E30 Zone

Hi, I am looking at buying a short shifter via ebay are they model specific i.e will one of a 316i fit on a 325i ? and are they relatively straight forward to fit?? any advice would be helpfull. thanks Phil

Dont buy off ebay. Cheaper from the dealer.
As for which one to get... I have no idea.

Look in the tech articles section - I went for the Z3 2.8

people normally go for the Z3 1.9 shifter straight from the dealers. i got one for Oguz3001 a few weeks ago, and it cost about Ԛ£20 all in

personally, im thinking of going for the Z4 2.5/3.0 shifter, as i havnt actually felt what a Z3 1.9 one feels like in an E30. im assuming it should be the same as when its in a Z3, in which case, the Z4 one's are shorter

Stu u know this is going to be on list of things to do, Im going witht he z3 one though after alot of research

well small world isn't it phil you're already on this website ha ha. i am the seller by the way kevo, the gear shift isn't one of those aluminum ones that melt in your hand btw; but i wasn't aware that they still sold them at a dealer! if you do price them u can you let everyone know how much they are out of curiosity? if you like i can show you a couple of pics of my gear change (i have one on my car too) or you could try asking 'jaistanley' try pm'ing him he is a member of this site from essex and recently bought a gearbox off me he had a go of my car with the quickshift on see what he thought of it?
cheers
Kev

I have the 1.9 jobby, does the job and there is a vast improvement on the original...Don't know what the others are like, but the 2.8 is shorter I think.

HTH

Pal

i put a z3 2.8 shifter on mine the other week, took about 30 mins to do and has made a huge improvement. WELL WORTH THR TIME AND EFFORT

worked out about Ԛ£35 i think for the lever, bush. circlips and shims

i have the part numbers somewhere uf u want them

The 2.8 Z3 lever does have a shorter shift than the 1.9 Z3, but the shorter you go, the notchier (if thats a even a word) the gearchange becomes.

I fitted the 1.9 lever but didnt renew any of the bushes etc as I didnt have time to get them from the dealer, the gear change is pretty notchy and can be quite stiff - mostly due to not renewing all the bits, so Im just putting up with it

If you go for the 2.8 lever, I would suggest replacing all the bushes/shims etc to get the smoothest gearchange possible.

when doing something like this, its always well worth changing as much as you can thats associated with it. that way, you dont have to do it in the future, and you feel the full benefit of you enhancement!

i have the 1.9 z3. its perfect. the shorter you go the stifer it gets.

so go by what you think. i am used to the 1.9 and love it! so when i do my conversion its comming with me.

i would like to feel a shorter shift but the 1.9 is a vast improvment!

Why dont u make your own short shifter?

If u know how to weld just a little bit u can get the same effect for no cost at all. or even better, because u can decide how much shorter do you want to make it.

Bye

I have the Z3 1.9 shifter in my car also, and think it's great.. I personally wouldn't want to go any shorter than that. On a nice flowing piece of road, it's nice to have a relatively smooth easy change, to reduce the chance of selecting the wrong gear, or being too 'notchy'.

Yes i agree,Z3 1.9 is really good (and cheap),it suits my sport perfectly

Does anyone have a list of the parts needed to do the Z3 1.9 short shift conversion? Including all the bushes etc.

In the articles section, right here on the zone...

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... echnz3.htm

That is sooo sweet!!!

check out this link, and look at the post i made with pic in it, about half way down the 1st page

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... rs&start=0

did u guys buy from bm? or was it a scrapy job? dont think gfs do them.
cheers tim

what is the distance between the ball and the lower pivot point of the Z3 1.9 ???

timmyboy wrote:did u guys buy from bm? or was it a scrapy job? dont think gfs do them.
cheers tim

From the BMW dealer, GSF etc wont do them.

does this help?

guys, i dont actually know what the numbers mean, but someone may be able to find out

personally, im gonna go for the Z3 2.8 one. when i do it, i'll be changing everything that needs to be changed

Stu's gonna sort mine out aswell with the 2.8 shifter, well ill have ago at it then stu will have to put it right

Thanks for all the links and tips, i found this thread very useful!

cliffybabe wrote:Stu's gonna sort mine out aswell with the 2.8 shifter, well ill have ago at it then stu will have to put it right

not surprised there!!!