I've had my stang for a few months now, and it's my first stick shift car. I was wondering. I keep kind of getting stuck midway shifting into 1st and 2nd at times, and I have to push a little bit to get it all the way in gear. I'm afraid that I'm going to make a mistake one of these days and let out the clutch when I'm only half way into gear. What kind of damage will that do to the trasmission if I ever do that? It's starting to really worry me, and I'm thinking of getting a hurst shifter for the shorter throw. In the meantime I'd like to hear that it's no problem. Here's to hoping.

 

My guess would be that it would simply kick out of gear - as long and the shifter is not being held...

 

Either it will kick out of gear or make a grinding noise when you start to let off the clutch. If you hear that just push the clutch back in really quick and get the shifter all the way in gear.

If it takes too much effort to put the shifter all the way in gear, get it looked at. That's what warrantys are for. It should go into gear easily. Of course this could be just the right excuse to get a nice aftermarket shifter. The shifter really is pretty good for a stock shifter though, I think you should bring it in if you're having too much trouble with it.

 

That's just how the tranny is, my car does that a little sometimes. Brian get a Tri-Ax shifter like mine and you'll forget about thinking the stock shifter is good. Putting a new shifter in won't help the notch problem though. They all do that.

Brian you still have your car in storage? Mine's still thundering strong around Nashua. If it's nice tomorrow morning my flowmasters and LCAs are going in. In March the rest of the engine mods sitting in a pile in front of my desk at work go in.

 

For perspective: the only other manual trannies I've had were an '81 Dodge Omni 4-speed, '89 Dodge Omni 5-speed, and '99 Ranger--compared to all those this stock shifter's a dream! Come to think of it that '89 Omni was the last car I had before this, all trucks inbetween. 93 hp to 300. A tad different.

I've had my car out a couple times lately on nice days, including taking it to work today. Put flowmasters on last week so I had to drive it then of course.. It seems I don't have the self discipline to let her sit in the garage all winter. Guess I'll have to store it away somewhere if I really want to not drive it in winter. Maybe next year I'll be better, only got to drive it a month before it started snowing.

 

If you think the stock shifter is notchy, you're not going to like the aftermarket ones.

Like someone else said, that's just the way these trannys are.
As for letting the clutch out without the car fully in gear, you'll either
1. hear a grinding noise, just push the clutch back in.
or
2. it'll pop right outta gear and you'll rev big time.

My advice would be to stop trying to fa ness it and bang that sucker in there.