F80, F87,F82 etc.. F series M cars
F8XM Shifter and other F series Ms
This shifter is a complete mechanism . It not only include the shifter lever upon which your knob will attach but also the selector rod that connects that lever to the gearbox. Most importantly it includes the hardened steel joint that is responsible for that connection to the gearbox. That joint is likely the most important part in securing almost zero side to side play .
All the pics in this website are actual production pics. the picture above is from a shifter that was produced in 2022. It is serialized so that I can reproduce it if needed and I keep the specs of every build on the individual customer file.
This particular shifter was built to emulate the OEM shifter in presentation except as to height. So it will be positioned when installed exactly as the OEM shifter did . Front to Back, Side by Side but will be one full inch shorter in height when paired with the M performance knob. However it is entirely possible to build that shifter shorter or taller or more skewed to the right or to the left or forward or backward. And keep the reduction ratio the same at 25% or increase it to 27% or 35% or decrease it to 15%. The beauty of this custom built shifter is that it can be built to your specs and the variables specified are independent of each other.
This picture shows an extreme example of the above statement. . The shifter height was increased by over 3 inches and a recognizable vendor extension was mated to our inner lever in a custom build. Yet the reduction ratio stayed at 25%
In most cases however the requests are simpler. Say that you have an F87 and want a 20% reduction shifter for it. And you like the M performance knob and want to use that. However what you do not particularly care for is the fact that the M performance knob sits 13 mm lower than the OEM F87 knob. So you ask us to build the shifter (still at the 20% reduction ratio) so that the M performance knob sits at the same height as the OEM F87 knob . Easy Peasy. Done. It is the picture below . Costs you the same since building it to these specs - adding 13 mm to compensate for the drop of the M perf knob - takes us the same amount of time as building it to the stock height.
And what if you thought that the M perf knob while too low did not need to go back to the height of the OEM knob. You just want some drop but not the full 13 mm. Say just 6 mm or 4 mm or 8 mm . Done . No problem. Still the 20% reduction ratio . Still the same cost.
That one is shown below . OEM height + 6 mm 22.5% requested reduction.
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A Recent Upgrade for F8XM
I have been bothered with this M series because I always felt the pivot was undersize compared to the e9xM3 shperical bearing which is arguably a beast. Objectively however that bearing was clearly prenty strong. It was rated for 1800 Lbs or working load more than we can humanly apply to a lever . And in fact I have had only 2 failures of that original bearing . One due to my own error and another in a prototype. However when I looked at it felt undersized. But there was not uch I coud do about it. The complex shape of the F8XM and F20 and others of that ilk prevented me from switching to the beefier e9XM pivot. But that powerless feeling stayed with me until early in 2022. Early that year I took apart a race car suspension and found a new bearing that was a hybrid between the F8XM bearing I was using and the F9XM bearing I was aspiring to emulate. And when researching its provenance ( China) I carped to my US manufacturer of Teflon lined spherical bearing so much so that he agreed to build me some. Rated at 2500 Lbs they work great and give me that extra sense that the end product is bullet proof.
When I talk to prospective users, besides the usual complaint of side to side play and vagueness in the pattern, I often hear the Mushy complaint.Basically folks tell me I feel like I am shifting in cotton.Part if not all of that feel is because the OEm shifter flexes somewhat under hard use. Not only does the outer lever - The part that holds the knob - move in relation to the inner lever - The part that connects to the gearbox via the selector rod- but it also flexes and has a springy feel. This is not in my opinion a great quality when seeking a gated shifter. In my opinion a gated shifter should be rigid so that once the gear is engaged a solid stop is felt. I achieve that in making my inner lever thicker than the OEM lever and thicker than my earlier shifters. That thickness and hence rigidity is most apparent around the pivot but if you look crefully at the above picture showing OEM lever on the left and ours o the right it also extend to the thiner part of my lever.
Cost
F8XM and F series M shifters are all priced the same regardless of configuration. We charge $499 for the mechanism, $59 for the optional bushing set for the front of the shift arm, $20 for USA shipping . Payable with Paypal Friends and Family, Zelle Transfer, Personal Check and soon Venmo. If Paying with a Credit card or Paypal for Goods and Services, then there is a $30 fee. all payable upon completion and not at the time of ordering.
The Importance of a Better Pivot
Look at photo number 1. It shows a factory lever in its bushing. The current OEM pivot ball is made of Nylon. It rides in a nylon bushig that is harder so in essence the ball is sacrificial. It is also smaller in some respects that the original steel ball that nylon bushing was designed for. So under moderate shifting the center of the ball shifts within the Nylon bushing.
Look at photo number 2 . It depicts the Standard Ultra pivot ball. As you can see it is made of steel and somewhat larger than the OEM ball . In fact it is a hair larger than the OEM steel ball that was the staple of BMW shifters until the mid 90s. I made it a hair larger to add a bit of preload inside the OEM nylon bushing so that the pivot of our Ultra shifter is stabilized and can handle hard shifting with a lot less movement.
Now look at photo number 3. This is the pivot on the AutoX. it is a spherical bearing. it is used to control the rotation of race cars suspension components. it is designed to have zero movements even if subjected to a force of several thousand pounds. More force than any of us could possibly exert on a shifter knob. This pivot will not move and it is the secret of the AutoX precision.
1. BMW Nylon Pivot Ball
2. AutoSolutions Steel Ball
3. AutoSolutions Spherical Bearing
Unstable Pivot Analogy
Picture a pair of pliers. It is designed to cut steel wire. It is made of the noblest Samurai sword steel one can afford. The cutting edge was hardened and sharpened first by machine then by an old timer by hand until it can split a hair in two. Its hinge or pivot unfortunately was neglected and has a some play in it. Just enough so that the cutting edges do not perfectly mate . Regardless of the quality of the steel this will be a sub standard tool. It is the same with a shifter. if it wobbles when shifting hard precision becomes an illusion.