There are a few people on the boards that have installed their Mega Shifter using their factory cable....no need to crawl underneath the car or adjustment. I really haven't had much luck though searching to find out how this is possible. I was told to cut of the factory bracket from the shifter, cut the bracket off the Mega Shifter and bolt on the factory bracket. That dosen't sound bad at all. I just ordered my shifter last night...and won't be installing it for awhile....and would like to get a head start on what to expect. I know alot of guys think that the B&M is junk..and is poor quality...then some guys think it's really not that bad. The main thing I wanna focus on is making this shifter work without swapping cables. And I'm sure I'll have alot of problems with the wiring...so...does anyone know how to do this? Thanks fella's

 

swaping the cables is really easy, probably easier than using your stock and having it break later. Ill try and find where my dad drew a picture of how to wire it so i can tell u

 

people say that the stock cable breaks...but everyone I've talked to that have done so said that they've never had any problems with using their stock cable at all. I know I'm not cut out for changing the tranny cable...I wish it would work out with ease....I'm not a mechanic at all....don't know the first thing about it..

 

I changed mine to use the stock cable and it hasn't broke yet. Been a good year of use of hard slamming gears.

Main thing I didn't like about the B&M was it wasn't included with my shifter. It really long and has to be looped. Another was I'm to lazy to put a new cable in.

I can take the trim piece off and take some pics of my cable setup with my digital camera it might be a week or so.

 

Man, that would be really awesome if you could do that for me....and if it's not to much trouble....I'm not in any hurry at all. Could you also explain how you did it when you post the
picture(s)?

 

I used the old shifter base plate...just grind off the rivets to take off...place B&M shifter on top and grind lip of old base plate to fit...very qiuck to do.....mount all to the 2 front existing base plate holes and attach back of B&M to base plate...I have a 1988 Formula 350 so this method allowed me to move 2 " ahead and 1" lower than std B&M setup...had to notch my cig. compartment but the cig. ashtray covers it........
13.93@99.32mph

 

that dosen't sound bad at all....is that what you other guys did?

 

ok...I got my Mega Shifter today....i took 3 pictures of it....what brackets are you guys talking about that will have to be cut off....and then put back on with the factory brackets?

 

another

 

last one..

 

Here is my cardomain with my install

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/443548/9

Using the stock shifter will work, But I wouldn't reccomend. There is a lot more to it than just putting on the new cable, The BM cable is different, different shifts, different distances between, different tranny brackets. And your BM cable is pretty high quality, My stock shifter a piece of junk. The only PITA about the BM is running the xtra long cable. Took me about 2 mins to figure it out.. Oh wow, lots of work there , I can't justify NOT using the BM cable. Crawl just under your drivers door, and look up. You need to remove 2 bolts from the bottom of the tranny pan. and disconnect the shift lever offa the tranny. Then pull the cable un thru. Put the new one down thru, put on the bracket (2 Bolts) put on the new lever. Adjust. Tighten. Done!

 

And about this grinding business. The plate bolts right up on the rear, You drill two new holes just above where your old shifter was placed. Then bolt down.... Not sure what this grinding rivets is all about....

 

I know it's not hooked up in my car or anything...but how come it only clicks back 3 times? It said to remove a pin...which I did...and it's not clicking back anymore then 3 times...shouldn't it click 5...through- Reverse, Neutral, Drive, 1 and 2?...nevermind..I figured it out

 

Grinding of rivets is to take the old BASE plate off the old shifter. Place the B&M shifter on top of the old base plate and grind the lip of the old base plate where the B&M shifter "feet" come in contact..along sides of old base.Did this to keep the holding eyelet of GM cable in place. Connect GM cable to pin of B&M shifter. All I did was use the GM shift cable and its holder to Not use that 5ft cable supplied in the kit. The GM cable is exactly 1/2 in length. The geometry of the "pull" shift pattern is the same. Before I attempted this; I height gauged the height and length of each position of both shifters and they were the same.Its been installed this way for 2 years and shifts smoothly.You will have to do a final adjustment of the cable at the tranny attachment underneath the car but that has to be done regardless.

 

So you didn't have to grind anything off of the Mega Shifter base plate? Just the factory base plate?

 

I just had to grind off the B&M cable bracket holder as it would interfere with the GM cable holder. This way worked for me but I would suggest to look at both methods of install and do a mock up of the assembly. I was determined to use the GM cable so I went this way with my setup and it did take a bit longer for the fit as this setup was my own idea...

 

If you are up to installing a Megashifter then you are up to changing the cable. Trust me it's the easiest part of the install. Good luck with things.

 

i have one in my camaro.. not happy with it as for street racing! dont get me wrong/ the shifter works good and looks good, but you cant just put it in 1st when ever you want.. to much slamming. im going to put my stock one back in.. for the simplisty.. but i ran mine with the stock shifter cable for a wile then switched to the b and m one witch is vary adjustable
(good)

good luck with yours

 

but like I said before...I don't even care about racing...I have never raced my car and never will....I just want it for the looks and such. I know how it says to change the cable and stuff....but I mean...I have no clue how to "adjust" it or anything like that...I'm not mechanic at all..

 

Here's what I cut off the stock shifter... I then cut the bracket off the BM megashifter right at the angle bend. I slotted out OEM bracket so I could adjust it with a bolt going through it and the megashifter.

 

where?

 

Err in uploading... here

 

that really dosen't give me much of an idea...on how it works out though...

 

K, give me 5 minutes I'll go take a pic of the setup... I gotta take the trim plate off first.

 

alright man...if it's not to much trouble...

 

Here's one. I had to resize it alot and my camera was dying on me so I don't really know how well it's gonna turn out.

 

Mine's bolted against the floor so if you use the stands yours will be a different angle and stuff. If you want another pic I can put one up. Basically you just slot out the OEM bracket and bolt it up to the shifter then get it where the cable fits on the shifter right... I had to drill out my pin hole on the shifter cable cause the bm one is a little bigger than stock.

 

it's still very hard to see what has been done......maybe if you get some batteries some time...and can get some closer pictures....that would help tons...I just having trouble to see what needs to be modified to make this work...

 

I'm unable to do any of the installation right now...so basically when I start the installation....just try to see what I can do with it? Because it sounds like you didn't even really have to cut anything. Do you even use the brackets that came with the kit to bolt it to the floor? Sorry for all of the questions man...

 

Here's a slighty better one showing the slot in the stock shifter bracket. Here's the recap I hacksaw'd off the BM cable bracket on the megashifter at the place where it angles to meet the base plate. That gave me a flat mounting surface with nothing in the way on the driverside of the shifter. I then hacksaw'd the stock shifter bracket off at the lines show's on the left off stock shifter bracket. I then made a sloted hole in the stock bracket so when I went to put it on the BM I could slide the bracket till it fit the cable right That way you can take slack out of the cable and then when you tighten down the one screw of bolt on that side it holds the stock bracket against the megashifter baseplate. My new bracket pretty much takes up most of the area on that side of the shifter.


I didn't use the brackets at all for my application (formula) cause it wouldn't fit right they said and I didn't want to cut up my stock trim plate. By doing it my way I didn't have to cut the top of the trim plate at all and I didn't have to use there POS metal plate or boot (my boot was ruined when I bought the shifter 2nd hand). If you use the brackets your install will look a little different (taller and back towards the rear more) but should go the same way, I think. I only did it my way to keep the trim plate stock and I moved the shifter forward so much so I could get into 1st gear without notching the plate.

 

so then did you bolt the stock bracket (that has been cut off) to the B&M plate somewhere?

 

Yep that's the cable bracket you see on the driverside. It's just the Stock Bracket bolted on top of the BM plate. You can't really see the plate on that side cause of the neutral and reverse lights switches. But all that area there that has spot rust on it is the OEM bracket. I cut it out just I show'd on the OEM shifter picture. The bracket was around 1 3/4" wide by 1 3/4" long.

I pitched my BM cable bracket that I cut off. I never really plan on using a BM cable.

 

alrighty, that makes a little more sense...but I really can't look at much..because I can't install mine yet. So..if you don't mind, I'll just keep asking you questions about it when I Get ready to do it. Thanks for the info

 

Sure no problem... Make sure you loctite your handle too or else it will strip out like mine (1st owner didn't loctite it).

 

Goto my cardomain, Check out my page that says BM install for TGO. I pretty much laid it all out. I can walk ya thru the install with the BM cable. I got time. Anywho, if you are really really stuck, The instructions are easy to follow... Seems like keeping the stock shifter is a lot of work, Heres a few pics:

Here is my stock cable, what it had looked like when I crawled under there


This is pretty much the only bolt to take out, there are two more in your pan.



Here is your new cable, just a few secs to get this hooked up



Heres every pic you need to hook up the cable





See how easy it shwas?

 

so fireturd350, if I end up doing it your way...is this the only part of the shifter plate that will need to be cut off?

 

yep you just cut the BM bracket off that frees up space for you put mount the GM shifter bracket on that side.

 

alright, I tryed to do a little diagram on paint....is this is how to do it?

 

Yep that's how I did mine. I used the bolt hole already in the megashifter and made a slot in Factory bracket so I could adjust it.

 

I would just make sure it looks like the cable is going to align up right and stuff... cause I didn't use the mouhting brackets for my install... if the stock cable doesn't stretch that far well then you're up the river without a paddle and you will have to use the BM cable.

 

I see what your saying there too....it seems like if the cable wouldn't be long enough when adding the factory bracket...then I could just make a long one....so it would reach. I'll just have to check it alllll out when I get ready to install it. Did you have much troulbe with the wiring or anything?

 

Other than it being a mess trying to squeeze it all into the small area under the trim plate nope. I just follow'd my BM megashifter instructions.

 

I got your pM, sorry I can't be of more help, my memory of the install is gone, lol.

What ever bracket the cable needs to hook into needs to be cut off and have the old shifter bracket put in its place.

 

I've been messing around with it....and reading through the instructions just to get ahead start. I was messing around....puttin the indicator cable onto the shifter..and it seems like it dosen't want to cooperate very well when it's all connected together....does it just act like this? Or is something wrong..lol

 

can someone take a picture of the bottom of their B&M shift plate for me? I took mine apart and can't figure out how to get it back together...I think that's why I can't get the shift indicator cable hooked up right....

 

edit:

nevermind...I think I got it..everything is lined up and working fine.

 

I didn't put the indicator on mine. I just go by if the rev trigger is locked or not. Good Deal! Congratz! I think I had around 9 to 10 hours install in mine... course I hand sew'd my new leather shifter boot (that was pita).

 

hey man, do you know if the Toque Converter Lock-Up is wired to the switch that B&M provides?

 

For that I believe you need to purchase a relay from radio shack. They should give you the part numbers in the instructions.

It's not really the lock up function. If I remember right it only affects idle at Park and Neutral or something like that. So mainly you don't really need it.

 

To tell you the truth, I thought about trying to keep the stock cable and after I added up all the cutting and bolting and adjusting I'd have to do, I installed the supplied cable in 10 mins.

you pull 2 bolts on the pan, bolt in the cable bracket. Unbolt the factory shift arm, bolt the supplied arm back on. Then put the shift arm in park and the shifter in park. Adjust cable. Then make sure it hits every gear (did the first time for me)

Not all that bad... I agree, it was the easiest part of the swap.