Hey guys, Stephanie with americanmuscle.com, here with an overview of the Barton Hybrid
3 Shifter for 2011-2014 GT and Boss Mustangs.
In this video, we're going to talk about the design of the shifter, how it can benefit
you and we're going to talk about the install.
I'll get into more detail later, but the install for the shifter is going to be a two out of
three wrenches in the difficulty meter.
The Barton Hybrid 3 Shifter is first off going to be for someone that doesn't want to be
tied into one single design.
Barton made this shifter to be for everyone, so they came up with a design that has mounting
options.
How you mount this shifter goes back to what you like.
And secondly, this short throw shifter is going to be the S197 owners that want a serious
shifter upgrade and are willing to pay for quality.
Besides all the different component upgrades, you're getting an entirely new unit that's
very easy to install and you're actually able to customize it and set it up how you like
it.
This is the only shifter that's available right now that does this and gives you different
mounting options.
I wanna start with the core of this shifter before we get into any of the mounting features
of it.
The heart of this shifter is very much like the original Barton Short Throw Shifter.
It's a lot of the same upgraded components and it's gonna firm up your shifts.
Barton has literally upgraded every single component of this shifter for you so it gives
a very solid performance.
One of the biggest features of this shifter, besides the mounting location options and
all of the upgraded components which I'll go over in a second, so there's a 25% reduction
in throw.
Now, I wouldn't consider the throw of the stock shifter long to begin with.
So if you think about it, a 25% reduction's pretty big.
Barton chose to use a 25% reduction so that the shifter wouldn't feel too notchy but it'd
feel smooth and accurate instead.
When you start reducing throw too much, the shifts can get notchy and not everyone likes
that.
There are a lot of things that make this shifter so great, but one of the most basic is that
it is an entire replacement that self-contains shifter components.
We're not just looking at an arm with a linkage to shorten the throw, this is a completely
revamped unit, so no taking apart the stock shifter and bringing components over.
Some of the components that you end up bringing over with other short throw shifter options
are actually the parts that caused some of the issues that the stock shifter has.
Another thing to consider is that this entire shifter is made from CNC billet aluminum and
stainless steel.
The housing is also weather-tight and pre-sealed for you, so no RTV needed.
This is a rock solid shifter, and if we compare it to the factory shifter, you'll see differences
right away.
One of the other reasons why this shifter has such nice solid shifts is because of the
bushings that Barton uses.
You have a solid stainless steel front bushing here.
The bushing and rear bracket help to control the normal vibrations that go through the
shifter and they stop nearly all of the deflection while some is absorbed through the bushing
in the rear bracket.
Really breaking this down some, this shifter eliminates what I consider two major weak
points in the factory shifter components, the traditional pivot cups and the ball socket
design.
The factory pivot cups are plastic.
They allow for a ton of deflection on the center shock and that means play and wiggle.
The center shock now has a pivot block with a meaty pivot cup that's aluminum, not plastic,
that's held in place by a pin and O-rings.
So no more pivot cups in ball sockets but a much more solid pivot block instead that
even has O-rings.
This is tight fit that can take up slack but not so tight to cause any binding.
The block then goes into the cartridge and into the main housing.
But this shifter has a different cartridge design that's unique.
Not only is the upper half of the cartridge adjustable so you can set shift stops, you
can also take this cartridge apart and almost customize the shifter if you want to.
The cartridge does have two sets of very stiff springs in it.
You can easily access the springs in the cartridge and remove those if you don't like them since
they are very stiff.
It's really going to be up to you as a driver to determine what you want here.
I just recommend that you at least break in these springs before you decide you don't
like them and you wanna remove them.
Of course this shifter is made for the MT826B trans so it is going to be reverse lockout
compatible.
It will retain both a reverse lockout and the backup camera so you won't be losing any
of those nice shock features if you wanna upgrade to the shifter.
The reverse lockout is identical to the factory reverse lockout, so factory look and feel
to it.
And another nice thing is that the shifter doesn't require any permanent modifications
to be installed.
Other than the general overall construction and upgraded components, what really makes
the shifter different than the others, even the original Barton Short Throw Shifter, is
the mounting options and the three bushing system.
So it's called the Hybrid 3 Shifter for three reasons.
One, because of the mounting options, two because of the linkage design and three because
of the bushing system.
If we look at the mounting options, you can mount this shifter directly to the trans or
directly to the body of the car.
You have an option here depending on what you like better.
If you mount to the trans directly, that means that you can run this on the linkage.
You have these two arms here that run up to the shifter area and that's where you're applying
all of your force as you're shifting.
Then there's a mounting block that bolts directly to the trans which eliminates the tie to the
body of the car.
This means that the shifter will move with the trans under load and everything will be
directly in line.
The only thing I will say here is that your shifter will be moving, which is good, but
you will feel some vibrations from the trans in the shift knob.
If you really don't want that feeling in your shift knob, you can always mount to the body
of the car.
If you mount to the body, you'll use a different bracket.
In this case, if the body of the car moves separate from the trans, the shifter will
stay with the body while the trans moves.
The linkage, which is the second part of the Hybrid 3 name, allows the shifter to do this
and still maintain accurate shifts.
The linkage allows for both vertical and twisting movement.
And the last component is the three-bushing design.
There are three bushings in the linkage rod and this is gonna get rid of the deflection
in the linkage rod during shifting.
Now, throughout this entire shifter, there is no metal to metal contact, which is gonna
keep things very smooth.
So overall, you're looking at a smooth precise shift no matter how you have this mounted.
And one more random thing here that I wanted to point out, the shifter comes with this
foam insulation here.
This isn't packaging.
So when you open your shifter up, don't throw it away.
You get this to give you some more noise reduction, so just make sure you don't throw it away
with the box if it's something that you want.
As far as price, you're looking at spending between $400 and $500 for this shifter.
Like I mentioned earlier, this is gonna be for someone that's willing to pay for an excellent,
beefed up, accurate shifter and for someone that knows the value of something like this.
The install here is a fairly easy install, especially if you have a helping hand.
I'm gonna call this a two out of three wrenches in the difficulty meter and should take about
an hour to complete the install.
You need a few tools to get the install completed but nothing crazy, and a lift would be your
best bet to get the job done.
I'm not going to go into full detail here since the install is a little bit involved,
but to get the factory shifter out, you're looking at doing the obvious things.
Removing the factory shift knob, removing some center console pieces and getting your
boot out from inside the car.
Then after that, you're looking at needing to pull the trans mount so you can lower the
trans enough to get the clearance to get the stock shifter uninstalled and your new Barton
one in.
The new shifter is very easy to install and you don't have to transfer over any parts
or disassemble the factory shifter.
You install the new cartridge separately once your trans is back in place from inside the
car and don't forget to set your shift stops.
This literally installs like the factory shifter uninstalled and it's so well-made that it
went together very nicely.
Everything fit well, we didn't need to hammer anything to place, but it's all snug enough
to eliminate play.
We did decide to mount to the trans here, but how you install yours will be up to you.
Wrapping things up here with the Barton 3 Shifter, this shifter is a serious complete
shifter upgrade.
The entire shifter is made from CNC billet aluminum and stainless steel.
It's gonna come with a cartridge that reduces throw 25%.
The shifter reuses the stock shift knob and it also retains the reverse lockout and backup
camera.
You have two different mounting options to the body or to the trans.
The shifter has a new innovative linkage and a three-bushing design in the linkage.
As always, you can check this thing out more online.
And for all things Mustang, keep it right here at americanmuscle.com.