Shifting the way it should be

Shifting the Way it Should Be

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that truly is the case, then the picture below is worth 1,000 swears. 

The OEM Shifter Housing Bracket and Bushing

 

If you own an MT-82 six speed manual transmission equipped 2011-2013 Ford Mustang, you have probably already experienced the dreaded 3rd or 5th gear lock out. When shifting under load, the shifter housing can torque and cause the shift gate to move out of it's normal position. This will almost always result in a missed shift. It is called deflection. In my experience, it most commonly occurs when shifting from 2nd to 3rd and from 4th to 5th gears. You will know when it has happened from the loud grinding sound and the fact that you are not in the desired gear. It can really make spirited driving more difficult to enjoy.

The culprit of this shifting misfire is the OEM shifter housing bracket and rubber bushing installed at the factory by Ford. The bushing is made of a rather mushy rubber and is held to the shifter housing by a flimsy stamped steel bracket. The combined flexing of these two pieces allows the tailshaft of the shifter housing to move excessively and causes a feeling of sloppiness in the shifter. This sloppiness has no place in the shifting of any performance car. Naturally the owner of a Mustang experiencing this problem would want to remedy the problem as soon as possible.

The only way to dispel your shifting woes is to replace the ineffective OEM shifter housing bracket and bushing. Replacement units are available from Barton Industries, Steeda, and Joe Heck Racing. The Barton and Steeda brackets are both priced around $80 and the JHR bracket can be had for around $50. All three brackets are made to far superior standards than the OEM piece and all three will do a more than adequate job of eliminating the flexing in the shifter housing. The three products are all similar in the fact that they are all made of machined aluminum and use bushings made of rubber or urethane. The Barton unit is a 3 piece design and is the more complicated to install but its quality of construction is very noticeable. The Steeda and JHR units are very similar in design, construction, and installation process.

The JHR Shifter Bracket

With the proper tools and equipment, a home installation can be rather easy to perform. I installed the JHR bracket using only a set of ramps, a flashlight, and a 10mm socket and ratchet. Total time of installation was less than 20 minutes. The end result was smoother shifting and a well defined gate. Combine the new shifter bracket with a new short throw shifter from any of the three bracket manufacturers and your Mustang's MT-82 will feel like a whole new transmission. Your shifts will be short, firm, crisp, and can fall right into place every time. You owe it to yourself and to your Mustang to remedy the shortcoming that Ford overlooked in the stock shifter bracket.

Written By Wayde Sutton
Pictures by Wayde Sutton and Hectic Racing