MGW installed with Review
Although I have seen a bunch of threads on Short Shifters, many of them lacked the details I was looking for to formulate my purchase decision.
So, here goes.
I knew Stock Ford shifter was really a piece of junk, I felt it as soon as I Drove the car but I did not know how bad it was until I felt a Steeda Tri-Axe on A friend’s S197. If you don’t already have a short shifter you will be amazed at What a difference it can make, the throw between gears is literally Cut in half. You really feel the difference most between 1st and 2nd, almost Guarantees you will chirp the tires when engaging 2nd gear. I always thought that The 2nd gear chirp is strictly from Torque but the Short Shifter makes it clear What a difference proper shifting makes to the transfer of power from crank to Wheels. Your performance off the line will improve dramatically as compared to Using the stock unit, it’s hard to believe what a difference it makes until you Have one installed.
There are many great shifters out there and in a previous thread I started I Got some great Real World reviews from users, not just the typical I love my New shifter reviews. I originally was going to go with a Steeda Tri-Axe shifter Because it appeared to be the most durable and well made, also heard a lot of Great reviews about the often over looked PRO 5.0 shifters, the two seemed to
Be the favorite among the Track guys. Looks wise the favorite seemed to be the HURST or Roush but their design looks to be very close to the Ford shifter and It seems to be a big improvement over stock but people tend to love them. I’ve Heard many complaints of the HURST rattling from loose screws, I have also heard
That it vibrates when in 3rd gear and is over all noisy. I have NEVER heard a Negative review of the MGW shifters and after, what really sold me on the MGW Aside from the fine over engineering and Knife through butter shifting was the Over all adjustability of the unit, although it is very adjustable not all of This adjustability is usable on the S197, more on that later.
MGW & Shipping:
MGW customer service is excellent, that alone is reason to go with MGW. I bought Little stuff from them in the past and I had trouble with one of them, although It was a $30 part they were still very willing to help and gave you the same Treatment as if you bought a $300. When it came time to ordering the shifter They answered promptly to emails and the phone calls with them were very polite
And informative.
Shifters must be purchased through MGW, Shipping price was fair, the unit arrived quickly and was very well packed, it looks like it could have survived anything UPS could throw at the box. EACH part was individually wrapped and Labeled, there was no question as to whether I received every part I needed, There were detailed paper instructions and a CD with video instructions, I have
never seen an aftermarket parts company have there sh*t together as MGW does.
Installation:
I went to a shop owned by my dads friend, he trusts me enough mecahnically to do bolt on jobs, so I was able to install the MGW shifter myself, here is where you feel the MGW difference. The instructions cover literally every step from removel of stock shifter to the very end of the install. I brought my laptop to have the video handy while I was installing and it was just a pleasure. As a
result there is no guessing during the install and you can feel confident that you are getting it done right the 1st time. Install was done within an hour.
When you remove the old shifter and put it up to the MGW, you really see the difference in a big way. The MGW shifter is completely re engineered and does not share ANY design similarities with the stock unit as many of the other shifters on the market do. The MGW's materials are so fine its a shame to cover them with the boot, the unit is made out of teflon impregnated aluminum or sumn
like that and it feel very sturdy, like it belongs in a FORD GT super car and not a Mustang GT.
I had the luxury of a lift but I would NOT recomend doin this install on Jack stands as it would be miserable, the clearances are tight and akward positions are sometimes needed to get to the bolts. I would def recomend the car is "Cool"
or has an hour to cool down before doing the install as the drive shaft and midpipe are very close to your arms throught the entire process.
MGW provides some Dynamate to cover any holes at the bottom of the car to prevent NVH from entering the cabin. A the top side of the shifter MGW provides a multi layer foam barrier that prevents alot of NVH, heat and dust from coming up into the cabin.
Also included is a rubber boot to cover the shifters moving insternals and this thing STINKS like ar$e, it continues to stink for 2 weeks but then mellows out, putting a few Air fresh trees under the shift boot also helps.
Aside from a few scraped nuckles the isntall was very easy thanks to the videos, I would recomend having some loktite handy!
Adjustability:
The MGW's throw is adjustable but a turning bolt at the bottom of the shifter that is accessed from underneath he car, the bolt has from 0 - 10 turns of adjustability. When I first installed I had it as 10 turns and the throw was SUPER SHORT! however, the throw took A LOT of muscle to shift gears. At 10 turns the shifter was great for aggressive driving, the unit provided a lot of feedback and promoted positive shifting but when driving lesiurly, it required
too much muscle and was not "Streetable". At 10 turns the shifter was super notchy! when shifting from any gear to nuetral ther is a loud pop as the shifter jumps out of gear, great for track, sucky for street.
I contacted MGW in regards to this and they confirmed that it is a side effect of the shortest throw setting, they suggested I set it back to 6 turns and the result was a nice balance in streetability and performance.
MGW's adjustabitliy is a big sales point but I found that some of this adjustability is not usable. you can roate the shifter arm left or right (to and away) from the driver, I was really excited about this as I wanted the shifter arm to be closer to me cause it hurts my shoulder some times. If the shifter is adjusted closer to the driver, then the arm would hit the center console and prevent you from going into 1st gear. This adjustment may have worked well in
previous gens of the mustang but it doesnt work well in the S197. One of the pictures I have attached shows the contact between the shift arm and the console to help illustrate what I mean. I tried both a standard shiftknob and MGW's shift arm and experienced this issue with each of them.
The hight of the shifter arm heght is a VERY usable adjustment, At first I had the arm height very low, it looked really slick and small but utlimately I adjusted it to be much hgher as I found I can still have a short throw adjusted but gain the extra leverage from the taller arm height, this proved to be the best equilibrium along with the 7 turn setting.unlike the steeda tri ax which only has 2 hieghts the MGW is almost adjustable from very low where the arm hits
the shifter or very hight where the shift arm has extended to its highest usable point.
In Use:
I started our using an existing MOMO shift knob that was held in palce by 3 hex screws, after an afternoon of aggressive driving the shift knob would come loose every time, this drove me nuts! so I purchased the MGW Black Ball shifter.
The MGW The MGW arm is one solid peice of steel with a satin or chrome finish, I am not sure how the Ball is attached but it does not budge AT ALL. The Black ball is unique in that it has a clear coat with the MGW logo inside the ball visable throughh the clear coat, the logo is not engraved or printed on the ball itself, very Kool! The ball is comfortable in any shifting position imaginable, it is a bit smaller than the size of billiard cue ball, my only complaint is that it could be a lil bit bigger but I am very happy with it over all, its worth the extra $80.
The shifting is very smooth and quite, the only way you will miss 2nd gear is from user error, the shifter practically shifts itself just apply some pressure. 2nd to 3rd gear shifting also seems automatic. You dont have to find gears and direct the shifter at all, just push! Getting into 5th gear and reverse are not so easy and require extra umph but who cares, how often do you use those anyway?
The throw is so short that when you are in 1st gear, it looks like you are in nuetral with the stock shifter, this takes some getting used to as you may not know what gear your in at times. I have attached a pic of 1st and 2nd position to illustrate this.
I would highly recomend the MGW shifter, it may the most expensive of the bunch but its worth it considering all the benefits. This should be one of the first few mods to be done im my opinion. The shifter will greatly increase confidence and makes you feel like you have shed 1 sec of your 0 - 60.
Hope that helps
MGW Shifter installed and detailed review 5 speed S197 
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