Wow. Shifter bracket.

[BlueDragon]

I'm glad to hear that you are still enjoying it. I had my Mustang in the shop to see if they would doing anything about the occasional nibble while shifting. Of course they couldn't recreate it...

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[CrashOverride]

Between this and switching to Amsoil MTF, my nibble is gone. Granted, it's much warmer here than in WA, but even so, I think the fluid change helped a lot. I'm not your stereotypical Amsoil lover either, I normally run Mobil one off the shelf at Walmart, so I'm not biased by the manufacturer. The viscosity of the Amsoil MTF is about halfway between the viscosity of the fluid Ford ran in the early MT82's and the thin stuff/DCT fluid they run now. I'm about as type-A as you can get, I made a google docs spreadsheet of all of the different fluids. You might be able to find it somewhere on here.

 

[BlueDragon]

I have 3 quarts of the BG synchro shift 2 in my garage waiting to go in.

 

[CrashOverride]

Very good, although I don't run that fluid, I'm positive it will help. The DCT fluid is just too thin. Don't be stupid like me - make sure to open the fill plug before the drain plug otherwise you will get a tranny-fluid shower as it gurgles out/drains everywhere except where you want it.

 

[BlueDragon]

I'll remember that! Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Thub]

2018 owner checking in- this part does fit, but you need to throw away a big damper weight which bolts behind the trans mount and replace the mount's side bolts with M12-1.75 x 80 MM long bolts. (The originals are longer to go through the damper weight).
Having finished up, the shifter is definitely stiffer, especially side to side, but I'm getting a crazy amount of vibration through the shifter any time above 5500 rpm. The vibration actually hurts to shift at high rpm, though it does shift better. Is this normal?

 

[ValidusTalon]

2018 owner checking in- this part does fit, but you need to throw away a big damper weight which bolts behind the trans mount and replace the mount's side bolts with M12-1.75 x 80 MM long bolts. (The originals are longer to go through the damper weight).
Having finished up, the shifter is definitely stiffer, especially side to side, but I'm getting a crazy amount of vibration through the shifter any time above 5500 rpm. The vibration actually hurts to shift at high rpm, though it does shift better. Is this normal?

I notice some vibration but it seems to smooth out at higher RPM's - I don't notice it being so intense that it is bothersome. I did remove the Whiteline trans mount plug, if you have one of those, or one of the Boomba (or other brand) replacement brackets that may be contributing. Aside from that, and the different in year (mine is a '17), I am running BG Synchroshift II fluid... I sincerely doubt that's the difference maker in your scenario, just brainstorming...

 

[Thub]

I notice some vibration but it seems to smooth out at higher RPM's - I don't notice it being so intense that it is bothersome. I did remove the Whiteline trans mount plug, if you have one of those, or one of the Boomba (or other brand) replacement brackets that may be contributing. Aside from that, and the different in year (mine is a '17), I am running BG Synchroshift II fluid... I sincerely doubt that's the difference maker in your scenario, just brainstorming...

That's interesting. I'm running the same fluid, so that's definitely not the difference (not that I thought it might be). And removing the whiteline bushing made no noticeable difference.
The vibration feels like when I misclocked the balance shafts in my old Evo, but only through the shifter, and only after ~5k rpm

 

[Rocketman]

If this does the same thing as the Blowfish unit, any reason why that one is priced much higher? Is the racing loop the extra expense? Or do you guys think the Blowfish has better build quality?

 

[ValidusTalon]

If this does the same thing as the Blowfish unit, any reason why that one is priced much higher? Is the racing loop the extra expense? Or do you guys think the Blowfish has better build quality?

I don't have the Blowfish bracket so cannot say personally, but debated it vs. this (FTB) bracket. I believe the Blowfish bracket is thicker, and as you noted has the loop, but to me was not worth the difference in cost. The FTB bracket certainly isn't flimsy - if you bent it, you've got other problems..... Again, not disparaging the Blowfish bracket, just felt the FTB was the better value.

 

[USMCtoARMY]

That's interesting. I'm running the same fluid, so that's definitely not the difference (not that I thought it might be). And removing the whiteline bushing made no noticeable difference.
The vibration feels like when I misclocked the balance shafts in my old Evo, but only through the shifter, and only after ~5k rpm

Did you remove the shifter bracket?

 

[boB]

2018 owner checking in- this part does fit, but you need to throw away a big damper weight which bolts behind the trans mount and replace the mount's side bolts with M12-1.75 x 80 MM long bolts. (The originals are longer to go through the damper weight).
Having finished up, the shifter is definitely stiffer, especially side to side, but I'm getting a crazy amount of vibration through the shifter any time above 5500 rpm. The vibration actually hurts to shift at high rpm, though it does shift better. Is this normal?

Maybe the damper weight is to dampen vibration at 5500+ rpm? I am interested in the bracket but not in removing the damper unless I know what it does.

 

[CrashOverride]

If this does the same thing as the Blowfish unit, any reason why that one is priced much higher? Is the racing loop the extra expense? Or do you guys think the Blowfish has better build quality?

It's in the design. This unit is a piece of laser cut or waterjet cut metal, and looks like it was rolled into shape. It is cheap materials and very easy to make. The Blowfish one has much thicker material (Based on pictures) and has a number of extra pieces that have to be machined for proper assembly. It also has the driveshaft guard. Just like anything else, everything has it's place. Porsche caters to people who have no problem paying $2000 extra to have a leather dash pad.

For me, it is not worth the extra money for the other parts. I went into it figuring if I didn't like it, I could re-sell it on here and probably only lose the cost of a tank of gas. That's worst case. Best case is what happened, I was pleasantly surprised and feel I got a great deal.

 

[Thub]

Did you remove the shifter bracket?

The FTBR bracket is staying, but if you're referring to the stock rubber bracket, I didn't at first (reading instructions is not my strong suit), but removing it didn't seem to have any effect. The stock bracket holds the shifter so loosely I doubt it ever does very much to control shifter movement.

It's in the design. This unit is a piece of laser cut or waterjet cut metal, and looks like it was rolled into shape. It is cheap materials and very easy to make. The Blowfish one has much thicker material (Based on pictures) and has a number of extra pieces that have to be machined for proper assembly. It also has the driveshaft guard. Just like anything else, everything has it's place. Porsche caters to people who have no problem paying $2000 extra to have a leather dash pad.

For me, it is not worth the extra money for the other parts. I went into it figuring if I didn't like it, I could re-sell it on here and probably only lose the cost of a tank of gas. That's worst case. Best case is what happened, I was pleasantly surprised and feel I got a great deal.

This is right. No question. The blowfish bracket is a 5 piece, partly welded, partly machined assembly made from 1/4" steel. material cost is probably under $10 but a lot of work goes into that assembly, compared to the FTBR piece, which is a 1-piece laser cut, bent 3/16" plate. To me, the FTBR piece is smart engineering/ manufacturing. Why spend more time, money or metal to accomplish your goal? Obviously the driveshaft loop means the two parts don't have identical goals, but for me, a driveshaft loop is just extra weight.


As an update, I realized that I'd done something during install that was stupid. I tightened the bracket down completely before I'd reinstalled the crossmember. That's bad practice when working with sheet metal parts in general, so this morning, I loosened up and retightened the bolts that go into the back of the trans, through the bracket. This made a big difference. There's still a lot of vibration at high RPM, but it's gone from "actually painful to shift" to just "a lot of vibration". It also got rid of the grind going into second that I got at parking lot speeds, which I don't understand at all, and made the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts far easier to get done quickly. The tuned mass damper hanging off the back of the trans was definitely there to damp high RPM vibration, but because of how good the shifts are, and how little time I actually spend above 5500 RPM, the bracket is staying on, and the damper is not. (There's no way to have both, even if you had access to machining equipment.)

 

[boB]

the bracket is staying on, and the damper is not. (There's no way to have both, even if you had access to machining equipment.)

Would it be possbile to sandwich the FTBR bracket (with some modification) between the xmsn and the damper? Or to bolt the FTBR bracket onto the damper and redrill the holes that go to the shifter? From what you wrote my guess is "no way" and I may have to wait for FTBR to make a bracket that fits 2019s.

Thanks for testing the bracket and writing your results!

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