Vegasjay

Nothing to be sorry about...I'm just glad we got it straightened out. That pic was misleading, you saved me this aggrevation before I got under the car...

steal101

Thanks Justin!!!!!! Will you take a few pics to show the correct way.

Vegasjay

I won't be installing it until this weekend, but I'll take some pic's if it will help you. The diagram above show's the correct position.

Eleanor Dreaming

Clear as mud to me now, maybe it will be better when my shifter gets here.

steal101

Was this pic part of what came with the shifter? I did not install this myself. Thanks Justin.

Stoopy

No - I drew it in order to ask the question. Blame me.

Don't worry, when you install it, this will make sense.

The Lyin' King

So after all this . . . I gotta ask . . . did you put yours in correctly the first time around ? It appears to me that you did but I'm not sure . If so, can I assume that it still feels pretty "notchy", un-smooth especially going into 4th and reverse?

Stoopy

Well, hate to say it but...yup. 4th is kinda tight, and Reverse takes a focused effort for me. I'm still going to turn it around and see what gives, and make sure I lube the sides of the bushings at the bottom of the stick.

Could be, I'm wayyyy too used to the floor shifter on my Chevy pickup after all this......it was tight for a very long time and now after 150K miles mostly in traffic, I was amazed at how it just glides from gear to gear.

davids2toys

Yeah, this baby does everything but slide in gear!

The Lyin' King

So yours exhibits the same symptoms?

davids2toys

YUP!

Stoopy

OK that settles it.....

David, I'm going to crawl back under this weekend and:

A) Lube the bushings at the front (I just noticed the instructions say to do this - I didn't - and since it's an attach point I didn't see why...but I'm gonna do it).

B ) Turn the offset connecting lug at the bottom of the stick around ANYWAY since Hurst says it can go either way.....and who cares which way the chrome stick goes, it'll be a bit closer to the driver side anyway if the mounting lug doesn't rotate independantly.

C) Lube the #$%@ out of the plastic bushings on that lug, and...

D) Tighten that 13mm nut LIGHTLY and if it's improved, double-nut it. And drill a hole and safety wire it if I have to!

Will let ya know how it pans out. Regardless, even if it's the same, I'm gonna drive the #$%@ out of it and just break it in and make it happen! LOL!

Never, ever ever got a reply email from Hurst. I got one that says I have a ticket open, but other than that... nuthin'. So, stubborn Dutch engineering takes the helm!!!!

Vegasjay

Well the Hurst is in!! First off, I think I may no why some of your shifters don't feel right...There are TWO metal bushing's in the front mount and TWO plastic bushing's in the bottom of the shifter stick ( that are in the stock shifter, that you remove for the Hurst). When I took my stock shifter out it had two metal bushing's in the front and one plastic bushing on the bottom of the stick, so I thought everything was o.k. (normal). I was swaping the bushing's over to the Hurst and I thought to myself that there really needed to be another plastic bushing, as it looked like there should have been one there... So I got everything ready and started installing the Hurst. Lord and behold the other plastic bushing was still on the bolt that's on the transmision link rod... I assembled everything and went for a good test drive.

This shifter is simply awsome, there is no slop at all and the shifts are short and very clean. The throw's are about 3/4 of an inch to each gear. All I had to do to get to the next gear is make a natural movment toword's the gear and it goes right in. The 2-3 shift is perfect and you couldn't miss it if you tried (and I did try... ). The stick hiegth is perfect and I could leave my arm comfortably on the arm rest and shift aggresivley with ease. It is a little tight, but just to my liking. You feel like you have "ahold of something", you feel very conected to the car as it should be. Now people's taste in shifters differ, but IMO this is the perfect shiffter for this car...

Now for those of you with slopy or poor feeling shifters, I would check those bushings. If you are missing one of the metal or plastic bushing's or both, that would have drastic effect's on shift feel..I hope this help's.

BTW: Dave and Erich, do your metal bushings go the entire length of the polyurathane bushing?? Mine was in two halve's with a lip that rested on the outside of each side of the poly bushing. The two halve's meet in the middle to make a "solid" bushing the whole length of the poly...

Hatchman

Thanks for all you info and posting this for us guys "on the fence" trying to decide if it is worth the switch.

Looking forward to your post.

Vegasjay

It's worth it!!! After my LT Header's and off-road H-pipe this is my favorite mod. Great feel improvement and a night and day difference.

GRAYPNY

Great info Jay. I'm installing mine next week and I got my shifter today.

davids2toys

I only had 1 metal bushing, it had a shoulder on 1 side and did NOT go the full length of the bushing, almost though, was short about an 1/8th of an inch! I did call Hurst about this after I did the install and they said it did not matter, the guy really did not have a clue and he was a tech!!! So as of right now I am running with 1 metal bushing and 2 plastic bushings.
Justin, could it be you got an early car and I got a June car, maybe they changed the type and quantity callout if the bushing used. So how far does each of your metal sleeves reach into the bushing?
I never said my shifter was sloppy...it is very tight and notchy.
The tech at Hurst told me to disconnect it from the offset piece and see if there were any restrictions( testing for a bad bearing), it was perfect, so I re-installed and figured all that stiffness and clunk clunk noise on the way to each gear was in the tranny being exxagerated by the shifter

davids2toys

Looking fwd to you results and post.

Stoopy

Okeydoke.......here's the "**** Retentive Hurst Shifter Install" report......

Did all of the above (except safety wire, LOL)...reversed the shifter bottom lug connector so it's oriented like the factory stick. This was NOT just a matter of turning it around - mine does not "swivel" so the entire stick, and chrome connecter, have to turn 180 degrees. This means pulling the boot away form the stick so it can turn freely.

Lubed up the plastic bushings and trans linkage connecter and the built-in washer on the 13mm nut, snugged it up, backed out 1/4 turn and double-nutted it (it's a
metric 8-1.25 nut, Hillman P/N880814 at Lowe's if anyone wants to know).

Backed out the bolt at the front of the shifter where it bolts to the trans and lubed it up also - I have two metal bushings that come in from the side as described above.

For good measure, since the shifter assembly is made to slide back and forth on the very rear square poly bushing, I shot some WD40 at that sucker too.

Result: Subtle and acceptable improvement. I gotta drive it somemore but I can tell it goes into 4th much better now. Reverse is maybe about the same but that's OK. 3rd and 4th just seem better, and dry-shifting the car while sitting still seems much better. Wifey says it feels the same to her - well she hardly drives it.

Only drawback was.......having toturn the whole stick around puts the chrome part of the stick (the handle) much closer to the driver's side of the boot - so close, that when in first and second, it's touching the side of the boot cover. In neutral, the stick is clearly not centered in the boot. Looks funky.

Sooooooo......yeah you know what I did. I unbolted the chrome handle, and mounted it on the other side. What the heck. Tightened it all up and although there are no grooves in the faces of the chrome stick and stick base to match up now, it's rock-solid. But yeah, it's kinda Alabama, although it works and look fine. No offense to Alabamanians.

Took it for a short drive (raining today) and I'm happy. Going to stick a fork in it and call it done.

When I had the input shaft off I took a good hard look at the mechanics of it and frankly, at theother end it's made to swivel all over the place and there's nothing to interfere with it when mounted as per the instructions. I may turn my stick back around and have it 'right' somewhere in the future. In all, I think that mounting it the way Hurst says to is the way to go, just make sure everything is lubed up nice and slippery. Use KY if you have to. I notced I did a sloppy job with the Loctite and got it on the plastic bushings and on the washer face of the 13mm nut. I cleaned it all up and maybe that's all it really took, along with everything being well-greezed and NOT tightening the 13mm nut up like the ham-handed ape I am.

That's the result - slight gain, and enough to make me happy. Overall I think any issues with "notchiness" come from the trans and not this shifter, and it may just wear in over time. Might be that Hurst has done the best they could and to make it any smoother would mean a lower pivot point and more travel, which is not something I'd want either. I'm very content now, having got enough improvement to make a subtle but noticeable difference.

The shifter action is MUCH nicer than the factory stock setup anyway. Goes along with the rest of the car - heavy-duty with grunt, like you said David, a "gearhead's car" now, LOL. Heck if I cared about a cushy plush interior and nice soft stick-shift I'd have gotten a GTO......I like this much better!

Thanks for bearing with my ramblings on this subject!

Vegasjay

[quote=davids2toys,August 27, 2005, 1:14 AM]
I only had 1 metal bushing, it had a shoulder on 1 side and did NOT go the full length of the bushing, almost though, was short about an 1/8th of an inch! I did call Hurst about this after I did the install and they said it did not matter, the guy really did not have a clue and he was a tech!!! So as of right now I am running with 1 metal bushing and 2 plastic bushings.
Justin, could it be you got an early car and I got a June car, maybe they changed the type and quantity callout if the bushing used. So how far does each of your metal sleeves reach into the bushing?


Yes, my car was one of the first (#744). My two metal bushing's contact eachother in the middle making the metal bushing solid going all the way through the poly bushing. They also have an 1/8" solid lip on the ouside of both side's of the poly bushing... In other word's the two metal bushing's are identical and insert in the opposite side's of the poly, meeting in the middle to form a solid bushing. I'm not a Hurst "Tech" but I can't see how that bushing not going all the way through couldn't have adverse affect's on shifter feel. When you tighten that 10mm bolt into the tranny without a full length metal bushing in there, it would allow the poly bushing to deform and deflect. I would be curious to see what the Ford part's book calls for on the bushing's, if there was a redesign etc. I would ask KC the part's guy on here to check it out. I just want your Hurst to feel as good as it can Dave. I think your bushing may be the culprit...