Jande063

Hello all,
I just bought my first Mustang a three weeks ago, and when I was at the drag strip last night, I had something strange happen with the shifter(there are 1900 miles on the clock). When I made the second to third shift, the clutch was on the floor, but I just got a lot of grid from third, and I had to go back to neutral, cycle the clutch, then it went into third. After that run, the shift lever seemed to 'walk' towards neutral(but only just a bit) when in first, second, or third whenever I went over any imperfection in the road surface, or whenever I applied any throttle. It did this for a few shifts, then stopped. My next two runs were without any drama from the shifter. Then my next two runs, it had the same issue, but this time with second gear grinding until I released and re-applied the clutch. These issues have only cropped up on full out straight line acceleration at a drag strip, I did not have any trouble at an autocross a week ago(~1400 miles), or at the same drag strip two weeks ago(~900 miles). The only thing that is happening at the moment is that when the engine is running and the car is not moving, if I put it into first, then try to pull it back to neutral, the shifter really does not want to come out, but it is not any trouble when the car is moving and it is only on first. I am hoping that this is just an extreme example of these shifters breaking in or maybe I caused a bushing in the shifter to move slightly out of place with my slightly gorrilla powered 1-2 shifts(I have never drag raced before, and got a bit excited)? If this is so, would a shorter throw shifter with a shifter bracket solve some of this issue when combined with me learning to *not* to pull so hard into 2nd?

Chazman_1962

It's your stock shifter, The thing is not made for hard shifting, replace it with an MGW shifter and all your shifting problems will just go away. I replaced mine a few weeks back and could not be happier. It's a pain in the but to switch out but its easy enough to do it yourself, Check out there web site they have a step by step video. I did it anybody can do it, Good luck

vegas_

Just to be on the safe side, I'd suggest you change the transmission fluid.
Could be some crud in there.

WindyMustang

First guess and without pictures...you may have bent the shifter bracket. It's probably not bent enough to miss shifts all the time, but once in a while when the stars are all (mis)aligned, badness happens.

I haven't had this issue, but I can feel more flex on the MT-82 setup than the typical Tremec.

Sounds like the car is still VERY young, so it may be worth a warranty visit?

WindyMustang

Agreed - good advice.

Jande063

Thanks for the advice, here is an update. The problems sort of fixed themselves for a while, which helped confirm that this was a shifter issue, and not some deeper transmission or clutch issue. Then recently it has developed to about half of the time not going into first gear during normal driving(was not an issue whatsoever at the local autocross yesterday; it no longer has any issue with performance oriented use). The clutch will be on the floor, the stick will go into first, then when I let the clutch out, it grinds like crazy. This only happens when I am being gentle with the car, such as when I sit in bumper to bumper traffic(and I live in one of the most congested areas in the country). Unfortunately, of the three Ford dealers in the area, the soonest that they could schedule an appointment for "transmission service" is October 14th. I need to check with these dealers to see what each of their views on post modification(such as shifters) warrantee work is(some owners in my area have warned me that some or all of the dealers around here will void the whole driveline warrantee if an aftermarket shifter is installed) before I go and install an aftermarket assembly.

Jande063

Looks like you were right about that warrantee visit.
After a local dealer spent ten hours with my car on a lift on the 25th, they called to say that they had ordered a new: first gear, second gear, third gear, shift forks, synchro hub, and a few other smaller things. Hopefully it will last more than 2,900 miles after this rebuild.

WindyMustang

Well, if nothing else...for everyone else...



Thanks for sharing your experience. Here's hoping for the best with your repair, and that you're back rockin' soon!

Jande063

Thanks for the help, I just got the car back, first, second, third, and the clutch actually feel correct now.

Jande063

Please learn from my newest mistake. If a dealership re-builds a transmission as opposed to replacing it, watch it like a hawk, because mine just leaked a bunch of fluid out over at least the last week, which I just noticed that it had started leaking yesterday(started to feel strange on the way to the dealer today, 45xx miles on the car with 16xx on the re-build). From the drips on the cardboard, it looks like the output seal was bad, three weeks after the re-build.