Ford Performance Hurst Manual Shifter T5/T45 Mustang 1979-2004

Whether you drive a Fox Mustang like our '90 here, or you're driving a brand new 2014, one of the first parts we suggest upgrading is going to be the shifter. Factory shifters tend to be vague, and also have excessively long throws. A good aftermarket shifter is going to make the car a lot more fun to drive. The positive stops will also reduce wear on your transmission. Today, we're going to upgrade the shifter on our '90 using this Hurst shifter from Ford Racing.

This shifter will fit 1983 through early 2001 Mustangs, using either a T5 or a T45 transmission. It features a built aluminum base, with a steel handle, making it extremely strong. The ring has adjustable stops to prevent internal wear to your transmission. It includes a lower boot, shift knob, new bolts, and a spacer for use with T45 transmissions found in 1997 through early 2001 mustangs.

For this installation you'll need a 3/8 ratchet, 13mm socket, 6" extension, 1/4" socket, 5/16 deep socket, 10mm socket, 3" extension, 15mm wrench, 5/16 ratcheting wrench, 7/32 Allen key, pry bar, and silicone.

It's been so long since I've been in a Fox mustang with a stock shifter, I almost forgot how bad they are. Real tall, throws are going to be real long between gears, also got a lot of play in it. Our Hurst should make a really nice upgrade. First step in removing the stock shifter is removing the stock knob. Simply grab it and turn it counterclockwise. Now we'll left up on the edges here, to remove the boot and retainer.

To remove the factory lower shift boot, you've got to remove these four lower bolts. There is one here, one here, and two that are kind of harder to see under the dash. We'll start with the back two that you can reach with a socket. We're going to remove this stock shifter handle. Now we can turn and remove our lower boot. These four bolts here, they hold our stock shifter to our T5. At this point the shifter is held in place only by the factory sealant. Sometimes you can simply pull it right out. If it still won't come out, just use a small pry bar.

You've got to make sure this little plastic cup stayed in the transmission. Sometimes it can attach to the shifter. You want to pull it off, put it back in, you'll need it for your new shifter. You want to try to get some of this original gasket material off before we install the new shifter. Now we'll lay down some new silicone for our new shifter.

Now we're ready to install our shifter. If your car is a '97 through early '01 with a T45 transmission, at this point you want to install the spacer, and put another layer of gasket on top of it. Since we're working with a T5, we don't need the spacer, we're ready to install the shifter. You want to make sure this ball at the bottom of the shifter goes into that plastic cup we showed you earlier. Lay it down into place, and now we're ready to bolt down the shifter into the transmission.

The Hurst shifter includes its own hardware. You want to make sure you use this, not the original hardware. Now we're going to tighten them down, and make sure you go corner to corner when tightening. Now we're ready to adjust our stops. You want to put the car into second gear, loosen the jam nut up, then thread the stud in until it's touching the shifter handle. Make sure pulling back on it, in second gear. Once it touches, you go one half- turn away, and then tighten the jam nut. Now the same thing with third gear, pushing the stick forward, thread it in until it touches, and one half-turn off. Then tighten up the jam nut.

There are preloaded springs on either side of the shift handle down inside this ring. What they do is, when you go from second, it automatically centers it to put it right into third when you're shifting to third, which one of the hardest gears to hit at speed. These are adjustable, and I found that most times they are centered pretty good from the factory. But, if you want to adjust them, there is instructions inside, and requires removing these and removing the springs.

Now we're going to install the Hurst supplied lower boot. This has to go over the ring to keep dust from getting into the shifter. Now we're going to reinstall the factory lower dust boot, and now we'll bolt that back into place.

Now we're ready to install the factory boot with the factory retainer. There are a couple of options here. You can install it just as it is from the factory, but you leave the boot at the very top. It will hide the chrome stick. When the knobs installed it will look factory. The other option is to remove part of the stock boot so it can slide down further. Inside the factory boot is this little rubber seal. If we push this out, now we can reinstall the boot and we can actually slide the boot further down so we can see the Hurst logo on our new handle.

Now we'll install the shift knob retainer. Make sure the smooth side is facing up. Thread it down to the bottom, just about, and we'll thread on our knob. Get the knob nice and straight, then we'll tighten the retainer into the knob, and our installation is finished.

The chrome Hurst handle and the white ball give our Mustang a timeless look. The positive stops, shorter throws, and preloaded second and third is going to make our Mustang a lot more fun to drive as well. Figure about an hour and a half for installation, so you'll be back on the road in no time.