Shifter bracket nuts came off...while driving

matt5058

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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 the console out and it turned out that 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?
 

CobraBob

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Now that's a first. I've never heard of that happening. Might be a good idea to consider using blue threadlocker on the bolts before replacing the nuts.
 

matt5058

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Update - took it to the only shop that was open today and they put it up on the lift to take a look. The bolts sheered off somehow. o_O
 

matt5058

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I haven’t fixed it yet. Taking it to a Ford dealer tomorrow and going to see what they say.

I ordered the Blowfish Bracket but need to get to my dad’s house, which is a three hour drive away, to install it. I suppose I could drive the car there but would have to hold the shifter up the entire time. I would prefer to see if I can get it fixed first.
 

matt5058

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Wow! Seems like you must have overtightened them. Perhaps not, but that would be my first guess.
Yeah my guess is I probably over tightened them and that, combined with driving on the tail of the dragon, might have been enough to cause them to both snap off.
 

matt5058

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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.
 

Black02GT

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Damn, you know you're working out the ol forearm too much o_O when you rip the shifter off.
 

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