diverguy64

Hi,
Looking for any advice that anyone might be able to provide: I have a 96 Mustang GT 5-speed and the guy I bought it from installed a B&M short throw shifter. I noticed this summer past that it was a little rougher shifting and if you weren't totally ayt a stop (or almost tptally stopped) it would grind when downshifting from 2nd to 1st. On the advice of a friend, I changed my transmission fluid from the cruddy Ford stuff to Royal Purple but it hasn't made any difference. Here's my question: does a short throw shifter need the linkage to be occasionally adjusted or is my transmission slowly packing it in?

H0SS302

its not the shifter its the tranny, mine does the same thing. not a big deal tho i wouldnt even worry about it.

Chopper

Make sure the stops are adjusted properly if the B&M has them.
It's not a good idea to downshift these transmissions while coming to a stop.It wears out your clutch and syncronizers prematurely.Brakes are a lot cheaper than clutches and tranny parts.

H0SS302

its not the shift stops, mine did what hes talkin about before i put the shifter on. it only happens when im pulling into my driveway. But it only makes the noise every now and again

AJ06GT

Welcome to the world of T-45 transmissions.

diverguy64

Wow. So the summary of all this (occasional grind downshifting from 2nd to 1st, sometimes a little rough shifting from 2nd to 3rd, hard to get it in reverse every now and the etc etc) is all related to the T-45 and not the short throw shifter? Everyone with a T-45 has some of these issues to a certain degree? I thought the T-45 was an improvement over its predecessor....THAT one must've been a real piece of crap, lol. I've never owned a car that does the 2nd gear-to-1st-gear grind before. You almost have to be at a dead stop to safely shift it.

y2kStangGT

+1
you shouldn't be down shifting from 2nd to 1st in any situation. There's no reason for it unless you want to shorten the lives of your tranny and clutch.

AJ06GT

T-45 synchros are HORRIBLE. Someone probably used to downshift from second to first regularly and pretty hard and the synchro is pretty beat up. My second to third synchro pisses me off because I know I'm not THAT good and I can shift too fast for the synchro anytime I want. I actually have to not shift hard so that I don't kill it.

Funny, the other day it decided to hang up going into second and I did the jackass rev because it wasn't in gear, and I got pissed at the transmission and started slamming gears, into second, third, then fourth. I think every one of them was too slow and had a nice little grind. After I got to the next light I calmed down and stopped shifting like a maniac and I haven't had a problem with the transmisssion since then. I sure showed it! Haha.

Now I have to get used to the T56 and the clutch. It's a hell of a lot different than my crappy T45, but it's so much better.

diverguy64

Not so much downshifting from 2nd to 1st in the same way you downshift from 5th to 4th etc, but sometimes you're in traffic that's still moving and slows just enough that 2nd gear isn't an option anymore and you almost have to stop the whole row of cars behind you just to get the T-45 to go smoothly into 1st. Small price to pay I know for driving a stick versus a boring automatic, but still a pain.

AJ06GT

By the way, lower than 20 I can get my car GT into 1st, however I usually don't bother stressing the synchros since I'm probably not going to take off at 20 in 1st. If you have to nearly stop to get it in 1st then your synchros are shot.