Just installed saab savior short shifter

[guitarguydudeperson34]

went in today... well yesterday and today. i ran into some snags so if anyone has this and hasn't installed it yet or are thinking of getting it here's some tips:

• first if you've never located the pinch bolt that you need to loosen in order to adjust your shifter, or remove it intirely, you must put the car in 4th first or the bolt will be tucked away and you won't see it.
• when you loosen this bolt only do so by about a 360 degree turn of it. too much and you will loosen it so much it wont tighten unless you have a friend under the car helping to get it back into place. (fun 3 hours to figure that one out)
• the normal procedure for adjusting the gear shifter to make all the gears smooth and accessable is putting allen wrenches in the adjustment holes in the gearbox and shifter box (see hynes manual) but with the new short shifter it's not that easy. getting all gears accessable after installation took a good 3 more hours. discribing the best way to get it right is to put the car into 4th, put an allen wrench in the 4th gear selector hole in the gearbox, loosen the pinch bolt under the hood, and in the car pull the shifter as far back into 4th as you can and then pull the shifter 1-2 millimeters towards the driver's seat and have a friend tighten the pinch bolt as you are holding this position (when i just pulled it all the way back and tightened it i couldn't access reverse).

i now have a lot of experience in doing this so any questions feel free to ask

[sethsev7n]

Now for the obvious question, how does it feel?

[SectorNine50]

Originally Posted by sethsev7n

Now for the obvious question, how does it feel?

I like that question.

[guitarguydudeperson34]

haha yea forgot about that. the shift throw is much less but it does take a little more muscle to go from gear to gear. it's not bad just noticeable. i haven't been able to do quick shifting while driving because of all the snow we have been having, but sitting still i can get really fast shifts. the shifting is also tighter, you don't get as much slop when in gear. i highly recommend it and saab savior is really really easy to talk to and work with.

[j006]

I ordered this short-shifter beginning of december but John(saabsavior) was waiting on a a core return before he could rebuild it to send mine out. I talked to him just before the holidays and he had just gotten a core in but seemed a little swamped with holiday plans. I was hoping to get mine here soon so it's exciting to hear about someone getting it installed. How long did it take for you to get yours guitarguy? Cheers.

[guitarguydudeperson34]

i got mine very quickly actually... sorry to say but i was the guy he was waiting on to send the core back in . my girlfriend bought it for me in early november as an xmas gift so i didn't get it until lately and he sent an email saying he needed the core back. sorry about that.

[j006]

No worries! It's kindof cool to know where the shifter box is coming from; I'm gonna give John a call and let him know that I understand what's going on. Thanks for the update! Cheers.

[Jssaab]

I'm next, so get your back in a hurry ok j0???

[XAAMOTTOMAAX]

You would think if these guys are selling a decent number of these, they would keep a couple cores in stock to use instead of making customers wait all this time.

[Jssaab]

You think thye are selling a lot of these for 9-5's I have only heard of now three installs....

[XAAMOTTOMAAX]

3 installs in the last couple months on this board alone. I know they have offered the product for a few years now and it's been fairly popular in terms of performance modifications go....not like ecu, exhaust or cobra pipe popular but still. Maybe it's just me but it seems a bit rink a dink to keep orders waiting because there is only 1 core available.

[guitarguydudeperson34]

i bet he had the cores on hand but if people start to not return them to him he will start to run out.... or take several months like me

[XAAMOTTOMAAX]

True. He's really kind to even offer the refund after so much time. I know a lot of places put a 7-30 day time limit on core returns.

[SectorNine50]

I've noticed recently that tuning the 9-5 has started to boom somewhat. First I noticed the number of parts GS started making for the 9-5, then how many more posts there seem to be in the performance section per day. My guess is the 9-5 is starting to get to that "tuner price," if you know what I mean.

[guitarguydudeperson34]

i hope so, ill jump for joy when there are as many performance/after market parts for saabs as for subaru's

[XAAMOTTOMAAX]

I'm still waiting for a decently priced GT-BB turbo upgrade for Aero's. Nick said he was going to be putting his top mount setup with header on the site for sale for a very good price but it hasn't happened. I'm kinda at a standstill right now needing pistons, clutch, turbo, ecu to get anywhere but I just can't justify the cost with the rapidly depreciating value of my car.

[SectorNine50]

Originally Posted by XAAMOTTOMAAX

I'm still waiting for a decently priced GT-BB turbo upgrade for Aero's. Nick said he was going to be putting his top mount setup with header on the site for sale for a very good price but it hasn't happened. I'm kinda at a standstill right now needing pistons, clutch, turbo, ecu to get anywhere but I just can't justify the cost with the rapidly depreciating value of my car.

The value of my car seems to litterally be suspended in time...

[XAAMOTTOMAAX]

I sold my 2000 Aero in 2004 on the open market for $14k. Now it's probably worth $8-10k. At around the same time I bought my 2003 Aero new (left over model with 1500 miles) for $29k and it's worth around $16k now. Much different dollar differences but the percentages aren't that far apart.

[SectorNine50]

I must've bought my 2000 at the right price!

Awe except I checked again, and my car just dropped in price again, now I'm down to $9,000. I bought it at $11,000 3 years ago.

[XAAMOTTOMAAX]

Yeah that's a good buy. How many miles when you bought it/now?