CFM STS How-To (WITH pictures!)

[croto5000]

my cfm shifter arrived last week and with my car being in the shop all of next week, i decided to spend some quality time with it now. i'm a little aprehensive sometimes when it comes to doing mods, especially when it's something that decides whether my car moves or not so i sought out some pointers for the install only to find 'OMG it was so eazy and str8 forward NEone can do it'. which is partially true. but not every step of the installation screams 'do me next!' and sometimes it's hard to tell if you're working with a piece that just needs to be shown who's boss, or if that piece isn't supposed to be moving at all. so, i have included for your visual enjoyment, a documentation of my sts install.

you will need the following tools-

philips head / flat head screwdriver






that is all

so those of you with a stick shift, it should look like this



unscrew the shift knob



then remove that red piece (or whatever color your's is) and remove the shift boot retainer starting from the rear



you should now be looking at this



after completing this install, i felt it probably would've been optional to remove the console and armrest, but i guess it's up to you. it provided a little more room for my hands. there's 3 screws holding it in - 2 under the cupholders and 1 under the circular tab by the rear cupholder. if you have an armrest there's two screws holding it onto the console. they can be found behind a square-ish panel under the arm rest pivot which just pops right off.

moving on, the 4 screws you see here need to come out. in the picture i had already done one of them. i don't know if the thread pattern was mismatched bu these things fought me coming out AND going in. just make sure you have a screwdriver with a bit that grips them well otherwise progress will be slow. also make sure your screw driver has a slim shaft as the shifter will still be in your way making it difficult to get in there!



the square brace should pop right off of what it was screwed into and the little nubby on the shifter that points toward the driver side needs to be pulled out of the braket that it's sticking through. it should have plenty of lube on it so give it a quick push and it will come right out.



that's about as far as i got before putting my thinking cap on. the part seen below should still be attached to your shifter at this point



the portion of the shifter linkage that attaches to the trailer hitch-lookin' bit on that piece comes right off. just take a flathead and gently pry between the two to disconnect them. everything should be free at this point and your stock shifter should come right out.



the piece with the 'hitch' on it will slide off your shifter (you'll need it). just remove the screw that's got it tightened give it a few solid taps with the ass end of your screwdriver toward the top of the shifter and you should be in business.



at this point, you basically do everything in reverse.

- clean up the 3/4 circle piece that the ball of the shifter is seated in and coat the inner ring with some new lube. and don't be stingy with that stuff. there should be plenty included with your kit.

- swap the circle piece onto your new shifter (which should be lubed as well even though it's touching something that's already had some applied to it) and drop it back into the base and slide the nubby into the bracket.

- slide the square portion of the base assembly back down to where it sits. there's only one way for it to line up. put 4 screws back in and make sure the assembly is tight. i thought all my screws were good at first but the stupid thing was all wobbly. take some time and give those screws hell. you won't hurt anything.

- and lastly, re-attach the linkage to the hitch after you've transfered that piece to your new shifter as well and put the last screw in it.





at this point you should be looking at a shifter without a knob or boot. go back through to make sure everything is tightened and attached correctly. then put your console back in (if removed) and get your shifter and parking brake boots on.

after installing the shifter i tooled around the block a few times and i must say this shifter is SHORT. we're talking 'is it in yet?' short. i've got pretty long arms and i had to reach as far as i could to grab it. i also sit with my seat all the way back so that doesn't help matters. all in all though, it's got a very nice feel and i'm glad i bought.





my only beef is with the stock shift boot. with the length of the shifter the assembly looks pretty stupid now lol. there's way too much material there and what is there is the hard fake leather crap that doesn't wanna be told how to move. so if you pick up a STS, treat yourself and grab a new boot from www.redlinegoods.com or whoever else makes quality boots. and uh, y'know, if you found this helpful feel free to give me a rep point :) stay in school kids!

[Sponsor]

[jwh172]

good write up man. i kinda like the boot look.

[Bing]

nice write-up! cfm sts looks real short. i'm thinking about a new knob as well coz sometimes i feel the red stitch is a little irritating during quick shifting...

[Waffles ZX3 Kona Sport]

Now is this just a shortened height shifter or a short throw shifter? It looks to me as though it just lowered the height of the shifter. Also, RedlineGoods.com is an AWESOME company to deal with. I have some boots from them, and even though they shiped from Europe, they arrived at my door within a week!

Nice write-up too!

[wood_e]

Does it work well? Looks REAL short

[croto5000]

it is technically a short throw. that bit with the 'hitch' sits at a lower height with the sts which i believe is what determines distance between shifts. so with the linkage connecting at a more 'convinient' location, your shift points become closer. not drastically, but there is a difference.

i think it works very well, and you're right it's very short. the shifts are still a little stiff at this point and i think that may be due to the stock lube being more slippery than what was included with the kit. the stuff with the kit is kinda thick and might not be meant for this kind of application. in all seriousness though i may drop some ky in there just to see if it eases things up lol. y'know, for less friction and whatnot.

this is advertised as being 1.5" shorter than the steeda so if this one looks a bit nubby, go with the steeda (if you can find one...). the only reason i went with this one was because it was $60 less than the steeda and the steeda (while a bit longer) retains the reverse lockout mechanism which my car never had in the first place. so that was kind of a no brainer

[BlazingCopper_ZX3]

Wow that is short!
I went with the Ford Racing STS (same as the Steeda) and while it has shorter throws it sticks up a little higher than that one. It was $145.00 from the dealer.

[croto5000]

well it's been about a week since i installed it and the shifts feel good. real solid. my car's in the shop today and will be until friday or monday (i ended up with some piece of crap lancer as a rental lol). when i get it back i'm gonna put some more lube in there and see if it loosens things up any. it's a good shift, just really stiff is all. the only thing that's putting me off is the actual height of it. but i'm gonna go with it for another month or so before i decide about selling it or not

[bkgriller]

I just installed mine... wow major difference from stock... now i just have to get used to how short it is...

[N2O Focus]

I think they are just cut down shifters. If they are true sts's then the black plastic thing with the pivit ball that you installed on the new bar would be raised higher than it was on the stock bar. I checked my saleen one against a stock st one and mine was higher to shorten the throw.