So I dragged my Cougar into the garage. Lo and behold, bad shifter cable #3.

You guys with aftermarket shifters, how the hell are you protecting the cables? the headers for a 429/460 and a C6 leave NO room. I'm about to track down a factory shifter, because this is ridiculous.

Maybe you should buy some heat wrap and put it around the header where it may be close to the shifter cable. It's what I did on my vert because the clutch cable was just about on top of the header. Cured the problem instantly

i hate that fucking heavy ass car

Heat wrap?

I know most B&M cables sau to wrap it in a loop on top the trannys.

Yeah.....heat/header wrap

Hell yeah wrap that fucker.

Don't be a fool wrap your tool!... i think that applies here as well

Paul, get some header wrap and we will wrap the header. After that, I'll take a look at the problem and see what I can come up with.

some people don't believe in fully wrapping headers, so he doesn't have to go all out on this BUT he should at least do a small section to keep the shifter cable intact.

#1
Heat Wrap supposedly destroys ceramic coating
#2. Supposeldy sleeve is bad for shifter cables and ruins them faster.

Thoughts?

is there any way to make a bracket to move the shifter cable away from the header?!?

hence why i said to only do the small spot that is affecting the cable dude....

Not mine, but exactly like mine

I would make some kinda bracket to hold it up if you can. Or like nelson said wrap just that 6" section.

wrap the cable it you dont wanna wrap the headers

I'd go with making a bracket

Try to make a bracket and a "heat shield" for it if you can.

So I pulled a CSI on the shifter cable. It definitely melted almost immediately at the bracket.. The teflon coating on the cable is melted and frozen to the inside of the casing. The "thicker" cable stopped an outright melt through, but the inside still gets toasty apparently.

Paul I cant tell what the probem is by those tiny pics you posted. I would NOT wrap the headers. I hear wrapping headers causing corrosion in that area since moisture cant evaporate if the car is not run a while. Plus is ruins the coating after some time. How much clearance is there between the cable and the pipe? Is there a way to make a shield to block most of the heat? Maybe find some type of material that is almost fire proof.

Yeah I am definitely not wrapping the headers.

The cable melted right where it is at the header collector, pretty much... A guy on the Torino forum showed me his solution, and he runs the same headers.. open.

wrap the cable with that heat wrap shit

From the Torino forum:

OK, it exists out infront of the shifter & circles around the passenger side keeping it above the trans crossmember. Loop around the back of the trans & tie it to the tailstock. You can't go above the crossmember on the drivers side so encase the cable in a metal tube/pipe (I just use a piece of 1/2 in. copper) & wrap the ends with some kind of heat protective tape. Been using this method for 25 years. Works great. If you have open headers make sure the pipe is long enough to protect against the blast area, but not too long where you can't turn the cable at the back of the tailstock. I hope I explained this clear enough?

that's pretty much what I'm going to do