Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Transaxle Sloppy shifter

A question for those of you that have been through this before. My shifter is getting loose. There is excessive movement up going between gears (for example on the 1-2 shift). The movement through the neutral gate is not excessive.

Is this an indication of a worn shift cable, worn shift tower (time for a Focus tower?), worn internal trans parts, or maybe a combination of all of these things?

I'm most suspecious of the cable, but I thought I would ask about it before diving into it.

I was kinda concerned about this too, I have a B&M short throw, and I have some play of movement while it's engaged in gear...Im wondering the same thing.

I have the same problem. I almost guarantee it's the plastic end of the gear selector cable where it attaches to the lever on the tranny. You can kind of see it from the top, but you need to jack it up and take of the front driver's side tire. Mine was just barely on! The inside of the plastic retainer is all broken and there has to be a half to a full inch of play. The retaining clip was completely gone too.

Apparently you can only get the whole cable assembly, there are 2. Someone may correct me on that. I decided to fix it myself by putting a nut on the inside of the plastic end and around the trans lever. Then put a new retainer on.

Hope this helps!

Lee

Are you talking about the tower? The focus tower is the replacement everyones had good experience with.
-tropictour

Your cable ends are probably going out. My old ones were at the end of their lives as the rubber grommet had slipped out of the part that attaches to transmission. One time one of the ends fell off of the transmission leaving me with only 3rd gear. They are fairly easy to replace but hard to find.

Hi Jim,

I don't have a solid answer for the cause of your sloppy shifting but let me interject that you need to be VERY careful considering the Focus tower regarding your cable ends. If you have the skinny, round-end cable I don't think there is a way to mate that style cable to the Focus tower. Similar to the problem SVTPETE had trying this swap, I'm currently finding out I'm in the same boat as he was and will have to switch back to the stock tower this weekend.

Basically, the Focus cable ends are needed because the Focus tower has much fatter nipples on the selector linkage than the stock tower. But....on the cable side, the Focus ends are too large to properly retain the cables. I fit the Focus ends on my stock skinny cables with the spring-loaded orange clamp device but the cables pulled out just by me working the shifter while the car was on jackstands. If your stock cables are the type that has the fat, square end you should be golden for the Focus tower swap. My car is an E0.

Randy

Thank to all who replied. I opened the hood today and think that I can see where the cable is loose at the trans end. I'll take a harder look tomarrow.

Randy, I think I remember someone posting about a year ago about what was necessary to use the Focus tower with the early EO. It seems like they had to use the Focus cables with slight modification to one of the ends. It might be worth a search.

If I find that mine needs more than just some repair to the cable ends, I might need to find that info as well. I wonder if Terry Haines has a cure for this.

Jim.

The earlier models (i.e most of them) need to swap the cable ends to use the Focus (XS4Z) shifter tower.


There is a very good post about the cable ends in this forum.

I know this is going to sound funny, but my shifter was doing the same thing. Really sloppy elongated shifts. Well I peeled back the boot and wouldn't you know, the actual shift tower was only being held down by one screw. The other had fallen out and the one that was actually holding the tower in was only partially screwed in. Tightened them up a bit and waaalaaa.........felt brand new

I have switched to the Focus shift tower. You have to get 2 new Focus cable ends. I had no problem putting the ends on the cable though. I have a 98 SVT. The Contour cable ends will not fit on the Focus tower. One seems like it does but will pop off.

Rich S