JamieH

Guys I know raising the cage has been covered a few times but i thought some more good DIY cant hurt.
There's plenty of pics in this one so feel free to sticky.

Raising the cage

llDemonll

iTrader: (21)

So you're going to link to a blog that will eventually not exist anymore instead of post the info on this thread that will exist as long as the forums exist?

zenki-s13

iTrader: (2)

what is the reason for raising the shifter?

JamieH

My blog will exist as long as the world wide web exists. It will take me more effort to take it down than whats its worth.
My blog currently has over 15 countries viewing so i thought it much easier for me to post the link.

But i'm not here to upset people, I want to show what things I've done and hopefully that gives some people other ideas on how to do things.

I'll post up the full DIY as soon as i can.

JamieH

EVO IX - Raising the shifter cage

This is snipped straight from my Evo blog

So a little update. I’ve been meaning to raise the shifter cage for a little while & thought I’d have a crack.
Here's the finished job


v's the stock height



There a few how to’s on this out there but none are very specific. So I took my time & I think it has come out alright. Well, the position is great & it drives good and I managed to keep the centre consol so i'm happy.

I started by disconnecting the battery as I knew there’s some harnesses under there that need to be moved.

I wasn’t sure on how high to go but knew I wanted to go up at least 50mm & get as close to 75mm as I could.
I knew I needed some round tube so I grabbed some 19mm galvanised steel tube as the diameter is spot on for the washers.

The oem bolts are m8 & 30mm. The base that the cage bolts to is raised slightly so the thread can go through by up to 20mm.
I grabbed some 100mm m8 steel bolts.

I removed the consul & unbolted the cage. Only 4 bolts there so easy enough. The cage can then be moved to the side to get the SRS controller out, yellow plug & sticker, as the shifter cables will need to go over the top when finished.
Just 4 bolts holding that in. You could unplug it but I decided not to.

I unplugged the loom in front and the 2 plugs above for better access though.

So I cut four 75mm lengths of tube, filed them square and sat them under the cage. It felt great, I couldn’t move the lever yet as its not bolted down but the position to the steering wheel is ideal for its purpose. It could actually go up another 25mm and still be comfortable.

So I put the bolts in and I cant get a thread. The Torque solution shifter base bushings are quite thick & im using washers to protect them and spring washers to keep the new bolts in place.

The bolt isn’t far from the thread though. So I go searching for some 120mm m8 bolts and I cant find any on the weekend??? So I decide to cut down the tubes to 65mm and get the job done. I’ll drive it at this height and may change it later.

So it’s a fair job to get the tube, washers & bushes all lined up so the bushes go in the groove in the cage. So I improvise and use some masking tape to hold it all together, it works well.

So I just put them all in place and place the cage back over top. Put washers and spring washers on the new bolts and screw them down by hand.

The one closest to the dash, pas side is a bit of a ***** so I pull the shifter cable off to get better access. The shifter cable just slides off but be careful to not unscrew it as it has a thread in there for adjustment.

So once I have 2 bolts in I check to see if it shifts ok & the feel. Feels great no problem so put the other bolts in.
The SRS controller with the yellow harness can go back in also. It needs to go in horizontal from the start to get it to line up. Its tight but it does go in and bolts back where it was before. If you were to go any higher with the cage you could just flip this over so it doesn’t foul the shifter cables. The shifter cables are just sitting on top where it is now.

So on to fitting the consul. I trim the top piece in the pic as it hits hard up against the bottom of the dash.

I also cut out about 20mm from the underside of the consul as this reinforcement is sitting on top of the cables. Much better fit but i'll cut back another 20-25mm from the very top to get it to sit further under the dash and that will help the rear come down so i can use the arm rest part of the consul too.
So now its back in i just row through the gears to see if the cables or shifter is moving the consul. There's minimal movement so i'm ok with that. I use an old piece of black cardboard and tape that where the ashtray was and reinstall the 12v socket.
I can use the original points to secure the front of the consul but the rear is higher so i wont worry about that.

I fit the armrest and notice the handbrake, when off, sits just up against the consul but the light isnt activated so no problem. If you only raise the cage 50-55mm you will be fine with all this clearance.
I notice the clips that hold the rear consul to the front, stop the rear piece from coming 10mm forward and this is activating the handbrake light. I'll just trim these off and it'll be a good fit.

Cheers

Update 31/08/14
So as mentioned above the handbrake when off just hits the front consul, enough to give me the ****s. So what I've done is use some of the left over 19mm tube and cut a piece 15mm to raise the handbrake lever.

The handbrake lever is easily removed with only 3 m8 bolts holding it in. I decided that if i raised the whole lever then i would have to adjust the handbrake as it had too much tension on the cable. So the best way to modify it was just to raise the front of it.
So 15mm seemed great and it was like stock again. I had to space up, the foot closest to drivers side, with 3 washers to keep the handbrake lever from tilting over towards the drivers chair too much and i used 2 longer 35mm m8 bolts to bolt the lever back down to the floor.
Job done.

Took the car for a long drive today and raising the shifter is one of the best mods I've done. It feels great and the more i drive it the better it feels. I dont think it needs to be moved up at all, so i'll track it a few times and make a decision on this again at a later date.
If you haven't done this already, get on to it. You wont regret it!

LeXcite

iTrader: (5)

Great! Seen this mod on many auto x evos locally, but all of them have no interior at all . And I always wanted to rise mine as well. But without any modification on console! Is it possible to raise the cage, and have console at the place ?

JamieH

The short answer is probably not. Here me out;
The front part of the plastic console was designed to fit perfectly when the cage is the stock location but there is a gap between the top of the consul and the bottom of the dash.

So it would really depend on how far you want to go up before you cut the front section of the consul. It may only be 10mm so probably not worth it in terms of making the mod worthwhile doing.

After living with the mod in traffic at the 65mm height that i posted, it now feels completely as it always was there and has made it an even better car to drive on track.

This pics shows where it fowles the bottom of the dash. You can see in this pic the at the very front, i cant even get one of the plastic clips to go through the hole in that bracket in front of it. And this pic also shows the rear end is high up in the air as it cant come down further due to the same problem.


So by cutting this i think is your only option and is far cheaper to replace than cutting into the dash to accommodate the consul.

I think what this mod does do is leaves the door wide open for someone to reproduce a whole consul to accommodate the raised shifter

_hyper

Does lifting up the cage like this stress out the shifter cables or wear them down faster?

JamieH

hyper, I'm no expert on cables but i couldn't see how at all. Please have a look at my blog for more detailed pics.
You will see that I have only repositioned the cables from under the SRS box to on top.

The only thing that comes to mind is that when trimming the console, make sure you have removed enough from the underside so it avoids sitting directly on top of them as they can rub and after many gearshifts... who knows.
Secure the plastic clips at the very front (nearest to firewall) as that will keep the console sitting high enough to avoid it rubbing.

Hope that helps

polish_pounder

iTrader: (8)

What is the point of this?

Ralliart004

iTrader: (5)

You push the shifter up closer to a neutral hand position. Easier to shift the manual transmission and return to the wheel. Most high spec production rally cars have this in some form or fashion.

The ralliart version is much more expensive so for those who can use this mod its well worth the money.

golgo13

iTrader: (134)

Wow, awesome write up!

Here was my solution:

heel2toe

iTrader: (41)

^Where did you get that?

zentac

I like that idea. I need some of those.

JamieH

Thanks Ralliart004, great response