Leaking T56 Shifter

[BobinFL]

Spoke with Hurst yesterday, and they stated this is the very first incident they have heard of with their shifter leaking since 2012 when they added the seal. It appears earlier shifters had no seal at all. The Hurst design is very close to the Tremec shifter original to the transmission. They want me to try to replace the seal. In my opinion it is a flawed design, and will continue to be leak prone. Am evaluating options, and looking at the Bowler unit, which seems to have a good seal design Based on my research it appears most of Hurst's competitors have directly addressed the leaking seal design.

[BobinFL]

Further update
When I pulled the shifter out again the upper section of the shifter under the outer dust boot was literally full of trans fluid. That fluid was leaking out around the dust boot and causing the leak on by garage floor. Obviously the oil had come up past the shift rod seal. It seems after some use the seal around the shift rod inside the trans must become elongated at the bottom, and almost acts like a scoop for the oil. This elongation appears to occur over some time as the shifter moves front and back and side to side, and since the seal is just stretched around the shift rod there is no way to prevent this from occurring. You could possibly put a clamp or do a roadkill zip tie moment on the seal end, or use some heat shrink, as was suggested. Possibly if there were a groove in the shift rod and an O-ring molded into the end of the seal that could snap into the groove then the Hurst seal design would work better.

Hurst responded to my requests for help, but I have decided to not use their shifter going forward. I have gone with the Bowler shifter, which has a better seal design, in my opinion. The downside to the Bowler unit is that it has slightly longer shift throws than the Hurst unit. The shift throws with the Bowler unit are about the same as the original Muncie 4 speed, whereas the Hurst throws were probably 30-40% shorter. The benefits with the Bowler unit beyond having a different seal design, is that the shifts are also smoother. The Hurst unit clicks into gear, whereas the Bowler unit has a more "velvety" yet positive feel to the shift quality. If you are racing, and banging gears, and the potential for a little leaking oil is not a concern, again, just in my opinion, the Hurst is a good recommendation. If you are driving or cruising I would recommend considering the Bowler unit for sure. Others have used the Hurst unit and had no oil leak issues, but that has not been my personal experience. I have no experience with the American Powertrain shifter, but it looks interesting.

I have to say that once I got their attention Hurst's customer service was top notch. I have no complaints with how i was treated, and would definitely do business with them again. They absolutely stand behind their products. The only reason I decided to switch to the Bowler unit was my perception it has a superior seal design and a personal goal to be done with mopping up trans fluid from the garage floor after a cruise. I just was not confident I would reach that goal with the current Hurst seal design.

[ADY]

Exact same response I got from Hurst back in September... they ended up shipping out a new blackjack which leaked just as bad as the first one (and the stock tremec shifter). I tried replacing the check valve on the vent tube thinking the old valve wasn't releasing at 10lbs of pressure, but same leak. I assume that the only way to stop the blackjack from leaking is to flip it to the rear position or remove the check valve and have an open filter (which I heard may lead to leaks in the tail shaft. Really not understanding how this isn't an issue for anyone running the shifter in the forward position.

-Adam

[CarlC]

The Magnum OE lower boot interface is an awful design. The lower boot becomes severely overstretched, hence causing it to crack and leak. I've had two do this with one replaced under warranty. The fix was to machine the shaft so that the lower boot shaft sealing surface has a much more reasonable interference fit. After three years it has worked fine with no leaks.

Unfortunately Tremec will not sell just the lower boot, so if yours cracks, you're SOL. Very poor design of such a simple part.

Though I've not had one in my hands yet the Bowler part looks very promising with its Viper inspired spherical ball design and fewer leak pathways.