Formerly the CompTech Short Shifter, CT Engineering is the new face of this company making this short shifter for the 2007 Honda Civic Si. Below is a DIY recently performed on a 2007 Honda Civic Si Sedan with the newly updated CT Engineering Short Shifter, which now comes with 680 thread-lock to keep the screws from coming out.
So here goes:
Step 1: Tools
Nothing like a picture with the tools you'll need. Rather simple: 13mm or 1/2" open face wrench (used to pull the lever ball off the lever arm), the CTE-provided 680 locktite, short shifter itself, and the two screws (shown already screwed into the SS in picture 2 below):
Step 2: Crawl into the car and remove the shift boot housing (silver plastic piece) by pulling up gently on the boot until the piece snaps up.
Be careful here, if you get too rough, you'll snap plastic! Slide that up and over the shift knob to keep it out of the way, then lift up on the black console piece below it (
remove your loose change and any other object in the deep tray below the radio or it will go a-sailin'!). Once that pops up, tilt the silver shift boot trim piece sideways so it will fit between the black console piece. Set that black console piece aside:
Step 3: remove the shift cable connector from the blue plastic lever ball. There's a spring-loaded clip with two arms that go over the blue lever ball. You'll have to widen these two in opposite directions to unlatch the cable connector from the blue lever ball.
GET A TOWEL AND SLIDE IT BENEATH ALL OF THIS BECAUSE RIGHT BELOW ALL OF THIS IS YOUR TRANNY AND IF YOU LOSE THIS SPRING CLIP OR THE BLUE BALL OR ANY OTHER SMALL PART, YOU'VE JUST CREATED MORE WORK FOR YOURSELF!!. What I did just in case was I got my telescoping magnet-headed screwdriver and kept it handy in case something did fall down, then at least I could fish the telescoping magnet down in there to pull something out. The towel beneath all this prevents it from happening in the first place, so heed my warning. The towel goes under the blue lever ball and the black cable connector in the picture below:
Step 4: remove the blue lever ball from the shift lever arm (
MOST DIFFICULT STEP!). Why is it so difficult? Simple: this blue plastic lever ball is held onto the shift lever arm very tightly, allowing it to swivel in place with the grease inside while keeping it from popping off. As such, it's EXTREMELY difficult to pop this sucker off.
You'll be tempted to use pliers to get this off - DON'T!! You could damage the plastic ball itself and then you're really up poop creek without a paddle. This is where the 13mm or 1/2" open face wrench comes into play. Per the picture below, position the wrench above the blue lever ball and pull downward - HARD - applying equal pressure to the ball (meaning don't lean it to one side or the other because you're fighting a losing battle there, in my opinion). Keep working at it; you'll sweat and curse a lot, but it'll come off.
Step 5: Install the blue lever ball onto the CTE SS. This is also kinda weird. The directions tell you to use a vice or you can use a C-clamp to snap the blue lever ball onto the SS. Remember how hard it was to remove? Well, getting it to snap on illustrates just how "on there" it really is. :) What I did was kneel down on the carpet in my basement, lay the ball on it, line up the SS with it, and press down with my weight. The loud
SNAP tells you when it's on the right way. This is what it looks like once snapped on:
Step 6: install CTE SS onto the stock lever arm -
USE THE TOWEL AGAIN because if you drop the SS down into the center, it's a PITA to get back out!. What I did was - after the towel was under everything and covering the hole - was slide the SS down under the lever arm, then shift into 4th gear; this lines the arm up with the hole on the SS, allowing it to slide into position. Make sure the SS is slid all the way up as far as it can go or else it will rub the plastic center console area, which isn't good.
Once this is done, put the 680 locktite compound on the two hex screws (2) and thread them into the CTE SS, tightening both soundly (you'll have to rotate the SS around a bit to gain access to the other screw since they oppose each other on the sides).
Once again, I stress to use the towel underneath all this because those hex screws are small and if you drop those, kiss them goodbye!
Slide on lever arm using 4th gear:
Apply 680 compound:
Screw into place:
Step 7: re-connect the shift cable connector onto the blue lever ball, being careful to snap the clip into position (each spring clip arm will be over the blue lever ball, keeping firmly in place so it doesn't pop off the ball while you're shifting):
Enjoy your new shorter shifts:
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