DESCRIPTION
Install UUC Short Shifter Kit
PARTS NEEDED
1 - UUC Comp-Evo II SS Kit
(UUC MOTORWERKS $295 part #UCSE)
TOOLS NEEDED
Your nimble hands
Long Flat-head Screwdriver
Very Short Screwdriver (optional)
Fine Sandpaper (optional)
Grinding Wheel (optional)
Bailing Wire (optional)
INSTALLATION
The instructions included with the kit are very comprehensive with plenty of photos. I am just going to touch on
on the details/issues relating to my experience on installing the kit in an E46.
Shifter Rubber Boot: This thing sucks. When you get your shifter knob, leather boot, and foam out, you have to remove
this rubber boot that keeps the outside, well....outside. It is a pain in the butt to pull out and put in. I found it
easier to remove the 2 screws holding the panel with the window buttons and take the panel out. There are 2
electrical connectors for the windows, but they are easily disconnected. This gives a lot more room to work and
hopefully you will not look like you got into a fight like I did when I was done. Also, there is an arrow on the rubber
boot, this points to the front of the car.
Shifter Linkage Clip: Under the car, there is a spring clip that keeps the selector pin in the shifter lever.
I used Ring Clip Pliers to remove this clip and bent the hell out of it. Thanks to UUC, a new one is included in the
kit. My hands were just too big to get up in there. Also, putting it back is a little more work. My 330i had the yellow
plastic crush washers on both sides of the shifter lever bearings, so I put the two new ones back on. The instructions
say to sand the yellow washer down if the clip will not go back on the selector pin. I almost sanded this washer to
oblivion and finally removed it all together. It was binding up the shifter and the washer next to the clip is not
necessary.
Shift Carrier Pin: The shift carrier in an E46 is attached in two places. The rear is a pin that goes into a
rubber hole in the body. The front is attached directly to the top of the transmission via a pin. This pin is locked
into place with a metal clip that must be rotated away from the transmission. This is one of the very first steps of
the install and uses the long screwdriver. Between this and the Shifter Linkage Clip, this is where I spent most of
my time. Once you get the clip rotated far enough up, I found it easier to use a very short screwdriver to push the
pin out from the other side. Once removed, the shift carrier can be pulled towards the front of the car and removed
very easily. When replacing the shift carrier, MAKE SURE you have the carrier all the way in. I managed to miss the
hole and had to remove the pin again to fix it. Also, I found it much easier to seat the metal locking clip with a
length of bailing wire run up over the top of the transmission and over the clip. A couple of good yanks on the ends
and the clip clicked into place.
Shifter Lever Pivot Cup: Also known to UUC as the ERK (Effort Reducing Kit), this aluminum cup raises the
location of the pivot point of the shifter in the car. It attaches to the existing shift carrier via 4 small hex
screws. The instructions say not to tighten these too much as it is possible to strip the threads out of the
new aluminum carrier. Do take note, you still need to make these very tight, just don't go using a electric drill
or something to wrench them in. I was very conservative when installing these screws and it turns out they were not
tight enough and allowed the pivot cup to move making the shifter loose and sloppy.
Transmission Noise: I initially had some transmission noise being heard in the cabin. This is when I realized
that I needed to do two things. First was tighten the hex screws on the pivot cup. This *can* be done from inside the
car without removing the shift carrier, but I found it MUCH easier to grind the short end of the hex key off about 1/4"
so it would fit down into the hole in the shifter location and tighten all 4 hex screws good. Second, I raised the
height of the shifter about 1/2" and checked the tightness of the set screw in the shifter lever itself. After speaking
with Rob from UUC, this set screw can transmit noise if it is too tight. The screw was fine, but raising the lever even
2mm or so drastically reduced the noise to a very acceptable level which even now can only be heard during hard shifts.
Overall: The instructions do not make specific references to an E46, but everything is pretty much the same as
the E36. I managed to install the kit all by myself on an alignment rack with a 12" bar blocking my access to the
location of the shifter. On some nice tall jackstands, this is a do-it-yourself home job without problem. It took me
about 1.5 hrs considering that I missed the hole in shift carrier when reinstalling the transmission pin and had to
remove it again to fix, plus I was working around the bar on the lift blindly.
