Cheap Insurance... Shift Boot Tip

Quite a few posts lately about water in transmissions and t-cases. Being open top vehicles and often parked outside, water running down the transmission shift cane into the transmission and ultimately the t-case is a common problem. A good shift boot helps, but most of the ones available now are poor quality.

Anyone who has pulled, rebuilt and re-installed trans and/or t-case likely wants to protect that investment. Here is my low-cost piece of mind...

Ford 8N shift boot from ebay for around $6 shipped...

108579M3 180579M3 520858M1 Shift Boot for Massey Ferguson TO MF FORD 2N 8N 9N | eBay

Inverted the bottom lip (far right one in pic)...

Put some waterproof marine grease around the shifter base to discourage water intrusion, then installed the 8N boot and secured it with a small zip tie around the cane for good measure. This rides nicely on the top of the shift tower and fits easily under the regular shift boot. If the main boot fails, still protected...

 

Great idea.

 

I could get a lot more for cores if they weren't always full of water!

 

Where are these made? Are they the Chinese ones that rot and split in a few months, or are they better quality?
I agree, I have seen too many transmissions/ tc's ruined from water running down the cane.
-Donny

 

Thank you sir.

Admittedly Donny, I did not look too closely at the country of origin on these 8N boots. I kind of went with a reasonable price point just to see if it would even work, proof of concept if you will. That being said, the ones linked above seem like fairly good quality. Another nice thing about this application is that the boot just moves with the cane over the shift tower...kind of like an umbrella. I think the main boots fail partly due to quality issues, but also because they are attached to the tub AND the shift cane, so as you shift, they get creased, pulled, stretched, etc...ultimately fatigue and fail. Long story short, the concept seems to work, so even a better quality or USA made 8N boot at 2 or 3x the price would still be good value I think.

Oh and just for clarity, I am suggesting still using the regular shift boot, just adding this underneath as a secondary layer of protection against water.

 

I just made a flap of old inner tube with a tight hole for the shift cane. Sheds the water fine.