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MTX-75 Shifting Issues

9

99svtc

CEG'er
Joined
Jan 29, 2008
Messages
184
Location
St. Louis
Have a 99 SVT, owned about a year now, the shift is not so great anymore. From what I've read possible alignment issue with the cables but i'm unsure. When I bought it the dealer installed a new shift cable for me(bushing were bad) and it shifted excellent for about 8 months after that!

Gradually it started getting rough to put into gear when not moving. Car off will shift great through all gears no issues. Turn it on and then the issues can start. Hard to get into 1st or Reverse. Sometime I would have to stick my foot out and get the car rolling before it would slide in!

I did try to align the cables witht he ford tool, but I could get the clip on the black cable end out. Also chnaged the tranny fluid after the issues start to resolve. Any advice would be great...
 
try bleeding the clutch. sounds like it could be dragging alittle causing the difficulty in shifting.
 
I'll give that a try when I get off work.

Any other possibilities? Or things I should look for while I'm under the hood? aside from leaks?
 
You wont see much from under the hood I dont think. Under the car is the better option where you can wiggle on things and see if maybe its another bushing or alignment issue.
 
Dyoel182 said:
You wont see much from under the hood I dont think. Under the car is the better option where you can wiggle on things and see if maybe its another bushing or alignment issue.
Click to expand...

Just checked it on my break. I can see and feel the bushings from the top no issues. They seem fine. One thing I did forget to mention, was when they had installed them they had the cables crossed over each other coming out of the firewall which bunched up and destroyed the aluminum protective covering. I had to rip it all off and uncross the cables. But it shifted fine for months after that.
 
I have the exact same problem, Its much worse when its cold out. I always thought it was the shift fork issue that plagues our cars.
 
I was cruising through the site looking for this exact question. Mine is having the exact same problem. If I have to do a 3 point turn I will probably have to turn the engine off twice just to get it into reverse and then into 1st again. I have just fixed my issue with the bushing on the white cable end and it didnt help at all!
 
As I stated in post #2, if there is difficulty in shifting with the engine running, but it shifts fine with the engine off its time to bleed the clutch. And with the age of these vehicles you will want to empty the brake fluid reservoir and refill with fresh fluid. Bleed the clutch and all four brakes.

If you are still having issues I would then start to suspect the clutch master or slave.
 
Thanks BrApple! That will be the next thing on the to do list. I also forgot to mention that if I don't baby the shifter into basically any gear it will crunch. Especially 2nd, 3rd & 4th. I have to drive the thing like grandma to avoid this. Also when I start it in gear it will shudder sometimes like the clutch is grabbing ever so slightly.
 
My car was having this issue. My diff blew so the transmission was out and when I put it back in I put a new Slave cylinder and now it shifts perfect. I did not change the clutch or any of the internals except for the diff and I did nothing special to align the cables. Good luck it was certainly annoying when it did that.
 
A bad slave cylinder is what I feared. I have bled the clutch and the car still acts/ shifts exactly the same. Is there any other easy fixes that can be done before I have to blame it? Potentially lifting the shifter boot to see what that side of the linkage looks like?
 
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