Take your 1-2 shift to the next level. Prevents 2nd gear lockout.

Kit Includes:

• Billet B8/8.5 Shifter Mounting Plate

• Billet B8/8.5 Linkage Reinforcement Kit

Optional Add-on:

B8/8.5 Short Shift Clamp

Why Every Shifter Needs This

The factory mounting plate that holds the shifter to the body of the car is made of flimsy plastic with a layer of sound-deadening foam between it and the vehicle’s center tunnel. The slider bushings are made of soft flexible rubber with tons of slop that gets worse with age. During “enthusiastic” 1-2 shifting, it’s easy to put enough side load on the shift lever to compress the bushings and cause the OEM plate to flex, allowing the shift linkage to get hung up in the reverse track in the transmission. This causes that “sticky” spot you feel between first and second that often causes missed shifts and lost races. Shifter housing wear can add to this as well.

Not only does the JXB Shifter Mounting Plate eliminate this issue, it gives a most wonderful solid feel to your shifter. The edges of the pattern are no longer soft, but make a solid thud, telling you you’ve arrived at the next gear.

Maybe You Don't Suck At Shifting

Before you assume your missed shifts are due to user error, wearing synchros, or other transmission issues, go out to your car and do this experiment:

1. With the car off, parking brake applied, and foot off the clutch, with little force applied, shift from 1st-2nd a number of times.

2. Apply additional leftward force towards the reverse gear. Increase the force until the shifter starts getting caught in the middle going 1 —> 2. Try both fast and slow shifts.

3. If this is the sensation you feel when you miss a shift, then the JXB Billet Shifter Mounting Plate is the solution. You don’t suck at shifting, your shifter does.

Fitment

Compatible with any OEM or aftermarket shifter that retains the factory base. That includes the JHM, ECS, and Eurocode units.

Compatible with all 6MT B8/B8.5s, including A4/A5/S4/S5.

Linkage Reinforcement Kit

Everybody knows the stock linkage sucks. It doesn’t perform well, it sucks to swap out, and it’s expensive to replace. After an in-depth look at it, we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t all bad. There are plenty of good parts in it. The rod that runs from the shift lever to the crossrod is rigid as can be. The plastic coupling that holds the socket for the lower ball joint and the ball for the upper ball joint is very well-made. It has thick reinforcement ribs and doesn’t flex at all under load.

Where the wheels start to fall off is when we look at the ball joints and the crossrod. The lower ball joint in particular is housed in a flexible plastic and rubber socket that squishes and flexes under load. The plastic crossrod is flexible as can be. It flexes a great amount under load, leading to getting stuck in the reverse track more easily on the 1-2 shift, and generally adding slop to the shift pattern. The crossrod bushing is also fairly soft and can be seen flexing. We replaced that with a stiff polyurethane bushing held in place with a precision stainless shoulder bolt for a perfect no-slop no-flex interface. Though also plastic, the upper ball joint isn’t too bad, but since we’re addressing the crossrod, we decided to beef it up while we’re in there.

So instead of replacing the whole linkage, this kit transforms the stock linkage by replacing the 2 ball joint cups, the crossrod, and the crossrod bushing/bolt.

B8/8.5 Short Shift Clamp