I was able to build a custom short shifter for my 93 Impreza L.

First I actually thot an RS shifter would swap over. I bought one online before realizing the linkage points are pretty much opposite of each other.

But with the RS shifter at hand I built my own shifter from a lever out of a junkyard. I simply cut it down to right about the length of the RS shifter and then ran a die down it to create the necessary threads for installing the WRX ****.

All you need for this is a good hack saw and a 14mm die, I do believe. I used the salvaged lever so that I can return my car to original if necessary and in case I screwed something up, but this is a pretty straight forward process so I think a guy could just take his existing one out, cut it to size, thread the end, and put it back in.

The stock shifter boot looks smashed after the shortening but I don't think it looks all that bad. I am keeping an eye out for some aftermarket one to fit better.

 

Here are the 3 shifters I used in the process.

 

Hit this thread for how it looks on the car: https://www.i-club.com/forums/ongoing-projects-31/suzys-coming-right-along-68439/

 

So basically you just physically shortened it... Thats not always the best thing to do, because by physically lowering the height of the shifter you are moving it farther away from the wheel and making shift times actually longer (as you have to reach several inches farther to shift the car).

What I did for my L when I first tried to deal with a short shifter was move the shift point about an inch higher. With that old style lever, you can just re-weld the bracket that connects to the linkage to a different spot on the shifter. By doing this, I dramatically decreased the length of shifts without moving the shifter farther from the wheel. It was a very effective solution, however I would recommend only moving it about .5" to .75" as a whole inch farther caused some issues with shift linkage contact with the frame:

 

I see what you're saying but what I accomplished was making the distance the end of the lever moves by making it shorter. I forget the Algebraic term or whatever but basically you have to move a shorter lever less distance in order to make the business end do what you want it to. You find it harder to do that tho since you have reduced leverage by shortening the lever itself. Mine feels roughly the same as a stock WRX shifter.

 

Ya, but mine was more like a miata shifter

 

Alternatively, rallitek sells shifters for Ls

jonathan