tacoturbo

Aloha from Kauai. New here to Mustang forums. I picked up a 2005 GT with a manual trans about 9 months ago. Love it! A friend of mine got me hooked on his clean 06 GT. I had been away from the V8 muscle car scene way too long. My ride is pretty simple with the usual mods, CAI, Predator tune, shortshifter, no mufflers just the cats (a little loud but sounds frickin awesome!), rims and lowered. My question fore the community is on the drivetrain slop. When I got this car it had 54,000 miles on it and was driven by an older gentleman. The first thing that I noticed was the clunkiness during shifts and when slacking the throttle. Is this a normal trait of the 2 piece driveshaft? The car has a few issues but I really love driving this car! Its got about 64,000 on it now. Thanks in advance for the feedback.
Tacoturbo

Rudolph Hucker

this is how they are with the manual boxes.
both my low milage s197 manuals did the same..
i gave up on them

07 GT E UPP

Yep normal ...get used to it .
Nothing I've done has taken it fully away.

tbear853

Maybe I have been indoctrinated long long ago with immunity to whatever slight slack feelings y'all are feeling that it seems "common"?

Looking back at personal vehicles (25 of which 4 were/are PU trucks, and of which all total ... 10 were/are 4 or 5 speed manuals) and LE "work" vehicles (14 regular assigned police cars plus use of another 6 or 8 special enforcement vehicles over the years, of which several were Mustang GTs with 5 speeds) ... throw in several school buses and the F-350 chassis mail trucks I drove for a few years in the late '70s (all manuals), I see that I've had some experience.

Automatics typically have a cushioning effect between engine and drivetrain so that the transition from coat to acceleration or acceleration to coast mode is softer as felt through "the seat of pants" (thanks to the torque converter) .... except with those cars I have had with AOD where the drive train is essentially solid through the TC in OD and they give the same feeling as a manual in that you feel it differently when making that transition in throttle and loadings. Even a small engine miss is felt with the AOD in OD just as it is in a manual.

Only time I've ever felt slack though was when I had a U-joint going bad .... except my '77 F-150 4x4 which has had some slack in the rear end since I purchased it in 1986 .... but it has never made noises, just has a tad excessive backlash.

Our 2008 GT is a manual, it has the 2 part DS (as do my two T-birds I believe) I have yet to feel any slack to speak of, but like all the others .... when you transition from coast to acceleration or vice versa, you feel it instant and rpms stay with road speed as I expect it should.

And if you want to really hear some noises, remove all the rubber shifter boots for a few days ....


.

Nuke

Yes, the S197 slushbox is noisy and sloppy. You can reduce it a bit with an aluminum DS but it's a FORD, not a Lexus.

tacoturbo

Thanks for the replies guys. All appreciated. Yup, my shop says live with it. The only other issue is I had them install a set of FRPP 4.10 geras and they are fairly loud. The whine is very noticeable cruising and during decelerating. They tried to shim it 4 times and its the same. Guess I gotta live with it. The reviews Ive seen is mixed at best.

dlazrael

If there is gear whine you might want to try a new shop.... just my $0.02

808muscle

Aloha from Maui....a DSS driveshaft will really improve the slop in the drivetrain. They are not cheap but IMO its the only brand to purchase. Since you new to mustangs when you need to order stuff you will realize there is no free shipping to Hawaii. What we do on Maui is to use the free shipping (like with AM) and have the item shipped to a freight forwarder in Cali, then it goes by boat to your island. Minimum charge is around $200 for this so its only for the big stuff like wheels, bumpers etc... If you bundle with your fellow mustang buddies its realy cheap as your splitting the cost. I have wheels and tires coming and my freind order some tires and the cost will be the same for all that.

tx_zstang

I've installed a few 410 FRPP gears, and not one has whined. But I took the time to install them correctly. If they didnt get the backlash right the first time nor second time, they aren't going to get it right!


I agree with the recommendation of getting someone to do it who knows how.

P51C

You can drive around it most times by loading up the driveline with a few more revs and/or opening the throttle a fraction of a second before clutch engagement. I see it as a sort of daily personal driving challenge on my 2012 GT.

Steep gears in 8.8s are notorious for noise. Assuming a correct install, you still either get luck or you don't. My factory 3.73s whine a touch at about 120 km/h. Not enough to make me want to take on the Ford warranty machine, had enough of that when my MT-82 spat the dummy at 3500k.