The installation:

Getting the car on jackstands, then going under the car and disconnecting the transmission linkage, then the front transmission connector, that's not too tough. Now, the 2 nuts that bracket the rear of the shifter unit to the floorboard are a HUGE pain to get at. I did not drop the drive shaft (probably should have), or remove the Y pipe. I fought with these varmits for about an hour. After about 20 minutes I got one free on the driverside of the bracket, but the one on the passenger side is another story. Another 40 minutes of trying, I called my friend with a deep set socket bit (10mm). I used a 2" long 10mm bit with 3 extensions to get past the ypipe and got the unit out. Pull off the rear busing/bracket then slide the shifter up through the hole into the car (need 2 people to make this easy). Took a little coaxing to get out w/ a long flat head screw driver and a hammer (all was sheet metal on sheet metal violence, no biggie). Stripped necessary parts from the stock shifter (less than 5 minutes), then got em squared away on the Hurst, dropped it in. Took a bit of searching to find the front attachment, but hand tightened it. Put on the new Urethane (not rubber) rear bushing and mounting bracket, used my absurdly long wratchet to wratchet em on. tightened the front connection again. Put the nut back on the linkage at the bottom of the shifter and tightened it. Tested shifting through all the gears. Put in the nuts that hold the shift rod onto the shifter, put the rubber dust boot back in, put the leather shift boot back on, then put the Hurst Cueball shifter on.

Impressions:
The action is MUCH shorter, it advertises that it reduces the stick travel by 40% and I'd say that is a very safe claim. I'd go so far to say closer to 50%. For those of you with autos let me paint a picture for you. When I used to have stock shifter, when I would shift into 1st and 3rd, my knuckles would be less than an inch from the stereo face. Now, I have closer to 2 inches between my knuckles and the stereoface.

The shifts are a lot more crips, it took a LOT of guesswork for the 2/3 shift under hard throttle with the stock set up. you can hit it every time I've tried (test drove a couple miles got about 3 full throtle 2/3 shifts in without lifting off the gas) and didn't miss once. The action is MUCh shorter.

Now the bad: This is definitely a race shifter. It's not nearly as casual as the ho hum stock set up, it takes a little bit of muscle getting it in gear. The shifts are much crisper but take a little bit of work.

Which set up do I prefer? The short throw, all the way. But I take a very aggressive stance with my car, basiacally I will forfeit ride comfort for performance at every major decision point.


If you've got a manual, I'd highly recommend one of these, it's 200$ well spent. Don't know what a cost of install would be.

I've attached some pictures of 1 2 3 shift points to give you an idea of the throw as well as the chrome shift rod with HURST engraved on it.

Hurst
First
Second
Third


I'm going to go ahead and appologize for the absurd size and lack of clarity in the pictures, feel free to shrink them and repost them (perhaps embedded) I'm on my mac @ home and haven't bothered to get any decent photoediting software.

 

I just installed mine today as well. I was lucky enough to have an 8" extension with deep socket in the garage, made those 2 buggers a breeze. Had to bend the metal a little to get the old shifter out. When I tried to put the top part of the shifter on I dropped the bolt in the whole. I wasn't lucky enough for it to fall to the ground, it fell in the little section that sits under the glove box. i don't even want to talk about it, but what a pain in the hiney. Getting the bolt out was the hardest part of the operation. All done and fininshed, backing out of the garage I ran over the $150 neon light that I had to remove to jack up the car. Oh well, $hit happens. Very happy with the product though. Can't wait to really get on it and test it.