When I first got my car about three years ago, the B&M OEM shifter was hard to move when the car was cold. When I car was hot, the shifter was almost impossible to move. I tried WD40, but that was no help. So, I replaced the shifter. Since Ford wanted about $475 for the shifter assembly, I bought just the B&M shifter from another source. Everything then worked great.
Now, the shifter is acting almost the same way again. When cold the shifter is very smooth and moves freely, but when the car gets hot, the shifter is getting difficult to move.
I have removed the console and drenched the shifter with WD40, but that does not seem to help.
Has anyone solved this problem? Do I need a better lubricant? Do I need a better heat shield? Do I need to replace the shifter every two years? Do the other brands of shifters have the same problem?
Any suggestions will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I had this very same problem when I upgraded to the B&M. I had removed the heat shield under the shifter and the hotter the car got, the harder it got to move the shifter, my right arm has quite the muscle from it.
The way I solved it was I had gotten a tub of ES bushing grease with my ES suspension kit. I took the bolt out of the shifter where it joins the linkage under the passenger compartment and then put some of the ES bushing grease on the bushings that are there.
I have not had a problem since. I’m betting this will help you out too.
to my knowledge, ES does not make a bushing kit for this location. The bushings ES offers are for where the stabilizer/gear rods meets the transmission under the car, not where the shifter meets the stabilizer/gear shift rods. I installed these as part of my ES kit, I checked if they would fit the bottom of the shifter and they did not.
The real way to fix it , is to just loose the heat shield all together !!! There is no heat issues at all , trust me . I have a adjustable shifter in mine , its so low it almost touches my 2.5 inch exhaust .
Loosing the heat shield is what caused my problem. Heat coming off the exhaust caused the bushings to dry out and bind. Unfortunately there’s not enough room to use a short shifter and keep the heat shield.
I finally got time to work on the S/R. I tried the ES bushing grease on the connection between the shift lever and the shift rod that goes to the transmission. It helped a little, but it did not cure the problem. Even when the shift lever is in the neutral position, it is difficult to move from side to side. The grease on the bolt holding the yoke to the bottom of the lever does not help movement it that direction.
Again, when the car is cold, the lever is cold and it shifts very easily and smoothly.
Next, I think I’ll try adding a second heat shield. I’ll try to find another shield in a salvage yard.
Did you grease the bolt or the bushings? For me the bushings were what were binding.
Just had another thought… Have you tried the using the bushing / lithium grease on the bushing and spring assembly that the shifter drops down through? Sorry im not sure what it is called.