you should put those plastic bushings in that you didnt use, i used my ebay one for about 2 weeks before putting my bushings in and it made a big difference

 

Yeah, I was thinking about doing that tomorrow.... For some reason I didn't think that they fit (something I read somewhere), I should have checked them myself I think I'll pull it out in the morning and put those in, grease everything real good and dial it in as best I can.

Thanks for all of the input!!

 

yeah the first time i put the shifter in it went super easy, when i realized i didnt put the bushing in it took like 3 hours to get it out and back in. so many stupid little problems and i was real tired, **** sucked.. but it does help out a lot with them in. btw did your ebay shifter come threaded?

 

Yes, it is threaded.... no problems getting the stock shift **** on. Did yours not come threaded? That would be very weird....

 

yeah mine wasnt threaded when i got it, it has like a slot that goes down about 2 inches from the top on one side.. its weird, i ordered a 12x1.5mm die so i can try and thread it

 

that's crazy.... never heard of one coming that way! good luck with threading it!

 

I installed my jhm short throw shifter and I will say that I Installed the shifter rods in the exact place as the factory had them. Drove the car around and wasn't too thrilled as I also experienced what felt like a slight lagg between shifting gears the possible notchyness that your speaking off. I took another stab at the algnment of the shifter rods mostly by following jhm's video on installation for the 5 speed trans and noticed a rather large difference. Shifts smooth now but retains that short throw feel. The feeling I'm speaking of is that of precision without any slop or play. Hope this helps I would give up until you've tried calibrating it some more. I indexed the shifter using a ruler and exact equality between all directions the shifter can go. I.e left right forward and backward.

 

Thanks guys, I messed around with it this morning and replaced the rubber bushings with the plastic ones..... The plastic ones are super tight on those rods and they don't really allow the rods to slide through them... not sure how much that matters, not sure how much that assembly actually moves on those rods either. Any input on that issue? I also tried to "align" it a little more this time, it's not great but it seems better than before.

 

Exactly why I never went with a short shifter till JHM came out with theirs. Every A4/S4 I drove with a normal SS felt like I was driving a VW.

The JHM shifter actually replaces the ball housing with a ball bearing unit. It is really smooth and the linkage upgrades make shifting really crisp, so much that when running my car at the track I never even have to think about making my shifts since it just happens without effort.

 

The movement through those plastic bushings is minimal I believe it's designed so that when the trans moves ever so slightly so does the shifter so u don't pop out of gear or grind when shifting. There does need to be some movement but there should be a huge difference in slop. If adjusting the shifter rod helped I would say keep going at it considering you got gains. At some point you will not be able to align it any better then u have to just live with it.