Did this last weekend. Pipe cutter broke halfway through (last time I buy a cheap tool again) so I had to move to the dremel cutting wheel... gave me a good excuse to vacuum the car afterwards.
I used the #004 hose clamp (don't overtighten it, the clamp simply breaks if you do) which fits perfectly.
I have to say though guys - I'm 100% on board with the idea of a short shifter, but to me, it looks and feels exactly the same as before. I guess I'd rather remove an inch than put it on though.
I don't think it really feels different ie shorter throws but ergonomically it just looks better and feels better being lower if you have long arms like me. Match this mod with a actual short shifter though and your golden.
This is something I have been wanting to do for awhile now. So I decided to have a look yesterday. I took off 1 1/4 inch. I put the knob on and didn't notice a significant drop. There is a half moon ledge inside the knob which is 1 inch tall. This explains why the shaft I cut was flattened on the one side. So after I tapered down the driver side of the shaft the knob went down another inch. The benefit is the shift knob won't rotate at all and once clamped down your golden. Thanks for the initial right up.
I shortened mine down two times. First time was about an inch, below that crescent moon bit so I ended up having to hack through solid metal all the way through. Felt normal.
Then I chopped about an inch and a half off, I dont remember now but it may have been to below the diamond pattern/grip type bit. This time it changed the way it felt, almost like the shifts arent as smooth, harder to put into gear and I've hit that bit in between 1st and 3rd a few times since. Looks great but didnt expect to lose any smoothness. Perhaps I damaged something with my constant back and forth motions when using a hacksaw (as I had to put some good sideways pressure onto it too when hacking).
There is a tab inside the shift knob that allows the shifter to be self aligned by the taper on the shifter shaft. So I cut 1.25" off the lever and ground down the shaft with the same angle as the piece that was cut off and not only is the knob indexed, but it doesn't rotate either. Just a tip, maybe take you an extra 10 min.
