.......it seems 'that time of year' for many owners to be 'breaking the bolt' and loosing gears.A few basic pointers on how to prevent this.
*DON'T WAIT FOR IT TO FAIL!!!---Now guys you ALL know this is an issue and can happen at any time so why wait?Best to do is to remove the tower/turret and ship it off to us for the 'Keyed Tower' mod and never worry again about lost gears or fishing for a bolt head in the trans.Note: another 'global' aftermarket transmission supplier offers an up grade to the Focus towers,this will run you over $600 just for the parts alone,ours is a lot cheaper than that and can be done on both the early ally towers,the later style 'Focus' towers and the even later Jaguar 'X' type towers.*Dispite the 'bunk' you read the chances of getting a tower out off the trans with it still in gear are very slim.You have a remote chance if the bolt breaks in 5th/Reverse gear as this is the selector fork at the top of the 3 fork 'stack' in the trans.In either of these gears you 'may' have enough room to lift the tower and push the fork back to the neutral position and unlock the tower and lift it out.*Once out (IF you get lucky!) you MUST retrieve the broken bolt head.The clearences within the trans case are tight between some gears and the case...leave it in and you run a MAJOR risk of a gear punching it out thru the trans case...big $$$$ that one!*Assume you do get it out and get the broken head and the shaft out of the tower why would you use a stock bolt?...This is a shortfall on the tower and even a new genuine bolt will go again .....sometime!*I could go into a long discription on why this bolt breaks etc but right now isn't the time...But I will add that if your trans has spent its life running in ATF fluid,chances are you are putting more load on the bolt anyway.Rembember my post about shift fork bushes ,with the video and the effect ATF has on making those bushes/forks tight to shift?All of this adds more loads to that bolt.....So do yourselft a favor and invest a few bucks now on getting that tower modded BEFORE it fails... ;) ;)

Terry, where/what exactly is this bolt you are talking about. Do you have any kind of pic or diagram so I can see what you are referring to ? Check that, I found some pics after a more thorough search...but how do you gain access to the bolt ?

This post has been edited by Stuukaatz: Dec 19 2006, 08:56 AM

 THE_BOLT.JPG ( 560.13K ) Number of downloads: 194



The bolt is on the shfter tower assy(unbolt the tower from the top of trans) BUT you have a 96 rod shift,this only applies to cable shift MTX's 98>.......

Oh...didn't catch that part, so this is something that doesn't concern me. Well thanks for the reply and excellent info as usual Terry. I see you won't be on the site for a bit so you and your family have a Merry Christmas !

I hate that bolt....

would this apply to a 96 GL?

...nope,if its rod shift no...but let me know the symptoms re stick in gear,loose shifter etc

I had the bolt that Terry is talking about shear off a while back and replaced it with a Ford bolt. I also had a diffrent bolt shear off just before Xmas here is a pic. I had to get the pin/bolt from Ford which took about a week. Is it common for the second bolt/pin to shear?

...not common at all but if you think about it,if the lower bolt is 'on its way out' the upper bolt is taking more load....This again leads us to why the bolts go and the primary cause is stiff shift forks that cause the driver to 'abuse' the stick and shift...This in itself puts extra large loads on the bolts which goes towards the premature failure...what causes the stiff forks, BLOODY ATF FLUID!/....but if I just change the fluid...????? IT WONT HELP YOU...once the bushings have swollen thats it,another fluid will NOT shrink them back!..I've been collecting data and testing this,and other MTX75 issues for YEARS!...In fact I doubt anyone has as much inside backround,data & study of the MTX75 as I/HMS Inc does.... ;)

Terry,

Any tricks to fishing 'THE BOLT' out of the bottom of the trans without removing the trans itself?

I have my car in pieces, with the mechanism still out, bolt replaced (replaced it prior to reading your permanent fix, go figure). I need my car back together for work, ASAP, and need to get this bolt out of the bottom of the trans.

Any help is appreciated.

SQ

...drain trans and try to find a small magnet that is on a flex type pick up tool and fish for the bolt head.IF you don't find it I advise you DON'T DRIVE THE CAR as we have seen many ho have damaged the whole trans with the broken bolt head...next would be trans out and try to see if can be shaken out of the trans..next would be..if stuck in case...trans opened up etc..
To all MTX owners..consider our 'Keyed Tower' mod...Don't wait for the bolt to go.

I'll see if I can get to it through the drain.

Is the drain on the front of the transmission, towards the front bumper? Or is that the fill?

Thanks,
Shawn

...front of trans is fill.Drain is low on trans below where passenger side shaft enters trans. Neither is a good place to fish.Tower off and thru the top is best...

Terry, If I am going to take the trans out - but I don't need the bellhousing and all of the other stuff - what type of 'special' tools will I need other than a simple socket set with 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2" drive?

My concern with removing the trans is getting halfway into it and not having the tools needed.

Also, will I need to pull both axles if I am not removing the entire assembly, just the gearbox?

Thanks,
Shawn

Bellhousing is part of the trans..It all comes with it. All metric on a Contour. Slide hammer with CV 'fork' to pull drivers side shaft out, clutch tools if you change clutch etc...fuel line disconnect tool...