cbr4life

I'm a long time BWM owner that recently convert to musle car . Love the power of the 5.0 and the handling is not bad either. I had the car for 3 weeks now with over 800 miles. I noticed that shifting from 2nd to 3rd at high rpm is difficult, seemed as it got lock out until the rpm is below certain level before third gear can be engaged. I know the car had a skip shift feature between 1 & 4; however, what about from 2nd to 3rd? Is this a problem or a feature? Sorry for making first post with this kind of question but I love this car and want it to run right.

conejo172

The 6 speed manual transmission takes a little getting used to because of the close gear gates. Especially if you are used to driving a 5-speed manual, where you think 3rd gear is on the 6 speed its a wall.

After muscle memory learns where 3rd gear is you will never miss it again. Enjoy your new ride!

clowe1965

There isnt a solenoid preventing shifting into 3rd gear. The skip shift feature only prevents shifting into 2nd from 1st when certain criteria are met (rpm and throttle position). Even during skip shift activation I can shift from 1st to 3rd no issues (IMO a better transition than the 1st to 4th BS). Like said above, its about learning where the positions are and letting the centering spring do some of the work. If problems persist take it to the dealer.

dragline

i've experienced this myself. wonder if a barton or mgw shifter might help alleviate.

JAJ

They do that. Ford's official answer is that the gates are narrow and drivers miss them occasionally. However, there are many posters on this and other forums who've driven stick shift cars for decades and who are having this problem too.

As far as I can determine, and mine only did it very rarely, is that it's actually a shift linkage issue. The engine moves on its mounts, the linkage shifts around and suddenly you can't find the gate. Give it "a moment" to settle while you're in neutral, and the gate comes back. Ford, at least so far, hasn't released any TSB's or design updates to fix it, and so if you have the symptoms, your choices seem to be to live with it or to buy an aftermarket shifter, of which the MGW is the current leading contender.

I have the MGW in my car now, but I haven't been back to the race track to find out if the missing third gear problem is actually solved. Nice piece though.

MrSandman

Try letting the shifter sit in the neutral position for about a half second before you shift. I had this happen to me on a curvy road, but it was because I tried to go into 3rd while leaning on the shifter a little. Not saying it was user error, but 3rd is easy to miss.

cbr4life

Thanks for the response guys. As some of you had mentioned, slow down the shift and go into neutral first before engaging 3rd gear seemed to work every time; however, the acceleration time will be suffer .
Also the transmission seemed to make clunking noise when shifting at parking long speed between 1-2 or sometime 2-3. Is this normal for mustang? If I work the clutch slow and trying to be really smooth then the noise is less.

JIM5.0

The clunk is "normal." (I put this in quotes because that is what the dealership techs say. In modern transmissions designed to also see daily driving, not just track time, the clunkiness should be eliminated.)
The 6speed manual, which is the Getrag MT82, is a very clunky gear box especially for 1st to 2nd gear shifts. I attribute this to the large spread of the gear ratios between 1st and 2nd gears, and possibly also to other design issues.
2-3 is not as bad, but will clunk every now and then too.

Maybe spacing the 2nd gear ratio a little closer to the 1st gear ratio might address this some? Of also look at a dual clutch system? Afterall, the MT82 in Mustang use was originally concieved on the drawing boards to a mount dual clutch, but cost-saving corners were cut and the dual clutch was one of the items put on the chopping block.

The way I defeat the clunk is to ride the clutch. Not a happy clutch in the long run, but better than stress fractures of the thudding of gear teeth that make that clunk.

JAJ

When you shift the gearbox, the synchros have to change the rotation speed of the clutch disc as well as the gears and shafts and other spinning bits. A twin-disc clutch has smaller disks with a much lower polar moment of inertia. A twin disc clutch will make shifting better.

JIM5.0

Good point. The smaller diameter discs will be much easier to accelerate and also the jolt/"clunk" would be mitigated when the flywheel engages.

I was actually of the wrong impression that dual disc clutches were of the same diameters of single disc clutches.