Ford MT82 / MT82-D4

Getrag's six-speed manual for Ford — in the Mustang and the Transit.

A Mustang and a Transit van sharing a gearbox is the sort of thing neither vehicle's owner would guess, and it is why the useful literature for one is worth searching from the other.

Its recurring complaint is shift quality, and it is well enough known that Ford revised the gearbox for it. Early cars are notchy and reluctant into second and third when cold, and can baulk on a fast 1–2 change. The -D4 is the revised version, with different synchro material and a reworked shifter — so the model year decides whether a complaint is a known characteristic or a fault.

Where something genuinely wears it is the shifter's own bushings and the clutch hydraulics, not the gearbox: a bite point that has climbed, or a gear that becomes hard to select when hot, is the master and slave cylinders. A crunch into every gear is the clutch not releasing, which is the same hydraulic problem seen from the other side.