LS Gear Shift Assembly For Sale?

R

RetroBird

LVC Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2015
Messages
36
Reaction score
0
Location
Retired - Vancouver Island, British Columbia; form
I'm looking to buy a 2003 2004 2005 ford thunderbird (Lincoln LS) gear shift assembly of the NOT 'Select Shift' variety ...
RenderIllustration.ashx


Screenshot_2015-03-28-10-10-30-1.jpg
 
I'm just curious as to why you would want to downgrade your car?
 
1LoudLS, I understand that you and Ford consider the SST an upgrade but for me the DST is an upgrade. To be quite honest with you I believe the SST (aka Tiptronic) is a marketing hoax perpetrated by VW et al.

Here is why I say this and although I don't expect anyone to agree with me keep in mind that I am a mechanic and automotive engineer ...

SST (Select Shift transmission) vs. DST (Direct Shift Transmission)

Ford’s 5R55S automatic transmission is a conventional automatic transmission when operated in D5 or D4 offering 5 or 4 speed ranges respectively.

With the Select Shift control option the transmission can be operated in SST ‘manual’ mode which in fact offers a Sequential Shift pattern requiring the operator to initially move the shift lever to the right and then repeatedly select each ‘gear’ position in numerical order regardless of the final ‘gear’ position desired for that driving condition.

Without that option the base Direct Shift controlled automatic transmission can be shifted directly to D4, 3, 2 or 1 position and the corresponding ‘gear’ will be selected immediately, engine speed range permitting, without the need to pass through all the in-between ‘gear’ positions one at a time.

To explain this another way, down shifting two ‘gears’ with a double tap of the lever is recognised as a single tap and the second down shift will not occur until the desired speed range is obtained plus the lever must be taped again. With the conventional DST moving the shifter once to select a ‘gear’ two positions lower will either select the desired ‘gear’ immediately or the mid ‘gear’ followed by the lower ‘gear’ when engine speed permits causing the full down shift to occur without further input. Conversely, upshifting will occur in the same manner.

When the 1, 2 or 3 position is selected in either transmissions it will operate in the selected gear, engine speed permitting, including from a full stop.

One other benefit of the DST is the shift gate jog at D5. When you pull the trigger in the shift knob to go from P to D5 the lever stops at the jog. With the SST I occasionally pulled through to the end of the left side of the gate which resulted in D4 and only realised sometime later that I had not selected D5 as intended. The DST gate prevents this.

Contrary to marketing hype and in my considered opinion the method of achieving manual gear selection in one direct lever motion is preferable to the initial displacement of the gear selector lever to the right and then pumping it to desired lower gear. Simply put, better ergonomics.

Bottom line: The DST offers easier control of manual gear selection than the SST.
 
SST lets you hold 4th and 5th. Not so for the base shifter. Gears can be skipped in SST mode.. Been there, done that.

If you replaced the SST shifter for the base shifter I believe you can't access 1, 2 or D4 without a non-sport calibration. There is a thread here somewhere on this... The computer reads the shifter vertically so it reads P, N, R, D5, D4 in SST and P, N, R, D5, 3, 2, 1 on the base shifter. To access D4 the computer needs to know that the shifter slides right to access D4.
 
Thanks Jeff :) We are getting slightly different results but that could be driver error on my part since I really dislike the +/- sequential shifting and seldom use it. When I tried the double tap to go down two gears a few times it only went to the next lower until I did a third tap. When I come to a stop in either 4 or 5 the trans shifts to 1 (per the owner's manual and my experience). If I don't want to upshift to 5th, D4 will hold 4th gear for me. I can't imagine why I would want to avoid downshifting from 5 or 4 anyway.

At the moment I have D5 and D4 operating as they should. When I move the lever to the right on the jog I get D4 and the dash displays D4 rather than SST.
I have the instructions for resetting the trans to DST thanks to an older thread on this forum. Basically I just deny the VIN that shows on the WDS and then reenter the same VIN and go through the calibrations for the 50 state non select shift.
 
RetroBird said:
At the moment I have D5 and D4 operating as they should. When I move the lever to the right on the jog I get D4 and the dash displays D4 rather than SST.
I have the instructions for resetting the trans to DST thanks to an older thread on this forum. Basically I just deny the VIN that shows on the WDS and then reenter the same VIN and go through the calibrations for the 50 state non select shift.
Click to expand...

Weird.... But then again you may be the first to go from an SST shifter to a base shifter. You can probably get good money for the SST shifter.

Those are the correct instructions (you're looking for a non-sport calibration). It's just tough finding a dealer that will do that...
 
I figure I can add some things in response to the DST "benefits".

If you want the transmission to shift faster for passing by skipping the "middle gears" (i.e. cruising in 5th, jump straight to 3rd), leave it in D5 and just floor it. It'll do that 5>2 jump real quick.

Maybe it's a Gen 1 thing, but if I'm in 5th and quickly double tap the -, it'll drop to 4th, then 3rd, not requiring a 3rd tap. What I have noticed is that a few times I was a bit overzealous in letting go of the shifter after the 2nd tap, it'd fling forward just enough to tap the +, canceling the 2nd - tap and holding it in 4th. Corrective procedure: hold the shifter

Want to "preload" a gear selection for instant throttle response as soon as a gap opens? If you have time to set up the gear in DST, I'm sure you have time to tap SST. If you don't, you should probably just floor it and let the transmission do it's thing while you stay focused on not crashing.

Gen 2s with SST and Gen 1s with SST and a tune will let you start from a stop in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

Accidentally shifting into D4 when you wanted D5 is user error. Release the "trigger" on the bump between N and D5 as a bandaid because, as I recall, D5>D4 requires you push the button. My other car has a straight PND21 shifter, but I'm not going to be upset if I accidentally shift into 2nd because I miscounted the notches

Preferring the seemingly more direct gear selection control via DST is user preference. I believe being able to exclusively select 4th and 5th is a benefit.

Marketing hype? Well, yeah. In the end, it's still just an automatic with a cute trick. Either find something with a manual or get a sport/luxury/exotic with flappy paddles for proper manumatic performance

But hey, everyone has their opinions. You already did the swap. Your SST shifter looks nice and clean though... Too bad I already stopped looking for a spare and just disassembled my own for some refinishing
 
Well, I visited my local Ford dealer yesterday for re-configuring the PCM so it would recognize the input from my change to a non-sport shifter, aka DST.
Apparently the proprietary diagnostic tool (WDS) has also been reconfigured such that it will no longer allow the VIN reentry method but instead asks for the number on the "tear tag" on the PCM itself.
The tech is calling Ford technical support today to see if they can access the correct number otherwise I will be briefly removing my PCM to get that number.

Any input from members who have encountered this bottleneck would be greatly appreciated :).
 
RetroBird said:
... and the second down shift will not occur until the desired speed range is obtained ....

Bottom line: The DST offers easier control of manual gear selection than the SST.
Click to expand...


Really!?!?

please note 05:15 in this here vid. (01 V8 LS Sport using SST)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma8zw5hNxFo

Does it sound like it waits for "desired speed range is obtained" ?

Mind ya it was a single slap from 3rd to 2nd

06:03 clearly illustrates it's more then responsive enough to drop gears immediate. Nothing wrong with SST.



On a separate note: SST is way cooler and it can easily be reversed. Small mod and she'll shift opposite. You can find and hold 1st gear in a 1st GEN even without a tune, just gotta know how!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 86 (members: 0, guests: 86)
Back
Top