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Wow. Shifter bracket.

BmacIL

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Just seems a better overall option when combined with a bracket and bushing then dropping more on the blowfish bracket overall.
Well doing this makes it a transmission-mounted shifter, so no need for a shifter bushing at all.
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Well doing this makes it a transmission-mounted shifter, so no need for a shifter bushing at all.
Already have one in place so it will be there
 

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You'll actually want to take it out for best results.
Honestly i thought it wouldnt make much a difference one way or the other. Actually figured you would have an even stiffer setup with the bushing bracing the back end of the shifter assembly.
 

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Honestly i thought it wouldnt make much a difference one way or the other. Actually figured you would have an even stiffer setup with the bushing bracing the back end of the shifter assembly.
The goal of the part isn't stiffness (although the FTBR part needs to be stiff), but rather keeping the shifter and transmission aligned and rolling with each other rather than the trans rotating and the shifter staying stationary. You do want to remove the stock bracket and bushing entirely.
 

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I was thinking about it when I bought it actually, because I was thinking about going with an insert as well, but the problem in my head, is that by doing so, you are tying the transmission more direct to the body whilst coupling the shifter to the trans, yet trying to decouple the shifter from the body. In my head, these things fight together. I decided that I would allow the transmission to flex, as in reality, not allowing it to flex would be very hard on the body of the car -- but, by directly coupling the shifter to the trans, I would maintain a consistent shift feel.

It's old-school, where if you jump on the gas, the trans will rotate a bit from the torque, and the shifter will rotate as well (I'm talking maybe 1 degree of rotation - it's not very much)

All of this being said, if you don't have the stocker anymore, what the heck, give it a shot. If you do have the stock mount though, I'd swap it out since you have to be working in that area anyway.
 
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BmacIL

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Yup. You want to couple the transmission and shifter, and remove the link to the body (except the boot obviously). That's what this bracket does.
 

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I was thinking about it when I bought it actually, because I was thinking about going with an insert as well, but the problem in my head, is that by doing so, you are tying the transmission more direct to the body whilst coupling the shifter to the trans, yet trying to decouple the shifter from the body. In my head, these things fight together. I decided that I would allow the transmission to flex, as in reality, not allowing it to flex would be very hard on the body of the car -- but, by directly coupling the shifter to the trans, I would maintain a consistent shift feel.

It's old-school, where if you jump on the gas, the trans will rotate a bit from the torque, and the shifter will rotate as well (I'm talking maybe 1 degree of rotation - it's not very much)

All of this being said, if you don't have the stocker anymore, what the heck, give it a shot. If you do have the stock mount though, I'd swap it out since you have to be working in that area anyway.
Which mount are you referring to?
 
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Any of the rigid transmission mounts, or mount inserts.

Allow me to veer off topic for just a second... Many of the aftermarket companies like to give an impression that any give in bushings is bad, and that the factory designs these in to "wimpify" the vehicle. This is only partially true. Take motor mounts for example. The engine is spinning, creating inertia. Motor mounts are the only thing that prevents the engine from rotating instead of the driveshaft.

Assume for a second that you welded the engine to the frame. This would be the ultimate in rigidity. What happens when you apply a significant amount of torque to something that doesn't have any give? Depending on the materials involved, you get one of three outcomes (Possibly more than just one)

1. The material deflects, but then "bounces back", similar to the coil springs on a car. Springs are specifically designed for this and are designed to never have fatigue failures, which is why, under normal circumstances, springs don't break unless they are too cold or stressed beyond their design capacity. This is, in essence, what the OEM bushings were decided to do - but now we're forcing the metal to comply.

2. The material deforms. The constant torque permanently bends the engine (Not going to happen) or the frame itself. If one is "lucky", when it bends, it will work-harden the metal, such that the metal can now support the strain, and it will "only" have that permanent defect

3. The material fails. Could be from 1 or 2, or simply because the material is not ductile enough. A long time ago, I posted on an SRT-4 performance board how to replace a very pliable shifter cable bushing with a ball bearing, essentially giving the shifter cable zero deflection. It felt great, and made the shifts as crisp as possible. Other vendors did similar things, such as aluminum bushings, delrin bushings and so forth. Fast forward a few years. The shifter assembly required a slight compliance in rotation - maybe 30 degrees. It worked okay because the long shifter cable had enough "spring" in it to absorb this...for a while. Eventually the shifter cables were breaking right next to where the bushing was because that's where the factory knew the stress risers would be. I "fixed" the problem by cutting off the rigid mount and replacing it with a heim joint, so it allowed no deflection in the X and Y direction, but did not have any resistance in the rotation direction.

Getting back to this though. Shift quality would be excellent it the engine was bolted directly to the body & transmission, and the transmission was bolted directly to the body and the shifter, and so on and so forth. This just isn't possible though, so there has to be some give. I say give the engine and transmission the give and keep the shifter directly bolted to the thing it is controlling (The trans). Personally, I don't like the excessive slop in the 2 - piece driveshaft, nor the rubber donut at the back of the trans.

To prove my point, look at how many times aftermarket vendors come out with solution "A" and then people complain how stiff it is, or how weak it is, and then they release a new design with a higher/lower durometer rubber, or more/less webbing. It's because there is no good compromise for everybody. Some put in the trans mount bushing, but then drill a bunch of holes in it to improve NVH. Others don't think it's good enough and go with a solid piece like the boomba.
 

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Any of the rigid transmission mounts, or mount inserts.

Allow me to veer off topic for just a second... Many of the aftermarket companies like to give an impression that any give in bushings is bad, and that the factory designs these in to "wimpify" the vehicle. This is only partially true. Take motor mounts for example. The engine is spinning, creating inertia. Motor mounts are the only thing that prevents the engine from rotating instead of the driveshaft.

Assume for a second that you welded the engine to the frame. This would be the ultimate in rigidity. What happens when you apply a significant amount of torque to something that doesn't have any give? Depending on the materials involved, you get one of three outcomes (Possibly more than just one)

1. The material deflects, but then "bounces back", similar to the coil springs on a car. Springs are specifically designed for this and are designed to never have fatigue failures, which is why, under normal circumstances, springs don't break unless they are too cold or stressed beyond their design capacity. This is, in essence, what the OEM bushings were decided to do - but now we're forcing the metal to comply.

2. The material deforms. The constant torque permanently bends the engine (Not going to happen) or the frame itself. If one is "lucky", when it bends, it will work-harden the metal, such that the metal can now support the strain, and it will "only" have that permanent defect

3. The material fails. Could be from 1 or 2, or simply because the material is not ductile enough. A long time ago, I posted on an SRT-4 performance board how to replace a very pliable shifter cable bushing with a ball bearing, essentially giving the shifter cable zero deflection. It felt great, and made the shifts as crisp as possible. Other vendors did similar things, such as aluminum bushings, delrin bushings and so forth. Fast forward a few years. The shifter assembly required a slight compliance in rotation - maybe 30 degrees. It worked okay because the long shifter cable had enough "spring" in it to absorb this...for a while. Eventually the shifter cables were breaking right next to where the bushing was because that's where the factory knew the stress risers would be. I "fixed" the problem by cutting off the rigid mount and replacing it with a heim joint, so it allowed no deflection in the X and Y direction, but did not have any resistance in the rotation direction.

Getting back to this though. Shift quality would be excellent it the engine was bolted directly to the body & transmission, and the transmission was bolted directly to the body and the shifter, and so on and so forth. This just isn't possible though, so there has to be some give. I say give the engine and transmission the give and keep the shifter directly bolted to the thing it is controlling (The trans). Personally, I don't like the excessive slop in the 2 - piece driveshaft, nor the rubber donut at the back of the trans.

To prove my point, look at how many times aftermarket vendors come out with solution "A" and then people complain how stiff it is, or how weak it is, and then they release a new design with a higher/lower durometer rubber, or more/less webbing. It's because there is no good compromise for everybody. Some put in the trans mount bushing, but then drill a bunch of holes in it to improve NVH. Others don't think it's good enough and go with a solid piece like the boomba.
I agree. Iā€™d much rather let the engine and trans do their thing and just keep the shifter attached via a bracket. Since youā€™ve been driving it for a little while now, are you still happy with the difference it made in shifting as well as the NVH?
 

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I agree. Iā€™d much rather let the engine and trans do their thing and just keep the shifter attached via a bracket. Since youā€™ve been driving it for a little while now, are you still happy with the difference it made in shifting as well as the NVH?
Yes and yes. There is extra NVH - no denying it. But I would argue a Mustang buyer should not be expecting BMW/Mercedes level of cabin volume. 2 different products. Shifts are a lot better which is the most important thing to me. I still haven't put in the o-rings, so the reverse lockout collar resonates, but maybe the o-rings will fix it. Overall, I'd give it a 9/10 which is fairly difficult to get outta me. I really expected it to be a piece of junk because the metal looked so thin on ebay/their website, but it is very rigid. They really should say what gauge the metal is, or throw up a picture of a caliper measuring it. It is a lot thicker than I thought. Nowhere near as thick/rigid as the blowfish one, but by far good enough for what we need. If you push down on the shifter so hard to bow the metal, then there is something wrong with how you shift LOL.

Advice? Buy it and try it. It's a cheap investment, and if you hate it, you lose, what, $30-40 if you sell it used on here? If you like it, then you saved yourself $300+ on some other (admittedly) better shifter.
 

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When youā€™re talking about NVH, is it more vibration in the shifter or is it noise as well? I ask as Iā€™m very interested in this. A little vibration in the shifter I can handle. Itā€™s a Mustang, meaning modern muscle car, and a little vibration wouldnā€™t detract from what it is. If anything it would add...
 
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When youā€™re talking about NVH, is it more vibration in the shifter or is it noise as well? I ask as Iā€™m very interested in this. A little vibration in the shifter I can handle. Itā€™s a Mustang, meaning modern muscle car, and a little vibration wouldnā€™t detract from what it is. If anything it would add...
Both actually. There is a resonance at somewhere around 2500-3500 RPM where it does rattle. It is not terribly loud, but it is not faint either. I have yet to replace the o-ring, I'm doing some other work on her now - but - and this is a huge but - I have a very loud exhaust on the car right now, and I think that it is definitely adding to the noise because I have a really bad drone that starts around 2500 RPM. I have a factory system, except for a resonator delete and a roush axle-back. It might not sound loud on paper, but in real life, it seems louder than my 5.0 fox body with open headers.

There is a definite increase in shifter vibration - it's now coupled to the trans as tightly as possible - which is really it's intended purpose. There are probably a few things you could do to decrease the vibration, but any methods that would reduce vibration would increase compliance or "rubberyness". I love it, I think it's as good as you are going to get. Any better than this would be to reach into the trans and yank on the shift rails yourself. :)

And I agree completely with your last statement. I like a quote from Dave Smith, the guy that started Factory Five Racing (The Cobra Kit Car Company). He said something to the effect of 'I love this car [Factory five GTM]. It's loud, it's rough, and it smells like gas when you drive it'. That's exactly what a pony car was intended to be if you ask me.
 

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I could believe itā€™s loud. The consensus on the Roush exhaust is that itā€™s loud if not anything else. When I bought my car it had a flowmaster axle back and a custom mid pipe and the drone at 2k rpm was TERRIBLE. This mustang is my first mustang newer than an sn95 chassis car so I think Iā€™ll be fine with the ā€œdirectā€ feel of the shifter. And for the price, like you said, might as well try it. I went to their site and tried adding it to my cart but an error message popped up. Did you order it directly from FTBR?

Edit; saw in your original post you got it off eBay. Do they have a store on eBay or did you find it second hand?
 
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Yeah they have their own store on ebay. I bought this one. They do have a separate one for the EcoBoost's as well (But I see you have a coyote under your hood).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/S550-Musta...cket-Kit-2015-thru-2017-GTs-only/263876661180

I've got some dynomax bullet mufflers I'm going to be welding in after the x-pipe (Before the roush mufflers) this weekend. I'm hoping it will take the drone out and reduce the volume a bit. If I like the way it sounds, I'll post up what I did.
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