• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Short Throw Shifter

Both the B&M and Steeda change the fulcrum point and the angle below it. The Steeda just changes the length greater and thus requires a riser plate. However it also has a longer handle negating any comparable advantage in the actual throw of the shifter.

Both are quality units and are a great upgrade over the stock shifter. You can not go wrong getting either unit.

BEWARE knockoff B&M shifters though. They are the ones notorious for breaking at the welds because of inferior materials and workmanship.

Also remember to NOT connect the centering spring when installing your new shifter.

As for the riser plate, is that something you made yourself, or did you buy it?
 
Close.

The centering spring really slows down the 1-2 and 3-2 shifts. It pulls (i.e. centers) the shifter into the stops between 2 & 4. In simple words the centering spring sucks for quick, accurate shifting. Without the spring connected you have quick, crisp shifts and nothing to fight against. Well except the POS cable design itself.

not once have i pulled the shifter into the stops... its straight back and very quick. plus it speeds up the 2-3 shift: just push up

I have the spring in on my Steeda and love it...I did not like the feel with it out. Believe what you will but the spring in slowing down shifts is pure nonsence. With the spring out it felt somewhat sloppy to me...nothing like the stock shifter just seemed a little loose. I can shift mine with just a flick of my fingers to and from any gear when cruising along. If I want to bang through the gears the shifter falls right into place and NO time is wasted and NO extra effor is needed. That's just my opinion and I am very happy with mine the way it is. I do not remember having to modify anything to install the spring IIRC I just installed it as it it was stock.

-Scott
 
Last edited:
I have the spring in on my Steeda and love it...I did not like the feel with it out. Believe what you will but the spring in slowing down shifts is pure nonsence. With the spring out it felt somewhat sloppy to me...nothing like the stock shifter just seemed a little loose. I can shift mine with just a flick of my fingers to and from any gear when cruising along. If I want to bang through the gears the shifter falls right into place and NO time is wasted and NO extra effor is needed. That's just my opinion and I am very happy with mine the way it is. I do not remember having to modify anything to install the spring IIRC I just installed it as it it was stock.

-Scott



my exact feelings also .... on mine with the raiser plate I needed to notch the shifter base so that the spring would work properly, since there was an original notch for the bottom of the spring to move in and moving it up required it be notched to allow the spring to work ... I'll try to take a pick today but I don't believe this was needed on the 2k's because of the design difference ...
 
I have the B&M on my car and managed to break the bottom ball off at the weld. they have a lifetime warranty so you can get it replaced if it does fail but I just found a welding shop that could weld it and had them fix it. Now it is better than new.
 
I'm confused...do I need a raiser plate on my 99CSVT if I plan on putting in the steeda short throw shifter?

Is this the right one?
 

Attachments

  • shifterNspringLG.jpg
    shifterNspringLG.jpg
    8.7 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
you need a plate for all years to make the Steeda shifter work ...

for a 99 if you shifter looks like this you need the small plate ...

don't mind the red circle that was for something else ...

DSC02252.JPG
 
BrApple, is that the same Steeda shifter I had a pic of in my previous post? To be honest, i've never removed the shifter boot, so I'm not sure how mine looks, probably the same as yours. Guess I should do that. Good idea 98svt, please post some shifter pics so I can make some sense of this. Thanks guys.
 
BrApple, is that the same Steeda shifter I had a pic of in my previous post? To be honest, i've never removed the shifter boot, so I'm not sure how mine looks, probably the same as yours. Guess I should do that. Good idea 98svt, please post some shifter pics so I can make some sense of this. Thanks guys.


yes the picture you posted looks correct for the Steeda shifter ... the pic I posted is of a stock shifter ...
 
ok so exactly how thick dose the plate need to be. i could easily make one


iirc is about 10 mm, you need to get the shifter high enough to clean the floor ... you can use the plastic peice under the shifter .... you have to drill the threads out and use longer bolts and nuts also instead of using just longer bolts ...
 
DSC02252.JPG


Steeda and B&M do support the 'Reverse Lock' mechanism. However, not like stock, the metallic pipe can rotate. If it rotates a 90 degree, it will by pass the reverse lock. The red circle shows where the reverse lock block is. I simply took it out for 3 reasons:
1. It will be the same as my another car. I don't need to lift the boot to go reverse.
2. The shifter shaft is shorter, the 'lift up' ring does not work as well. Also steeda and b&m's lift up ring is covered half by the shifter boot anyway.
3. To prevent the TOOLS at places like NTB, Merchant's to break my shifter when they tried so hard to go reverse!!!! :mad:
 
Hey how much work is it to put in the short throw. Is it like an hour and a half job, or like a 6 hour one? Let's say how long does it take for either one?
 
depends on which shifter you want to install ... the B&M is a swap out, should take an hour at most maybe ... the Steeda you need to modify the tower some to use the centering spring ... so that will take a bit longer ...
 
Back
Top