Just got a B&M shifter

I know, I know, I should have sprung for an MGW. But I got the B & M for $165 off eBay. The MGW looks like a great piece, but it's almost twice what I paid for the B & M and money is tight right now.

It's shipping from Florida, so it will probably take about a week to get here. I'll let you guys know what I think of it after I get it installed. This will be my first B & M shifter. My 92 had a Steeda Tri-ax, (nice shifter), my 95 had a Pro 5.0 I believe (nice shifter). Hopefully the B & M will be as good.

Poco said:

I'm sure you know how to install a shifter,just make sure you use lock tight on that 18mm bolt. I used lock tight and the bolt still came loose. I lucked out and it happened in front of the house. Happy shifting!
Don't feel bad about money being tight,its tough everywhere.

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Thanks for the tip. I read the instructions last night. It looks like the kit comes with a tube of Locktite. Guess I'll use it liberally.

bigcat said:

click the hurst install link in my sig for the basics on how to install the shifter. you dont see many people with a B&M shifter.

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I have already perused your write-up. I'm sure I will again before I do the install.

I was a little worried about nobody having the B&M, but I've heard the name B&M before, and since B&M and Hurst are now the same company, it made me feel a little better. If I don't like it, I'll just swap it for another one and I'm not out too much money. Hopefully it goes well.

So I finally got around to installing the shifter last night, (my knuckles look like hamburger ).

So far, I like the short throw, but the effort to shift is pretty high. I'd say it takes twice as much effort to shift with the B&M than the stock shifter. I've had aftermarket shifters in the past, (Steeda Tri-ax and Pro 5.0), but this one seems to be the stiffest. I just called B&M to ask them about this, and the guy told me that usually people say that Hurst shifters are stiffer than B&M.

There are a couple of rubber isolators that you put between the underside of the car and the mounting plate of the shifter. The instructions say to tighten the 10mm nuts until you compress that isolators about 1/8", but I was a little unsure about how much this was. You can't see the isolators once you put them on, because they're between the bottom of the car and the plate. I asked the B&M guy if overtightening these could have an effect on the shifter effort and he said maybe. So maybe I'll back off on these a bit. I also didn't put locktite on them, so now I'm kinda paranoid. Guess I'll be doing that tonight.

Overall, I like the shifter. I just wish it didn't take so much effort to shift.

By the way, installing the thing was a major pain. I just had the front end on jackstands and those 2 little 10mm nuts that hold the bracket that holds the back of the stock shifter to the car took me about 1/2 hour!!! Also, B&M's instructions didn't say to remove that bracket, and my car had a retaining clip that held the bracket in place even with the nuts removed. It was a serious pain in the ass to break that stupid clip off!!

Do the other aftermarket shifters take a lot of effort to shift?