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The driver here at work came to me a few weeks back and said he had problems with the shifter in our 99 F450. He then handed me the shifter handle. WTF.
Yup, just like the picture above the metal rod broke off. Nothing else hurt(like the rubber isolator bushing)
I unbolted the short piece, V'd it out and welded it back together. Presto-chango it works fine.
The M5 uses a different mounting design. It slips over a stud and has a tapered bolt to hold it tight. The ZF bolts on like an old Hurst shifter handle. The problem is, the thin piece of metal they use gets weak from constant forces moving it around and does break off. That and the fact it has square corners it makes it weak. If they had made it with radiused corner it would not be so subject to fracture.
It is an issue because the shift handles are made of junk pot metal. JUNK. And no, its not the shift tower, it is just the handle that bolts to the part that comes up out of the transmission, I ended up getting some steel rectangle pipe and created my own shift handle. I am threading an 8 ball and will be bolting it to the new stick. All in all it cost me $20 to make a BETTER shifter handle. And it looks slick as ****. xD
Great choice on the ZF swap. I friggin love this trans. It is such a beast. Hard working in EVERY gear. I will never take a different trans for a work horse. Or a race truck. she is fast to shift and really puts the power out.
Find a suitable Hurst handle and re-drill the bolt pattern on the end (if you even need to). Its going to be more expensive that the factory replacement, and its going to be noisy as well. But it probably won't snap off...
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