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Who's running a PRG Shifter?

12K views 46 replies 11 participants last post by  Wet Dog 
#1 ·
How many miles with it? Thoughts? I've read through a few older threads but have not heard much about them recently. Interested to hear how it feels with some mileage on it.
 
#2 ·
I have somewhere around 40-50K on mine.

Some people like them and some people don't. I like mine. Shifts feel crisper, smoother and more car-like. But there a little extra noise (from both the transmission and the shifter itself) and the gates feel narrower (6th gear was a challenge at first and I still miss it on occasion).

I don't ever recommend it one way or the other because I think it's very much personal preference.
 
#8 · (Edited)
How was the install?

Easy, aside from the fact that I somehow managed to slice my hand open. I spent as much time cleaning up blood as I did installing the shifter.

^If you are wondering whether the intent of that last sentence was to emphasize the extent of blood loss or the relative ease of the project, it could go either way. :)
 
#11 ·
I was thinking about this earlier today when I drove my 6-speed Subaru to work, came home at lunch and switched vehicles, started driving the Frontier, and almost immediately missed 6th because I forgot which vehicle I was driving for a second.

The problem with 6th gear and the short throw shifter is that the gate is pretty narrow anyway, and the short throw leaves you a lot less room for error. The shifter has to come STRAIGHT BACK or you'll miss.

I have found that if I rotate my hand out 90 degrees when I move the shifter into 6th gear, I am significantly more consistent and I virtually never miss.



If you think it's totally ridiculous to have to do this in order to drive, you might not be a good candidate for the short throw shifter...hahaha.
 
#13 ·
I don't quite get how 6th gear could be that hard to get into. I just got my Frontier and this is one of the first mods besides a tonneau cover that I would really like to do. Are yall trying to shift directly in a straight line from 5th to 6th instead of 2 staging it from 5th to neutral & neutral to 6th? I'm use to a really tight 6-speed racing shifter with long lever. The total maximum throw of it is less than 6cm, but its an extremely precise throw with ZERO slop ANYWHERE within its movement.

Is the PRG short shifter like that, or is there even a small hint of slop anywhere? If it wiggles even 0.5mm total in neutral or in each gear that would be considered slop, but not something I would ever hold against it. Just looking to reduce the throw and get a more direct and precise feel in the shifter - don't expect it to compete with a German racing unit for sportscars.
 
#15 ·
I love mine, and I never have problems going from 5th to 6th in fact I don't have any problems going into any of the forward gears. Every now and then if I don't push down hard enough on the shifter to go into reverse it won't go in but as long as I pushed down all the way it always goes into reverse. And as far as noise, I don't have any odd or unusual noise either.
 
#16 ·
What type of transmission fluid are you running, just out of curiosity?


So almost three months ago I stated that the PRG shifter felt the same as the day I installed it, and then about a month ago I mentioned that I missed 6th gear once and attributed it to the fact that I was still getting used to my new car.

Missing 6th gear has continued to be an issue. This past weekend, I took a 500+ mile road trip...and I found myself missing it a lot. Maybe one out of every 3 shifts. :-/ I haven't had this much trouble with the short throw shifter since installing it several years ago. I am also now having a little more trouble getting the shifter into reverse than I have in the past. When I jiggle the shifter, it seems like it has a little more play than I remember, but I'm not entirely sure.

At this point, I can't figure out if it's psychological (2.5 month old "new" car still? or maybe this thread was in the back of my mind?) or if it actually is harder to get into 6th than before (but why? old fluid? old transmission? worn shifter?). Since I'm comfortable driving my truck, I actually suspect it's the latter.

I've been contemplating whether to changing the transmission fluid (less than 2 years old) or tossing the stock shifter back in should be my next step. (If I take the short throw out and inspect it, will there be obvious visual signs if it is causing my latest set of problems?)

Just figured I'd mention it since the thread got bumped and I think full disclosure is a good thing.
 
#22 ·
Changing fluid out really helps in all the manual transmission vehicles I've had. Transmission fluid really should be changed out around every 30k miles or 2 years. In my FR-S i changed out the factory fluid after the recommended 1000mile break-in period for Redline and it felt and performed much better. If you haven't changed the fluid in over 2 years I'd definitely get some good quality fresh fluid in there, especially in hot climates and vehicles that see more extreme use.

I doubt there is anything wrong with the shifter assembly unless it wasn't fabbed correctly or had improper tolerances to begin with - which would be known from the start. Maybe any bushings or bearings in the system could have worn some give slop. Kind of hard to tell, but from the picture on PRG site looks like there is some kind of nylon/ploymer roller bearing on the end of the lever that goes into the gearbox. That would be the only thing I would worried about 'wearing out'. Really need to find the shop manuals for this truck...don't like having a vehicle without the shop manual.
 
#24 ·
That nylon bushing is what is worn out on my OEM shifter, I found a bronze replacement that *might* fit but I haven't ordered it yet to confirm. The company that makes it can't be bothered to measure it for me. Of course Nissan doesn't sell the part separately, It comes with the whole shifter assembly only.
 
#30 ·

Here's a pic of the bushing at the bottom of the shifter, I believe it replaces the factory Nylon one, this looks like it might be in brass
That's the one I was thinking of buying but I'm not 100% sure it fits, Cheap enough to give it a shot. My larger nylon "seat" could be worn, not sure yet. There is a rubber isolator in the shifter shaft that gives it the mushy feel as well, the PRG unit eliminates that part.
 
#31 · (Edited)
This is a pic of the factory shifter, the only thing I see that can lead to a lot of play in the shifter, is these two nylon bushings wearing out
My larger nylon "seat" could be worn, not sure yet.
Do we think wear in the larger nylon piece could be a plausible explanation for problems with a shifter? I pulled the short throw shifter out last night (after verifying that all the bolts were still tight) and inspected it. In comparing it to my stock shifter, I found that it flops around inside that nylon seat quite a bit more. I had mentioned that it seemed like it had more slop than I remembered...could that be why? With the stock shifter, there is quite a bit of friction felt against that nylon seat when moving it around. With the short throw, there is noticeably more laxity. The little nylon bushing on the end looks fine on both shifters.

When I talked to Greg the other day, I think he was focusing on the fact that I said "6th gear is a lot easier to miss" and may have overlooked the fact that 6th gear with the short throw has always felt narrower/harder to get into than the other gears...so of course that is the first gear shift where I would start noticing a problem if one exists. It's the least forgiving gear.

At this point, I'm committed to reinstalling the stock shifter to see if my issue goes away (thus confirming or denying the shifter being the problem) but I had forgotten that the PRG shifter included a spacer that needed to be attached to the shifter control housing with RTV. I'm having trouble getting the two pieces to separate so I'm at a bit of a standsill until I can figure out how to do that.

Steering back on topic a bit, I have no idea whether this answers the original question of durability versus the stock shifter but I hope this is a useful discussion. The nylon seat looks identical to me on both shifters, so I'm not convinced this is an inherent problem with the short throw that couldn't also be present with the stock shifter (or whether this in indeed a potential source of "wear"). What do you guys think? My short throw shifter has more miles on it than the stock one.

EDIT: It would be interesting to see how "floppy" a brand new short throw shifter is inside that nylon seat compared to mine. That would certainly be more of an "apples to apples" comparison.
 
#33 ·
JeniorNV, I know when I talk to Greg the upper nylon bushing and lower nylon bushing are Factory bushings, in fact that whole shifter is a factory shifter he just modifies the factory shifter, if you have slop in that offer upper bushing that may well be your problem, it will be interesting to know if your stock shifter clears that problem up. Plus I'm just a little confused I can see going from 2nd to 3rd or 4th to 5th missing a gear but going from 5th to 6th which is a straight back pull, how you miss getting it into gear?? No disrespect here, just don't understand how that happens.
 
#34 ·
Plus I'm just a little confused I can see going from 2nd to 3rd or 4th to 5th missing a gear but going from 5th to 6th which is a straight back pull, how you miss getting it into gear?? No disrespect here, just don't understand how that happens.

I'm not really offended, but I assure you I know how to drive. ;)

With the short throw shifter, it's always needed to be a very precise straight pull back. It's hard to explain but the gate has always just felt a lot narrower than with the stock shifter. I noticed the same thing a little bit with the stock shifter (I'd occasionally land in 4th instead) but it is more pronounced with the short throw. I'm not really sure how else to describe it so I hope that makes sense? Based on other reviews on this site and the Xterra one, I know I'm far from being the only person who has noticed this.

Lately though it just seems like I miss the gate a lot even when trying to pull the shifter straight back. If there is actually a little more slop in it now than before, it makes sense to me that it would be easier to miss that little gate.

6th gear doesn't feel the least bit problematic. When it goes in, it goes in nicely.
 
#35 ·
One thing I can't stand is a sloppy shifter like what you are describing. I was sitting in my truck today and noticed that 5th is up and to the right, and if that upper nylon bushing has slop in it I can understand how anybody can miss 6th gear, also if you have to replace either one of those nylon bushings I think Greg said that using a heat gun will helpe take them off. I hope you get this problem solved
 
#37 · (Edited)
Interesting. The short shifter is putting more force on the stock bushing due to the fulcrum change necessary to get a shorter shift. Seems like the stock bushing wears out much too quickly from the extra force being applied to it. PRG should make a Delrin bushing instead of nylon...they have delrin bushings for practically everything else on a Frontier. An ~ 2 year functional life is simply not acceptable. It won't be cheap for a Delrin bushing, but the stock one doesn't seem up to the task if this is an indication. I was frankly somewhat surprised to learn they kept the stock nylon bushing in their short shifter.

Or they could just rethink the entire shifter mechanism and build something more along the idea of these:

IRP-Germany - GT86 & BRZ Shortshifter V3

http://www.shop.cae-racing.de/index.php?a=212&lang=eng
 
#44 ·
Anyone know the part number for the OEM shifter? Or even the model number of our transmission? I had both written down but misplaced my notes. My shifter seems worse than ever the past few days, so much slop. Getting frustrated trying to find the part numbers on google.
 
#47 ·
For those of you who are replacing your shifters, are you replacing your spring at the same time or is there no need?
 
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