August 8, 1997
By: Robert Leidy

Yet another example of "You get what you pay for". Once I got the APE short shift kit installed I was somewhat pleased with the results. Given the relatively low price I initially thought I got $99 worth of satisfaction out of AutoThority's product.

However the installation procedure was long and painful, mainly because the installation instructions were not only bad THEY WERE WRONG. If I knew what it was going to take I probably would have passed on this kit. I guess the point I'm trying to make here is if you want a short shift kit, have a garage mechanic install it. He'll have a lift so he won't have to lay on his back, and he probably has tools designed to work in cramped spaces. Print out the installation webpage and hand it to him, he can probably do it within an hour (where it took me over 3).

The shift is definitely shorter and more comfortable, however there seems to be a little more wiggle/looseness in the stick when the car is in gear (especially 3rd). This is hard to describe but when the transmission is in 3rd gear I can move the stick left and right about three-quarters the distance of the shift knob. At first this slightly annoyed me but now I'm really bugged by it. The shift just doesn't feel right, I would prefer the shift be tighter, enough so that I actually crawled back under the car and removed the entire assembly to see what stock felt like again. Once I felt the longer but tighter stock shift I decided to leave the short shift kit off. After talking to a few others that have the APE short shift kit it appears that a few owners (but not the majority) developed the same sloppy feel that mine did.

I guess the bottom line is I wish I never would have wasted my time and money on this kit.

Installation