Count me in too.

 

Let me clarify my interior gadgetry settings...

Vents open and turned level, just because they look cool. I never use the vents except for A/C.

4WH - My driveway has a fairly steep incline, compounded by a very tight turn causing me to nearly push my wife's Focus out of my way when the front end slides, hence 4WH.

And the fan on high... well I hate to say it, but I smoke in my truck. But I roll the window down, crank the fan up, and hold it out the window

And yes, it was very cold that night! The snow on the windshield accumulated in 5 minutes while I ran inside to grab the camera.

 

Termite -

Where can I get a service manual or CD like that?

 

I would be interested. If they are available I can get a shifter at cost.

 

I can get a ford shifter at cost..

 

Can you find out what cost price would be?

 

30.60 and retail is 40.80. That is for just the shifter.

 

your friend should just purchase one in his area, and allocate the cost to each individual unit he makes.

 

Yeah Blitz... the pics are definitely for the 04.

R6jojo, you can buy it from Motorcraft.com

Termite

 

Blitz,
I tried it at a traffic light the other day on my 2004 fx4. It was a liittle stubborn, but it popped right down.

Dave

 

Count me in for one of these billet shifter *****. I would prefer the billet and leather combo but will go for the plain billet.

 

Alright Dave, I threw caution to the wind and took your advice. I pushed down really hard and guess what? I shattered the console.

Just kidding. It does take a bit of force, but I got it down.

We are off to the races now. The line for billet shifters forms to the right!

 

Rick, from the sounds of the responses I think most people are liking the billet/leather option best.

That is going to be my primary focus to start with.

 

I would throw down for the combo one. Sounds like a killer idea!

 

Alright, I got everything torn apart and measured.

Basically the only metal parts in the shifter assembly are two springs and the lockout rod swivel bolt.

A warning to anyone who is "curious" about the internals - you pretty much have to destroy one to investigate. They appear to be designed as non-serviceable units.

What is going to make this one tricky is the way Ford designed the tranny lockout setup. When you push (or pull as it were) the silver button with your fingers, that actually raises a nylon lockout rod via a cam lever that enables the gear selector to move.

Unfortunately its not quite as simple as the old pushbutton on top on the shift **** setup.

My initial thought was maybe just buy the lockout assembly from Ford and then machine around it, but to be brutally honest the mechanism looks really fragile and I'd just as soon redo it if possible.

No worries - just more ingenuity required.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.