Just 2 days ago (with full knowledge of this thread) I installed a Hurst Comp/Plus Short-Throw shifter in my 2005 V6 because, despite everything I read, I still like the Hurst "look" best & wanted to get rid of the stock shifter with its decidedly UN-musclecar look, LONG, sloppy travel between gears, and the **** was always spinning around.

My stock shifter always allowed a LOT of noise (from the gearbox I asssume) into the cockpit of the car, so I'm VERY HAPPY to report that the Hurst is MUCH quieter in that respect... I hear virtually no noise coming from under there!

However I DO hear the "rattle" you guys are talking about - ONLY when I accelerate HARD and get the RPMs up over 4000 (I shift @ around 5500 when trying for MAX acceleration). My allen bolts are TIGHT as are all the other components, I even wrapped the threads with electrical tape before screwing the "cue ball" on the shift lever and I have NO play @ ALL in the ball/socket pivot point. So I'm sure I've covered everything you all have mentioned here & it seems to just be a characteristic of the Hurst design.

Oh well.. I'm not too bothered by it, it doesn't make ANY noise at steady state.. only when I'm "drag racing" away from the green light! The great looks, positive gear engagement, tight feel, and short throw are worth putting up with a minor "sound effect" IMHO.

 

OK, OK.. having listened to it for about a week I guess it IS rather annoying because it sounds like bad lifters or pinging, or some other ugly engine noise!

I'm pretty sure it's the entire shift linkage vibrating; it's like the Hurst assembly is acting as a "tuning fork" being excited by the engine @ specific RPMs and causing the linkage to "rattle".

I can stop, or at least dampen the sound by putting pressure on the shifter when it's happening.. so I'm thinking that I'll go under the car this weekend and try to "de-tune" the assembly by adding rubber bumpers in strategic locations along the "rail" - I'll report back with my results next week!

 

blue loctite on the bolts and lithium grease on the bearing itself...

 

I also have some rattling, actually its more of a buzzing when i go more than 160 km/h which is equivalent to 100 mph. I heard its a Hurst issue with the older shifter models. Apparently I managed to have bad luck and recently got me one (not knowing this buzzing s h i te) of the older versions. Well... screw it. I still love the short shifts and its not too often anyway, that I can drive that fast where I live.

 

Jeez, you're into short replies! Have you actually solved this problem for yourself? WHICH bearing are you talking about? The ball/socket? OR do you mean the bushing connecting the shifter to the linkage?

Loc-tite will only keep a bolt from loosening, it won't stop vibrations if the bolt's already tight...

Like I said, I'm going to try some ideas this weekend and let y'all know what I find.

 

EUREKA! I found the solution to the rattle!

It's pretty straight-forward when you think about it. The problem is that vibration is being transferred from the transmission to the ball/socket of the Hurst shifter.

The RATTLE is coming from the ball/socket being excited by vibrations being transmitted from the transmission along the rail which connects the shift mechanism to the transmission! The solution is to BLOCK the vibrations from travelling up the rail to the ball/socket. So we need to build a vibration dampener...

I got under my car and electrical taped a foot-long section of 1/2" automotive rubber hose to the rail about 6" from the bolt which connects it to the transmission. I then wrapped the rubber around the rail a couple of times such that it contacted the underside of the car, and secured the other end by pinching it between the car and the rail just under the shifter and taping it down.

My 14 year-old son got in the car with me and we went out to test it.. He got SUCH a thrill from doing a few 1/8 mile WOT drag runs (got rubber in 2 gears!); the important thing of course was that the rattle was GONE! I LOVED hearing the engine scream up over 4500 rpm and the roar of the exhaust without the RATTLE making it sound like something "unhealthy" was about to happen!

Now that I've identified and solved the problem, you all should be able to do similar fixes on yours! It doesn't have to be the exact same as mine; I just used what I had handy. The essential thing is that you stop the rail from vibrating the ball/socket.

I recommend you get a "rubber bumper" sized to wedge between the car's underside and the "rail" of the Hurst mechanism. If you still get a rattle, try moving the rubber a little one way or the other to "tune out" the vibration.. you WILL get rid of it! It stands to reason that the ONLY path the vibrations have to the shifter is through the RAIL, so that's where you need to stop them.

 

mine was rattling also, so i took some lithium grease and applied it to the top of the ball socket then shifted the crap out of it and worked some of it down into there.. and it went away for about 7 months...

the actual issue is that the older hursts were engineered with a weaker bushing than they need, so after some time the bushing warps, just enough to allow a tiny bit of slack in the ball joint... and then NORMAL vibrations make this slack into a buzzing hot zone..

the new hursts have a different bushing so the issue is fixed.

i got this passed along to me from a guy who had his hurst replaced by hurst for this very issue and thats what they told him...


so lube the ball joint to fill the excess... or stop the vibrations like in the previous post

 

you can tell if yours has the issue by pulling the shifter up and down vertically, if there is any slack whatsoever you will feel it, and hear it when it bottoms out on the bushing... which is where the noise is coming from....

-nate

ill get a video for you guys uploaded showing you what I mean....

 

http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m...nt=Produce.flv

heres a vid i just made to show you guys what i mean.... sorry about the bad quality im learning how to upload this stuff

 

heres a higher quality video i uploaded on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWLef_OBEvE

 

n8rfastback - you got it, that's what rattles... the vibrations causing it are coming from the tranny via the Hurst "rail".

To REALLY kill the rattle, I'm ALSO going to pump grease into the socket as you said... wish you had a video of how you got the grease in there! Hurst should have put a grease fitting on it... and a vibration damper on the rail!

Thanks for the tip!

 

Wow.................thanks, I'll check mine tomorrow!!

 

Thanks. Will check this.

 

Any pics of your rubber hose damper fix? little confused on the part where you stuck the hose against the body

 

Sorry, I have no pics - I don't have enough space under the car for photography... I'm crawling under while it's up on Rhino ramps!

But like I said, your solution need not be exactly the same as mine.. my first goal was just to identify WHERE the noise was coming from & to verify that rubber dampeners would silence it. My initial solution was a bit "lucky" because I had inadvertently sandwiched the rubber between the shifter "rail" and the tranny end of shift linkage rod. Now that I've worked with it for a while, these are my findings...

1 - The rattling is caused by vibrations of the engine/transmission.

2 - The actual RATTLE sound is created by a combination of the "ball/socket" of the Hurst shifter AND the shift linkage at the point where it connects to the tranny.

3 - Silencing the rattles is accomplished by killing the vibrations at those two points.


My final solution was to take some foam rubber insulation that was lying around my g/f's basement (the stuff the plumber uses to insulate your hot water pipes) and cut sections of it to fit over the shift linkage at BOTH ends and securing them with electrical tape. VOILA...the noise is GONE!

To be really CLEAR... you know the shift rod that connects the Hurst to the tranny? You put the rubber insulators at both ends. It may even work with just the tranny end done, but I was under the car and wanted to leave nothing to chance (grab the tranny end and shake it - you'll see & hear the linkage that's making the noise - just "rubber coat" that stuff).

 

Ok thanks will give it a try this week when we get back from Hershey fall swap and car show. I built a set of ramps that are like the raceramps from 2x12 had to with my chin spoiler. cost me about 50 bucks for materials but really work great, heavier than race ramps but sure beats the $200 plus price tag and i dont have to take them to th e track

 

Here's another option, one that I did today. See my comments in the post.