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JONATHAN MCDONALD: Now, we've already showed you how
to install a shifter on your Fox Mustang,
so now we're going to show you how
on a '94 to '04, and it's significantly easier,
because you don't have to pull the entire console.
Now, the centerpiece today is going
to be the Steeda Tri-Ax shifter.
They have these available in all varieties
to fit just about every transmission
that's been in the Mustang or that you can put in a Mustang.
Now, these feature solid billet construction
for the utmost in strength with the lightest weight.
Now, you've got multiple shifter handle height locations.
That way, you can set you height comfortably.
And the shifter handle itself is offset toward you.
That way, you have a very comfortable reach
over to your shifter.
The base itself is sprung so, no matter
what, it returns right back to the center, which
is your 3-4 location.
It comes with a rubber insulator that goes in
between the shifter and the shifter
handle to kind of cut out a little bit of the noise.
And Steeda's the only one to offer this, this little ring,
which goes over top of the shifter.
It's a lower shifter boot protector.
It keeps your rubber lower shifter boot
from getting caught up in the shifter stops
and getting all torn up.
And unlike some other shifters on the market,
you do not have to modify your lower shifter boot in any way
to install this shifter.
It comes with all the needed hardware
and, basically, the only thing you have to provide
is a tube of silicone to reseal it to the transmission.
Let's go ahead and move into the car
and I'll show you how to take everything apart.
The first step to removing your stock shifter,
go ahead and set your parking brake.
Then remove your shifter knob-- grab hold and unscrew.
Go ahead and set that out of the way,
then slide the boot up off of the handle.
Grab hold of the shifter bezel and pull the four clips loose
and then unplug your power point.
Now, you want to grab you a 10 millimeter socket or wrench
to remove the stock shifter bolts.
Grab your handle and remove it from the stock shifter base,
and then you can grab you a ratchet with an 8 millimeter
or 5/16 socket and remove your lower shifter boot.
You want to keep those screws handy
because you will be reusing them.
And what those four out of the way,
you can go ahead and pull up the lower shifter boot.
Basically, what you're going to want to do
is free it from the transmission tunnel,
slide it forward and pull up on the passenger side,
and then slide it over to get the driver
side clear of the console, and then
pull it out from the back straight out.
Now you've got your stock shifter base exposed,
and you'll grab your ratchet and extension
with a 13 millimeter or a 1/2 inch socket.
Go ahead and remove all four of the stock shifter bolts,
and you can go ahead and toss them to the side
because you won't be reusing them.
And then you can break the shifter base loose,
and you may need to grab you a little pry bar or a screwdriver
or something to break the silicone free.
And then remove the shifter base from the transmission.
Go ahead and pull the shifter base up
and don't toss it to the side just yet, because you
have to remove your little plastic insulator
bushing if your car is equipped with a 3650.
If you've got a T5 or a T45, the insulator bushing
stays in the transmission.
Now, a pair of pliers, typically, will get this off.
Or sometimes, you can even pull it off
by hand, but not this one.
Then you can just gently pry it off and let it fly.
There we go.
Then clean it up a little bit.
This is a dirty job, so go ahead and have plenty of paper towels
or rags around to keep yourself clean.
Now you can go ahead and pop that insulator back
onto the new shifter.
It'll take a little bit of effort.
There we go.
Now, I'm going to clean up all the old silicone off
of the transmission, get it all prepped up,
put a new bead of silicone on it.
I prefer to use Permatex Ultra Black.
You can use pretty much anything that you like.
I just prefer this because it seals and it doesn't harden.
That way, you don't have to worry
about it leaking over time.
So, I'm going to go ahead and get this cleaned up,
then we'll come back and show you and put in your new Steeda
shifter.
All right, the one thing to remember about silicone
is it doesn't take a whole lot to get the job done.
You want to put just a thin bead all the way around,
and you don't just want to slather it all over the place.
Because you're dealing with two machined surfaces,
so they're going to mate flat and squeeze out any excess.
And you want that excess to go toward what you're
trying to seal out, which is your oil--
or, actually, seal in.
Then line up your bushing and lower the shifter down
into place.
And Steeda supplies four new attaching bolts.
Go ahead and start those into place.
All right.
Go ahead and tighten down all four of your bolts,
and they don't have to be super torqued, just tight.
Then after that, we're going to set our shifter stops.
And what these shifter stops do is keep you
from overextending your shift forward
during aggressive shifting.
To do that, slide the handle forward into the third gear
and run your shifter stop bolt out
until it touches the shifter handle.
And you want to keep a little bit of pressure on the handle.
That way, it's as far forward as it can go.
And then whenever it comes into contact,
back it off one complete flat.
Now Steeda calls for 10 1/1000ths of an inch air gap,
and unless you're just really meticulous,
you can pull out your feeler gauge and actually check that
air gap.
But typically, backing off one flat
will give you ample air space.
And the reason you don't want it touching
is because it doesn't have to be in full contact
during normal shifting.
You just want it there to stop the shifter handle
from going too far forward.
Now, once you get it set properly,
you have a jam nut that you run up
against the base of the shifter.
And you want to grab you a couple of 1/2 inch
wrenches, one to hold the stop bolt
in place and the other to go ahead and tighten down the jam
nut.
OK, and then to do the other one,
you want to pull it down into second gear and repeat.
Now you want to check, run it through every gear to make sure
that there's no contact issues.
All right, we're good to go.
Now we can install the Steeda exclusive little washer
that protects your lower shift boot.
It slides down over the handle and, unlike other shifters
on the market, like I said, you do not
have to modify your lower shifter boot in any way, shape,
or form.
Go ahead and slide it down into place.
Engage the handle through the hole
and slide the driver side portion of the trim ring
up underneath the console.
And go ahead and line everything up into place.
Then you will grab your four bolts that you removed earlier
and go ahead and run those down into place.
OK, once you get your lower shifter boot
bolts tightened down, we can go ahead
and put on the Tri-Ax handle.
Now, Steeda supplies this little rubber gasket,
and it's going to go in between the shifter
handle and the shifter base.
Now you've got two height adjustments.
You can have a higher shifter placement or a lower handle
placement.
For this one, we're going to go a little bit higher.
Slide you two bolts that Steeda supplies through the handle.
And these are also 1/2 inch, so you can use your 1/2 inch
wrench or ratchet to go ahead and snug those down into place.
OK, and once you get those two bolts snugged up,
Steeda supplies two jam nuts to keep them from loosening.
And you want to throw that on the opposite side
and then snug both of those down.
And that will keep your shifter handle bolts from coming loose.
All right.
Now we can go ahead, plug our power point back in,
slide the boot over the new handle,
and snap our shifter bezel back into place.
All right.
Now we can go ahead and screw the shifter knob back on.
All right.
Get it tightened down, check your operation there,
and you're done.
You just improved your shifting, you've saved your transmission,
and, man, it's just kind of cool to have a shifter in a car
and you don't have to feel all the slop from the stock rubber
bushings.
Now, for more drive train tips and other Mustang tech,
check out latemodelrestoration.com.
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