(numbers count down) (gear shifts loudly) (whistle blows) - What's my time? - [Eddie] 2.41 one second. - Oh, that's way too slow. It should be way faster.
That's why I have this. (blade shines) It's called a short throw shifter
and we're gonna install it in the Miata today and
see if it can actually make me any faster. I'm Zach and this is Money Pit. Let's get short and throwed. Let's start shifting. Let's shift into gear. I don't know, man. Let's get shiftin'. - [Eddie] That's the worst one yet. - Yeah it is, use it. (lightening strikes) (screaming) (thunder rumbles) Thanks to Blinkist for
sponsoring today's episode of Money Pit. Are you like me? You're constantly stuck under the hood of your project car,
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condensed period of time. Now, while I'm working on the Miata. - [Eddie] That sounded just like you. - Dude, I finally got my
real voice out. (laughs) Now while I'm working on the Miata, I just pop in my headphones and listen and learn something new. I've been on a kick of
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day unlimited trial. And if you're interested, you'll get to take 25%
off the full membership. Now let's get back to the show. You know, a lot of people think that, in order to go faster in your car, you have to make your car faster. But what if I told you you
can actually make your car go faster by making yourself faster? Well, one of the places
that we can make ourselves a lot faster is in our gear changes. (engine revs) (fart toots) Whoa, forever! So there's obviously some
time to be saved right there. (tape measure snaps) All right, so we've got
the old tape measure out and we're gonna roughly
measure what the length of the throw from first to second gear on our current stock shifter is. So I've just got the tape measure held up to the front
of the shift knob here. First gear, at rest. Second gear, at rest, three inches. So we got a three inch throw on the front of the shift knob. So that's where a short throw shifter's gonna come into play. Should shorten up our shifts as well as making them a little bit more precise, which will be sweet. But if you just want a shorter shifter, then why not just saw the
top of your shifter off and make it shorter? Well, that's not really actually how short throw shifters work. Let me show ya. So here we've got our short throw shifter from Miata Roadster and I
just want to take a quick look at what a shifter is. So we've got the upper
portion of the shifter, we've got the lower
portion of the shifter, and then right here, this
ball, this is the fulcrum. So a short throw shifter really is about lengthening the
bottom part of the shifter by moving this fulcrum up so
that the amount of travel you have to move to affect a shift at the top where the
shift knob is, is shorter. Let me show you a really
simple demonstration of the difference between a stock shifter and a short throw shifter with an antenna and an antenna ball. Imagine for a minute
that this is a shifter. Imagine this is a stock shifter. So we've got our fulcrum point down here, pretty close to the bottom. It's really low, which
gives you a lot of leverage, a lot of advantage over this
shift, so that your shifts are really effortless and really easy and it doesn't take any effort. But all that mechanical advantage means that your shifts are gonna be pretty long. It takes a long travel up here
to get a pretty short travel on the bottom of the shifter. So a short throw shifter
actually just lengthens the bottom portion of the shifter
by moving that fulcrum up. So we move that fulcrum up and you can see that it takes a lot less shifting distance to affect the same travel at the bottom of the shifter. So basically it boils down to this. (imitate engine) Versus.... (imitates faster engine) You can tell which one's better. (upbeat music) Okay, so, for shortening the
shifts in the Money Pit Miata, here's what we got. I got Miata Roadster
short throw shifter kit, and it's awesome. It's exactly what a kit should be. It comes with everything. They've thought of it
all, from start to finish. All the heat shielding,
new washers, new hardware, obviously the shifter itself, all the way down to the instructions. It comes with everything. So this should be a really breezy install. But the first part of the install is always getting that stock
stuff out, so let's go do that. (cup holder clatters) Okay, so the first thing we need to do to install a short throw shifter is remove the stock long throw shifter. So the first thing I'm gonna
do is pop off the shift knob, it just unscrews. And we'll get this center
console out of here and then we'll keep moving. So in the Miata, we've done
the steering wheel so far. So the thing that I
touch probably the most is in great shape, it works for me. I love it. So now it's time to focus on
the shifter and make it great. Because, you know, when
you're driving a car, you shift a lot and it would be sweet if those shifts were sublime,
you know what I mean? So that's what we're after here, making the things that we
interact with on the car awesome. Okay, so now that we're
down to the shifter, we're gonna take off this shift boot, which is actually pretty
new, we replaced it recently, but now we got another new one, holy crap. (grunts) Not too bad. Okay, Eddie, your new boot. - [Eddie] Thanks bro. - (laughs) Aw, nice look at this old
nasty heat insulation, look at- - [Eddie] I'll take that, too. - You want it? Okay, all right, all right. I love it. (screwdriver cranks) Try to keep, aw, goddammit.
(Eddie laughs) Literally, as I'm saying I'm
gonna try to keep all these on the top side of the car. Well, you know what? We might as well drop
all three then, you know? Okay, so now we're down
to our shifter set up here and we just pick it straight up out. It comes out nice and easy
and our turret still has oil in it because I think we
filled it up not too long ago. You can see our lower
shift cup is on there, we'll be replacing that as well. So time to get this out the car. (shifter clatters) Oops. So here we can clearly see
the change in fulcrum position in the stock shifter versus
the short throw shifter. You can see that fulcrum
ball is almost all the way at the bottom here on this stock shifter. And then on the aftermarket one, it's moved considerably upwards to make those shifts shorter. So it's really easy to see
when you look at it like that. And now we gotta just
gotta go put it in the car. - [Eddie] What was that? - What? So in the NA Miata, there's
what's called a turret right here that the shifter sits in and it's actually fluid filled. You just use whatever
transmission fluid that you use in your transmission and put it here. They are separate, so
it doesn't quite matter too much what fluids you use in here. Now I filled this backup recently, I think, when we did the clutch job, so it's fine in there, I'm sure. But the kit even comes
with a turkey baster with a little length of hose
to suck out the turret fluid so you can replace it. That is thinkin' ahead. So I figured, while we're in here, I might as well replace the turret fluid, even though it's not really
gonna get me anything. Okay, that should be enough. So we're gonna drop in our new tip bushing that goes onto the bottom of the shifter, which actually is what drives
the gears back and forth. And this is our stock one. Not only do these wear out
in this inner diameter here, but mine's also broken. So that does not help
with the way shifts feel. So this will be a nice addition. Okay, so now that's down in there like so and now all we need to do is fill it up with a little bit of trans
fluid, cover that thing up. So we've got a new
unbroken OEM wave spring included in the kit. This just drops down into the turret and sits on that lower bore. Now we gotta go back to the bench and lube up our new bushing, put that thing in and,
hell, we're halfway home. I'm just playin', dog. (laughs) Just like so, you see
it's just covering up that lower bushing. Perfect. Okay, so these slots match up with, you'll have one or two pins in the Miata, depending on what generation you have. So this slot is gonna line up
with that pin, just like so. Now we're on top of that wave spring. Now our fulcrum point is ready to meet up with our new shifter. So these pins will meet
up with the indents in this bushing down here like so. And then these holes line up perfectly. We're ready to drop the
new short throw shifter in. Before we did that, I lined
up this plastic ring here. These indents line up with the slots, which line up with these pins. So it shouldn't, should
be ready to drop in. Let's see what happens. That looks nice. It's just nice to
replace all these gaskets and the heat insulation. So much heat comes through
the shifter area as it was. This is a great day. All right. See if she shifts. (laughs) Oh my God. It's amazing. Oh, all right, let's keep goin'. I gotta get a knob on
there, we gotta drive this. (laid-back music) Okay, so now the boot's in place, now we can use this reusable
zip tie that it comes with. And that is some serious heat insulation. Now, I know it maybe
looks a little overkill, but this thing lets a lot of
heat through the shifter area and I'm really excited for it
to not be so hot right here. So that's it. Now I gotta put my center console back on, drop it on top, and then all
this will be hidden anyway. So, you'll never even know. Let's do it. Ah! Okay, she's in. Last thing we gotta do
is put the knob back on and we're just gonna put the
stock one back on for now so we can measure the difference
in the overall shift throw because we're measuring
from the shift knobs. When we changed the shift knob,
we change the measurement. Okay, so we're in first,
shift back to second. We were at three inches,
now we're just under two. So we've reduced our shift length, we've reduced the throw of our shifter by, what, 33-ish percent? A third? That's pretty dang good. - [Eddie] All right. Now it's time for the
moment of truth, man. - Aw man, I've been training for this. I don't know if you notice, but I went inside for like an hour earlier and I was just doing that. - [Eddie] Is that what
you're doin' on the Sim? - Yeah, oh, on the Sim? - [Eddie] Is that what you call it? Are you ready? - (sighs) Yeah, dude, I'm ready. (epic music) - [Eddie] In three, two, one, go. (whip snaps) - What's my time? - [Eddie] Your time is 177. - Yeah, baby! I told you we'd get under two seconds. Well, the proof's in the pudding. I can shift first, second, third, fourth, all the way into fifth at a standstill and under two seconds. So it must be better. Now, obviously that's a bit of a joke. Let's go drive it and
see how this thing does. (engine revs) (laughs) Let's see how quick we can shift. That's nice. So in my opinion, the biggest benefit of a short throw shifter
isn't really how quickly you can get from gear to gear because that's not really how we shift cars most of the time. The biggest benefit is just how
every gear change feels now. It feels so much more crisp,
so much more positive. It's got this mechanical click that feels the exact way
you want a shifter to feel. And the fact is that
when I drive this car, I'm constantly shifting it. So why wouldn't I make that
shift feel as good as possible so that every time I do it, I get a little smile on my face? And that, to me, is why a
short shifter is worth it. It makes every shift better, not just the ones you're
bangin' into gear. Let me know what you guys think about that in the comments below. Thank you so much
(bell dings) for watching. You can follow me on Instagram @zachjobe, follow Donut @donutmedia
across all social platforms. And I'll see you guys next week. Wa-bam, baby! (peaceful music)
