Varilux

Let's cut to the chase- the Blowfish Racing bracket completely fixes shifting on the MT-82 manual transmission. This is the way the car should have come from the factory, IMO.

If you are disappointed with the way your MT-82 equipped S197 Mustang shifts, this IS the solution! The shifting is EXACTLY like a T-5 now... this bracket completely resolves the notchiness of the shifts and is just perfect (btw, I am also running the Ford Racing short throw shifter).

There are plenty of install posts on this product, but let me just add my own note- when you install the first piece (the part that installs to the back of the tranny), leave the bolts loose. On my install, I could not physically get the shifter bracket piece under the shifter until I loosened the bolts securing the first piece (which allows the first piece to sag just a bit).

The other note I have is there will be (at least for me there was) a vibration in the shifter between 4-6k rpm. I understand Blowfish has a fix for this now (I ordered one of the originals through CJPP, and just got around to installing it). I have resolved MOST of the vibration with some Dynamat around my Ford Racing shifter- and I plan to put some house insulation around the shifter to further reduce the noise. However, the vibration is worth it for the smoothness of the shifting with this bracket installed!

Really and truly, if there is anything you don't like about the way your '13-14 Mustang shifts, this just flat fixes it (and as you install it, you can easily understand why- it mounts the shifter to the tranny- instead of to the body of the car... what was Ford thinking). Gold star to Blowfish... next to the Boss quad exhaust and JMS PedalMax, this is absolutely my favorite mod to my GT!

Mustang Freak

I will have to look into this!

polarisTXguy

Second That!

Brandon302

OP good to hear you like the BF bracket, IMO better than the MGW simply because it integrates a DS loop into the shifter.

killaz05

I just ordered this for my v6 mustang because I was getting nasty high rpm lockout during autocross events. I spoke with a rep from blowfish racing who told me that this product will solve my issues. I get it in today and will be installing it on Saturday. I can't wait to try it after all of the positive reviews. I'll take some pics and put them on the forum.

V6 Driver

Please keep up fellow 6 drivers informed. I will be ordering a MGW shifter soon, and figured i would install the bracket and the shifter at the same time. Looking forward to hearing your impressions of the bracket.

killaz05

I would contact blowfish racing to make sure the MGW model you are ordering will work with the bracket. When I asked Blowfish Racing, the rep told me that I should try the bracket with the stock shifter first because it is suppose to be one heck of an improvement and I might not want/need a new shifter.

Varilux

I would tend to agree with the Blowfish rep... had I installed the bracket first, I probably could have lived with the stock shifter (except I also wanted to get rid of the solid aluminum shift **** from the 401A interior... it gets pretty hot/cold in extreme weather).

I know Blowfish has a solution for the vibration/noise that commonly occurs after installation of the bracket, and I may eventually look into getting the updated part. Just curious what causes the vibration? I'm guessing when the transmission moves during heavy acceleration it causes some contact somewhere with the driveshaft? Just wondering if the noise is merely annoying or indicative of a serious issue.

killaz05

From what I can tell, there are some new bushings where the bracket mounts to the shifter which would take out some of the vibration compared to the race bracket. They only make a street version of the bracket for the v6 which from what I can tell, the mount to the shifter is the only difference. The transmission will vibrate because of the moving parts inside and what not and that is what you feel most likely in your shifter.

Varilux

Actually, the vibration is more like a "knocking." Under hard acceleration, you can feel and hear something knocking up against the shifter. I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that I'm running the Ford Racing short throw, but the clearances to get the bracket installed were VERY tight (as mentioned, I had to loosen the lower bracket to let it sag down an extra 1/4" just to get the part that goes under the tail end of the shifter to clear the flange at the end).

I see on their site they have a retrofit kit that sells for $79. At some point, I'm sure I'll get tired enough of hearing the rapid tapping when accelerating that I'll just give in and purchase the fix... Would have been nice if they would have retrofitted the kit before I purchased it from CJPP in December (since it was a known issue well before then), but at least the car shifts the way it should now.

https://www.blowfishracing.com/drive...rofit-kit.html

killaz05

If you look at the retrofit kit, it includes isolation bushings which are found in the V6/GT street kit. The kit I'm assuming you bought was the racing version which if you look doesn't have the bushing kit. Either way I am glad that it works beautifully for you and it makes me even more excited to install it this Saturday!

aircare84

The increased vibration & noise you are experiencing is due to the 'solid' mount of the shifter to the XMSN now. The noise seemed to come from the actual shifter shaft itself. This is with the stock/ FR/Barton shifters.
The retrofit kit adds a rubber grommet isolation rear mount vs. the original hard metal to metal rear mount.
Had experience noise issues with mine after installing the Blowfish bracket & the retrofit kit cured the noise issue I had.

Shifting is much improved with the bracket & I am running the stock shifter. Reminds me of when I had the MGW shifter in my '06 GT.
Shifts are crisp & no more high RPM lockouts going into 3rd gear.

One of the must have mods IMO.

For some reason, CJPP opted out of offering the retrofit kits.

Jazzman442

Has anyone installed the new MGW racing shifter. That is the real fix for this transmission. The shifting rod is the culprit for bad shifts.

killaz05

I don't know... Blowfish Racing is claiming their product fixes the MT-82 transmission and there are many who have the bracket installed that backup this claim. I just had enough in my budget for the bracket compared to the MGW shifter and I got tired of the embarrassing high rpm lockout at autocross and drag events. Hopefully this bracket will work for me as it did many others.


The MGW racing shifter will not work with the Blowfish Racing bracket from what I have come to understand. I love the looks and idea of the MGW shifter, wish it wasn't so expensive but I know you get what you pay for!

berzerk_1980

It's a tough call actually, I've been following both and it's almost like they have opposite solutions for the same problem. Blowfish blames the body mount for the bad shifting so it removes the body mount; doing this increased NVH which they addressed with the retrofit kit. I'm not sure what the retrofit kit does but it looks like it configures the bracket to go around the body mounting studs as well as add some soft bushings to absorb vibration.

MGW directly blames the lack of a body mount for the NVH, so they strengthened the heck out of the remote shifting rod and put soft bushings into the body mount so it theoretically doesn't prevent the shifter from moving with the transmission.

Each solution looks solid but they appear to be incompatible because each one's strength is the other's weakness.

Brandon302

The race spec just like the BF bracket no longer mount to the body for support. The original and revised MGW still work with the BF bracket, the race spec does not due to the redesigned shifter body.

berzerk_1980

Edit: I apologize, I homed in on the wrong part of Brandon's comment. I only assert that the MGW race spec does in fact mount to the body. MGW posted why they mount the race spec to the body in a thread that I started a couple of months ago on this topic. It's post #32:

https://themustangsource.com/forums/...534137/index2/

I am not disagreeing about whether the race spec is compatible with the Blowfish bracket. If Brandon says it isn't, I have no knowledge to the contrary.

And so you aren't confused, dear reader, here's my original comment.

Brandon, I hate to disagree especially considering you've actually dealt with this hardware and all I've done is research. So please, no disrespect intended.

Although you don't need the body mount because of the strength of the shifter body and linkage rod, the video I watched from MGW about the race spec clearly states that you should install the body mount to dissipate vibration. He looks at the camera, picks up the transmission by the shifter, tells you how you don't need the body mount for support, then says how they've tried it with and without the body mount and found the body mount is effective at reducing vibration or something similar.

killaz05

Installed the Blowfish Racing Shifter bracket and it was a bit of a pain to install since I didn't have a lift but it got done in about 1.5hrs.

The shifter is now more precise and there is no high rpm lockout. That is what I was looking for. Unfortunately there is a downside, there is a lot of vibration coming thru the shifter and sometimes you can here the shifter vibrating which can be annoying if you don't have the radio on. This is a nice add-on if you do a lot of performance driving and racing. For the average driver who just daily commutes... not so much.

Dfink114

Is that the new v2 or the original?

killaz05

I bought this one from CJ Pony Parts. I am assuming it is v2 because it has the isolation mount with the bushings but that always was a part of the v6 street version of the bracket. It looks just like the one on the blowfish racing site for the v6 version but CJ pony parts was having a special so I went there.

https://www.blowfishracing.com/drive...t-bracket.html