Big Poppa

I have some left over Royal Purple that I bought for my previous car. I think I have enough to do this car. Should I use it or try to get some Redline?

Blackbird.

When I was on a freeway once with the two rear seats folded down there was a very audible whine coming from what I thought was the diff. It's nearly not noticeable when the seats are up, but is that actually the tranny making that whine?

FastRedPonyCar

Does anyone know what size/type bit is needed to remove the drain/fill bolts? it looks like a large hex/torx bolt.

mtnbikefuel80

Looking at doing this upgrade, shifter and bracket installation looks straight forward. Ive never swapped tranny fluid, any tips?

sam strano

It is quite easy, pretty much anyone can do it. You need something to pump the fluid into the trans though. You can buy assorted pumps at your local parts store to do the job.

I have the kit in stock, ready to ship.

FastRedPonyCar

go buy an 8mm allen wrench for the fill/drain bolts. The fill bolt doesn't have much room between it and the chassis. I'm planning on doing mine next week.

sam strano

Good tip....

mtnbikefuel80

Just put in my order. I have plenty of metric allen wrenches from working on my mountain bikes, ill have to jack the car up to see what size pump i need to put the fluid in. I can see the drain hole.

sam strano

I'll have the kit on the way tomorrow pending payment. Hilary will be calling soon for your information.

The fill plug is on the passenger's side of the transmission, pretty close to inline with the drain, maybe an inch or two forward.

Let me know what you think, so far everyone has been very happy with the improvement!

Thank you!!!!

Skunk v5.0

Alrighty so I'm a little confused...and by little I mean A LOT.

This is directly from Strano's site
My question...that has yet to be answered...because apparently no one asks the hard questions (extreme sarcasm) can 75w90 be used instead of the MTL, which for the record is 70w80. I have like 8 or 9 quarts of 75w90 synthetic amsoil gear oil sitting on my shelf and well this would seem like a pretty good use of 3 of those.

Skunk v5.0

The 75w90 I've got says it can be used for gl-4 and gl-5 applications.

sam strano

GL-4 and GL-5 are not weights of oil. With a stiff shifting trans, especially when cold you don't want a thicker oil. And the 75/80 was a typo when listed in the kit, it was correct under the MTL product listing only.

Further, MTL and MT-90 (which I also have if you would want a 75/90) have additives designed to help synchronizer engagement most other gear oils do not have this. In fact if you look at Amsoil stuff, their 75/90 Gear Lube is different from their version of Manual Transmission/Transaxle Lube.

flySWA737

To everyone who has done the MTL swap, how's it been treating ya? This inconsistent 2nd gear just got to me enough that I pulled the trigger on the MTL fluid. Doing the swap this week. My only concern is it's cold weather operation. I've read other people's experiences with MTL in a getrag type tranny and it's very mixed. A lot recommend MTL for the MT82 though. I could care less about notchiness just want to smooth out the 2nd gear engagement.

EDIT: Another one of my concerns is the worry of getting a BS story from a dealership like my fluid change caused the air conditioner to crap out so we can't honor your warranty. I mean it's not like anyone uses motorcraft motor oil forever in the engine what's wrong with swapping the tranny fluids to something that meets XT-M5-QS specs anyway. Just a worry. They make it sound like the factory fluids are "godlike".

FastRedPonyCar

No. redline meets the motorcraft specifications. They cannot void the warranty on the transmission/whatever because you used different fluid. This is precisely why the Magnuson moss act exists. It won't help you if your tune kills the engine but it WILL back you up if a dealer tries to say the oil or gear fluid you used is to blame.

If this happens to you over a fluid change, usually a letter from a consumer fraud attorney's office is all it takes for the dealer to snap into shape and do the work.

flySWA737

Thanks for the info.

The only thing I'm concerned with is the longer term with the MTL. I'm aware that MTL isn't a fill for life fluid but I'm just concerned. Truthfully I'm actually more concerned with how Ford said that the Dual Clutch Fluid was the recommended fluid at first. Then changed it back to QS fluid in the manual and following that releases a TSB saying that if there is increased shift effort use the Dual Clutch Fluid. Confuses me. Ill feel better when the MTL is in the tranny and those synchros are a lot happier.

mtnbikefuel80

Well I finally got around to getting my car on my friends lift and working on the car and it didn't go as well as planned.

I removed the factory shift bracket and installed the tri-ax pretty easily (lower passenger side screw was a little difficult to get to but not that bad, really gotta pull the shift assembly towards the driver side to get to it). I stuck with the steeda factory lock-out spring but might Edit: will change it out as it is a little on the heavy side while stock was too light, need something in the middle (This is my DD). The rubber gasket wasn't too bad to put on the base of the shifter , flip the part that goes on the base of the shifter inside out over itself and roll it over the lip, easier IMO. I know there will be some more noise due to the bushings in the shifter but it was a lot louder (The noise sounded like a sucking noise and starting getting loud above 2k and was really loud at 3k, is this the synchros? Side-note: as you'll soon read this noise is with the factory shift bracket, I know the steeda bushings will increase NVH so i am wondering about this noise as it is really loud and I haven't even switched bushings). 1-2 is still notchy and I have to push really hard to get it in first sometimes. The other shifts are harder too but its more mechanical, feels a lot like the shifts in the new GT500. The only really smooth shift is from 5th to 6th (Edit: After driving it around a lot before work this morning to "break" the shifter in the 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6 shifts are all a lot smother with noticeable engagement at the end of the throw in the gate. A lot better than the stock shifter. The noise that I am hearing which seems to be the synchros is only really loud in 1st and 2nd. The problem seems to be that the lockout tab is pushing against the lockout on the shifter base and the metal to metal contact is really transmitting the noise. I also believe this pressure is part of the reason the 1-2 shift isn't smooth. I got locked out of first again the other day so hopefully adding the the base bushing to this setup will help that issue. I'm going to try and push the shifter a little towards the passenger side when I adjust the lockout spring tension and see if that helps, if it doesn't have much room to move maybe shave just a slight amount off of the edge of the tab).

I wasn't able to get the shift bracket on, I spent over an hour trying to jam that thing on there with no luck. The spline on the top the shifter base stuck up higher than the cutout on the black steeda bushing and the bushing was too hard of a material to force around it. I talked to chad at steeda who tried to help but I still couldn't get that bushing on. Havent tried the red one yet, I was ticked off after trying for so long to get the black one to work that i just stuck the factory one back on. Might just cut some material out of the black bushing or surrender to the red one when i pull of the drive shaft guide to try again.

The pump I got for the tranny fluid didnt fit in the redline bottle and I didnt have any bigger mouthed bottles handy so I was unable to swap the fluids (my fault in not checking the size). Hopefully switching the fluid will help the shifting efforts, notchiness, and noise. (Switched out the fluid a couple of days ago, this was a huge improvement and has made 3 through 6 gears have a much smoother engagement, better and better every day. 1-2 still hard but again i believe this to be a physical issue i hope to soon fix)

Other than that I did the GT/CS front fascia which was a breeze. I replaced my oil with Mobil1 5-20 full synthetic and used a Motorcraft filter I bought from the dealership (FL500-S). Also replaced the standard shift boot and **** with that from the boss. I had to sand down one of the tabs to get the factory shift boot off but other than that it was really easy. I'm going to have to get some loctite though because the **** goes about 135 degrees past where it is supposed to be when it is fully tightened. If I leave it a little loose so the the shift pattern on the **** is aligned with the gates it twists while I drive which isn't fun.

So overall not a great experience today, hopefully I can get the rest of the parts on and these issues sorted out soon, otherwise its back to the stock setup

mtnbikefuel80

Here is a picture of the bushing issue I am talking about. Not the best picture, its really hard to work in that area where the shift bracket is, not a lot of room. It takes all of my body weight to get the black bushing into the bracket when it closes all the way while off of the car. It was impossible like this when it wouldn't close. I had my friend try as well who is a lot bigger than me and he couldn't force it on either. Another factor contributing was that we couldn't get the shifter base to a position where the bracket would slide up it, it was always at a 45 degree angle as the drive shaft was in the way. We couldn't figure out for the life of us how to get this piece on (Tips please!!!). Ill either have to remove material or try the red bushing and see if that works.

sam strano

Loosen the Driveshaft carrier bearing, and let the driveshaft drop down... then you have plenty of room to get the bracket and bushing on.

mtnbikefuel80

Okay, do you know what they should be torqued down to? Or just really tight? Also when you are in first and second does the lockout tab rub against the lockout on the base unit? I believe this is where my NVH is currently coming from.

Edit: Went to Lamotta performance today, bolts should be tightened to 35 foot pounds. Also looked at the Barton shift base bracket while there, definitely easier to install however the bushing sits inside another bushing so it looks like the shifter can still move a little, whereas with the Steeda bracket it looks like there will be no movement.

blackgt87

I am glad you mentioned the NVH coming from the lockout tab rubbing. Mine was touching the lockout block while in first and second and the instructions with the shifter say to aim for a small gap. Although I could not push the shifter to the passenger side any more to create a gap. I don't know what else to do.

This probably explains why the noise is louder when I turn, because its probably pushing that tab into the lockout block harder.