What is the fix for 2nd gear lock out?!?

Like others, my "fix" included an MGW shifter, stainless steel clutch line, and swap to Amsoil ATF.

As biminiLX said, practicing the shift (to ensure you pull straight back, rather than angled toward the driver) also helps.

I haven't seen anyone mention poly engine mounts, but those help too. The engine doesn't hardly move under torque and the resulting twist the body mount for the shifter is eliminated. You will feel a little engine vibration, but racecar.

I have the poly mounts now since I did my BMR K member but last year I took my friend for a spin in the car (on stock modded shifter) and got the BS grind lockout when I ripped it off the line and tried to get second. I wasn't too happy about that and he wasn't impressed. With my new setup now I'm pretty confident 2nd will be there when I WANT IT!!!!!!!

I don't think any one item fixes it. If you only could do one, I'd rank the new MGW at the top of the list. But every one of the other items discussed improves on that. I'm very pleased with the end result.

Thank you everyone for all the suggestions. I at least have a lost of things to try and hopefully get this issue under control. That problem gone and this is by far the best car I ever owned. I'll start with the MGW and Amsoil then see how it goes from there.

Six Speed Parts & Rebuilds - 2007-2014 Mustang Shelby GT500 - Page 1 - Tick Performance, Inc. $2300.

I've tried all of the above suggested except the shifter mount. Still get the 1-2 grind if I shift too fast. Seems like a synchro issue to me.

Though I'm also debating going to an auto or DCT.

I think it's absolutely outrageous for someone that has this vehicle to need to spend $2300 or so for a rebuild/swap of the TR6060 with the "improved" stuff so you can "hope" to get a clean 1-2 shift. It's bad enough that I threw almost CAN$900 at it with the MGW and BF bracket and still have to mod 1 of the parts to make it work.

Granted, if you already mangled your 6060 with all the previous attempted 1-2 shifts and the synchros are toast then I guess you have no choice but to pull it out and get a beefed up one, but for the average joe pulling a trans just to rebuild it for a "hope for" clean 1-2 shift is ridiculous.

Like I said before, Ford should've put the Magnum XL in this car and I would've gladly pay a slight premium for it as an option when I bought this car instead of this 6060 debacle, there's no way during R&D testing none of the engineers/test drivers didn't get this condition driving hard doing high rpm 1-2 shifts (or they didn't even bother testing it in those scenarios).

Tony

Hello all,

I wanted to start out by saying that I am new to the forum, and definitely no where close to the knowledge level that most of you seem to have on these cars. With that said, I do own a 2011 GT500 that bought last November with 39,000 miles and absolutely love it. There is one thing that is killing me and I believe is the same thing you guys are mentioning, if not seems to be related. I have not experienced the problem from 1-2nd gear as I have not gotten good enough to shift it high RPMs, even with feathering the clutch and gas I get tons of wheel hop and rear goes sideways if I am not careful, which is an issue for another day. What bugs me the most is the fact that my car from time to time it will NOT let me shift into 5th gear or 6th gear or reverse as if there was something blocking it completely. This is killing me, one of the times happened at cars and coffee when I went to back out in a spot and really annoys me, has any of you had this happen to? is there a fix? I am thinking the same solution I hear for your 1-2 problem may resolve mine, hybrid syncro but not sure. Anyway, any feedback would be greatly appreciated guys.

Mine got moderately better after the MGW2.0 was installed (correctly, mind you). 1-2 was still annoying enough to make me not want to drive the car much. Really, between that and the knee-in-the-chest clutch pedal, I don't miss the car as much as I thought I would. I got the lockout a few times at moderate load and rpm, and a few times the clutch pedal stuck. I yanked that damn over-center spring out and the pedal stick seemed to go away. I found that being too gentle on the shifter also made the situation worse, so I started being quicker and firmer with the 1-2 shift. I never got grind though, just extreme notchiness.

I came to the same conclusion that many people do, and figured I could live with the annoyance instead of cracking the TR6060 open to replace stink-ros.

CV355 said:

Mine got moderately better after the MGW2.0 was installed (correctly, mind you). 1-2 was still annoying enough to make me not want to drive the car much. Really, between that and the knee-in-the-chest clutch pedal, I don't miss the car as much as I thought I would. I got the lockout a few times at moderate load and rpm, and a few times the clutch pedal stuck. I yanked that damn over-center spring out and the pedal stick seemed to go away. I found that being too gentle on the shifter also made the situation worse, so I started being quicker and firmer with the 1-2 shift. I never got grind though, just extreme notchiness.

I came to the same conclusion that many people do, and figured I could live with the annoyance instead of cracking the TR6060 open to replace stink-ros.

Click to expand...

Better man than me. I need to get off my lazy ass and pull the damn transmission lol. Its driving me nuts. Shifting from 1st to neutral now is an issue. My trans is just plain wore out. Yes, it got beat on and Im actually impressed it didnt grenade. Just shifts like shit.

lexustech48 said:

Better man than me. I need to get off my lazy ass and pull the damn transmission lol. Its driving me nuts. Shifting from 1st to neutral now is an issue. My trans is just plain wore out. Yes, it got beat on and Im actually impressed it didnt grenade. Just shifts like shit.

Click to expand...

1-2 and 3-2 were always crap with the TR-6060. Every other shift was smooth as butter. I had three shops look at it, all three said "that's normal, and yours actually isn't that bad." I found that shifting at a slightly higher rpm for 2nd gear, even at low load, made it better too. I had several motorcycles that were like that- hated shifting at a low rpm.

No offense but you guys act this completely ruins the car or is a reason the sell. And some are then also complaining that the new GT500 doesn’t offer a manual.
I don’t know what to say on the shifting issue that we don’t already know; but yes, we lack lack a perfect design with a body mounted shifter and have a heavy gearbox designed to handle the torque over high speed operation.
I actually loved my stock trans and shifter and didn’t even remove my assist spring until I had the aftermarket clutch (when built engine and Magnum XL was installed).
Sure it might be frustrating, but I was able to adjust my driving. Still went 10s multiple times on factory clutch and trans and only rarely like 1-2 times experienced the 1-2 shift block.
-J

biminiLX said:

No offense but you guys act this completely ruins the car or is a reason the sell... I don’t know what to say on the shifting issue that we don’t already know; but yes, we lack lack a perfect design with a body mounted shifter and have a heavy gearbox designed to handle the torque over high speed operation.

Click to expand...

+1 to these sentiments.

Can't quite meet you on loving the stock clutch and shifter, or on desirability of the new GT500. Getting rid of the clutch assist spring and upgrading to an MGW shifter adjusted my '13 to me rather than me to it, largely eliminating my initial frustration. I'm not sure if I'll ever warm to the S550 platform but, regardless of whether a DCT/automatic is "faster," I don't see myself ever choosing to drive something without three pedals and a stick.

Norton said:

Like others, my "fix" included an MGW shifter, stainless steel clutch line, and swap to Amsoil ATF.

As biminiLX said, practicing the shift (to ensure you pull straight back, rather than angled toward the driver) also helps.

Click to expand...

This.

I also found that the WOT box (no lift shifting) really helped a lot.

Pribilof said:

This.

I also found that the WOT box (no lift shifting) really helped a lot.

Click to expand...

Love my WOT box. Can only imagine what it feels like on a trans that's capable of hitting every shift when performed.

The WOT box is one way to avoid the lockout/grind during high rpm shifting but if you are running cats on the car it's one sure way of you having to replace them way sooner than necessary.

I've done a few more high rpm shifts with my setup and still so far so good (under 7000rpm of course) so I feel pretty confident my setup works to avoid the high rpm shift issue with this trans and stock shifter setup.

The solution I found to my lockout was because of drivetrain geometry and twisting under load.
MGW most certainly does not help the situation, and people need to think more about syncros before blaming them.
Syncros grind. . . all the time. Not just under full tilt. If your syncros are bad, you tried too hard to power through the lockouts and killed them. point blank! But again if the syncros are bad, it will grind every time you hit that gear set that is damaged
Its always either going to be clutch related or geometry.

My solution was adjusting my pinion angle as it was all out of whack with my one piece DS, but the most important part was my CHE K Member brace with TQ limiters. That trans and motor is NOT moving!

Do you pick up more NVH using the CHE K member brace with TQ limiters compared to stock?

Cman01 said:

Do you pick up more NVH using the CHE K member brace with TQ limiters compared to stock?

Click to expand...

not a single bit. I got the standard bushing ones because I figured they would be enough.
Even with the UCA with spherical ends, you can’t even hear any noises from it unless you remove the back seats.

Do you have LT's? Read on there sight there might be some possible fitment issues for guys running LT's.