....do you mean a spring or clip on the base of the shifter inside the car or something at the cable ends/tyower on top of the tran?..FWIW with a trans out and stripped it's common practice to inspect and replace any worn components Re blockers, forks etc..did you do that?...It's a lot of work to pull and strip a trans and not fully inspect it, only to have worn parts issues upon refitting....

 

The little spring that holds the end to the cable. Inside the bright orange deal.

I didn't bother looking at anything because I had to get the job done. Stupid, I know, but the goal was to get the car to an event on time and I did, so in my eyes it was a success. I have another event in June, but then the car can be taken apart again because the next track session isn't until late Sept. Not sure what I'll do at that point. The M Factory gear kit would be a lot of fun...

In the meantime, I can drive around the problem. But if the cable could be the root cause, then I will look at adjusting it.

 

I have an odd grinding, kind of like tihs too. It's well pronounced from about 20mph and up. I can 'feel' the grind a bit in the shift cable, though I'm wondering if it's something fubar in the shift tower rather than a simple cable adjustment.

 

Yes it can. When my cable broke and was temporarily ziptied on made it difficult to find gears and made it difficult to not grind third(more than it already does due to bad syncros). Replaced the broke cable and that solved the problem.

 

The spring under the orange button holds the button OUT from the cable end. The out position is where it should be after the cable has been adjusted..this is locked.With the orange button pushed in the cable is unlocked and will not hold any adjusted position...Sounds like you need some new cable ends to effect correct adjustment and hold the locked position...

 

Making adjustments at the trans end of the cable, my question is pop out the locking colored clip, adjust the cable and then push back in to a locked position, or did we do it wrong, we followed the tech manual from ford but it sounds different from your discription?

 

Two Types..
There are two types of cable ends. One type has an ORANGE button with a SPRING..this type is locked with the button OUT,pressing the button IN unlocks the adjustment.
Type two has NO SPRING and a RED oblong locking block...pressed IN they are LOCKED,out they are unlocked...

 

And the light is on, thanks so much for the clarification I feel much better now. I have cable number two and my car is an 05 ST model