Best and Worst shifters
 

As an offshoot of the manual vs auto thread, what's the best & worst manual shifter you've ever encountered?

Mine would be a '91 Taurus SHO. I thought "like running a spoon through a peanut butter jar" was an exaggeration until I drove that car. Later '91s replaced the cable shifter with a rod setup, I sure hope that helped because the cable was awful.

My dad's Triumph TR7 almost as bad, until we found out that all 8 shifter bushings were completely gone. He replaced those and it's pretty good now.

My favorite is my '88 Thunderbird. Nice short throws, and the shifter goes straight down in the tranny so there's no friction/lost motion from a linkage.

My fav shifter...my hurst billet pro shifter in my 84 mustang....shifting is such a breeze...

i like the one in my jeep. if the synchros weren't slowly dying it would be even nicer. Nice strong spring back to center, and makes a solid click/clunk when it gets into gear. I love hearing the engine rev (if you call 2500 rpm revving...) followed by silence, then thunk, then rev again....it feels and sounds very nice.

Worst shifter ever i would say was in the 89 or 90 4banger Ford Ranger was terrible. No feel, long throw, no stiffness or spring back into neutral. course there wasn't much on that car i DIDNT hate...

my buddies Mx-6 is pretty sweet, considering everyone else has told me they are complete ass. Shifts very smooth. One of the worst is an old honda F1 motorcycle engine i had laying around. The thing was hurt, would never engage past 3rd, so i figured the shift fork was busted. Turns out it was, and floating around the oil pan.

Well nothing beats Hurst.

1998 UPS full size delivery truck. Like rowing a boat through mud.

2002 VDub Jetta GLI. At speed, shifted smooth as silk.. but the 1-2 upshift would kick your ass in lazy town driving. I loved that car!

Pretty much Hurst is the way to go for ultimate shift performance, but I have run across several shifters I like. The Comp/Plus on my 68 Nova is beautiful, my brother's 68 Camaro has a Comp/Plus and it is a dream too. His first 68 had this, I don't even know what it was shifter in it, I have never seen anything similar in a Chevy, only in an Austin Heeley, but that was horrid absolutely retched. It was vague, ok, gates didn't exist, it was too tall and made you feel like Rat Fink. Yuck that shifter sucked. The shifter in my 73 Toyota is ok, not excellent, but very positive and easy for those sleepy night shifts. I like the shifters in 87 5-0s and 95 GT Mustangs. A friend of mine had a mid-eighties Ford Ranger, man that shifter sucked, you could turn it around while in gear and it swung sideways while driving, I have no idea how he drove it, I couldn't even find gears in there. My dad's two trucks are just a pain because of the long assed throws, but hell, they are trucks not sportscars so ok. I really hate stock column shofters on automatics though. I have not yet met one worth mentioning. The auto shifter in my parent's 92 Bonneville is ok though. I really like the Hurst(yeah a Hurst again) shifters we have had in my g/f's 72 Nova with a TH350, they where both quite nice.

Best: Hurst Competition Plus on my new Autogear M-20

Worst: "Rat Fink" shifter in my brother's 68 Camaro attached to a Saginaw 4speed

Best was a 1978 Mercedes 240D.

I think the worst would be a 76 Corvette (ST-10 tranny, stock shifter).

I've only tried one hurst, and didn't like it. Not sure if it was a problem with the transmission though (M21).

Best was my dads 69 MGB-GT.

Worst was my old 64 Land Rover.