Hi all,
In the pursuit of learning more about my Z06, I here to see if anyone can shed any light on this.

the previous owner said that car has a Hurst shifter, but it doesn't look like any of the Hurst shifters i see for sale. So, let me know what you think...
Is this a Hurst shifter?

 

No............

 

Looks like a B&M Ripper to me.

 

Yeah, it has a goofy boot over it to dampen some of the noise and vibration, that's why it looks odd. If you send me your box to upgrade along with the pivot bushing it will feel 10000X better and it won't rattle or vibrate near as much. This is the best possible option for that shifter.

 

I agree!

 

B&M

If you like it, cool. If not, we have suggestions.

 

I am not a fan, I have a couple ideas of what to change to, but I'd like to hear what other people experience have been

 

LMAO! I came here to say exactly this.

 

You already know the top options then. I can recommend:

Older MGW (haven't had a newer one)
Callaway
Tick

Many speak highly of LG and Hinson, I just haven't tried those.

And since you've declared a perspective.... B&M is my least favorite of all shifters for the C5 including stock.

 

I was just looking at your website, looks like your doing some great stuff. what would you do to the z06 box?

 

Ive been debating between,
MGW (seems there different designs, or fake copies, hard to tell, need to reach out to MGW)
C6 z06 shifter
and the billet shifter/box of TMOD
I did see HInson, and have used some of there other products on other builds (which was excellent quality), but didnt know if they had any skills building shifters.
and of course the Hurst shifter is in the back of my mind as a contender

I'm basically looking for what maybe alot of people are looking for, a cross between e36 bmw m3, na miatia, and a gated f-355 shifter. Precise, tight, slightly notchy, but not too tight and notchy that you have to muscle it into gear, shifter, the holy grail/ 3 little bears shifter. lol

 

MGW vs Tick - Tick is ~$200 more and not worth the price IMO, not when the MGW is so good.
TMOD seems like a great option to try
Hinson is known to be VERY short throws with high shifting effort

If I didn't have an MGW already (had one in all my manual cars...04 Mustang GT, 03 Mach1, 04 GTO, 95 Camaro) I would try the TMOD unit.

 

To be specific.... Tmod makes tubs, and Tmod makes shifters. My understanding is that his shifter has a free floating shaft meaning the **** is free rotation clockwise or other. I installed a ball **** loose on one of mine to see if I'd like that. It's not bad. I didn't have problems. But I also did not take to it and prefer a fixed shaft and ****.

​​​​​​The tubs he puts out, now those are a trick piece which help all but the Tick and one of the MGWs which provide their own tub. If you do only the tub you will see a big difference.

C6Z shifter.... It is a stock shifter like your C5, same mechanism, except the shaft is bent maybe 25* to the rear. I found this very comfortable and used it in my daily driver until it was wrecked.

Notchiness.... Consider one or two rings for the anti-venom mod. This $2 mod adds a ring or two to the shifter detent ball as spacers. I have liked 1 ring.

Tick did one thing for me. They turned me on to running a tight ratio shifter with a taller/normal stick and **** height. I used to run the mgw with the **** at fu down slot. The force wayyyy down low can be high. Note: this is also due to the T56 itself requiring force and being notchy....6060s don't have this. So I will be running my mgw with the **** at a higher setting when done. Tight ratio. Smooth tub with no slop. Linkage with no slop. Easy throw. That, for my preferences in street driving, is my sweet spot.

 

My ONLY hesitation about TMOD is the free spinning capability. Maybe it's not an issue, never tried one. I do know that I don't like shift "*****" and rather a "shaft". I also like a shift pattern on the shifter for a OEM type of look....I already get OCD if the shift pattern rotates a little I can't imagine fighting it with the TMOD shifter.

 

So, In my search of the different versions of the MGW shifter I keep coming across, is this one of the older versions you are speaking of?

 

For stock lower boxes I machine them out and replace the factory internals with my own, these are the same internals that I use in my billet boxes which are the replacements for the stock box. The difference between the stock box that has been upgraded and my billet box are convenience and looks really; the billet box is nice and shinny but it has the same internals so it feels, functions and lasts the exact same. Everything I make has a lifetime warranty, including the internals of the box. If you can have the car down while you send our box into be upgraded it will save you some money, this is the move I would recommend.
If you can't have the car down you can go with the billet box option instead; it cost more but it is more convenient and it's pretty. Any shifter, stock or otherwise, will feel better on either upgraded box than it did on a stock box; the difference is significant.
Lots of my customers prefer the stock **** or prefer having the gate pattern, etc, so they go with one of the upgraded box options. This is also the best vibration dampening option available. These cars have a lot of vibration and one of the biggest issues that occurs when going away from the stock shifter is that you can end up feeling some vibration in the stick/****. This is not necessarily new vibration it's usually vibration that has always been there you just haven't noticed it until you give up the superior dampening of the stock shifter. I'm certainly not saying this is typical, but it happens and it always varies deepening on the condition of the vehicle.

Vibration dampening is the most important part of an aftermarket shifter in my opinion. This is one of the biggest reasons I made my own shifter in the first place. My aftermarket shifters don't dampen quite as well as the stock shifter does but it is close and better than any other aftermarket shifter available for these cars in that regard. Another important characteristic in my opinion is the required shift effort; the amount of force required to move the stick through the gears. This is one of the reasons I use a bearing in the main pivot of my shifters. Aside from being extremely smooth and precise, my goal is to reduce this effort as much as possible. I use a little less reduction that everyone else does, all the rest of the aftermarket shifters are 30-35% reduction ratio, I use 20% or 5%. I settled on 20% because during testing that was about as much reduction as I could get before the amount of effort required to move the stick became significantly noticeable. If your looking for the shortest throw shifter you can get, the MGW is the way to go, that's the only other shifter I would ever run. It's a great piece I just prefer to sacrifice a little travel to reduce the shift effort and I prefer all the vibration dampening I can get as long as it doesn't stat making things mushy which is what happens when you go too far in that direction. This is one reason the stock setup is so vague and floppy; it's a lot of dampening and it's not done well.
Using a bearing in the main pivot does allow the stick to rotate. I recommend running a ball or a round / cylindrical **** with my shifter. It won't spin like a top, but it will rotate if you try to rotate it. You might fiddle with it at stoplights when you first start driving with it but you should not have any issue with it running through gears and you'll probably forget it's possible. You should not have any rotation of the stick / **** as you shift these cars, that's why it doesn't really matter. It will want to rotate more if you put a goofy shaped / lopsided **** on it, like the stock ****, that's why I recommend against it. The **** I include with the kit is a cylindrical **** that is pretty much the same as a C5R ****. The threads are recessed deep into the **** so the top of the **** is a little lower than the height would be with a stock shifter. The **** goes pretty far down onto the stick so if you like to cup your hand around you have that option as well. It's not stock looking but the black Delrin **** looks clean, I have some carbon fiber ***** as well but they are kind of a pain to make so I don't always have them in stock.

Shifters, especially for these cars are pretty subjective, everyone likes something different. Ask around wherever you're located, you may be surprised to find someone or multiple people who would be willing to let you try theirs out.
If anyone has any other questions feel free to ask or shoot me an email, I'm happy to answer anything I can.
info@tmodcustoms.com

 

Here's a video clip from the olden days. It's an old prototype version but it's the same basically.

Vimeo

 

Rotorwash4,
the photo you are showing is one of the older MGW shifters. I have that same shifter with a TMod tub in my 2002 and could not be happier. It did take a little learning curve on my part since it was so different than the stock C5 shifter and tub.
Once you develop a feel for how short and precise the throws are you will wonder why everyone does not make this modification.

 

Just a FYI I have the same shifter on my 04. It was pretty bad when I first got my car. I thought that's just how they shift. So when I was changing the radio over to a double din I found that the tunnel cover was ripped and that I had an aftermarket shifter. So I removed the shifter and found that there was litte to no grease on the shaft inside shifter box. So I greased it up and shifting became much better. After that I did the anti-venom mod. That really made it shift much nicer. It's now very easy to shift especially if you let it Rev up a little and don't try and shft at 1200rpm. Those two things are very easy to do and cheap. If you don't mind spending $500 bucks or more just get the shifter and a new box.

 

The bushing on the bottom pivot of the shifter should have grease on it at all times, any shifter that uses the stock bushing, that includes the above shifter. The grease should last a long time but if you get in there and it is not clean and greased give it a little bearing grease and it will help. I make a replacement for this bushing which is also the same bushing I use in my aftermarket shifters. It is much tighter, smoother and it dampens vibration much better than the factory bushing. It's not as significant of a difference as rebuilding the whole box but it's better than stock by a bit, it's the best twenty bucks you'll spend if your running any shifter with that factory bushing on the bottom. The next cheapest option is to rebuild the box, replace that bushing and run whatever shifter you're already running. This is under two hundred bucks and it's the best option for any shifter that uses the stock box. The box is more important IMO than the shifter is in regard, that's why I say that the box will make any shifter feel significantly better.

Another good thing to check is the big rubber cover / boot that seals down over the shifter, the one that sets over the studs and is held down with nuts. If your not getting a good seal at the base of the shifter AND around the perimeter of the boot against the tunnel, your going to hear and feel a lot more noise and vibration. Some aftermarket shifters require cutting that boot. That boot will need to be replaced if you go to any other shifter setup.