on the transmission tunnel. Again, the two holes in the rear will require that the back half of the center console be moved back a couple of inches. Get the front of the boots and plates to line up, put the two screws in until the thread catches, then put the back ones in with the console pulled back.

Put everything back in order of removal and you're set. The throw is reduced to about 2 inches between 3rd and 4th:





OEM throw is about 3.5" long between these two gears. Top of the knob will sit slightly lower as well.

Instructions (in PDF) for a 350Z is on B&M website. Scroll to bottom of page.

Precision Sport Shifter

The B&M Precision Sport Shifter is sold through Stillen:

STILLEN : B&M Precision Short Throw Shifters

Enjoy.

Attached Images

	assembly_knobremoval.jpg (77.2 KB, 4052 views)
	interior.jpg (83.9 KB, 4034 views)
	alum_plate.jpg (58.8 KB, 4025 views)
	oem_stick.jpg (71.6 KB, 4089 views)
	installed.jpg (74.9 KB, 4063 views)
	rubberboot_bottomplate.jpg (66.3 KB, 4010 views)
	rubberboot_console.jpg (79.4 KB, 4017 views)
	3rd.jpg (81.3 KB, 4017 views)
	4th.jpg (85.0 KB, 4014 views)

LiquidZ

Thank you very much for the writeup. The B&M looks like a quality piece.

Any rattling since the install?

__________________

The HACK

Ask KillerBee370. It's in his car right now.

I can tell you that the rattling issue on the 350Z stems mainly from an improper install. The top 5 sided plate MUST be adjusted right to prevent the stick from rattling against it, since the B&M unit is a lot beefier than the stock stick.

RCZ

$?

The HACK

I can only tell you how much Stillen charges for it...$210.25. MSRP is $230 I believe. If there's enough interest on this site I might be able to arrange group buy pricing from a vendor.

RCZ

Stillen Charges $210.25 yet price is $230? Oh as in B&M charges $230. Gotcha.

I am interested.

theDreamer

Nice, definitely interested.

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black09Z

im up for a group buy pending on price

imag

Looking at the service manual, I'm was surprised the stock shifter feels so rubbery because it's not cable actuated, but linked almost directly to the transmission. The feel is not as bad as newer BMWs, but I would love it if it could feel more like the S2000 (perhaps the best shifter in the world). So I have two questions:

Does this kit help it feel more mechanical and less vague?

In the process of disassembly, did you see any rubber bits that look like they could be either eliminated or replaced with solid bushings to give the shifter a more direct feel?

Thanks much - I love me some notchy short shifting, and this mod is high on my list...

The HACK

Surprisingly the S2000 is a cable based shifter (if I'm not mistaken).

The stock "bearing" and stick is where half of the rubbery feel comes from, the other half is how the carrier arm is mounted. The carrier arm mounts on the back of the transmission and does not have a triangulated point that mounts to the chassis, therefore it is allowed to swing rather loosely. If you want to get rid of ALL slop and make the shifter direct, you will need to replace the stock stick pivot assembly (urethane cup with a plastic ball) with a mechanical BEARING design and a more solid upper stick isolator. In the process of removing the knob, it is surprising that the stick assembly itself rotates about 5 degrees due to the rubber isolator used in the top stick assembly. Also you will need to replace two rubber bushings at the front of the carrier to something more solid, like urethane or maybe even a SOLID bearing.

The B&M short shifter will get you about 65% of the way there in terms of direct, mechanical feel.

KillerBee370

I will chime in here since the unit was installed in my car...

The feel is not rubbery like the stock stick AT ALL. Very mechanical and very very precise. The throw is extremely short (which I love) and I haven't missed a gear or come out of a gear since the unit was installed.

No rattling whatsover and so far I am very pleased with this short shifter in my 370. I would go so far as to say that I think it rattles LESS than the stock unit did (in terms of overall stick movement--not noise). The unit makes no noise and feels very definite when you go to shift gears.

I am working on a video now and will have it up soon so that you can get a bit better feel for this unit under different driving conditions.

I recommend it!

imag

Nice! Thanks guys! That's a huge relief - I think C&D put it best when they compared that feeling to rowing a stick around in a bucket of rubber balls. The Z is better than most, but I'm glad it can be improved so easily (and further improved, if necessary).

Cheers...

The HACK

I think Nissan has done a much better job on the 370Z in insulating the noise and vibration compared to the 350Z.

Anyway, I marked up on the OEM stick where I think it's rubber and where a lot of the slop is coming from. See attached image below.



Compare that to the B&M unit, you can see in this image:



The "brass" colored part in the pivot point is indeed a brass bearing encased in a stainless steel bearing case. I think the reason why brass is used is that the material can be impregnated with lubricant and as the bearing gets used more it releases lubricant to smooth out the shifting, but retain the tight tolerances and precise mechanical feeling metal bearing gives you. You can't see it from this same angle, but the top stick is installed over the lower stick like a sleeve with a hard rubber material as the noise insulator sandwiched between the two stick, then bolted down to prevent any unwanted movement.

If I can get 10 confirmed orders I can probably work something out as a pretty significant discount. Add your name to this thread and when we reach 10 I'll see what I can do. Group buy detail will be emailed to each participant when I work out the details.

Attached Images

oem_stick_rubber.jpg (133.2 KB, 706 views)

theDreamer

In for one, add me to the list please.

__________________
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Houston Zs // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

imag

Awesome. Thanks for the detailed shots. I need to wait until I buy my car, but I'll most likely be in for one within a week.