MTX failure, need some help

[azbobbybooshay10]

I was out driving tonight with some friends, and I stopped and backed up to the driveway I needed to turn into. I went to put it in first, and the shifter all of a sudden felt like mush. No matter where I moved the shifter, I didn't feel it engage anything. I could move the whole thing in a full circle without anything. A friend got under the car and we can move the entire linkage from the shifter itself to the trans tower, but it just feels like mush and doesn't feel like its connected to the internals of the transmission.

I have to tow the car back home tomorrow, and a couple CSVT friends have told me about a bolt that likes to shear off on the transmission. Does anyone have any pics or links to show me what I should be looking for tomorrow once I get the car home? I've never really gotten into the transmission at all on this car, so I'm not too sure what I should be looking for.

Not sure if its related, but over the past couple months I've been having a little bit of a problem getting it into 3rd gear. I was passing it off as me just mistiming the shift and me just not having it all the way in before I let off the clutch. It has started to get more prevelant lately, so I was starting to look into the 3rd gear synchro starting to go (the car turned over 140,000 miles on Monday). Not really ignoring it, but just making extra sure it was all the way in gear before I got off the clutch each time and that was working pretty well. Like I said though, lately its been doing it more frequently, and it did it about 4 or 5 times tonight while I was driving before I had the above problem.

I know I don't post here much, but you guys are much more into the mechanicals of these cars than the NECO guys (plus my ban doesnt expire for another couple weeks, lol), so I'm coming to you guys for advice. I did a quick look and didn't really see anything that would help me, but then again I've been up for over 18 hours and having this failure tonight has just got me frustrated. Plus I wanted to get my problem out there before I fall asleep here and while I can still type straight.

Thanks guys, hopefully its not too serious and I won't have to pull the trans. I don't have the $$$ for a rebuild, nor the free time to pull everything out unless I absolutly have to. I'll do whatever I have to to get the car running, but I'm just crossing my fingers its nothing TOO serious.

[morbid]

Found this (long) thread in the old forums. This page (page2) has steps on how to remedy a sheered bolt... but I'm not sure if there are pics further down the thread.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tranny&Number=1274128&page =&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=2&vc=1

And before anyone else asks.... his weighted tower flops side to side (no resistence). The bushing on his white cable end is missing, but that's not his immediate problem.

[azbobbybooshay10]

OK so I snapped a couple pix tonight after towing the car over 70 miles to my house. Here's what I have so far.




This little piece was all falling apart, its the shift linkage bushing.



The counterweight just rocks back and forth freely, I don't feel it engaging anything inside the transmission. In the morning I will drain all the fluid out and see if I have a little piece floating around and get that out. Hopefully replace the bolt and bushing, refill with fluid, and I'll be ok. Any reccomendations on fluid? I'd like to use something good.

Once I get that resolved though, I need to determine how bad the 3rd gear synchro is. It was getting alot worse in the last day or two, so if I have to yank the tranny and get it fixed, I'd like to determine that ASAP. I think limping around with no 3rd gear would me more headache than its worth.

Oh just curious, a friend just looked at the pix and said the shift cables look like Focus shift cables, not Cougar/Contour cables? Is that right?

[Reebs]

I thought the end of the Focus MTX 75 shift cables looked just like the contour/cougar!?!? So yes I guess they do look like focus shift cables! As for fluid, I bought Royal Purple Syncromax which is very nice stuff. Stay away from Redline!

Royal Purple Syncromax is about 8 bucks a quart.

I'm glad your shift tower bolt didn't break... because then you most likely would have had to pull the trans to fix the 1 bolt! Unless your car was stuck in neutral, then the shift tower pulls out with the tranny still in the car.


Reebs

[Big Jim]

I don't know how to search through the old forums for my thread from about 15 to 18 months ago. It was titled "It finally happened".

That thread tells about my experience with the same problem.

The cable ends were available by themselves without buying the entire cable and I think they still are. The local dealer said I wuld have to buy the entire cabe set. The revised cable set is like the newer Cougar uses. Call Bill Jenkins at Team Ford in Las Vegas and he can tell you if they are still available by themselves. And Bill will give you the best price if it is still available.

The cable end may be difficult to extract from the cable. Mine was slightly distorted and I had to cut the white part of the cable end to get it off and I was unable to get the new end to slide into place without some gentle grinding the part that stays with the cable. After a couple of hours of fussing I had it back together and then with more fussing I was able to adjust the linkage.

I suggested to others that may have the same problem in the future that it may be worth extracting the rubber bushing from the new cable end and installing it on the old cable end. Later, Thinkmoto (another CEG member) posted that he fixed his car by transferring the bushing as suggested. It's a bit tough to push the new bushing into place but it can be done and can save a lot of hassle.

Let us know how it works out.

[azbobbybooshay10]

I thought the end of the Focus MTX 75 shift cables looked just like the contour/cougar!?!? So yes I guess they do look like focus shift cables! As for fluid, I bought Royal Purple Syncromax which is very nice stuff. Stay away from Redline!

Royal Purple Syncromax is about 8 bucks a quart.

I'm glad your shift tower bolt didn't break... because then you most likely would have had to pull the trans to fix the 1 bolt! Unless your car was stuck in neutral, then the shift tower pulls out with the tranny still in the car.


Reebs

Actually I think the bolt is broken, the counterweight just rocks back and forth freely. I'm draining the fluid in a minute (needed to be done anyway) and I'll see if it is broken off. Crossing my fingers that I can fix it in the car. If the tranny has to come out, its gonna be a LONG winter....

[Big Jim]

Those look like 98 Contour cable ends. The 99 and newer are red instead of orange from what I understand. I wish that I could access that old thread since it either included pictures or linked to them from what I remember.

[Big Jim]

You really should fix what you can identify (the cable end) before jusmping to the conclusion that there is a problem with the shift tower bolt.

[azbobbybooshay10]

OK, its not just the shifter cable bushing. I didn't get a "repair" part, just a piece of hose to stick in there just to test the functioning of the cable, and I still had no gears. I'll get the shift tower off in the morning and look in and see if I can find the broken off bolt. If I don't see it up top, I'll get the fluid drained and try to get it out the bottom. If THAT still doesn't work, this tranny is coming out to get a full rebuild, clutch, and flywheel.

And of course I found tonight that the water pump is also leaking, so things seem to be going downhill fast with this car. It looks like its gonna be a LOOOOOOOONG winter.....

[TRicker]

GEAR SELECTOR SHAFT PIN. that's what ford calls it. inside the shift tower, the whole mechanism that turns and moves the shift forks has a pin in it (its a bolt) that probaly came out, or broke off. mine came out. make sure you get an extenda-magnet to get any metal out of the trans when you take it off. you need to remove the drivers side trans mount (top) and then you can get to the 10mm bolts.

oh and you dont have to drain any fluid out of the trans! you can do it all from teh top, and i guarantee that's what happenned. it happenned to me about 50 miles from my house and i had a lady friend in the car. made me feel super cool, haha.