Gated shifer? Options

[JWest]

Too many reports of his 1st gen shifter coming apart......he may have made that right, I never heard. I don't like outfits that have customers do the R&D on a product.....There are a few fellas that do the customer R&D trick. I got no truck with it. Even if it is made right, it wastes time & effort.

Made about 100 1st gens over 5 years ago. About 10 of them (after 50 were in use) had a bad weld because I farmed out some work.

I'm not sure how that translates to having the customer do R&D.

[J P Stein]

Too many reports of his 1st gen shifter coming apart......he may have made that right, I never heard. I don't like outfits that have customers do the R&D on a product.....There are a few fellas that do the customer R&D trick. I got no truck with it. Even if it is made right, it wastes time & effort.

Made about 100 1st gens over 5 years ago. About 10 of them (after 50 were in use) had a bad weld because I farmed out some work.

I'm not sure how that translates to having the customer do R&D.

I work in QA. A 20% failure rate of a bit after getting out in the world would get me fired, but my company would still be in deep shit.
Does it "translate" now?

[Downunderman]

I have found that a side shifter with a good universal at the firewall and some decent bushes and a couple of extra Weltmeister lock out springs is about as good as you can get. You can then do 4th to 3rd with confidence, and 5th to 2nd and 4th to 2nd. Although i try and avoid the latter two, sometines it happens in the heat of battle.

JP, what 2nd are you using? It doesn't seem to launch very well.

[JWest]

I work in QA. A 20% failure rate of a bit after getting out in the world would get me fired, but my company would still be in deep shit.
Does it "translate" now?

It must not be fun to live with such an angry attitude.

You really seem to have a big personal problem with me for having never met me or purchased anything from me. Unfortunately people will believe your made-up stories of products you have never used (stated in your past posts) being unnecessary - so I am forced to tell my side. I would prefer to let my real customers speak for the product (which they do), but you have to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stirthepot.gif) on something that you have no experience with. Not sure why that is.

QA and R&D are not the same thing - I'm tying to chase your insults as you shift them. The design was robust and had no issues - a mistake was made in production and a single batch got out the door and was dealt with. Yes, the QA was lacking - I (well, actually the customer) cannot afford to do NDT on this level of parts and neither can anyone except in your business. The car will not fall out of the sky and kill a large number of people if a part fails.

You can't compare the aircraft industry to any that produces something that an individual consumer can afford. Car companies have high failure items delivered to the customer all the time and the companies issue a recall and fix it (if enough people can prove it well enough).

This is all moot, as I changed the design 5 years ago, removed the chance of any similar issue with a different design and production processes, and have had no issues in over 500 shifters sold.

[HAM Inc]

I calculated that this year in my 4 weekends of double events in our F-Prod car (901 side shifter) I shifted 1,737 times. I only flubbed two shifts. One when my foot slipped off the side of the clutch pedal, and one when a HHR SS blew by me going into turn 6 at Rd Atl. (damndest thing! The guy was fast but eventually blew the thing up in a fiery explosion right in front of me. Click the link if you want to see my in-car of it) I thought the HHR was going to flip and I completely lost my rythm and forgot to shift entering turn 6. Not really flubbed shift but it counts as shifting related mess-up.

That's a lot of fast shifts with my JWest goodies and no issues. The man sells quality stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JVLy2fsq0M

[J P Stein]

It must not be fun to live with such an angry attitude.

Unfortunately people will believe your made-up stories of products you have never used (stated in your past posts) being unnecessary - so I am forced to tell my side.

Well, I didn't have an attitude before, but I do now, partner.

Which "made up story" are you writing about?

The one where I heard that your stuff fell apart? There are tons of products that I have never bought because of that very reason. I must be stupid....a guy should never trust his friends, eh?

Now you've confirmed that some did indeed fall apart, but it wasn't your fault.....you should'a used "bad gas".in the weld machine.....at least that would have been funny. But no, you get all indignant about MY attitude. As a defense, that won't cut it but it takes a deep intellect to come up with it.

[JWest]

Which "made up story" are you writing about?

As typical on the internet, I'm probably misinterpreting or reading things into your posts that are not there. I'm sorry for making it personal if that was unwarranted. Here is my view (right or wrong):

The story is the one that you tell of my stuff not being any better than stock despite the fact that you have never used it so you have no basis. If it is just what you have heard, then tell those friends to post their problems with my product - second and third hand knowledge posted on the internet is always useful, of course (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) .

My problem with your posts is that you keep giving your opinion of how well my stuff works in operation (not that you heard about failures), but you have yet to try it and have no first hand knowledge. If you had a real interest in my product, you could have asked me if I ever had any issues with failures and what had I done to resolve it (I have real answers and solutions, not excuses like scum companies who don't care and keep selling trash that you seem to be grouping me with).

Instead, you just make passing "it does not work as well as stock" comments every time the subject comes up. This is the first time you have told the reason why you have a problem with my shifter.

I hate to continue this, but you keep changing your angle - first it does not work right, then it was designed by the customers, then it was bad QA - I keep chasing your comments.

I know that this does not come across in my posts as I am trying to defend against what I believe you are saying that is not accurate, but I have a lot of respect for you. I would have been honored to have you test my parts in the pre-release stages and give your opinion if you were local to me. That is why I continue to reply - I am surprised that you would make a blanket "does not work" comment about a product based on heresay and I want to get to the bottom of it.

I said I made a mistake - I admitted it above and dealt with it.

Summary (as I see it):

I've had 6 1/2 years of shifter sales, (5 1/2 onthe current product with no issues). I screwed up because I was behind on production after the first 6 months, and I fixed the issue with production changes and with the customers. I really fixed it after a year with a redisign that was better and more reliable to produce.

You don't trust my product because you heard about a failure, but you really don't know the details. I believe I have made them clear.

Oh, I think the guy used "no gas" in the welding machine (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) - looking at the break after it occured - full of bubbles - couldn't tell from the outside but they broke right away in use. My mistake for farming out work to a "pro" and relying on the weld alone. Lucky for me it was just a small catch-up batch. I used a pressed pin to take the load and a weld just to hold it together after that. Later revised design does not use a weld that can fail, so I don't have that risk at all.

[SirAndy]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) And here i thought i was the only one getting in epic pissing matches! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


Either way, i'm very happy with my 1st gen J-West shifter that apparently "does not work" and should have broken 5 years ago.

I'm also very happy with the J-West shift linkage package. Works for me. But what do i know.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) Andy

PS: And i was actually there when one of the old shifters broke. Somebody correct me if i'm wrong, but if i recall correctly, James took care of that.

[J P Stein]

Just so we have it clear. I have said and will continue to say that your shifter is not worth the cost TO ME. The same is true of your shift console fix....TO ME.

During the build of my car, I found many vendor parts that were worth the cost TO ME. Wevo, Tarett, Sheridan, Triad, Guard....yada. Your bits were not among them. The cost effectiveness is just not there.....TO ME.

I don't recall saying your stuff "does not work...."as I am quoted, but I will say
and you can quote me: " I ain't willing to spend the money to find out". Your price
for fixing the all of the 901 shifting "problems" is about the same as a brand new Guard TB diff. .

I'm done with 914s & this thread. I'm sure you can carry on.

[BKLA]

its unfortunate that this thread went this direction.

It really comes down to this: All of the people (at least those posting opinions) who have installed the JWest Shifter alone, or the JWest Shifter and the linkage are happy with the improvement (perceived or actual) over the stock design.

Was it worth the money? Again, speaking only for myself and others posting who installed and use the products - yes.

[HAM Inc]

I'm done with 914s & this thread

.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

[zymurgist]

its unfortunate that this thread went this direction.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

Was it worth the money? Again, speaking only for myself and others posting who installed and use the products - yes.

Worth every penny. My 911 came with what the PO called a factory short shifter, but shifting was like stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce until I installed the Rennshifter.