Do All 3650's Shift Slow??

[Nemethjames1]

I have a 04 gt it has the tr3650.
I have tried all kinds of different oils, even the combo people claim works wonders for the Mach 1.

Stock shifter and pro 5.0 still slow to shift.

It feels like it takes some resistance to get it into gear every shift. When racing friends each shift they gain a few feet!

T5 and t56's I've had shifted super fast!

My clutch has a lot of miles left on it king cobra clutch.

But throw out bearing is noisy. And clutch pedal is really hard. Lubed cable and inspected and no change. Stock quadrant and adjuster.

Am I gonna have to replace some parts to make it shift faster than 1.5 seconds to shift? No trans noise no grinds and doesn't pop out of gear

Hope a clutch kit will help!

 

[Neuron]

Usually as long as the clutch is fully releasing it doesn't matter(though the "hard pedal" does not sound right). If money is available I would replace the cable with factory only, aluminum quadrant and firewall adjuster(so nice not to have to climb under the car to adjust) All of these trannies can do that when they are high mileage or been thrashed (worn syncros, blockers etc). I would replace the TOB and check all the parts before thinking about tranny work.

 

[Dark04GT]

The tr3650 should be shifting as fast as you can.

The stock quadrant has a self adjust feature that might need some resetting. See your owners manual or any shop manual to give this a try and see if it makes things better.

Otherwise - when you are buying parts for your new clutch - you can tighten up things with a better quadrant. Make sure you get a clutch that suits your power goals and feel preferences. Combine it with a lighter flywheel if you want a little extra zip (aluminum or a lighter steel flywheel).

When you are changing out the clutch I would get a new TOB and an aluminum quadrant (get the firewall adjuster on that page too):
https://www.americanmuscle.com/frpp-double-hook-quadrant-8204.html?utm_content=Driveline - Clutch Accessories|Ford Performance&utm_campaign=AMM 1979-2004 No Years&utm_source=google-pla&utm_medium=shopping&T5_Var3=blue&T5_Var4=101518&intl=0

 

[Mattstang04]

I've owned 2 different 04 mustangs. Both with 3650s. I get what your talking about.

It's real notchy. There seems to be a little resistance before they drop into gear. A t5 is like pushing a sharp knife thru warm butter. They fall right into gear.

I have never poeer shifted any transmission. But you can do some pretty fast regular shifting with the 3650. Just have to know how it wants to be handled. There's a finess to it.

With age that second gear will get slower and more resistant to falling into gear though. Especially when its cold out.

 

[squeak93]

The 3650 is notchy to say the least. They will never "feel" like at t5/t45. However you can still row some gears in them like a boss.

Change your cable/quadrant out to a kit from maximum motorsports (only buy their kit). The King cobra clutch has some of the worst pedal feel I've ever used. I hate them. I personally love spec clutches. They hold nice, have good pedal effort and have never failed me. Others will say Ram or Centerforce. To each their own.

When my old 04 GT was still under warranty I had the transmission replaced as we could never cure the notchyness of it and had shifting characteristics. They replaced a ton of them from 02-04 under warranty. Had a few TSB's on them as well. My replacement shifted better but whined lol.

 

[rancorkeeper]

Had a few TSB's on them as well.

It's quite possible one of the TSBs related to shift fork replacements may be the culprit here. There were a lot of us in '01 & '02 who had shift forks replaced for manufacturing defects (mine was the 1-2, but others had problems with 2-3). I don't know if the later year SN95s were still having issues with the shift forks, but one of the common complaints was they would "shift slow" - the shift fork replacement often cured this issue.

All that said, I can crack shifts in my 3650 (Exedy clutch & Steeda Tri-Ax) much faster than I could in any of my T-5s.

 

[squeak93]

That's exactly what I was getting at. The dealer I used just chose to put a new trans in as it was quicker than the fork replacement. The issues went all the way through the 04 build as I had it done as well as a few buddies that also had 04's.

That being said I'm one of the few that'd take a built t45 over a 3650 any day. They always just felt/shifted so much better.

 

[Nemethjames1]

Well I'll order cable quadrant and adjuster tomorrow.

If that doesn't fix it I'll pull trans replace all clutch bearing components, pressure plate and disk, and lighter flywheel

Suckd racing friends and have them gain on me or even win because it takes 1 and a half seconds or more per shift!

Thanks for the input. Couldn't get any real info with hours of google searching

 

[squeak93]

Buy the whole kit (Cable and all). Most issues like this are actually the cable. Don't buy any kit but a maximum motorsports. I've tried them all and trust me Maximum is hands down the best set up.