I also just installed the Hurst and I'm very happy, shortens the throw by 2 inches and a very solid engagment into the gears.

Plus the classic look, whats not to love!!

 

ok, wheres the best place to get a hurst shifter, the stock one seems a little stiff and cumbersome, would like to see if the hurst, like back in the day is still sweet as I remember it

 

Just put the MGW in yesterday, love it. Solid piece.

 

Try Brenspeed. They are a forum sponsor. That's where I got mine.

 

I tried the Hurst before I bought my MGW. Sorry guys, they ain't even in the same league. The Hurst looks great and has a short throw and that’s where the good comments stop. The Hurst has no centering spring which means that it is hit or miss on whether you will make the all important 2 to 3 shift. The transmission is very notchy and the Hurst transmits this feel with a vengeance. When I was looking to buy a shifter I looked around at all the comments that people made about the various shifters and the MGW seemed to address all the negatives that the other shifters had.
The MGW on the other hand comes with sound dampening to quiet down the sound and it is nowhere near as notchy in its feel. On top of that it has centering springs that move the shifter from second to third, it has a built in mechanism to keep the shifter from binding at high RPMs when shifting, it is fully adjustable in height and length of throw. It is simply the best built, best designed shifter for the S197 Mustangs period. The kit and materials as well as the customer service are unmatched in the industry. I will take true functionality over good looks any day when it comes to such performance enhancing items such as a shifter.
Interestingly, I also had a Hurst shifter back in my first car all those years ago. White ball and chrome handle… I loved it! And unlike the current shifter IT HAD CENTERING SPRINGS!

 

If the OEM shifter feels stiff the Hurst is much more so. I liked the Hurst it looked great and had a positive and short shift. Driving with it for the last 8,000 miles changed my mind completely. I put in the MGW this weekend and I couldn't be happier.

Well, yes I could, I could have waited until the MGW was out before I bought an aftermarket shifter.

 

thats probably true, but the mgw should be the best out there, and quality should be the best, because its over twice as much,

 

Hi medieval,

To understand the S197GT's shifter you have to understand the basic relationship and layout of the S197GT's transmission and shifter in the chassis. The transmission is bolted to the engine which is supported by a pair of engine mounts with the rear of the transmission supported by a cross tunnel brace and mount. The S197's shifter is mounted half on the body at the rear of the shifter and half on the transmission at the front of the shifter and moves the transmission's gear selector rail via a one piece arm/linkage that connects the pivot at the bottom of the shift lever to the transmission's selector rail.

Here is the cause of the woes people have when trying to shift an S197GT's manual transmission quicky when the engine is loading up the drivetrain. The engine, transmission and drivetrain are moving together and the shifter is stationary because half of the shifter is rigidly mounted to the body. With the engine and transmission moving together and only half of the shifter moving with the transmission there is a small amount of mechanical bind in the shift arm between the stationary shifter and the moving transmission selector rail. This is the real cause of poor shifting performance once you eliminate the other 50% of the problem which is people who can't shift as well at they would like to.

No standard S197 design shifter that is body mounted can oversome the basic problem of the misalignment between the shifter linkage and the transmission's selector rail. No shifter can limit the misalignment because the shifter body is moving around a different axis than the engine and transmission because it is only half mounted on the trasnmission. This causes the shifter and transmission to always be moving relative to each other and there will always be a misalignment between the axis of the transmission selector rail and the shifter body when the engine has loaded up the drivetrain. The obvious solutions are to try to limit engine and transmisssion movement to some amount that still allows adequate alignment between the axis of the shifter and transmission selector rail or mount the shifter on the transmission. So far I have only seen the first option work well though I have seen one person who tried the second setup but it lacked development and was not 100% reliable.

O.K. with these bits of information it should become clear what is needed to improve shifting errors caused by binding in the shifter mechanism is to avoid the misalignment which causes shift rail selector binding. To do this all you have to do is limit the movement of the engine and transmission. There are many ways to do this most involve replacing the soft liquid filled engine and transmission mounts with higher durometer polyurethane bushings and/or using some sort of hardware that places mechanical limits on the movement of the engine and transmisssion. A couple of years ago when I first got my car I installed a pair of Steeda Motor Mounts when I installed the headers in the car. I did this to limit movement improving reaction time to power transmission, limit excessive movement which potentially could allow the headers hit the chassis and to improve shifting when the drivetrain was fully loaded-up. I also replaced the stock rubber shifter bushings with Steeda poly bushings. What I learned on the first freeway on ramp I hit was that I could powershift 1-2-3-4 perfectly without any binding whatsoever and I never miss a shift with my right foot flat on the throttle due to binding in the shifter (bad shifting on MY part not the car).

O.K. some more stuff to chew on. Contrary to popular belief there is no need for external shift stops on the shifter body of an S197GT. The Tremec folks have done a study on the sudden increase in damaged trasnmissions starting with the S197GT and found that most of the so called tranmission failures were caused by incorrectly adjusted external shift stops which are unnecessary as the S197 GT's transmission has internal shift stops. Needless to say Tremec now instructs all S197GT owners to remove or loosen any external shifter stops to avoid damaging the transmission shift forks. More bits of wisdom, as with anything there is no free lunch and when you reduce the shift throw you have to pay for the reduction in throw length with an increase in shift effort, this is simple leverage. For every reduction in movement above the shifter pivot ball the reduction in movement on the top of the shifter also reduces lateral shift throw so all movements are going to be shortened and require more effort to complete. Here is another revelation, nothing you do to the shifter can change what the transmission "feels" like in terms of notchiness. This basic feel is determined by the internal mechanical design and assembly of the transmission, you are going to feel what the transmission does, like it or not. More bits, the S197GT's Tremec 3650 transmission has a centering spring internally which is why few of the after market shifters have centering springs, there is really no need for them.

There are only a couple of basic classes of shifter mechanisms out there for the S197GT. First are the shifters based on the OE shift frames including but not limited to: stock Ford Mustang GT shifter, Hurst Competition Plus, Steeda's Sport Shifters and Saleen Speedlabs Shift Adapter Block. These shifters are all basically identical functionally an in terms of feel with the only differences being minor differences in the feel of the shifter due to the durometer of the bushings used and the length of the shifter shafts both above and below the shifter pivot. The next class of shifters for the S197GT are the Steeda Tri-Ax and the Tri-Ax copies made by Pro 5.0 and Hurst. These are very short with fixed length shifters and tend to be very notchy feeling due to the exagerated short shift throws. Then there is the MGW which is in all honesty the class of the field. Fully adjustable with enough mass in the shifter to allow smoother throws even when used in a shorter throw configuration. Complex but incredibly well done.

Cheers!

 

"No standard S197 design shifter that is body mounted can oversome the basic problem of the misalignment between the shifter linkage and the transmission's selector rail. No shifter can limit the misalignment because the shifter body is moving around a different axis than the engine and transmission because it is only half mounted on the trasnmission."

Transmission design flaws?

 

I looked at it this way, I was only going to buy the shifter one time and it was going to last the life of the car. So, to me anyway, quality and functionality was very important and price was a secondary consideration. The amout of additional enjoyment that the MGW shifter brings to driving is considerable. If you drive very conservatively then I would stick with the stock shifter. Otherwise, I can't see that any other shifter, even at half the price, is worth the money.

Not really a flaw... More of a design compromise. The MGW is designed to allevate this problem which can lead to locking up the stock shifter when trying to shift with high engine loads.

 

MGW no doubt. Trying to sell my triax as we speak in order to get one.

 

Well PonyDNA that was a nice explanation and of course at the end again MGW. So I guess it will be MGW.

Thanks every one for your advise and comments.

 

George @ MGW must be selling the heck out of his shifters w/ all the positive press they get on here

I sure love mine

 

I installed an MGW when I had around 200 miles on my car (yes very new lol)

Its been sheer joy since it was installed. The MGW is tops and I tried a Hurst the other day and NO comparison, MGW hands down is tops

Yes it is more expensive but you get what you pay for as they say.

 

MGW is the cat's ***.

Found mine (new) in one of the forums classifieds.

Have fun!

 

I do probably drive more conservatively than you or most here, because I dont burn the tires off, but I dont like the stock, so Ill try the hurst first, then If I cant stand it then I will upgrade, thanks alot for the info

 

It is not a flaw of the tranmisssion, it's a limitation of the stock shifter mounting design which allows the movement of the engine and transmission to cause a misalignment between the shifter and the shift rail of the transmission. The problem has to do with the way the shifter is mounted and the different axis they move on.


The fact that the MGW costs more is no surprise given the work that must go into making one of these gorgous shifters. Beauty aside the MGW shifter has the same potential shifting issues as all the other S197GT shifters. The only thing the MGW really does differently is that you can adjust the shift lever throw and shifter position. AFAIK, and there is nothing on their website nor anything published I have seen that about the MGW design that addresses or can prevent shifter misalignment with the transmission shift rail.

HTH!

 

I have the Hurst shifter in my current '07 Shelby GT and it definitely has a very pronounced spring loaded self-centering shift lever.

The Hust in my car is very smooth, precise, quick, quiet and I cannot think of anything it lacks in performance, quality or looks.

 

I have the Pro 5.0 with the Hurst Chrome Handle and white ****. The best of both worlds.

 

I put a Steeda Tri-ax in mine about 8 months ago and have been very happy with it but I haven't used any other brands so I cant give you a comparison.