Hurst Competition Plus Short Throw Shifter; TR-3650 (05-10 Mustang GT)

Video Review & Installation

Jake: Jake here with AmericanMuscle. And today, I am taking a look at this Hurst Competition Plus Short Throw Shifter for 2005 to 2010 Mustang GTs. Now, this is gonna appeal to the manual transmission S197 GT owner who wants to improve the shift feel and the driving experience of their car while maybe adding a nice custom touch to their interior. It's a great modification that doesn't cost a ton of money, and it's gonna make a big improvement in the driving experience of your Mustang.Now, Hurst is one of the oldest and biggest names in the muscle car world, and bringing a little of their heritage into your S197 I think is a really cool thing. In fact, this is essentially the same shifter that's used in the Shelby GT and GT-H models, which I think just ends up making it all that much cooler. And since these cars aren't renowned for their shift feel from the factory, swapping out the shifter mechanism is an excellent way to improve the driving experience. This one is going to result in a 30% reduction in throw-over stock, so your shifts are gonna be noticeably shorter in length and quicker, overall.The shift action is also gonna be much more positive and the feel will be improved too, thanks, in no small part, to these new urethane front and rear bushings that come included on the assembly. Now, these go a long way to eliminate a lot of the slot your stock shifter might have. These are much firmer than those stock rubber bushings, so things aren't gonna move around quite as much. Now that said, because these are stiffer, you are gonna get a bit more vibration through the shifter handle itself, but it's nothing unbearable, and I think that just adds to the experience. Makes it feel a little more raw and connected.Now the assembly also features this spherical pivot bearing similar to a stock unit but a little bit stiffer, overall. This is gonna add a bit more resistance, but just enough to make for that positive shift action. Now, the housing itself is made of steel tube construction, and it's powder-coated with this nice silver wrinkle coat for durability. And since the shifter assembly does sit underneath of the car, that's a good thing to note since it means it's gonna stand up well to any of the elements it might be exposed to.Now on the inside of the car, though, are the really good-looking parts, and that includes this classic white Hurst cue ball style shift knob and this chrome shift arm. Now, these are the quintessential muscle car pieces. The shift knob itself is a high-strength plastic and it does have some weight to it as well, which is great for improving shift action and feel. A little bit of extra weight at the top of the arm here like this really goes a long way to improving your shift action since it reduces the amount of force that you need to exert to change gears. Because it's not made of aluminum or some kind of metal like that, it's not gonna be susceptible to temperature changes, so you're not gonna sear the palm of your hand in the summer heat or have it be too cold in the winter. You also get the Hurst logo right here on the side, plus the five-speed H pattern emblazoned on the top. And, of course, this beautiful chrome arm also has the Hurst logo engraved into it too.Now the Competition/Plus Shifter series are the same ones that have been produced for the classic muscle cars for a long time, just adapted now to fit modern Mustangs, hence that chrome arm and a cue ball knob. So if you're looking for a bit of that old-school muscle car flavor, this is gonna be just your speed. Now it is worth noting here that OEM Ford shift knobs will not fit this shifter, and not all aftermarket knobs will fit either, so if you plan to change out the knob later on down the line, just keep that in mind. However, you can reuse your stock shift boot, and Hurst also includes a little rubber grommet that you can put right here at the base of the shifter arm to make sure everything fits nice and tight and looks really factory fresh.With that, let's talk price. Coming in around $350, that is about the going rate for a full replacement short shifter like this, and it is gonna make a big difference in how your Mustang drives. I really can't stress that enough. Changing out the shifter assembly is something I've done on several of my own cars in the past, and it's always made a positive change. So I'd say that something like this is well worth the price of entry. Now, as far as install goes, this is gonna get a two out of three on our difficulty meter, and it should take you around an hour or so to get it done. And you will need to get underneath of the car to get some things bolted in, namely this mounting point right here, but with a good set of jack stands it is definitely something you can get done in your driveway at home. And to show you that process now, let's head over to the install bay.Man: Tools used for this installation, a hammer, a socket to hold the bushing, flat blade screwdriver, a 10-millimeter ratcheting wrench, 13-millimeter ratcheting wrench, 1/4-inch extension, another 1/4-inch extension, a 10-millimeter to punch the bushing out, clip removal tool, 9/16 wrench, and 3/8 electric impact gun. Hey guys, I'm gonna show you how to install our Hurst short throw shifter in our 2006 Mustang. So let's get started.So the first thing we're gonna do to remove our shifter is remove the shifter knob, the shifter boot. We'll remove this console. There's a couple of screws here, and then we'll get underneath here and remove the grommet or rubber boot that's underneath here that, like, bolts to the trans tunnel. We'll get that out of the way. Then we'll get the car jacked up in the air, get underneath it. And there's some bolts and stuff we have to take off and then we'll remove our shifter.So now we're gonna remove our shifter knob. And what we're gonna do to do that is we're gonna push down and get this shifter boot off the bottom of the knob. And then what you're gonna wanna do is just spin the knob and unscrew it. And with the knob removed, next, what you're gonna do is take a trim removal tool. We're gonna go around this edge here and pop up the shifter boot itself, just like that. The boot is off. Next, we'll go back here and remove two screws. We'll be able to remove our center console. Now with the console door open, we get two Phillips head screws back here. We're gonna take these out. Now with those removed, we'll be able to remove our upper console.Okay. Now that we have our two screws out back here, what I'm gonna do is pull up on our e-brake lever like that, pop our console, just like that. It pops out with just some clips, fish it through, and off it comes. So now we got our upper console off. We're gonna remove our boot down here at our shifter. All you're going to do is pull and it'll come out how it's sitting in here, and then I'm just gonna lift up on it like that. Make sure we put it back the way it was, just like that, so we can put it back in. And now we'll go underneath and start disconnecting our shifter from underneath.So now that we got our car up in the air, now if you're doing this at home, you're gonna wanna make sure that you put it on some car ramps or jack stands. Get it up in the air high enough because you're gonna have to get under here. There's gonna be three 10-millimeters and one 13-millimeter bolt that we're gonna have to remove to get this shifter out. So make sure if you do jack your car up, make sure you chock your back wheels so that the car don't roll. Put the e-brake on.And what we're gonna do first is remove the three 10-millimeters, and then we'll get the 13-millimeter rod there that holds the shifter in place to the shifter mechanism. So the first thing we wanna do is I'm gonna take my 10-millimeter wrench. We're gonna remove this bolt right here. Holds our front support onto our shifter. I'll turn the rest of it out by hand. You wanna make sure you don't take it all the way out because you'll get your wrench caught on there and won't be able to get it off.All right. All right. We got that pulled out. Next, we'll go up here and we'll remove the 13-millimeter that we got to take off. So now we're going to remove our 13-millimeter here. This is holding in the shift mechanism that goes into the transmission into the bottom of a shifter. I'm gonna take my 13-millimeter ratcheting wrench and remove this nut. And once I have that nut off, I'm gonna be able to pull the rod out of the shifter, just like that.Next, we'll remove the back two 10-millimeters. So now we're gonna remove our two 10-millimeters, one here, one on the other side. They're holding our clamp that holds the bottom of the shifter. I'm gonna take my 10-millimeter on my electric impact ratchet and remove them. And now once we have them off, I'm gonna drop this bracket out the back of the shifter. We will be reusing the clamp, so we'll save that. And now we can leave the shifter like this. We'll let the car back down and we'll remove the shifter from the top of the vehicle.So now that we have everything unhooked down underneath the car, I'm gonna be able to lift this shifter out through this hole right here. And all you're gonna do is push it forward and get the back piece through first, like that, and then just wiggle it through with the rod and pull it out. And that will complete this uninstall of removing the shifter. So now that we have our stock shifter out, we're gonna have to remove some of the bushings here in the stock shifter and install them into our new Hurst shifter. We're gonna remove these two here. We're gonna remove this silver bushing up here. It's gonna go in here to hold it in place when we get it underneath the car. So I'm gonna show you how to do that. We're gonna use some sockets and hammer it out. It shouldn't be that hard. So let's get started.So now we're gonna remove our bushings right here. We'll take my flathead screwdriver, just give them a smack and they should just pop right out. That's one. That's two. Now I have those out. I'm gonna take them and insert them into the new shifter. Next, we'll remove our silver bushing. So now we're gonna remove the steel bushing up in the front. I'm gonna take a socket, stick it over, just like that. That way, it'll drop out and we won't have the rubber come out. I'm gonna use a smaller socket that fits the size of the sleeve, take my hammer, smack it through, just like that. Now we'll install this into our new shifter. So now we have our old sleeve out of our old shifter. We're gonna install this into our new bushings. What I'm gonna do is push this in and get it in place. And once I get it in and push it down in, we're gonna be ready to install this shifter onto our vehicle.So now we have our bushings in place. We're gonna reinstall our shifter. I'm gonna drop it down inside here. It takes a little finessing to get it down. I'm gonna put the whole shifter down through the floor, actually, and get the handle in there. Once I get it on its side, I'm gonna be able to straighten it out like that. And for now, we'll rest it like that until we get underneath and start bolting it up. So the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna install our 10-millimeter up here on our front rod. And that's going to...I'm gonna put the bolt through, bring it up into place here and get it started. And I'm not gonna tighten it. I'm just gonna snug it up as far as I can with my fingers. And that will kind of line everything up that we can install the bracket on the back.So now that we have our front mount in, we're gonna install our rear mount. We're gonna use our bracket from our other shifter. I'm gonna hold this shifter up, throw our bracket in place, start our two 10-millimeter nuts, and I'm gonna grab my 10-millimeter on my electric impact gun and I'm gonna tighten these up. Next, we'll install our shifter rod into our shifter. So now I'm gonna put my 13-millimeter nut on, take my 13-millimeter ratcheting wrench, tighten that up. Now we'll tighten our 10-millimeter up. Now we'll tighten our 10-millimeter up. Now we'll go back inside the car.So now we're gonna install our shifter handle. We're gonna use our Allen head bolts supplied with our locking washers in the kit. So we're gonna make sure that the serrated side goes with the serrated side on the shifter. We're gonna put that in. I'm gonna start my two bolts. So now that I have them installed, I'm gonna take my 7/32 Allen and my 3/8 ratchet and tighten them up. Next, I'm gonna take my rubber grommet here. It goes on the floor. Stick that in. You might have to slide it over top of the bolts to get it to go down far enough, but it should fit. I'm just gonna go around and push it into place.Once you have that down and in place, next we'll install our console. So now we're gonna reinstall our top console cover here. I'm just gonna pull up on my e-brake. It makes it easier to slide this around it. Put that down in place like that. It'll snap into place. Now we'll put our two Phillips heads in the back. Now I'm gonna install my two Phillips heads in the back here. Take my Phillips screwdriver and tighten them up. Now that they're tight we'll install our shifter boot.So now we're gonna install this rubber grommet over top of our shifter and push it all the way down. This is going to be the ring that the boot goes around. Once we have that in, we'll take our shifter boot, stick it in place, slide this down over the top of the ring. You might have to just push it a little bit to get it in place like that. I'm gonna push it down a little bit so you can see the Hurst. Once that's in place, we're gonna take our nut that's supplied in the kit. This is going to be our adjusting nut. We'll screw that on. We wanna make sure that the nut part is facing down, and then we'll install our shifter ball. We're gonna use that nut to adjust the ball where we want it. I'm gonna take my 9/16 here and just adjust it and get it set straight. And that'll wrap up this install.Jake: That wraps up this review and install of our Hurst Competition Plus Short Throw Shifter for TR-3650 trans, '05 to '10 GT Mustangs. Thanks for watching, and for all things Mustang, keep it right here at americanmuscle.com.