Well, I got the shifter installed this afternoon after it FINALLY came in. It took over a month to ship (apparently MGW has pretty rough lead times), but after the install, I'd say the wait was well worth it.
The install started pretty well; took the center console panel out without breaking a single clip or connector, something I was pretty paranoid that I would do. After that, it was pretty simple on the removal of the stock setup. I did have to get under the car to take out the rear mounting bracket, which did present a minor difficulty, as the shifter assembly is directly above the drive shaft, and is only 6-8 inches in front of the X-pipe. After a bit of maneuvering around those though, it came out, and after only about ten minutes more (had to separate the lower assembly from the shifting arm that goes to the transmission). the lower assembly was out of the car.
Installing the new lower assembly was a little tricky, as it was a two piece compared to the stock one piece unit. The main issue came from the fact that the two pieces of the lower assembly had to close securely around two bushings, be aligned to the shifting arm, and then be connected together by 4 bolts sticking out of the bottom of the lower assembly. Again, the drive shaft and exhaust were kind of in the way, but in time everything was tightened down, and the lower assembly was attached, and the new rear mounting bracket was installed (though not fully tightened down until the upper half of the shifter was installed).
Once this was done, I though the difficult part was done. I was VERY wrong. To put the top half of the shifter on, you had to get the ball at the end of the shifter into a cup that connects to the gear selector arm, while lining up a spring into a channel that goes between the upper and lower halves. Once this is done, you secure the shifter using four hex key bolts while maintaining pressure on the shifter to keep the holes aligned. This doesn't seem too complicated in itself, except that the bolts has loctite on them that is more or less set. So after about 45 minutes of failing to get the bolts to work, I hooked up the power drill with a hex driver and finally get the bolts to go in. to finish the process, I added Dynamat, put on the dust boot (also a pain), added some sound deadening foam, and put it all back together.
This shifter is a vast improvement over the stock option. The shifts are no longer notchy, everything is incredibly smooth and shifts are very positive. There is a little more road noise than there was stock, but that doesn't bother me too much, as most of it is engine note anyways. Shifts are noticeably shorter, and you hear an audible click every time you change gears.
So all in all, I'm very happy with the purchase, and it definitely makes for a great modification.
And +2 to my PI, I'll take it!
