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Broken shifter tower

brobafett

New CEG'er
Joined
Jul 15, 2014
Messages
22
Location
Seattle Washington
So I found a little info on this but not enough and I'm sure somewhere it's been beaten like a dead horse.
But my problem is. The hammer part of the shifter moves independent from the actual gear changing mechanism so it's broken. This happend from a stop shifting from first to second and the car stuck in neutrally (luckily) so I pulled the tower and sure enough it's broken. So does anyone have advise on this? I am a machinist so I know I can fix it or maybe there is a replacement somewhere on the interwebs. Any advice or direction is appreciated.
 
There is a bolt head that breaks off causing the shift tower mech to stop working.

I don't know all the details on this, but you need to fish that bolt head out of the trans (maybe through drain plug or through the shift tower mounting hole).


I have a replacement complete shift tower here I can sell you if interested. Send me a message.
 
Yes I'll be fishing the head out tonight. I just bought the car yesterday and pulled the shifter, everything in the trans looks great except the atf, Def gotta go get some honey.
Pm sent.
 
What year is the car or what shift tower is in it? The shift tower that was on earlier cars is completely enclosed and uses the bolt the broke. The bolt can be replaced, but its a dealer only item iirc. The other shift tower has a plastic cap on it, and this does not use a bolt but is welded.
 
Yeppers, like Terry Haines said in the link I posted, "To all MTX owners..consider our 'Keyed Tower' mod...Don't wait for the bolt to go". btw - for those who may not know, Terry Haines owns Haines Motor Sports, Inc. devoted to MTX-75 modifications, repairs and rebuilds. Also, Terry was with Ford on the CDW-27 engineering staff "back in the day". Ask him for some history lessons on our rides; he most enjoys responding to same!
 
Whew well after 4 hours I fished it out. Lucky me the bolt is clean and undamaged so I am sure nothing was damaged internally. I used 2 inch electrical tape and a very small but powerful magnet in the fill hole and got it in about 4 min. I will be drilling it out tomorrow and fixing it. Is there any pictures of the key mod? I really don't need to send it off I have access to a full machine shop.
 
Whew well after 4 hours I fished it out. Lucky me the bolt is clean and undamaged so I am sure nothing was damaged internally. I used 2 inch electrical tape and a very small but powerful magnet in the fill hole and got it in about 4 min. I will be drilling it out tomorrow and fixing it. Is there any pictures of the key mod? I really don't need to send it off I have access to a full machine shop.

There are pics of the modded tower, but pics of the of the bolt (with details) not to be found.
 
I just replaced the bolt and safety wired it so that it can't fall in.

http://store.mettec.com/product/946/175

That's not the bolt in the link, this was before I bought the bolt, just forgot to take a pic of it with the new one before I assembled it all together.

aru6a8an.jpg
 
Ok then I'll just wire it. The new bolt should last another 100k I'll just buy a few. I'm not worried about having to replace it every 10 years or so. I doubt I'll even own it at that point.
 
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