Shifter bracket nuts fell off while driving

DudeStang

Nuts fell off while driving
5 Year Member
Apr 30, 2017
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A little background first...a little over a month ago I installed the steeda tri-ax shifter on my 2014 GT. It was fine at first but then recently, the shifter started feeling sloppier and a few times, it went into reverse when I was trying to put it in first gear. I took console out and it turned out three of the four bolts holding the shifter in were loose. I didn’t have time to try and get it sorted out because my wife and I were about to take a road trip. I ended up putting the stock shifter back in and also put the stock shifter bracket in (had a Barton bracket in there for the past few years).

Shifter felt fine Thursday, yesterday, and today. We drove the car on the Tail of the Dragon today (not too fast/aggressively because it started raining and we got stuck behind a slow mover in a RAV4). No issues with the car on the dragon.

About 30 minutes out from tail of the dragon road, I feel the shifter drop...like it is suddenly an inch or two lower and then I feel/hear a scraping/dragging sound. I pulled over and took console apart and it seems like the noise was the shifter mechanism scraping against the drive shaft. I could see that the shifter bracket is still there but it’s hanging loose so obviously the nuts are both gone. To be on the safe side, I had the car towed to a nearby town and am planning to have a shop take a look in the morning. I’m 90 percent sure that it just needs nuts to put the shifter bracket back up against the floor pan...but I’m really confused as to how this happened. I tightened the bolts down pretty tight when I was under the car. Anyone else experience this or anything like it?
 
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Update - just took it to a shop and they got it up on a lift. The bolts sheered off completely. Going to have to take it to the Ford dealer in the morning and see if they can fix it.
 
Brought the car to the local Ford dealer (Lenoir City) this morning. Despite not having any available appointments, they were able to get my car squared away and we got back on the road by lunch time. They drilled out the sheared off bolts and installed new ones. Car drove fine for the rest of our trip. I went ahead and ordered the Blowfish bracket anyways though, so I can hopefully avoid a similar problem in the future.
 
This would have been a very humorous thread title if it had not been such a real problem.
It seems some engineer would have driven a three on the tree to remember body mounted shifters are not good for performance applications. I think I saw the part you are ordering in MM&FF before they were shredded. Pictures of the install might help others.
Are your transmission and engine mounts still tight?
 
Not humorous at all. :nonono:


Glad everything turned out ok.

Oh, and...

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