Anyone have experience installing this? I recently did and the shifting seems very rough and difficult to get into gear, especially reverse? Any suggestions or tips?

 

Based on your description I'd say that I inherited my Boxster S with the same short shifter, which is anodized blue and replaces much of the stock assembly. My car was nearly impossible to put into Reverse with any confidence and I'd have to physically hold the shifter in that position or it would sometimes pop out while engaging the clutch to move backwards. My only fix for it consisted of replacing it with a stock 996 shifter as I wait to put another shifter in, as I didn't know of any way to adjust it meaningfully so that I'd have confidence shifting it through all the gears. As you said, reverse was the worst of all. I hope you got this figured out as I realize it's an older thread.

 

I installed the Schnell shifter in ours and it's not a problem getting to reverse for us. The left shifter adjustment cable may be a little too tight on yours. You can access is by just pulling up the shift boot and the coin tray/ash tray without removing the entire console. I had to adjust mine last week and this solved it for me.

I'll say that I think the Schnell piece is pretty nice, but I haven't been as impressed as I'd expected. I'd say that it's better than the factory 986.2S shifter (shorter throw) but if this were "my" car (it's actually now my wife's) I'd look at switching it for a different brand.

I tightened the nuts that secure the actual shift lever to the blue aluminum body and that took care of most of the slop, but the shifter doesn't just "pop" to neutral when you shift between gears. It's truly a "manual" experience orienting to each gear. My 996.2 has some sort of sport shifter (PO installed; I don't know the brand) and it's a much more natural experience.

My wife likes how the 986 shifts so I'm leaving it for now.