I sometimes miss my 2nd to 3rd gear shift while in heavy acceleration. I was thinking of getting and aftermarket shifter and would like to see what you all have tried and feel good about recommending, Hurst, B&M, or Pro 5.0, for a T5 tranny.

 

I really like the Hurst that I have but most people will recommend the Pro 5.0. Id say go with the 5.0.

 

The Pro 5.0 is the manliest shifter out there. No other one compairs. I have driven cars with other aftermarket shifters and they don't even come close. It is thicker, stronger, louder and you can remove the shaft to shorten it or re-thread it or whatever you want. You won't be dissapointed.

 

Pro 5.0. Dont Go with B&M...

 

I love my hurst, the only thing i did to it was take an inch off the stock shift stick. I throw that thing around like a nut and its never missed a shift on me and never given me problems. Ive never shifted a Pro 5.0 though.

 

Hello all,
Will the Pro 5.0 work with a 700R4?
Brad

 

um, no.



lol.

 

Here is a pic of the stock shifter next to my Pro 5.0. This shifter is unreal.

 

well that's kinda cool. I am actually planning to do a tranny rebuild this winter and at some point was going to start looking at shifters.

Would this one be considered short throw? I know some people talk about those. I know what they are, but never actually experienced one. This one looks to be maybe only slightly smaller than stock

 

It may only be slightly smaller in overall height but the throws are amazing shorter. i think they claim 25% shorter. The distance from 1rst to second is literally like 3 to 4 inches in shifter travel now. From neutral to first is like 2 inches. It is kinda wierd at first to drive if you have been driving deep slotted manual gear boxes for any length of time.

 

well now that I got to talking (asking) about this stuff, might as well learn something.

Besides the picture, how is this unit different from stock or hurst (which I think is only slightly better than stock). Apparently these things are rather pricey. Even on e-bay I think I've seen them usually for around $150 (don't remember if there were actual sellers for that price).

Are they really this good? I bought an entire tranny for 4 times this amount, and without knowing much about these things, it looks like a rod (with a **** of some sort) and a mount that bolts up to the top of the tranny. I know I am missing about $130 bucks worth of information. can you fill me in?

 

I cannot speak for some other shifters but usually the Pro 5.0 and husrt are in a league all of their own. With these shifters not only are your shifts shorter but they are more precises. By that I mean the shifter will hit your next gear everytime. They are spring loaded to help the 2 to 3 shift and the 4 to 5 shift. The stock shifters are sloppy and you can push on it and "hunt and peck" for a gear. No matter how hard you push on the Pro 5.0 it has a precise movement with zero slop. It is basically for all out racing where the chance of a missed or slow shift cannot happen. They also have adjustable stops so that once the car is in gear you cannot push the shifter to far and damage shift forks like you can with the stock shifter. Have you ever powershifted and thought that the shifter was going to rip out of your hand or that prayed you didn't miss the 2 to 3? You won't worry anymore with one of these.

 

Hey Shifty, on the the Pro 5.0 for the T5, is the surface between the stick and the shifter smooth?

If so, I recommend getting the Hurst. I had a Comp Plus and it was sweet.

 

The design of the aftermarket shifters is going to make the shifts quicker by making the distance between the shifter pivot and the ball to offset rail block (in the trans.) longer. It doesn't take a huge increase in that distance to make a difference.


No, they're really not. Keep in mind a few things: If you had to make one and even if you had access to a mill, lathe, and whatever else it took you to make it, you'd end up having to put a hell of a lot of effort into it. Way more hours than what you'd need to work at your real-life job to afford the shifter in the first place.

Also, a shifter with a solid set of shift stops (the ones on the Hurst and 5.0 are adjustable) can help save your synchros from overtravel, which saves the life of the synchro keys, wire springs and other parts. Long-term, they might save you a rebuild, which means the shifter pays for itself.

They're not pricey at all, you just need to understand the economy of the situation.


Apparently you get better prices on steel, plating processes etc. than we do at my work.

It's not just a stick. It's the whole shifter assy., as seen in Shiftys picture. If you can make that in under 20 hours and then convince me you make 1$ / hour at your job in real-life, then you're the man. Otherwise, your estimate on the "worth" of a good aftermarket shifter for your T5 / T56 ain't even in the ballpark.

Oh, FWIW, I've driven the following: stock f-body T5, stock s-10 T5 (with severely shortened stick,) Hurst Comp-Plus (T5,) Pro 5.0 (T56,) B&M (T5,) and stock T56 off the top of my head.

-Matthew

 

Hey jmd, you just tought me $130 bucks worth of information. Like I said, I don't mind paying for good stuff and I definitely will pay for performance.

As I said, I knew nothing about this stuff and in the process of ripping apart my post, you gave me a pretty good picture of what I am paying for.

I've been driving regular stick since I was 16, almost never speed shift because I know that's not good for the tranny (in stock form). I can definitely appreciate shorter throws, spring loaded shifts and adjustable stops for those power shifts.

As I've said before on numerous occasions, you guys rock :hail:

 

Go with the 5.0, Hands Down
You just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang
It's unreal how smooth and precise it is, two buddies of mine have them, I've watched them beat the hell out of those shifters, and they never missed a shift.


~Max

 

I am not sure what you mean by this. It is pretty smooth but nothing smoother than a clean milled surface. It is not mirror smooth but it does not have any cut marks from dull tooling.

 

i think what he means are there any serrations or grooves on both the shifter lever and the assembly thats mouted to the base plate. On the hurst where the two sectons meet they are grooved so they fit together better and then they have the two bolts that hold them together.

Jered

 

Good grief, says Charlie Brown. Most people recommend what they have, though they've seldom tried other products. Ok, so I'm going with B&M.

JamesC

 

eggzactly.

 

I just got the Hurst Billet Plus, but when it arrived from Jegs the mounting surface was damaged (their QC sucks). I could have ground it out, but I hate doing that to a new part. Otherwise the shifter looked like a quality piece. I will let you know my opinion when my new, new one arrives.

 

JamesC

I have driven 3rdgen F-cars with all three. I have raced in an IROC with a Hurst, and my car with the pro5.0, I made sure to at least use all 3 before i bought them. Trust me, the pro5.0 is hands down the best. You will not get any better than rundown than that. The Hurst is smooth, and is a very nice peice, it is a close second. But the 2-3 shift on the pro5 puts it over the top. Also, the B&M I used was the older style, when it still had the stops, since then the quality and features have gone to ****. The B&M is a very distance third, IMHO.

 

You can still get the B&M with the stops, I was surpised when I saw it in Jegs, it notes that only the GM model has the stops. I still wouldn't buy it though.

 

Put the Hurst Billet Plus in yesterday and it is awesome. I can't comment on the Pro 5.0 because I have never driven one. But commpared to the stocker, which I have regretable been using for the past 6 years, the Hurst is very impressive. Money well spent IMHO.

 

I've had the B&M since 96 and never had any problems. But I've heard the new ones are not as good. That's pretty much what you can say about everything.

 

The only thing I don't like about the Hurst is I think it's just a little too tall. IMO anyways. I know I can buy a shorter stick, but I was thinking I might just drill a new hole. Has anyone done this?

 

Hurst makes several styles of sticks but I did not feel the need to do that when I had my Comp Plus Hurst. I don't know if rethreading the **** threads further down and chopping some off the top is doable; again never tried.

 

I thought I saw someone on here that cut the bottom hole off, at the botom of the stick and drilled a new top hole, thus shortening the stick about 1". I don't think cutting the top would work because the stick is only round for about the first inch then it tapers out and is more flat. i.e. can't be threaded. Anyways the shifter are incredible and I would recommend the Hurst to anyone.

 

When I was running a t-5 in the car I bought a B&M for it, wow was I impressed, never missed a power shift once!! Now I have a t-56 so I figure I try out a Pro 5.0 believing in all the hype, don't get me wrong it's a good shifter but I was missing to many shifts with it so I bought a used B&M off a guy. Installed it, and found it to shift better for me so I left it in the car. But one thing I really really hated about the pro 5.0 was the stick is so ugly and it was meant to be covered up, that and on the instructions it was thanking me for buying the pro 5.0 for my mustang The t-5 B&M has a nice aluminum stick that is meant to be shown just like the stock shifter, I thought it looked good in the car!

 

I have had Pro 5.0 (2 different cars, one a T56 the other a T5), Hurst (T5 and T56), and Kirban (T56), and driven a couple cars with the B&M (though not recently). Hands down ,the Pro 5.0 is the best (I have no idea how a Pro 5.0 could cause missed shifts, unless the stops were adjusted incorrectly), followed by the Kirban. It feels as solid as a pro 5.0, but a little less notchy. I wouldn't use any of the regular hurst shifters on a 5 or 6 speed. B&M is ok, but a distant 3rd to me.

 

i use a hurst, i had one on my t5 and now on my tko. the reason i bought the second hurst over the 5.0 is that the hurst has adjustable spring tension to center the stick. with both springs in it is a great drag race shifter but downshifting is difficult ans so is the 4-5. Removing one spring results in good dragracing performance and great downshifting. The pro 5.0 doesn't have that adjustment and since it seems biased towards DR i chose the hurst because i knew i would be able to downshift quickerand more reliably.

 

I have used Hurst and B and M. The Hurst wins though. I like how the nuetral position of the Hurst is 2-3 instead of 1-2 like on the stock shifter. It makes shifting from 2-3 a breeze, simply push up and it springs to it's nuetral position and up to 3'rd.

Hurst's length is maybe a centimeter or two higher than the stock shifter, but the throw is much shorter. Wheras the Pro 5.0 is a shorter length than stock. If that matters to you. One more thing, I love t-grips!

 

Well, after listening to some guys here and reading other posts, I went with Pro5.0. Picked it up on ebay from a guy selling off inventory after going out of business.

Tibo, Pro5.0 has the same spring mechanism you are talking about when going from 2-3.

 

pro 5.0 is the only way to go

 

When I had my stocker, I would sometimes pull on the stick 1-2 and the stick would "pop out of the socket". There I would be, in neutral, with the stick laying on the console. I bought the B&M and have been happy. I have never used any others, but the B&M works great. It is nicely sprung to the center (2-3) slot. It does have non adjustable overtravel stops. I think it is awesome when somebody gets into my car, and shifts from 1st to 2nd. I have been called everything from cheater to *******. They are just jealous.

Why does everybody seem to rip on the B&M???

 

well as far as quality goes b&m makes a decent product, but its not as high quality as hurst or pro 5.0 not saying they make a bad shifter, just that there are better ones out there

 

ok where can i get the pro 5.0 shifter. i dont wanna spend more than 150

 

Jegs, summit, and thunder racing sell them. You will not get a new one for 150 unless thunder racing has another great sale like they did 3 years ago.

 

yea I was gonna go with hurst before I came here (knew the name) I ended up with the pro 5.0, and Ive never looked back

 

Does anyone have any feedback on if its worth it to go to Pro 5.0 from the stock shifter that is shipped with the Tremec TKO 5-speed transmissions? I imagine the TKO shifter is already a little more bulked up, just curious if anyone has done the switch.

 

I went from stock TKO to Hurst, definately worth it. The Stock TKO is better than a stock T5 but not nearly as good asthe Hurst

 

I did that to my hurst. I carefully measured the distance btw the holes drilled a new one cut the bottom off and cut the lines into the side. I used some loctite on the bolts and have beat the hell out of it with no fail. Works 10x better i love it.

 

I just put in a Pro 5.0 last week, bought it at ThunderRacing for $179, now it's on sale for $161 , anyway it was a pain to put in as I has to raise up the console to get to the shifter cover screws, but it's a great shifter, has a solid feel to it but it takes a little getting used to, and I don't think the shifter throw is much shorter than stock, at least is really doesn't feel much shorter to me. The instructions are not that great and like someone else said they thanked me for purchasing their Mustang shifter, you would think they could afford to print a seperate instruction sheet for each model shifter they make!!!

 

is pro 5.0 better than the long shifter

 

Can someone measure how far the PRO 5 **** travels when shifting from 1st to 2nd?
I just want to find out how "short" the throw is compared to the stock one.

Thanks for any reply.
Andy.

 

I just went and measured mine (Pro 5.0), measuring with a tape measure from a fixed point I get 4 1/8" of total travel with both 1-2 and 3-4 shift. More than I thought it was, I wish I had measured the stock one but like I said before it doesn't "feel" much different.
Makes me want to go build one at work (I'm a machinist) that has about 2" total travel.

 

I have just measured the stock shifter distance to go from 1st to 2nd. It is 5.3" This is measured in a straight line, even though it moves in an arc.
That's a 22% reduction in distance if I use DartByU's measurement of the pro5.
Hmmm! Shall I go for 1 or not? I would also like it a bit shorter.

Thanks for the measurement DartByU.

Andy.

 

You can buy what is called "Lou's short Stick" for the Pro 5.0. It makes the throws even shorter and is $40. An hour on a lathe will occomplish the same thing if you have access to one.

 

Thanks ShiftyCapone. A nice link. Has anybody got one of these installed on their PRO5?

Andy.

 

If you want the stick a little shorter it looks like the stock stick could be sawed off at least 1" shorter and still have plenty of thread left, I screwed my stock shifter ball back on mine and there is about 1" of thread still showing under it. But I like the height it's at now and don't think I would like it any shorter.