Schnell Short Shifter vs. Porsche and B&M

[specialist]

Guys and Gals,

I'm considering buying a Schnell short shifter for my '02 996. I've seen plenty of posts talking about the B&M / Porsche unit, and have seen little on the Shnell unit. What has your experience been with each type?

Thanks,

Specialist

[Cesarfl]

I have the schnell and it works just fine, a litle noisy when shifting from 4th to 5th, other than that for the price is a very good product, I got mine from Vertex Auto nice people.

[Nick_USA]

I have the Porsche shifter, a little notchy when cold (as expected) but it is a dream on the track. I found one on ebay from Brandywine Perfomance) for $300 and if your after the stock option its the only choice. As it happens they are showing the B+M kit there too for $125 if that works for you.

[greerj1]

When I purchased my 996 C2, the previous owner installed a B&M ssk. The shifter is notchy when cold, 30 to 40 deg f (recent New England weather) but is fine when tranny warms up. I have driven several P cars with and without ssk's installed. Like stated above the only question is, which one to put in. The stock shifter is fairy lame.

James Greer

[specialist]

I know that most short shifters are "notchy" and difficult at lower temperatures. Several of my older 5 speed manuals had short shifters installed, and they were the same way. I've heard in the past that Schnell had some problems with their instructions. I've been talking to vertexAuto.com about the alignment tool to minimize alignment issues, but the guy I got a hold of didn't know what I was talking about. I'd guess that's because I probably wasn't too clear ;).

I'd read on some other boards that the Schnell shifter had some noise issues kind of like Cesarfl. That appears to be a good price for the B&M! The best price I'd found so far is from VertexAuto for the Schnell at 135$. Since they have a year warranty (performance and satisfaction), I may give the Schnell a shot.

Any more opinions would be greatly appriceated!

Specialist :notworthy:

[renos]

Guys and Gals,

I'm considering buying a Schnell short shifter for my '02 996. I've seen plenty of posts talking about the B&M / Porsche unit, and have seen little on the Shnell unit. What has your experience been with each type?

Thanks,

Specialist

I have the Porsche one and it is excellent! Go for the original, but if you find it expensive get the B&M that is identical (in looks at least,I don't know about materials).

[UCrazyKid]

As for the Schnell shifter. A warranty doesn't help you too much because you cannot "re-use" your old stock shifter after the installation. The installation requires cutting up the stock unit to get it out and cannot be reused.

B&M manufactures the SSK for Porsche. They just anodize it back in stead of blue.

If you are looking to save money, their is a B&M knock off for sale on ebay. You just need to reverse the tilt of the shift lever (2 seconds with a wrench). Have look.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-911...sspagenameZWDVW

[specialist]

I just got an email back from Brandywine, and they do have the B&M kits, however they aren't the replacement shift lever. They actually have one that replaces some of the brackets at the transmission and allow you to adjust the lenght of the throw from a 10% reduction to a 35% reduction. Has anyone ever used this type of modification? I'm wondering if it will tighten up the shift pattern like the replacement shift lever with the adjustable bushings. I may end up replacing the shifter lever and the shifter linkage with the billet EVO unit. Any thoughts on this combination? Will it make the shifting more precise?

I've found a couple of sources for the OEM short shift kit, but they run about 40-100$ more than the B&M. It's hard to justify the Porsche factory kit when the B&M is so much less expensive.

I'm kind of wary of direct knockoff's. They can look similar, but if the material of construction changes you could be begging for trouble on down the road (it's amazing how the Rockwell hardness of the bushings can change the wear rate).

It seems funny that as time goes on, car manufacturers make their shifters so soft and the throw seems to lengthen. My Dad has a '92 Lexus SC300 with a 5-speed manual, and it's shifter feels more precise and less soft than my '02 996 (even though it has about 300K miles on the car at this point).

Thanks again! :thumbup:

Specialist

[specialist]

Well, I talked to Jay Scherer at Brandywine, and ordered the under car short shift kit, and the EVO billet shift linkage. When I get them in and install them, I'll post a how-to and a review of the changes.

Thanks for all the help!

Rene