pufferfish
Supporting Vendor
while not very frequent, i do occasionally get questions as to why no matter what they do or add, shifting lockout still occurs. i believe that for every one person who contacts me, there are 3 who don't. so, lets take a look at the mt82 and why it seems to cause problems.
as most of you know, i make a living from selling a product to fix shifting problems. i want you to know right now, i am an objective and analytical person and would never skew what i believe to be truth for my own personal gain, nor would i do it to spare anyone's feelings. the facts are the facts, but with regards to this transmission, nobody can claim the true facts. we have our own personal experiences and then string together other "truths" from other people's experiences to form a conclusion. so, i will keep this objective and as factual as i can. if it is not a solid fact, i will call it theory. lets get started!
the Getrag MT82 Transmission:
This is a German designed, Ford licensed and Chinese built 6 speed manual transmission with an external shifter designed by Ford to fit the constraints of the 2011+ Mustangs. There are 2 main versions of this transmission for Mustangs...the V6 and the V8. There have been some changes to improve the transmission over the course of its existance, but I am not sure of what they were. There are some different part numbers in synchros from 2011 to 2014, but that's about all I know. The 2015 model got some magical changes to help improve shifting, but the only actual transmission change I am aware of is a little ear casted into the tailshaft housing just behind the shifter mounting bosses are now gone. It appears it was there to prevent the shifter from falling too far when the rear body mount was detached. The larger cast aluminum shifter arm would interfere with this ear, so its gone. After that, I can only identify the shifter as the shift improving change. The V6 transmission is identical externally to the V8, but uses a different gearset. Its positioned 30mm farther forward in the chassis, so the V6 shifter is longer to reach the extra 30mm and get the shifter handle in the same position as the V8. This same position is shared on the 2015 ecoboost 4 cylinder model as well. I don't know if the Ecoboost uses a different gearset.
POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES:
gearing. i have my own excel spreadsheet that calculates wheel torque in a particular gear at a particular MPH to tell me where my optimal shift points are. I have compared it to the Tremec ratios and the MT82 is the closest to perfect ratios and gear spacing. this is especially important for a naturally apirated small displacement engine such as the coyote 5.0L engine. the only way the Tremec can get the gear spacing right is to go with the Viper spec 2.66 first gear. its nearly the same as the 2-6 gears in the MT82. so, as you can imagine, getting the car moving is going to be more difficult. if you have ever taken off from a stoplight in 2nd gear, this is what you get full time out of the viper spec gearset. to be able to bring the wheel torque numbers back up to the level of the MT82, the rear gears must change from 3.73 to 4.56! those are dump truck gears, my friends! talk about gear whine! now, the tremecs have their place. for forced induction engines, the 3.66 first gear in the MT82 would completely overwhelm tires. also, for strictly road racing, where first gear is of no consequence, its a non-issue. for the rest of us, its deeply disappointing to change out the MT82.
synchros. the synchros in the MT82 get a lot of flack, but they are actually a good design that works well for high rpm shifting. the design is called "triple cone". as you can guess, it uses 3 cones, which have friction material on them. they are sandwiched together and allow very quick and smooth changes in synchro speed to prevent grinding into gear, especially over 7000rpm. I am not sure when Tremec switched from dual to triple cone synchros, but I have read that the T-56 in the 2004 Cobra does not have them. I have also read that older models of the TR6060 exist without them. the Magnum XL has always had them, as the transmission is post 2011.
strength. with so many failures, how could this transmission be strong? well, for a factory issued transmission, it is reasonably robust. it carries a higher torque rating than any factory Ford issue T-56 and by my estimation, it is grossly underrated by Ford. The gearing is wide faced and the shafts are of good diameter. The roller bearings are well suited and it uses a mid bearing plate to keep the distance betweeen bearings to a minimum. there is some question of cheap chinese metalugy in the gearsets causing them to explode, but i THEORIZE that most failures are synchro related, not gear or shaft related. I only know of a handful of 3rd gear explosions and 1 input shaft shearing off. For those who came from the T-5 world, breaking shiznit was commonplace in factory issue 225hp and got exponentially worse with a head/cam/intake making 350hp. Well, the plastic shift for pads must be a weak point, right? Everyone is replacing them with brass, so the plastic ones suck! nope. even the revered Magnum XL uses plastic fork pads. their breakage, much like the synchros, is a symptom, but the problem. if your shoe laces are tied together and you repeadedly fall and break you leg, is your leg weak? of course not!
NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES:
semi-remote mount shifter design. this is the BIGGEST issue. period. the transmission rocks under engine torque. pop the hood and rev the engine and you will see what i mean. the shifter in our cars, as well as many other front engine, rear drive cars, attaches half of the shifter to the tranmsission and the other half to the body. when the engine is under varying loads of torque and the transmission rocks, it casues the shifter to twist and misalign. when this happens, its like someone has your wrist in their hand and are pulling and pushing while you are trying to grab a glass of water. you may get the water, but most likely you won't.
plastic shift rail stop pin. this is a big failure point with "gear bangers". pounding a hardened steel shift rail's flat face against a round piece of plastic is bad news. actually, the pin is steel, but relies on a plastic donut at the tip to stop the shift rail. these donuts don't shatter. they deform into an oval before finally splitting in half after repeated blows. the deformation allows the shift rail to over-travel somewhat. when it breaks off, the shift rail over-travels A LOT! synchros don't have over-travel capability in them. so, they either fail or the shift fork pads do. when the shift fork pads do, they tend to cause synchro failure.
gear lube. this kills me. it seemed intuitive for Ford to choose a gear lube over the automatic transmission fluid the tremecs have always used. the better shear strength of a proper gear lube equals higher load capacity and longer life in high heat. but the problem is, when its cold, things like synchros don't move as freely as you would like. hence the cold synchro nibble.
in the transmission itself, there isn't much more to speak of. if the shifter were internally mounted (like the magnum xl) and they used a brass tipped shift rail stop pin, it never would have gotten the black eye it has now. if the trans could survive with a lighter fluid, the cold shifting would be more pleasant too, but we would all easily trade the cold issues for a trans that holds up over time.
The Shifter:
again, by default, semi-remote means suck in my opinion. but the shifter attached to the 2011-2014 MT82 is so completely poor.
first, the welded tubular arm that attaches the shifter box to the transmission. the process of welding anything together results in an imperfect part. the only wat to make it perfect after welding is to machine it back to the designed parameters. most engineers design welded parts into assemblies that don't require precise location or have adjustability built in to overcome the inconsistancies in the weldment. ford finally realized this and changed the 2015 design to a cast aluminum assembly. but before then, the weldments used "clocked" the shifter boxes improperly in many cases. by "clocked" i mean, that along the shift rail's axis, the box may be rotated to the left or the right. to the left has little to no consequence. roatated right puts the reverse lockout too far right and, in turn, pinches off the 1-2 gate. this causes a fair amount of the nibble (not including cold shifting).
second, the geometry. measured from the transmission's shift rail, the angle to get from the 3-4 gate to the 1-2 gate is about the same for the MT82 and the TR6060 (about 5-6 degrees). If memory serves me, the T-5 had about the same. the shifter geometry makes this seem incredibly narrow in the MT82, but not the TR6060. Ford also recognized this issue and increased the shifter's pitch marginally. it has worked, as everyone who tested the 2015 thought it shifted so much better. Adam Browne, owner of Rev Auto, powershifted his 2015 with ease in stock trim, where his 2011 never was able to. He still allowed me to test fit a prototype 2015 shifter support kit on his car though. I will get to why it was a good thing in a bit. In any case, the effective gate spacing the driver experiences, coupled with the semi-remote design, is the culprit in missed gears...especially the 2-3 change. Again, lets picture someone holding your wrist and moving side to side while you try to grab the glass of water. the narrowed gate pitch is the same as closing your hand to the point that your fingers and thumb are just far enough for the glass to snugly fit between. some aftermarket shifters actually make this worse. single pivot designs, like the steeda, shorten throws and pitch at the same ratio. the better shifters like the MGW and Barton, usa dual pivot, which has a stock height pivot for the pitch and a taller pivot to shorten the throw. but, even then, the overly sensitive pitch can be effected by shifter handle knob choice. cue ball knobs typically sit lower on the handle than a factory gt knob. the effective throw and gate spacing are relative to the distance between the pivot point and the driver's palm. picture where your hand sits in first gear verses third gear. now lets picture a 1 foot extension and again picture where your hand would be in forst gear and third gear. nothing changed in the geometry of the shifter. its pivot points have not changed, but the gate spacing you experience certainly has!
lastly, the shifter's ability to fatigue over time. as discussed before, the shifter is in a fight between the transmission that rocks and the body that does not. the shifter's ability to fight this and stay as inline with the transmission as possible over time is related to its design. the 2005-2010 TR3650 and the 2011-2015 MT82 all use a single arm with a single bushing and bolt to attach the shifter arm to the transmission. the single bushing can't resist much angular moment before it deflects. the gt500's TR6060, as well as the camaro and challenger's version of the TR6060 use a pair of arms with bushings and bolts for each to attach to the transmission and they are as far apart as possible to reduce the deflection. make no mistake, it still does deflect, but its taken up more in the steel arms which will bounce back form much longer than the rubber will. so, it takes much less time to turn your shifter into a limp noodle wit ha dual arm design than a single one. case in point. adam browne still has the shifter support kit in his 2015 and powershifts at will. his close friend and customer, a well known professional drifter (whom i don't know if i am at libery to say,m so i won't) has a mt82 with a factory shifter on his 2015 drifting/show car. he complained about the shifter turning to goo and asked adam to change it out. instead, he got a shifter support kit with the same worn out stock shifter. the shop guys have driven it and say its a "night and day" difference. the owner will be trying it out for the first time next week for a private event at a famous racetrack in virginia. i anxiously await his response, but am confident he will have no need to seek out another solution....unless sponsor dollars dictate it.
The Clutch:
this is the most hotly debated topic on the internet. i couldn't begin to relay fact on this subject, so its all theory. the 2011 gt clutch had pressure plate bolts backing out, causing ford to change the design to add more bolts. when this change happened, i can't say, but i believe it started wit the 2012 boss. that is the only difference i can find between my stock 2011 clutch and a 2012 boss clutch. no amount of bolts should have loosened, regardless of the quantity. shame on you ford! i believe it is a reasonable clutch for a reasonable hp level, but isn't suited for fast shifting at high rpm.
there are 2 main issues that cause owners to ditch the factory clutch or try to "correct" it. 1) the clutch pedal sticking to the floor. 2) shifting issues. to me, the clutch sticking to the floor is an easy one. its purely mechanical. there isn't enough force to bring the clutch pedal back up in certain circumstances. some believe the helper spring is the problem and removing it sometimes helps the situation...and sometimes not. some say there isn't enough volume in the clutch line to allow fast movement of the fluid, so they replace the clutch line. i have never seen anyone's sticking issue be solved with this, but i'm sure it exists somewhere. my theory is this: diaphragm clutches naturally have a decreasing spring force the farther the throwout bearing is pushed into them. when fully depressed, there is very little of the gross spring force left to push back against the throwout bearing, but should be just enough to get the clutch to reengage without a foot on the clutch pedal. my theory is that the cetrifugal force generated by rpm causes the clutch to go into an "overcenter" condition. this means that at some position, there is zero spring force to push the diphragm back out and actually some force in the opposite direction to hold it open. the clutch pedal sticking to the floor at high rpm is where i derived this theory from. it happens much less frequently for those running gt intakes, which have no reason to shift above 7000rpm. with a higher clamp force aftermarket clutch, i shift up to 8000rpm without issue and with the helper spring installed and the stock clutch line. i have heard of a few people with twin disc clutches still having the issue and if my theory is correct, it explains their issues as well. the twin discs use the same or less clamp force in their diaphragm pressure plates, but can hold more power because of twice the friction surface of a single disc. a lighter pressure plate will do nothing to counteract the phenominon i described.
the other complaint is shifting issues. i know what a weak clutch does to effect shifting and it has nothing to do with "lockout". lockout is purely the shifter is not mechanically engaging the shift rail tangs into the shift fork rail slots to move the shift forks and engage/disengage the desired synchros. clutches can only make the synchros grind, as some of hte engine's torque is still being applied to the input shaft. if you have true lockout (no noise, just a brick wall), i bet dollars to donuts that you will not solve the issue with a clutch alone. the touchy point is that some people actually have done just that. why? my last point addresses this.
DRIVER!!!!!
we all manage to shift differently. there is no right or wrong way to shift, but there are certainly styles that are not well suited to a particular vehicle or speed/power shifting that vehcile. the timing between the clutch foot and shifting arm are fairly critical. letting out the clutch too soon will cause grinding. some recognize this as user error when it happens and others jump on the "fukin mt82" bandwagon. muscle memory is the biggest issue, especially with a narrow gate shifter. going from 1-2 is usually very easy (sans the semi-remote shifter issue). keep left pressure on while pulling back and the gate will be there. you are riding a mechanical guide (the reverse lockout) to make sure you get into 2nd gear. 2-3 relies on an invisible point in space to get into the gate. nothing guides you there except for some relatively weak centering springs that get you there repeatedly under normal and relaxed driving. when "gittin her", you will easily overcome the springs (yes even the heavy mgw springs) and are relying on assumptions folowed by trial and error and then over time, muscle memory, to get you into the gate. go back to our wrist holding water glass grab, but with a blindfold on. get the idea? if you came from a tremec shifted car to this one, your muscle memory is useless and a hinderance, because where you anticipate the gate to be is never where it is. you need to retrain your muscle memory, but how can you? remember, the shifter gates are not in a defined location with a semi-remote shifter. using different methods, hand placements and slowing your rows down to allow the internal centering springs to guid you in, will go a long way towards overcoming the wonky shifter. but once you have the shifter predictably located (with a blowfish shifter support kit, of course), thats when you can retrain your muscle memory to find that gate every time.
recently, after the release and success of the blowfish shifter support kit, both barton and mgw have jumped on that bandwagon. i don't much care to bash or imply i was the pioneer of this idea...even though i thought i was until i was told otherwise. i will pat myself on the back, though, for being the first to jump in and finally offering people a REAL solution to the miserable shifting issues and its good to see the other shifter companies joining in this methodology. it would have been stupid of them to not jump in and i don't fault them for it. they employ people and i don't want anyone to suffer. also, as a consumer, i like having choices. it forces innovation. lets see what i come up with to compete
as most of you know, i make a living from selling a product to fix shifting problems. i want you to know right now, i am an objective and analytical person and would never skew what i believe to be truth for my own personal gain, nor would i do it to spare anyone's feelings. the facts are the facts, but with regards to this transmission, nobody can claim the true facts. we have our own personal experiences and then string together other "truths" from other people's experiences to form a conclusion. so, i will keep this objective and as factual as i can. if it is not a solid fact, i will call it theory. lets get started!
the Getrag MT82 Transmission:
This is a German designed, Ford licensed and Chinese built 6 speed manual transmission with an external shifter designed by Ford to fit the constraints of the 2011+ Mustangs. There are 2 main versions of this transmission for Mustangs...the V6 and the V8. There have been some changes to improve the transmission over the course of its existance, but I am not sure of what they were. There are some different part numbers in synchros from 2011 to 2014, but that's about all I know. The 2015 model got some magical changes to help improve shifting, but the only actual transmission change I am aware of is a little ear casted into the tailshaft housing just behind the shifter mounting bosses are now gone. It appears it was there to prevent the shifter from falling too far when the rear body mount was detached. The larger cast aluminum shifter arm would interfere with this ear, so its gone. After that, I can only identify the shifter as the shift improving change. The V6 transmission is identical externally to the V8, but uses a different gearset. Its positioned 30mm farther forward in the chassis, so the V6 shifter is longer to reach the extra 30mm and get the shifter handle in the same position as the V8. This same position is shared on the 2015 ecoboost 4 cylinder model as well. I don't know if the Ecoboost uses a different gearset.
POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES:
gearing. i have my own excel spreadsheet that calculates wheel torque in a particular gear at a particular MPH to tell me where my optimal shift points are. I have compared it to the Tremec ratios and the MT82 is the closest to perfect ratios and gear spacing. this is especially important for a naturally apirated small displacement engine such as the coyote 5.0L engine. the only way the Tremec can get the gear spacing right is to go with the Viper spec 2.66 first gear. its nearly the same as the 2-6 gears in the MT82. so, as you can imagine, getting the car moving is going to be more difficult. if you have ever taken off from a stoplight in 2nd gear, this is what you get full time out of the viper spec gearset. to be able to bring the wheel torque numbers back up to the level of the MT82, the rear gears must change from 3.73 to 4.56! those are dump truck gears, my friends! talk about gear whine! now, the tremecs have their place. for forced induction engines, the 3.66 first gear in the MT82 would completely overwhelm tires. also, for strictly road racing, where first gear is of no consequence, its a non-issue. for the rest of us, its deeply disappointing to change out the MT82.
synchros. the synchros in the MT82 get a lot of flack, but they are actually a good design that works well for high rpm shifting. the design is called "triple cone". as you can guess, it uses 3 cones, which have friction material on them. they are sandwiched together and allow very quick and smooth changes in synchro speed to prevent grinding into gear, especially over 7000rpm. I am not sure when Tremec switched from dual to triple cone synchros, but I have read that the T-56 in the 2004 Cobra does not have them. I have also read that older models of the TR6060 exist without them. the Magnum XL has always had them, as the transmission is post 2011.
strength. with so many failures, how could this transmission be strong? well, for a factory issued transmission, it is reasonably robust. it carries a higher torque rating than any factory Ford issue T-56 and by my estimation, it is grossly underrated by Ford. The gearing is wide faced and the shafts are of good diameter. The roller bearings are well suited and it uses a mid bearing plate to keep the distance betweeen bearings to a minimum. there is some question of cheap chinese metalugy in the gearsets causing them to explode, but i THEORIZE that most failures are synchro related, not gear or shaft related. I only know of a handful of 3rd gear explosions and 1 input shaft shearing off. For those who came from the T-5 world, breaking shiznit was commonplace in factory issue 225hp and got exponentially worse with a head/cam/intake making 350hp. Well, the plastic shift for pads must be a weak point, right? Everyone is replacing them with brass, so the plastic ones suck! nope. even the revered Magnum XL uses plastic fork pads. their breakage, much like the synchros, is a symptom, but the problem. if your shoe laces are tied together and you repeadedly fall and break you leg, is your leg weak? of course not!
NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES:
semi-remote mount shifter design. this is the BIGGEST issue. period. the transmission rocks under engine torque. pop the hood and rev the engine and you will see what i mean. the shifter in our cars, as well as many other front engine, rear drive cars, attaches half of the shifter to the tranmsission and the other half to the body. when the engine is under varying loads of torque and the transmission rocks, it casues the shifter to twist and misalign. when this happens, its like someone has your wrist in their hand and are pulling and pushing while you are trying to grab a glass of water. you may get the water, but most likely you won't.
plastic shift rail stop pin. this is a big failure point with "gear bangers". pounding a hardened steel shift rail's flat face against a round piece of plastic is bad news. actually, the pin is steel, but relies on a plastic donut at the tip to stop the shift rail. these donuts don't shatter. they deform into an oval before finally splitting in half after repeated blows. the deformation allows the shift rail to over-travel somewhat. when it breaks off, the shift rail over-travels A LOT! synchros don't have over-travel capability in them. so, they either fail or the shift fork pads do. when the shift fork pads do, they tend to cause synchro failure.
gear lube. this kills me. it seemed intuitive for Ford to choose a gear lube over the automatic transmission fluid the tremecs have always used. the better shear strength of a proper gear lube equals higher load capacity and longer life in high heat. but the problem is, when its cold, things like synchros don't move as freely as you would like. hence the cold synchro nibble.
in the transmission itself, there isn't much more to speak of. if the shifter were internally mounted (like the magnum xl) and they used a brass tipped shift rail stop pin, it never would have gotten the black eye it has now. if the trans could survive with a lighter fluid, the cold shifting would be more pleasant too, but we would all easily trade the cold issues for a trans that holds up over time.
The Shifter:
again, by default, semi-remote means suck in my opinion. but the shifter attached to the 2011-2014 MT82 is so completely poor.
first, the welded tubular arm that attaches the shifter box to the transmission. the process of welding anything together results in an imperfect part. the only wat to make it perfect after welding is to machine it back to the designed parameters. most engineers design welded parts into assemblies that don't require precise location or have adjustability built in to overcome the inconsistancies in the weldment. ford finally realized this and changed the 2015 design to a cast aluminum assembly. but before then, the weldments used "clocked" the shifter boxes improperly in many cases. by "clocked" i mean, that along the shift rail's axis, the box may be rotated to the left or the right. to the left has little to no consequence. roatated right puts the reverse lockout too far right and, in turn, pinches off the 1-2 gate. this causes a fair amount of the nibble (not including cold shifting).
second, the geometry. measured from the transmission's shift rail, the angle to get from the 3-4 gate to the 1-2 gate is about the same for the MT82 and the TR6060 (about 5-6 degrees). If memory serves me, the T-5 had about the same. the shifter geometry makes this seem incredibly narrow in the MT82, but not the TR6060. Ford also recognized this issue and increased the shifter's pitch marginally. it has worked, as everyone who tested the 2015 thought it shifted so much better. Adam Browne, owner of Rev Auto, powershifted his 2015 with ease in stock trim, where his 2011 never was able to. He still allowed me to test fit a prototype 2015 shifter support kit on his car though. I will get to why it was a good thing in a bit. In any case, the effective gate spacing the driver experiences, coupled with the semi-remote design, is the culprit in missed gears...especially the 2-3 change. Again, lets picture someone holding your wrist and moving side to side while you try to grab the glass of water. the narrowed gate pitch is the same as closing your hand to the point that your fingers and thumb are just far enough for the glass to snugly fit between. some aftermarket shifters actually make this worse. single pivot designs, like the steeda, shorten throws and pitch at the same ratio. the better shifters like the MGW and Barton, usa dual pivot, which has a stock height pivot for the pitch and a taller pivot to shorten the throw. but, even then, the overly sensitive pitch can be effected by shifter handle knob choice. cue ball knobs typically sit lower on the handle than a factory gt knob. the effective throw and gate spacing are relative to the distance between the pivot point and the driver's palm. picture where your hand sits in first gear verses third gear. now lets picture a 1 foot extension and again picture where your hand would be in forst gear and third gear. nothing changed in the geometry of the shifter. its pivot points have not changed, but the gate spacing you experience certainly has!
lastly, the shifter's ability to fatigue over time. as discussed before, the shifter is in a fight between the transmission that rocks and the body that does not. the shifter's ability to fight this and stay as inline with the transmission as possible over time is related to its design. the 2005-2010 TR3650 and the 2011-2015 MT82 all use a single arm with a single bushing and bolt to attach the shifter arm to the transmission. the single bushing can't resist much angular moment before it deflects. the gt500's TR6060, as well as the camaro and challenger's version of the TR6060 use a pair of arms with bushings and bolts for each to attach to the transmission and they are as far apart as possible to reduce the deflection. make no mistake, it still does deflect, but its taken up more in the steel arms which will bounce back form much longer than the rubber will. so, it takes much less time to turn your shifter into a limp noodle wit ha dual arm design than a single one. case in point. adam browne still has the shifter support kit in his 2015 and powershifts at will. his close friend and customer, a well known professional drifter (whom i don't know if i am at libery to say,m so i won't) has a mt82 with a factory shifter on his 2015 drifting/show car. he complained about the shifter turning to goo and asked adam to change it out. instead, he got a shifter support kit with the same worn out stock shifter. the shop guys have driven it and say its a "night and day" difference. the owner will be trying it out for the first time next week for a private event at a famous racetrack in virginia. i anxiously await his response, but am confident he will have no need to seek out another solution....unless sponsor dollars dictate it.
The Clutch:
this is the most hotly debated topic on the internet. i couldn't begin to relay fact on this subject, so its all theory. the 2011 gt clutch had pressure plate bolts backing out, causing ford to change the design to add more bolts. when this change happened, i can't say, but i believe it started wit the 2012 boss. that is the only difference i can find between my stock 2011 clutch and a 2012 boss clutch. no amount of bolts should have loosened, regardless of the quantity. shame on you ford! i believe it is a reasonable clutch for a reasonable hp level, but isn't suited for fast shifting at high rpm.
there are 2 main issues that cause owners to ditch the factory clutch or try to "correct" it. 1) the clutch pedal sticking to the floor. 2) shifting issues. to me, the clutch sticking to the floor is an easy one. its purely mechanical. there isn't enough force to bring the clutch pedal back up in certain circumstances. some believe the helper spring is the problem and removing it sometimes helps the situation...and sometimes not. some say there isn't enough volume in the clutch line to allow fast movement of the fluid, so they replace the clutch line. i have never seen anyone's sticking issue be solved with this, but i'm sure it exists somewhere. my theory is this: diaphragm clutches naturally have a decreasing spring force the farther the throwout bearing is pushed into them. when fully depressed, there is very little of the gross spring force left to push back against the throwout bearing, but should be just enough to get the clutch to reengage without a foot on the clutch pedal. my theory is that the cetrifugal force generated by rpm causes the clutch to go into an "overcenter" condition. this means that at some position, there is zero spring force to push the diphragm back out and actually some force in the opposite direction to hold it open. the clutch pedal sticking to the floor at high rpm is where i derived this theory from. it happens much less frequently for those running gt intakes, which have no reason to shift above 7000rpm. with a higher clamp force aftermarket clutch, i shift up to 8000rpm without issue and with the helper spring installed and the stock clutch line. i have heard of a few people with twin disc clutches still having the issue and if my theory is correct, it explains their issues as well. the twin discs use the same or less clamp force in their diaphragm pressure plates, but can hold more power because of twice the friction surface of a single disc. a lighter pressure plate will do nothing to counteract the phenominon i described.
the other complaint is shifting issues. i know what a weak clutch does to effect shifting and it has nothing to do with "lockout". lockout is purely the shifter is not mechanically engaging the shift rail tangs into the shift fork rail slots to move the shift forks and engage/disengage the desired synchros. clutches can only make the synchros grind, as some of hte engine's torque is still being applied to the input shaft. if you have true lockout (no noise, just a brick wall), i bet dollars to donuts that you will not solve the issue with a clutch alone. the touchy point is that some people actually have done just that. why? my last point addresses this.
DRIVER!!!!!
we all manage to shift differently. there is no right or wrong way to shift, but there are certainly styles that are not well suited to a particular vehicle or speed/power shifting that vehcile. the timing between the clutch foot and shifting arm are fairly critical. letting out the clutch too soon will cause grinding. some recognize this as user error when it happens and others jump on the "fukin mt82" bandwagon. muscle memory is the biggest issue, especially with a narrow gate shifter. going from 1-2 is usually very easy (sans the semi-remote shifter issue). keep left pressure on while pulling back and the gate will be there. you are riding a mechanical guide (the reverse lockout) to make sure you get into 2nd gear. 2-3 relies on an invisible point in space to get into the gate. nothing guides you there except for some relatively weak centering springs that get you there repeatedly under normal and relaxed driving. when "gittin her", you will easily overcome the springs (yes even the heavy mgw springs) and are relying on assumptions folowed by trial and error and then over time, muscle memory, to get you into the gate. go back to our wrist holding water glass grab, but with a blindfold on. get the idea? if you came from a tremec shifted car to this one, your muscle memory is useless and a hinderance, because where you anticipate the gate to be is never where it is. you need to retrain your muscle memory, but how can you? remember, the shifter gates are not in a defined location with a semi-remote shifter. using different methods, hand placements and slowing your rows down to allow the internal centering springs to guid you in, will go a long way towards overcoming the wonky shifter. but once you have the shifter predictably located (with a blowfish shifter support kit, of course), thats when you can retrain your muscle memory to find that gate every time.
recently, after the release and success of the blowfish shifter support kit, both barton and mgw have jumped on that bandwagon. i don't much care to bash or imply i was the pioneer of this idea...even though i thought i was until i was told otherwise. i will pat myself on the back, though, for being the first to jump in and finally offering people a REAL solution to the miserable shifting issues and its good to see the other shifter companies joining in this methodology. it would have been stupid of them to not jump in and i don't fault them for it. they employ people and i don't want anyone to suffer. also, as a consumer, i like having choices. it forces innovation. lets see what i come up with to compete
