mk2 cupra short shifter

[jokskilove]

Hello everyone,

I recently acquired a 1999 Ibiza Cupra. It's a great car, but there's one minor drawback: The gear shifts feel extremely long. The 2/4 gear seems alright, but 1/3/5 feels so far forward that it almost feels like I need to lean forward to shift. Also, the movement into 1st gear isn't very smooth.
Is anyone familiar with a short shifter for this model? Or know exactly which bushing might need replacement to sort the shift to 1st? From the drawings on 7zap, it looked quite complicated

Thanks in advance

 

[bete noir]

Is it an 8v or 16v model?

 

[jokskilove]

16v

 

[bete noir]

That is the 02A gearbox, and I agree the standard throw is very long. It is not well served for tuning parts to improve the change. B&M used to do a short shift years ago. I have one on my Ibiza project and it feels great, although the car has not made it out of the workshop yet! In any case, the B&M shifter is pretty hard to find now. I spotted this recently on eBay which claims to be suitable for the mk2 Ibiza 16v (ABF) but I cannot vouch for it.
You can switch to the shift tower from the 02J gearbox (mk3 Ibiza Cupra) which improves the shift and opens up the possibility of Forge and other quick shift parts. If you search online for 02A shift modifications or similar there are a few DIY solutions that people have come up with too.

 

[jokskilove]

Thanks, mate. I think I will order the one you linked from Gema motorsports and give it a try. The joys of a new money pit

 

[bete noir]

No problem. Please post on here to let us know how you get on.

 

[jokskilove]

Finally got around to replacing it. It was a bit fiddly, but everything was doable from inside the car, only having to remove the gear knob, plastic cover and rubber cover directly over the gear lever.

There's one golden bolt holding the long rod in place. There are two bolts holding the shift assembly in place - those need to be loosened, to get the right angle to pull out the long rod. There's one metal clip holding the wire in place at the bottom of the stick.

The new stick is a lot shorter, and the anchor point sits a lot higher, resulting in very short shifts. Due to the shorter stick, I had to cut off part of the rubber cover. Ideally I'll need to make a new leather cover as well, since there's a lot of excess material - and the faux leather has mostly disintegrated by now.

I've posted a side-by-side comparison of the two units. The new one is on the right. The spring and plastic inserts were transfered from the old unit.
At the bottom of the old unit, there was some rubber band which had broken - I wonder if that was the main culprit behind the lousy shifting.

I didn't get to test drive the car yet, but the shifts feel a lot more precise now - getting into 1st gear is no longer a problem, but finding 5th seems a bit tricky. Also takes a bit of pressure to get into reverse, but I'll live with that.

 

[bete noir]

That is interesting, thanks for posting the update. I hope you resolve the issue with getting into 5th.

 

[jokskilove]

Had it out for a test drive today. Shifting into all gears works really well. Very short and very precise shifts. I must have been overthinking it when parked in the driveway