Taking the slop out of changing gears in a manual transmission 1965-‘68 Mustang

 

story and photography by Tom Shaw

 

For a lot of Mustangers, a manual transmission is part of the fun of owning and driving a vintage car. It gives you an extra measure of control, and makes it easier to bark the tires on an upshift or lay down a couple of black marks.

Over time, of course, all parts acquire some wear. Think how often you use the shifter –­ perhaps hundreds of times on a single trip. Multiply that times the trips you drive in a year, and you can see how the shifter can rack up its share of use.

Symptoms of a worn-out shifter are difficulty finding gears, or going from reverse back into first, popping out of gear, or a noisy rattle coming up through the shifter handle.

Drivers don’t care for the sloppy feel that old, worn-out shifters have. Judging from the shifters sent in to Orlando Mustang for rebuild, there are quite a few shadetree methods of servicing an early Mustang shifter. But the results you get from remedies involving masking tape, hardware store bolts, hand-held drills, and JB Weld are about what you’d expect. They may work for a few more miles, but it’s a long ways from actual restoration.

Orlando Mustang has been restoring shifters for almost 30 years. Over that time, the process has improved as better materials become available, and sources for better parts are found. Today, the shifter you get back in the mail is fully restored for function and appearance, and even improved here and there. Once installed, it’ll last for years. Pete Geisler has been perfecting the process, and says that the basic Ford shifter is well-designed, is plenty stout for occasional racing use, and should deliver at least 10 years of service.

This rebuild covers shifters for the 6-cylinder Dagenham, Ford Top-Loader (the most common), and also the Borg-Warner side case transmissions. The rods are different between those transmissions, but the shifter and handle are interchangeable.

Shifter restoration begins with disassembly, cleaning, and media blasting. The parts are then inspected for damage, then parts that can be reused are sent out for plating. Reassembly is the last step, as the reconditioned parts go back together with some parts that Pete has developed to improve the original design. The end result is a shifter that looks like new and performs even better. At $169, it’s a bargain.

On a recent Friday morning, we followed along as Orlando Mustang restored and 4-speed shifter and showed us how it’s done.

 

This is one of the better cores that come in for a rebuild. There are no end to the ways people attempt to refurb their worn-out shifters. This one has masking tape wrapped around the shifter base to tighten it up. File it under “N” for not working.

 

Here’s a collection of failed parts: 1) trunnions wear out, allowing metal-to-metal wear between the handle and main housing, 2) center shafts corrode, and the groove that holds the C-clip gets damaged, 3) shifter arms fracture — this one sports a lousy weld job, 4) U-clamps break, 5) wave washers split, and 6) shifter rods break.

 

Factory shoulder bolts (right) have washers and nylon inserts that lock the threads and prevent the bolt from backing out. The three on the left are incorrect bolts used in various makeshift repairs.

 

    

When the trunnions fail in the shifter handle, it rubs against the main housing, creating this common wear pattern. This service kit (inset) prevents this accelerated wear, which ruins the both parts.

 

This rebuild covers both 3- and 4-speed shifters. The 4-speed housing is stamped with a “4” (circle) though not all are. The 3-speed shifter uses two shifter arms, not three, and has a thick, round, spacer to take the place of the missing shifter arm.

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