Strano Perfromance MT-82 Shift Improvement kit

[wbt]

So it is a sales thread in a tech section....

I am glad you like your combo. I think it is viable to replace the items you suggest however your options/opinions are not the only one's available to the community. That is the point I was making. Re-read my original post. Wasn't trying to turn this into a pissing contest.

 

[Sam Strano]

What do you want to talk about??????????? Or are you just looking to have a battle?

What is "techy" about arguing 20% vs 40%? And I'm always amazed how folks get pissed off when a sponsor has to balls to mention something that he has *when it's actually helpful* to someone. I bet you mentioned your car shifted better with your changes, I bet you did it here in fact, right? But if I do it, well there must be trouble brewing!

Here's the thing, I belong to this forum just like you do. I have a 2011 just like you do. I'm a car guy, just like most here. I happen to run a business, so all that gets ignored as if none of the other stuff applies.

If you want to start your own thread please be my guest. Opinions make the world go 'round.

And if you want some more "tech".... ok:

MTL has friction modifiers specifically to help synchro engagement. Redline is fully synthetic, not a petroleum basestock with a lot of additives tossed in, enough to be called "synthetic". That helps the car shift better.

The stock shifter has a small, thin, and weak baseplate that allows flex when banging gears. The Steeda Tri-Ax uses a much thicker billet plate that keeps everything more lined up. Also it has better centering springs, and doesn't use a plastic lock-out for reverse

The stock shifter bushing is, as most know, really soft rubber in a stamped piece of flimsy metal which allows the tailshaft of the trans to move all over the place. And that in turn moves your shifter too. The Shifter base bushings keep the transmission much better located and shifting is easier when the gears are where you expect them to be.

Is that more detailed than Joe-Bob Brown saying "hey that works better"?

 

[jsnyng]

^^^ This is why I buy parts from Sam. You get a 100% no bullshit guarantee with every purchase.

 

[wbt]

What do you want to talk about??????????? Or are you just looking to have a battle?

What is "techy" about arguing 20% vs 40%? And I'm always amazed how folks get pissed off when a sponsor has to balls to mention something that he has *when it's actually helpful* to someone. I bet you mentioned your car shifted better with your changes, I bet you did it here in fact, right? But if I do it, well there must be trouble brewing!

Here's the thing, I belong to this forum just like you do. I have a 2011 just like you do. I'm a car guy, just like most here. I happen to run a business, so all that gets ignored as if none of the other stuff applies.

If you want to start your own thread please be my guest. Opinions make the world go 'round.

And if you want some more "tech".... ok:

MTL has friction modifiers specifically to help synchro engagement. Redline is fully synthetic, not a petroleum basestock with a lot of additives tossed in, enough to be called "synthetic". That helps the car shift better.

The stock shifter has a small, thin, and weak baseplate that allows flex when banging gears. The Steeda Tri-Ax uses a much thicker billet plate that keeps everything more lined up. Also it has better centering springs, and doesn't use a plastic lock-out for reverse

The stock shifter bushing is, as most know, really soft rubber in a stamped piece of flimsy metal which allows the tailshaft of the trans to move all over the place. And that in turn moves your shifter too. The Shifter base bushings keep the transmission much better located and shifting is easier when the gears are where you expect them to be.

Is that more detailed than Joe-Bob Brown saying "hey that works better"?

My apologies. I think there was a misunderstanding on my part.

 

[Digital_Synapse]

What do you want to talk about??????????? Or are you just looking to have a battle?

What is "techy" about arguing 20% vs 40%? And I'm always amazed how folks get pissed off when a sponsor has to balls to mention something that he has *when it's actually helpful* to someone. I bet you mentioned your car shifted better with your changes, I bet you did it here in fact, right? But if I do it, well there must be trouble brewing!

Here's the thing, I belong to this forum just like you do. I have a 2011 just like you do. I'm a car guy, just like most here. I happen to run a business, so all that gets ignored as if none of the other stuff applies.

If you want to start your own thread please be my guest. Opinions make the world go 'round.

And if you want some more "tech".... ok:

MTL has friction modifiers specifically to help synchro engagement. Redline is fully synthetic, not a petroleum basestock with a lot of additives tossed in, enough to be called "synthetic". That helps the car shift better.

The stock shifter has a small, thin, and weak baseplate that allows flex when banging gears. The Steeda Tri-Ax uses a much thicker billet plate that keeps everything more lined up. Also it has better centering springs, and doesn't use a plastic lock-out for reverse

The stock shifter bushing is, as most know, really soft rubber in a stamped piece of flimsy metal which allows the tailshaft of the trans to move all over the place. And that in turn moves your shifter too. The Shifter base bushings keep the transmission much better located and shifting is easier when the gears are where you expect them to be.

Is that more detailed than Joe-Bob Brown saying "hey that works better"?

Flawless victory. lol

 

[rodmoe]

The stock shifter bushing is, as most know, really soft rubber in a stamped piece of flimsy metal which allows the tailshaft of the trans to move all over the place. And that in turn moves your shifter too. The Shifter base bushings keep the transmission much better located and shifting is easier when the gears are where you expect them to be.

While looking under my car getting ready to swap to MTL i notice the trans is mounted to the cross member and the stock rubber bushing which is indeed very flimsy and soft. Holds the rear of the remote shifter bowl and not the tailstock of the transmission as the only thing at the tail is a big ass yoke for the 4k lb looking two piece drive shaft bolted to it. I agree that the flex in the system moves the wonky stock shifter out of the correct postion and I thank you for your effort in helping move a fix forward.. I only point this out for the many newbs like me out there so they dont try to put the new bushing on the driveshaft. LOL j/k

 

[zims-mustang]

Thinking about getting the barton short shifter maybe that will help as well

 

[sterlinggray11gt]

I've been messing with some stuff on my car, and found 3 things to help a lot. So I put the 3 together in a kit, and offer it at a bit of a discount.

You can follow the link, but basically I have put Steeda's Tri-Ax shifter, their Shifter base/bushing kit, and some Redline MTL together in a package and at a bit of a discount.

I can tell you all things helped my car tremendously. Might just be the MT-82 isn't that bad, but that the shifter and the mounting in the car sucks so badly that you end up with a vague mess. And it makes sense... the soft rubber stock bushing allows the trans to move all over. The baseplate on the stock shifter is a joke too. And MTL has always helped cars with iffy gear engagement work a lot better.

http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetails.php?ModelID=35&PartID=825

did u try both bushing that come with the steeda? i like that they have a softer one, which doesnt give off as much noise. I bought a steeda shifter. it is amazing.

I would never buy a barton shifter. 40% is to hard on the transmission

 

[sterlinggray11gt]

Sam where u from in PA? im in the lehigh valley

 

[wbt]

I would never buy a barton shifter. 40% is to hard on the transmission

....and you base this off of Internet heresy? Back it up with some facts because I can guarantee you that is not the opinion of the owners who have experience using it.

 

[Sam Strano]

I'm in Western PA.

As for the 40% shorter being hard on things... Well, there aren't any stops on the shifters and it's pretty easy to overthrow when banging gears which is hard on the transmission, harder than necessary.

wbt has a Barton... and while he says that it's great (and I don't begrudge him that), I'm more than pleased with my Tri-Ax which cost a *whole lot less*, and I've driven cars with both, and prefer the 20% throw. So, to sum up. You have folks that like both shifters. One costs more, and one has a much shorter throw and more complicated design. If that's what you want, that's ok with me. I'm kind of a K.I.S.S. principal guy. Keep It Simple, Stupid. If simple doesn't work, then I'll move on to other things. But here, it works and works well.

 

[KungFuHamster]

MT-82 has internal shift stops so the old school shift stops arent necessary on these new shifters.

and i applaud strano for giving consumers a package deal.

 

[Sam Strano]

Yeah, most all transmissions do... So do T-56's, but in drag situations they get hammered, and hammered hard and that's just not necessary and the shorter the throw the more likely they are to get beat on

 

[icckart]

Sam, no intent to plug another vendor here in your thread - but, for the sake of completeness on an MT82 "fix" kit:

On that "other" forum (the one that booted you for not paying their vendor ad fee) Adam Louramore of Joe Heck Racing has a long thread about his MT82 issues with the JHR road race test car. He's done fairly extensive internal work (custom fork bushings), but has a slightly modified "kit". Basically the theory is to 1) remove potential misalignment sources with: motor mounts (delrin bushings), shifter mount (like Steeda or Barton) with either delrin or urathane bushings - with an optional shorter throw shifter kit, and 2) fix a potential clutch fluid starvation issue by replacing the stock clutch line with a custom braided steel, larger diameter line (Adam discovered a restriction in the stock lines).

Much of the MT82 focus of late (at least over "there" - other forum) seems to be on incomplete clutch disengagement leading to "grinding" - in turn leading to trashed synchros. I'm not sure I completely buy Adam's theory (the fluid starvation bit), but a few owners have installed his line kit and reported some improvement - or at a minimum, better clutch pedal "feel".

Do you think there could be any merit to this? It seems everyone agrees that a shifter mount replacement helps, with a better shifter also providing another improvement step. Adam claims the motor mounts make a noticeable diff. too. Of course he's also running a RAM clutch, and other tranny fluid too (don't remember exactly what - think it was some super expensive Castrol stuff) - plus internal mods = lots of variables!

BTW: Adam posted that he used to work for Steeda.

 

[Sam Strano]

Do I think there is merit to this? Well, if you can solve your issues more easily and cheaply I'd start there. My car now shifts just fine thank you very much, and I beat the hell out of it. Much like one could port the stock heads and make them flow better too, but there are easier ways to make power.

If you want better pedal feel, take the return assist spring off the clutch pedal. That helps a ton. Lots of cars use restricted lines for the clutches... I don't know why, I think it's to prevent overtravel. This isn't new, the GM cars like C5's and F-bodies were the same way, and people would do the "drill mod". But frankly I didn't find it to be much help.

 

[icckart]

Yes, there was much discussion on the purpose of the restriction - to reduce drive-line lash possible (hadn't heard the over travel idea before). Some techs. who seemed to know what they were talking about mentioned GM use as well (anti-lash). I'm all for a cheap solution, but there are SO many variations of MT82 problems that it's hard to find ONE solution. The clutch line is fairly cheap. I'd wonder about mucking with the return springs though. Wasn't one of the initial MT82 TSBs related to high RPM non-return (clutch stayed engaged). I believe the Job 2 (post-Aug 2011) build cars have the 3-spring modification - which is similar to the GT500 pedal. So you removed one of the return springs?

I personally, like the stock shifter throw, and don't want to go shorter. Steeda, Barton, JHR now all offer new billet mounts (with various bushing options). The MT82 support mount also has crappy rubber isolators (I'm talking about the cross-brace, not the rear shifter assembly mount). Adam contends that stiffening the whole engine/tranny mounting system makes a huge difference. As far as I know nobody yet makes a replacement set of cross-brace mount bushings to replace the soft OEM units (so there's no data on if that helps). There are even reports of DEALER techs. trying shims (along with the QDC fluid swap) as a first-line "fix".

There have been LOTS of posts (other forum again) on people using shims with either the Steeda or even OEM shifter to eliminate lockout of some gears. There doesn't seem to be any hard data though - like: doing x,y,z always (or usually) helps - except for perhaps shifter mount replacement.

Seems like the absolute cheapest/simplest thing everyone should try first is simply pulling the skip-shift solenoid connector - to at least eliminate that PITA...

 

[wbt]

Seems like the absolute cheapest/simplest thing everyone should try first is simply pulling the skip-shift solenoid connector - to at least eliminate that PITA...

Just about every tune out there disables skip shift so no real need to disconnect it.

 

[Sam Strano]

Agreed.. besides that's not any issue with how the shifter itself works unless you are getting into the skip-shift in the first place. It's either active or it's not regardless of it being hooked up.

 

[JAJ]

The clutch line restriction slows down the clutch engagement if the pedal is sidestepped. It reduces torsional shock on the drivetrain components all the way from the tires to the harmonic damper. All BMW manual transmission cars have a restrictor fitting in the clutch line except for the "M" cars, which don't.

Is anyone game for getting this thread back on topic?

The Steeda bracket looks a lot like the JHR bracket. Maybe I should buy one so I can compare them...

 

[Sam Strano]

I'm game. Though that's good information, and something I once knew.... but forgot.