I was intrigued to see this on E bay recently so bought for a few pounds. It looks suspiciously like the original springs and pins from the shifter but goes in as extra lateral resistance I am guessing.

Is the effort (and risk...those springs ) of fitting worth the gain??

and the instructions

I put one in About 25 years back

I remember it was very difficult to install

I loved mine, but it did take a cobalt drill to drill through the housing. I never hit reverse again shifting from first to second with this mod.

They work well! It is essentially a second spring to really help push it to the 2-3 gate. The secret is to heat the housing to red, drill it and drop it into a bucket of cold water to RE-harden it.

Thanks guys! Obviously not an install for the faint hearted, but sounds worthwhile. I know a man who can.....

Those springs will not fix a worn shifter assembly. Or spent items in the shift linkage. The stouter springs can compound the wear issue.

Back in they day before the Renn and other type of new shifters we use to install these on the race cars as a reverse lock out so no shift to second would hit reverse.
Worked fine for that application in a race car.
For a street car not so much as you use first a lot and it just makes it harder to get into first quickly...think stiff for first and reverse
It adds two more springs to the shift plate. The plate wears too and sometimes needs to be replaced to improve shifting
As mentioned above make sure that all the stock shifter bushings and parts are new and dialed in and you will have good results.
Other than drilling the new holes..these spring are not as long as the stock springs and
are somewhat easier to install than the stock springs.. the stock ones need to be compressed more and have a tendency to try and fly out all over the shop or hit you in the face.

Back in the early 80’s is when I installed it in my street car. I loved it. It did take a little bit of time to build up my wrist for it (no jokes)... I eventually got used to it and didn’t notice the extra effort to get into first. I was just happy that I could drag race my car on the avenue without hitting reverse. My 2.4 four back then could beat quite a few cars stop light to stop light.

My car had this set up in it when I got it. I removed it and noticed easier (less effort) shifting, but you can nick reverse way easier with out it. I think a worthy mod for any autocross or weekend track used 914. Note: I might put it back in someday...