For anyone interested, finally got the Dieselgeek Sigma short-shift kit installed. The process was...exhausting, I think is the best way to describe it. Mostly because of my inexperience and initial lack of the exact tools I needed.
The product itself is very nicely built, and seems to work as advertised. Shifts now are very precise, short, and engage with a satisfying thunk. Takes some getting used to, particularly paired with the heavy knob I also installed, but in a good way.
Getting to that point, oy. First off, the instructions, while pretty detailed, are somewhat out of date. The PDF that you download, for instance, shows white plastic bushings, but my unit had gray plastic, almost a teflon-like texture and rather thinner, bushings. Not a big deal, but it took me a minute to figure it out because the gray color blended in a bit and I was looking for thicker, white bushings. Second, the PDF references models up to like 2012 or so, and nothing thereafter; clearly they have not updated it to the Mk 7 platform, though I don't think there's that much difference. For a newbie, though, it's a bit disconcerting to have to extrapolate a bit. Third, the videos, which while also dated are quite helpful, have some different info than the PDF (for instance, the PDF says tighten one Allen bolt at a particular time, the video says do two). Nothing major, but again a bit disconcerting to the inexperienced.
And I don't know how different an R is inside the engine bay from the TDI they did their videos for, but man, there is nowhere near enough clearance in there to get in a full size 3/8" socket wrench with the Allen bit attachment. I had to buy a small right-angle ratchet to get the job done. Even then, the space was tight, tight, tight, and my arms are beat to hell now. As is my back, as that position is not something this college professor is used to adopting!
I had some hiccups, mostly because until I got the right-angle ratchet I wasn't able to tighten the Allen screws well enough, and the car wouldn't get into gear. Once I went back through the adjustment process again, and really tightened up the bolts with the small ratchet until a credit card just fit, it was golden.
Oh, another small thing. The Mk 7 R has a rubbery sound insulating later under the shift boot. While in some videos it seems you can take this out, my attempt immediately started a small tear, so I stopped. It simply wasn't coming out except in pieces. The work around is not hard--you just poke the 5mm bent metal thingy through the rubber at the spot marking where the adjustment holes are, and fiddle around until you get it in both holes. It locks down fine then.
So, overall, would I do it again? Dunno. The result is good--I like the way the car shifts better. For an inexperienced person, the install was more stressful than I really wanted, because really, once you are in there and get the original shifter out, you are kind of on the hook. If you can't get it to work, the car ain't going anywhere. But I'm glad I did it anyhow. Learned a lot about how stuff works at least.
Oh, and to whomever mentioned that $#*&% lever you have to lift off, yes, yes, that sucked hard. I had to go out in my wife's car to get a battery terminal puller to get that sucker off. Oh man, that was not fun at all.
