Funny story... and some questions.

[PLee]

So, driving the Boss home from 'Mexico' the other day, I happened to turn onto the on-ramp of the local expressway, and low and behold, what do I see in front of me?? Miles of straight highway with practically NO cars on it. So what is an old (42 yr old) guy like me to do? Having been deprived of track time for Lord knows WAY too long, I decided it was time to stretch the old gal's legs a bit. Open side exhaust screaming, windows down with what's left of my hair flapping... 7k rpms repeated several times through the gears. Before you know it, I'm well north of 100mph, laughing like an idiot, and in 5th gear, still climbing. I decide to reach for 6th and drop the clutch pedal, only to hear it rev to the moon whilst the ass end slides out... again, well north of 100-something mph. On a highway. Pucker much? About 0.3 seconds into this situation I realize I had missed 6th and dropped it back into 4th. Dump the clutch, straighten the car out, pretend nothing happened, and drive my ass home. Lol. It was fun, but the gear mis-hap could have been not-so-fun... thanking my lucky stars. Car is fine, pretty certain I didn't over-rev, and also pretty certain I shaved several years of life off of that factory crappy clutch (only 12k miles on the car). The clutch definitely feels different now, the engagement point is 'softer'. Doesn't slip, just different.

So the questions... I've been driving manual cars for the last 26 years; rarely do I miss a gear. 6th has been challenging from time to time in this car. Is this a function of the trans, shifter, or both? Or the spongy engine/trans mounts, and the disconnected shifter? I'm willing to guess all of the above, but thought I'd throw it out there for discussion. Perfectly willing to accept driver error if you say so, too! Clutch, shifter are on the to-buy list one of these days. But if narrow gear "windows" are a function of the trans, then other purchases might be in order.

Edit: We only drive this fast off track south of the border.

 

[JDee]

I don't know about the Boss, but on my PP1 S550 limiting the motion of the engine/trans through stiffer engine/trans crossmember mounts and putting a urethane support bushing on the shifter made a huge difference to the shifting. If you go this route be careful about whose stuff you get, there is a difference.

 

[TMSBOSS]

All the above
I have replaced “All the Above”
Each item replaced showed improvement.
The shifter removed the marshmallow feel
The blowfish shifter bracket removed the remaining vague feel
The clutch finally eliminated the lock outs totally
I did the mods in the order listed above.
If I had it to do all over again. The only changes I would make would be to do all the mods at one time and be done with it. Unfortunately, Steve and George had not invented their fixes when I started chasing lockouts and the “Soft” shifter.
Don’t waste your money on a steel clutch line or trans mount stiffener YMMV

 

[thehueypilot]

Skip shift malfunction....your car was trying to kill you...

 

[VoodooBoss]

Start with a proper clutch and MGW shifter. That will fix most of the issues. IMO the biggest disappointment with the Boss is the clutch. The clutch is the root of all shifting evils...

 

[TMSBOSS]

+1 on Ricks comments. The clutch is the cause of lockouts, IMO. Fix the clutch and lockouts are gone. Fix the shifter and it’s mounting issues and you loose the last “Mechanical” excuse for a missed shift.

 

[302BOB]

Shifting to 4th gear by mistake instead of 6th when you're during over 100MPH will surly rattle your nerves ( I don't even want to imagine what that sounded like). I never get near the rev limiter..6500/6800 is enough for me and my original OEM clutch....Thrills after that, I'm not missing.

 

[Grant 302]

IMO the biggest disappointment with the Boss is the clutch. The clutch is the root of all shifting evils...

^That. The Boss clutch *is* the biggest disappointment. I have one out of my friend's '13 and I think I understand better why it fails at high RPM and why heat makes it worse.

The shifter on the '12 Boss is a close second. No, it's not the same shifter as the '13 Boss or my '11 Brembo GT. I've been in several of the Coyote based S197s and the '12 Bosses all got tighter gates. Sure, the OEM remote mount sucks, but paired with the '12 Boss shifter, it's a whole new level of crappy.

The two problems together created an issue with diagnosing and isolating the clutch problem. So for a '12, the fix can't be found with only the clutch or just a bracket or only a new shifter.

Unfortunately, I think driver error was the biggest factor in this incident. I don't think you were 'locked out'. Still no reason to miss 6th on the freeway.

 

[Fat Boss]

I've always shoved the shifter towards the passenger seat for 6th.

 

[Grant 302]

I've always shoved the shifter towards the passenger seat for 6th.

Exactly. No reason to do otherwise.