Spent my Sunday morning on my back under my WRX swearing.

My buddy bought me a B & M Sport Short Throw shifter for XMAS a few months ago and I finally got around to installing it today in my '02.

I was kind of questioning how well this shifter would work (to be honest I had no problem with the stock shifter and wasn't in the market for one, but it was a cool gift), but the quality looked nice and the shop he bought it from said it was "the best", so I tried it out.

The worst part of the whole installation was fighting with the snap ring that holds the nylon bushing (locates ball of shifter) to the base plate assembly. The last cat (yeah it's still on my car) and the driveshaft are directly in the way and made it a pain in the *** to get the snap-ring pliers up there to remove it. Installing it was worse.

The instructions say to remove the heat-shield around the 3rd cat to access it easier, but the photo in the instructions is for a GC8. The 3rd cat has flanges right in the way (and the driveshaft is waiting to block your attempts anyway). Otherwise, the install was a breeze. You must flip the baseplate 180 deg in the tunnel and it's a bit wierd lining the rubber gasket back up, but no big deal.

After a test drive I was really happy with it. It feels very solid and precise, better than I expected. And the shifter uses stock **** threads so you don't have to use the slightly tacky-looking B&m **** it comes with.

I also reinstalled my stock intake resonator back in the fender after getting sick of the intake roar and wheezing and hissing every time I'd step on the gas. But now the car feels a little doggy.........??? Maybe I'll put my velocity stak back in the fender?

 

Pics?

 

no pics

once it is installed everything looks stock (except my Prodrive ****)