Can confirm it's a shitshow, helped a coworker install it & took all afternoon. The ball is not perfectly spherical, spin it while hammering & try different angles. Also wood & mallet are not enough, screw a fat base weld nut or a cap nut into the top & use a regular hammer.

 

Thanks for the tips! I'm worried about damaging the threads by using anything else than a rubber mallet but I like the idea of a weld nut or cap nut. I guess screwing on a nut or two underneath the top one would give the threads some extra protection as well. Will give that a go if the using-the-linkage idea doesn't work. Onwards and upwards!

 

Success! Bought a pack of M12 x 1.25 nuts and swapped out the rubber mallet for something more substantial. The shifter went in on the third or fourth hit!

I put the stock knob on there to begin with and tbh, was a bit disappointed as I was expecting more of a shorter throw plus it sounded a bit "squelchy", probably due to all the grease I had used. However, after a few miles, I put the WC Lathe Werks knob back on and that felt much better. It has also lowered things a little more, which I also like.

Am going away for a long weekend tomorrow, so will have the chance to give the new set-up a good run out. Looking forward to it!

 

Looks good, have fun. You've probably heard this before but be careful for a couple weeks, money shifts are a lot more likely till you get used to the new throws.

Quick install too, perhaps yours was garaged & plastic hasn't hardened. Coworkers car had rock hard & slightly yellowed plastic.Took ~1.5hrs of twisting & hammering on the weld nuts & a few hairline cracks in the plastic cup before it went in.

 

I drove down to Tokyo this weekend, so have now put about 500 miles on the Kartboy shifter/WC Lathe Werks combo. The new shifter has bedded in, if that’s the right expression, so is now smoother and less notchy than when first fitted. I love the shorter throws, particularly between 2nd and 3rd gears. In fact the first few shifts I thought I hadn’t moved the gear enough to engage third gear!

One thing I’ve had to do was modify the base plate to avoid contact when engaging first gear. I realised this before I left home, so brought an old file from the garage along with a few tools. I didn’t want to cut or bend the plate, instead deciding to file the underside where it was being hit by the shifting rod. As you can see from the pics below, it’s not very pretty but is smooth enough and out of sight, so I was happy with that. When refitting the plate I was also able to move the plate a little forward and to the left by a couple of millimetres. As a result of one or both of those mods, the contact has all but gone. I may do a bit more filing on it when I get home and/or slightly widen the 4 retaining bolt holes but for the moment, I’m enjoying the smoother shifts.

When the centre console was off I also took the opportunity to tighten the handbrake adjuster to lower the handbrake lever a bit.

 

I have watched countless YouTube videos and read lots online and the consensus seems to be that this IS a pita to do. That said, everyone seems to eventually get the shifter in, so that's what I'm going to try to do (again) tomorrow. I also read a thread on here about attaching the shifter to the linkage then pulling back on that, so will have a go at that as well. If that fails then I may have to bite the bullet and buy some of those pliers. Or a bigger mallet!!

This is why I just did bushings (which are awesome). Good luck, a shorter throw is definitely nice.