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Old 08-11-2011, 06:40 PM   #1
jpmck03
 
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Drives: 2018 Volkswagen GTI
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: PA
Posts: 893
Smile The MI SSK "Not a Big 'Car Guy'" Review

Intro
Let me preface this by saying, I'm not a guy that's big into cars. For example, if I look under the hood of your average Yaris, I could name most of the major parts in there, like say, the engine, battery, transmission, radiator, fuse box thing, headlights, belts, uhm, yeah, that's about it.

However, I do enjoy driving, and I have been bitten by the "hey, modding your car is fun" bug. Fortunately for me, it was the minor species of mod bug, not the major species like some of you guys, because if I was, I'd be in way over my head.


So, without anymore rambling, here we go:

__________________________________________________

Part One: Short Shifter
Quick and Dirty
It's awesome!
The Install
I received the Micro Image Short Shift Kit today, and decided to tackle the part that I thought would be the easiest to do: the short shifter. Armed with nothing but the short shifter itself, I popped open the hood and identified what I needed to do:
  • Pull the pin out of the end of the shift cable.
  • Pull the shift cable off the peg it was on.
  • Slip the short shifter onto the peg.
  • Reattach the pin to the short shifter, and
  • Reattach the shift cable to the new short shifter with the supplied pin.
So, without removing the battery, or the intake or any of the other goodies like the instructions suggested, I reached in, disconnected everything, popped in the short shifter in, and connected everything back up. The only "hard" part was figuring out how to put the new pin on the shift cable, and that was solved by running back in the house and looking at the picture of the finished product.

Total time spent on the install: 2 minutes, tops.
The First Drive
After checking to make sure everything worked while in the driveway, I took the car out for a spin.

Wow, this thing is incredible! Shifts are short, and sharp, with a little bit of notchiness, but the notchiness isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I started out in town, primarily going between 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear; and what a difference it made. I guess the best way to describe it is that it makes shifting a lot easier, despite the fact that it requires a little more effort to get the stick into each gear.

Getting into first from neutral is little bit more of a challenge, as there seems to be some resistance. From first to second, it's just, bam! and you've already shifted. Second to third, also a little bit more effort, as there is a little less sloppiness from stock, so you need to be a little more precise as you make your up-over-up motion.

After zipping around town, I decided to take 'er on a quick trip down the interstate to row through all the gears... From third to fourth... just like the 1st-2nd transition, bam! you're in gear! Fourth to fifth, that seems like the trickiest one, as it seems like you need the most precision there, a little rough, but you can get it with some effort and practice.

And since it's not covered in my trip around town: neutral to reverse is similar to the 4th-5th transition, with my usual "it's a pain to get in reverse anyways" problem

__________________________________________________

Part Two: The Shifter Cable Bracket
Quick and Dirty
Like I said in my first post: It's awesome!
The Install
Installing the shifter cable bracket involved the following:
  1. Removing the battery tie down, battery, and plastic battery tray.
  2. Removing the passenger side and driver’s side pins from the shifter cable ends and pulling the shifter cables off of the shifter levers.
  3. Removing both clips holding the shifter cables in the shifter cable bracket.
  4. Moving the shifter cables and wiring cables to gain access to the top of the shifter cable bracket.
  5. Removing the 12mm bolt from the wiring bracket, and swinging the wiring bracket out of the way.
  6. Removing the 14mm bolts from the shifter cable bracket, and removing the OEM shifter cable bracket.
  7. Replacing the OEM shifter cable bracket with the MI shifter cable bracket using the original bolts and MI-supplied washed.
  8. Reattaching the wiring bracket to the MI shifter cable bracket.
  9. Placing both shifter cables back into the MI shifter cable bracket.
  10. Reattaching both original clips.
  11. Reattaching the shifter cable ends to the shifter levers, and.
  12. Reattaching the plastic battery tray, battery and battery tie down.
Overall, this part was a little bit more frustrating than the first. A lot of this had to do with the fact that I'm a relative "newb" when it comes to the whole car modification game. You know, paranoia that I'll never get the car put back together, break something, etc. This, of course is of no fault of the SSK itself.

In retrospect, the install was relatively easy, and at no point was I left scratching my head saying to myself, "Now what the hell do I do?" The two things that were the most annoying were: 1.) removing the clips from the shifter cable bracket, and 2.) squeezing in behind the shifter cable bracket to remove the wiring bracket with my tiny 1/4 in drive ratchet. Also, trying to remove the bolt by turning the ratchet the wrong way didn't help. Righty tighty, lefty loosy is backwards when you are removing a bolt from the back side of it...

Overall I'd say on the difficulty scale (my difficulty scale that is!) I'd rate the install at a 4 out of 10, with 10 being the hardest. If I had to do it again, maybe a 2 or 3 out of 10.
The First Drive
Overall, things have smoothed up a bit between shifts. The "up and over" shifts are quite a bit easier, and it's easier to get into first as well as reverse from neutral. I read on another review that prior to adding the bracket it felt like getting into gear felt like the stick went "bump, bump, then we're in gear." I felt that too, but since I knew that I was going to put in the shifter cable bracket, I didn't mention it. Now that I have the bracket in, it's "clutch in, bump, in gear, clutch out."

The only downside I've experienced, which is entirely due to my "take it slow and don't screw up" approach is this: Because I left the battery out for so long, the customized throttle response that the ECU made based on my driving style is out the window. So, now it feels like I just bought the car again.

Once I'm done relearning how to drive the car, and relearn how to drive with my new and improved SSK, I'm sure I'm going to love it even more than I already do.

__________________________________________________

Six Months Later
Having had the SSK in for six months, I'd have to say that it's definitely worth it! For the daily hop onto the interstate, it's great for that short on-ramp when there is some light truck traffic. It's still fun to go from first to second, and then up to third from second. Short, and crisp, and I find that it's helped with my problem of hitting the gas a little early when shifting. Overall, I'd say that shifting has become a more fun and engaging activity.

About the only drawback that I've noticed is that on those cold mornings before the car is warmed up, there is some "notchiness" getting into reverse and first gear. I'm sure that the car always acted this way and it's just more pronounced with the SSK. Once the car is warmed up however, no problems.

__________________________________________________


Overall Rating
9 out of 10 clapping dudes!
__________________
my {(retired) ride} - {mi ssk: review, diy} - {mi lw cp: review, diy} - {foglight install} - {painted emblem: experiment, diy}



Last edited by jpmck03; 03-12-2012 at 03:52 PM. Reason: 6 Month Update
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