Originally Posted by jmbnova

OK... This past Friday I installed my Comptech SS by myself and took pictures. I promised a write-up and here it is. Let me start by saying that I am by no means a mechanic, I just like to work on my car. I did not know if I could do this but it turned out to sound alot harder than it actually was. Anyone can do this. The difference was unbelievable.

Install Time about 2 hours

Tools needed:
-Butter Knife
-Rag or cloth
-Phillips Screwdriver
-Socket set 8mm and 12mm
-Hex wrench (I think 2mm)

For the purpose of this install, when I referenc the center console, I mean the part starting with the cupholders and going back to the rear of the console. The center tray will be the section from the cup holders, forward to the black plastic area between the radio preset buttons and the Top accessory door.

Start by cleaning out your center console, then remove the rubber insert in the bottom and unscrew the two screws...




Next, remove the silver trim pieces. Use the butter knife to pry under the trim piece starting at the end near the center console and work your way up, gently prying. I found that taking the butter knife and wrapping a rag around the end prevented scratches and knicks in the trim. I would insert the knife under the trim then slowely rotate the blade from hor. to vert. and the trim would pop up. When you get to the top of the trim, there are clips holding it in place. Grasp the trim at the curve (right next to the accessory doors) and gently pull away. The clips will pop right out.



Once the trim is off, unscrew the 6 small screw that were underneath the trim. This picture shows the 4 that hold the center tray on, but there are two more behind it that hold the console in place. Once you unscrew the ones holding the console, you will need to slide the console to the rear about 6-8 inches. There is still some crap holding the center console so you can not remove it completely, but you can easily slide it back out of the way.


(You can see the two holes above where I removed the screws holding the center console in place. The red arrows indicate the 4 screws holding the center tray in place.)

Next is removing the covering under the steering wheel. (The directions say to also remove the glove box but you will not have to do this. It will save alot of time by NOT removing it.) Unscrew the one screw located underneath and to the right of the panel. It is the only screw. You can then use the butter knife again to pry the panel away. It is held by clips that will pop off without too much pressure. Be careful as there are wiring harnesses plugged in behind the VSA panel.





Remove the Wiring harnesses



Set that panel aside and now we are going back to the center. When you slide the center console back, you will see the wiring harnesses for the Seat heaters. Go ahead and unplug them. In case you forget, Blue is drivers side and Brown is passenger side.



Now you need to remove the side panel (right side). The left panel can stay in place without problem. To remove it you would have to take out the glovebox and we are skipping that step to save time. The (right side) panel is removed by unscrwing the one screw at the top. There are two clips holding it to the center tray. These will easily pop out.





Once that panel has been removed you can now pull out the center tray. Remove it by lifting up, and then pulling it toward you. There is a little tounge and groove type of connection at the top of the piece (between the radio preset buttons and the top accessory door) You will see what I mean. There is also a harness plugged into the back of this piece for the cig lighter. Make sure you remove that. Then the center tray will just slide right out.


(Above is cig lighter harness)

Next we need to remove the silver bracket under the wires for the seat heaters. There are two bolts into the floor and one bolt on the right side. Remove all three. (The bolts on the floor are 8mm and the one on the side is 12mm) Once those are removed, you will pop out the white plastic holders that hold the black plastic HVAC tunnel in place. Once the plastic tabs are off, the black HVAC housing will slide down and out.





This is what you now see.



First thing we do is pull the clips that are holding the wire bundles out of the way. There is one clip on each side of the yellow housing... Once the wire bundles are out of the way look on the right side of this piece, there is a retaining pin and washer holding the linkage in place. Remove the retaining pin and the washer. The linkage can just hang there with no problem.



Next, you will need to look into the (yellowish) shroud from the LEFT side... you may need to lay down in the passenger footwell to get in there. When you look into the housing, you will see a small metal retaining pin holding the little metal rod in place. You remove this by spreading the ends of the retaining pin apart, and pushing forward. (the part you spread apart is in the rear and then you push it forward.. rear and foward being relative to if you were sitting in the drivers chair.) When that metal retaining pin is off, the metal rod will pull away from the remaing plastic piece.



Now you can remove the large bolts holding the (yellowish) housing to the floorboard. (these are 12mm) (ignore the blood smeared on the housing and dribbled all around... must be something sharp in all this junk...)



Now we need to remove the two linkage pieces at the front of the housing. The metal clip is removed by simply prying it straight up.



The black plastic clip is a little harder. from the inside (as you are looking at it just like the next pic) you must turn the whole black plastic piece on both sides of the yellow housing counter-clockwise 90degrees, then it will pop straight up. The best way to do this is to grasp the black part on the forward edge of the yellow housing and as you turn the inside part with your fingers, turn the outside part with your hand. Use more force on the outside than the inside or you might break off one of the tabs on the inside. (Yes, I broke my tan off but it does not cause any problems at all) If you break it, it really is no big deal.



This is what you see now.



Comptech says to place the housing ina bench vise but I did not need to do this. Take the yellow housing (it will now be loose and detached from the car) and turn it upside down so you are looking at the little plastic ball (called the bushing) on the end of the metal rod. I will tell you what I did but you may have a different technique. End result just needs to be the same. I placed the yellow housing (upside down) between my knees. I then used the metal bar provided by Comptech and pulled it up underneath the plastic bushing so that I could pull it towards me. U then wrapped the end in my rag so it would not go flying off somewhere. Then I pulled like a SOB in order to get that bushing to pop off. It is not easy and you will need to use some force. Justmake sure you are pulling the bushing STRAIGHT UP off the metal rod and not at an angle.

With Bushing on:


With Bushing Off:


Now take your NEW Comptech Short Shifter (yes the brass looking metal doo-hickie) and turn it upside down. You need to squirt some Locktite (provided by Comptech) into the inside of the SS. Make sure you DO NOT GET ANY of this crap on the outside of the SS, especially not on the little ball at the end. It says that the Locktite will be dry in 10 minutes and completely curred in 36-48 hours.



Now slide the COmptech SS over the little ball where we removed the bushing. Slide it down all the way to the end. Use a 2mm(I think...) hex wrench to tighten the provided screws into the SS. This will secure the Comptech SS so make sure it is tight.



This is what it will look like when you are done... Remember, this is still upside down from when we pulled it off the floorboard..



Now you need to put the bushing back onto the little ball at the end of the COmptech SS. I found that if you use the metal tool Comptech provided to remove the bushing, you can place it on top of the bushing and push down until it snaps onto the SS ball.

When you place the yellow housing back where it belongs, you will need to reattach the linkage with the small retaining pin. The linkage will be closer to the floorboard than before. Once the retaining pin is in place, it will look like this:





The next thing you do should be to bolt the yellow housing back to the floor. If you put the linkage cables on before bolting to the floor, you will have an issue with the top right bolt. Linkage will be in the way.

So... Bolt the housing back down, attach the two linkage pieces at the front and then the linakge piece ont he right side with the retaining pin.

-------------YOU NOW HAVE A COMPTECH SHORT SHIFTER-----------------


I figue if you made it this far, I do not need to tell you how to put your car back together. Assembly is easy after you have taken it apart.


Good luck with this guys. I can not stress enough how easy this was to do, especially for me being a guy who had never done this before. There is no way anyone should pay upwards of $300 when they can do it themselves. If people use the Comptech Instructions and these notes together, it should be a piece of cake.

Hope this helps guys. If you have any questions... let me know....

Originally Posted by sauceja

baddassvtec from houston has those hybrid racing bushings and he noticed a difference immediately.

You might contact him sockr1, said it took about 10 minutes to install them.

Originally Posted by quanaman

The kit comes with the ct shift shifter maven knob and the bushings for 160$+shipping

I figured it was worth it to try the knob, it'll be in the BM if I decide I don't like it