Dixie_Flatline

No, not engine mounts -- totally different.

Go here and take a look at the picture of the K-member brace installed with the torque limiters.

The torque limiters connect to the side of the transmission housing and connect to the A-arm, k-member brace. It limits the movement of the transmission from the torque generated by the engine under shifting rpm loads.

I'm installing mine tomorrow, I can take some pictures and give you my impressions -- trust me, if they don't do anything for me, I'm certainly gonna warn people not to bother with them.

One other thing: 07 and up Mustang GT coupes have an OEM k-member brace. 05-06 did not. What year is your car? If you don't have it, that may be a cause.

It could also be the transmission, I'm just trying to mention some things that haven't been discussed a whole lot -- no idea if they help, but always good to have options when troubleshooting.

Good luck and I'll let you know by Saturday if the K-member solved the torque binding.

GTMark052

I have the CHE brace with torque limiters. I had binding at the 2nd to 3rd gear shift and pretty much eliminated the problem. There are occasions where it is a little tough to get it into third under hard acceleration, but it's pretty rare. Before putting these on it felt as if I was locked out of 3rd all of the time. One point I'd like to add is that I've never had any lockout issues with any other gear. The problems I have are that the stupid shifting feels rough, especially at the 1-2 and 2-3 change when compared to 3-4 and 4-5 under normal acceleration. I already had a run in with my service people over the strut mounts and they balked at it even with me shoving a copy of the TSB in their faces, though it was eventually done. When I had the tech check my transmission shifting he said "it shifts pretty good" He then said that he's never had to work on a newer Mustang transmission and has been doing trannys for 15+ years. Later as we were talking he was saying the the 3rd gear syncro is the biggest pain because you have to remove things from both sides of the shaft (sorry for the lack of tech terms here, but thats what my understanding of what he said) when compared to the other syncros. Maybe that was his motivation for not seeing a problem??? With an aftermarket shifter, I can forsee them saying "you have problems with the trans because you're beating/racing it.
As for the torque limiters, I kept all of the stock hardware and would replace it when it came time to take the car in again. I was waiting for the colder weather since the problem will be much more pronounced + now there is a TSB so I could put up a better fight. But with newdy22's post about the issue not being resolved with the TSB fix I'm wondering if it will even be worth it now
As for the 07 coupe models having the A arm brace. Only the ones produced later in the model year had gotten them. I have an 07 produced in the 1st half of the model year and it did not come with one.

Dixie_Flatline

I'm pretty darn happy with my rebuilt transmission -- maybe the service manager at my local dealership just really knew what they were doing? Thanks for the input on what to expect with the CHE limiters! Really looking forward to this afternoon.

Sorry, I couldn't remember the dates, I shouldn't be so lazy.

metroplex

FWIW I do not have an issue with the lock-out for 2-3 shifts. The only time this occurs if I try to jam it into 3rd gear at an obscure angle. If I let the return springs do their thing, it will slide into place even under WOT. I figured this out after I got locked out at 20 MPH under light throttle.

Srt2stang725

i dont have the brace and mine is also a 2007. With regards to the che torque limiters, I would love to get them but they kinda scare me ever since i saw somebody on the forums actually break the case on his tranny with them.

GTMark052

I think I had read that same post. If it was the same one that you are talking about, the guy also was using NOX. That might have been the main factor for the failure.....thats the reason that I used to persuade myself into trying these on my car with no fear of failure anyway.

randy_tho

So the idea being he made so much power with the nitrous that his trans case was the weak link and broke because of the bracing of the limiters?

So do drag racers making 600+ with built engines and blowers/ turbos install these also? Seems like you would snap a bolt first???

Dixie_Flatline

It wasn't the tranny, it was the bellhousing mount to the engine, yeah, not much more peace of mind. But after reading through the thread, it was hard to say what caused the fault.

That said, I got under my car this weekend and installed the CHE k-member brace and one of the torque limiters. Couldn't get the other torque limiter installed because the bolt on the bellhousing came way overtorqued from the factory. It's a pretty small bolt, has a 13mm head on it, shouldn't be that tough -- unless it's just seized up. I'll attack the bolt this weekend and get the second limiter installed.


That said, the CHE k-member brace does sit about an inch and a half in front of the oil drain plug. That's gonna be lovely in 2,500 miles.

GTMark052

Yeah, forgot about the oil drain plug bolt. There shouldn't be any issue in removing it, but it might help to spead the oil flow out....messy

Did you try Aerokroil to unstick that bolt? That stuff is freaking awsome

newdy22

Update:
With 2,900 miles on my 08 Bullitt I stopped in at my dealership to tell them the synchro replacement did not remedy the 2-3 gear clash. I also began experiencing 3-4 gear clash. In addition to the clash, I could hear a metallic rattle sound coming from outside the car when accelerating from 4K RPM to 4,500 RPM.

The service writer told me to drop the Bullitt off anytime and he would contact the Ford Hotline about the issues since the TSB was already performed to replace the synchros.

I dropped the car off overnight. Two days later I received a call from the service writer. He told me Ford will replace the transmission because it is a known issue with these transmissions (7R3Z-7003-L). The rattle was also identified as being the separator plate between the engine and transmission. The service writer mentioned an updated version of the plate is available to fix the problem and it would be replaced while the transmission was being replaced.

I received the car back and it shifts great. I was really upset me when I drove the car off the dealership lot because the clutch engaged about an inch away from the pedal being fully depressed. I thought something was not right. The clutch takes about 10 minutes of driving to return to its normal engagement point. This happened when my synchros were replaced as well. I'm not sure why this happens. The car shift perfectly now. No more clash. The engagement point is back to where it was before the car was serviced. The first time I shifted from 2nd to 3rd I cringed in anticipation of hearing and feeling the grind I had been avoiding since the car was new. I heard nothing.

Unfortunately I can still hear a faint rattle coming from the engine compartment at 4K RPM. I reviewed the invoice and I don't see anything about a new separator plate being installed. I'll have to follow up to and see if it was part of the new transmission installation.

JMoraru

i didnt bother reading all of this, but...
i had problems grinding into 2nd. it got to the point where i would have to shift for 1st to neutral and then to 2nd for it not to grind. took it to my local dealership and the tech drove it up and down the parking lot and told me to come back in a few days because they were ordering a new transmission. i guess he was familiar with the problem and also my dealership seems to be quite helpful(unlike the other ford down the street).

blkstang06

Your a better man than me! ..I think I'd be starting to loose my cool by now ... Good Luck...

John H

Well, it looks like we're part of this club now too. Our GT/CS that we bought in August has a little over 3,500 miles on it now. When the car is cold, we have started getting the 2nd-to-3rd-gear grind. When it first happened, my girlfriend looked at me as if I didn't know how to drive. (It technically is her car and she's very protective of it.) Between us, this is our 3rd Mustang with a stick and our 5th vehicle overall we've had with stick so she wasn't being serious. But she didn't really see that it wasn't something I was doing until a few days later it did it to her. Then I gave her "the look" and said "see....I'm not an idiot. Something's wrong. I'll check TheMustangSource and see if it's a known issue." Sure enough, it is. Unfortunately.

It didn't start doing this until about 2 months ago or so. It looks like I'll be making a call to the Ford store near us and see if they'll take care of the problem. I know I'll probably have to leave the car there at least a day because they won't believe me until they can reproduce the grind themselves. Hopefully they repair it the right way and don't just try to put a band-aid on the problem.

randy_tho

I don't think anyone has had a successful repair yet. All that I have seen that get syncros replaced it just does it again. A couple people on here have new transmissions put in but I'm not sure what the results have been. It seems to only be 08s.

yur1279

With my 08 I never really get a grinding sound. If its really cold out(below 35) it will be stiff going into 2nd and third for the first few shifts then be fine. I think twice since I've had the car that I got a grinding sound going into third, the last time being I don't think I had the clutch in all the way.

newdy22

I had mine rebuilt and it did not pan out. I took it back to have it replaced. I am pleased with the new transmission. No problems what so ever.

H8IMPORTS

I'm not reading 5 pages. My car didn't grind but it would feel like it would hit a wall trying to go into 3rd. I changed the shifter in my car to a roush and when I took my stock one out just about all the bolts were loose. When I took the boot off the car I coudl move the shifter from side to side and the whole shifter would move. I installed the Roush now and I love it the throws are alot shorter and it goes into 3rd real easy.

John H

Well, in about 45 mins I'll be leaving to drop the car off at the Ford dealership that's about 5 mins away from my house. I hope that they'll be able to resolve our issue, but I guess we'll see. I'll post an update when I know something.

randy_tho

How many miles on the new transmission? Vs how many miles on the old one when it started?

It would be interesting if it was a fastener issue. It could be if they changed some process in assembly for a time and not actual parts. This might also explain the temperature effect.

I think some people reported that it went away with an after market shifter.

Would this be only under high RPM? I think that is a fairly common thing due to the way the shifter is mounted to the chassis when the transmission torques.

Starfleet007

I will have to watch for this on my 08. I don't have any audible noise when mine shifts so I assume I am ok. I will watch for this though.