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  1. #1
    FEP Senior Member
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    Grand Rapids, MI
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    Default '83 LTD/Marquis Four Speed Manual Transmission

    I don't know how this escaped my attention, but I recently became aware that the '83 Marquis and LTD sedans came standard with the 2.3 and (what I assume is) the SROD manual transmission. Has anyone ever seen one and/or have pictures? I'm curious what they did with the shifter on the interior of this car. I've seen Fairmonts and obviously Mustangs with manual transmissions, but never a car with the LTD/Marquis interior. Uhh, asking for a friend.
    '89 XR-7 5 Speed
    '95 SC 5 Speed
    '91 Crown Vic P72 351W
    '97 Thunderbird
    '85 Ford LTD Squire

  2. #2

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    I'm going to hypothesize a bit on this.

    The '80-'82 TBirds and Cougar XR-7s used the LTD/Marquis dash/console assembly before the LTD/Marquis did.

    I manual-swapped one of my old '80 XR-7s (With an SROD, of all things). The car was a 302/AOD car and had a console with a column shift. On that car, I modded the center console for a shifter opening. These cars never came with a manual, nor a floor shifter.



    On my LTS, which is a 5.0/AOD car with a console and floor shift, there would already be a hole in the console plate that could possibly fit the manual shifter.



    If it wasn't done in a console car, I imagine one of the stand-alone shifter surrounds the early cars had would have been what was used.
    83 TC "Clone"
    85 Marquis LTS
    86 LTD Wagon

  3. #3

    Default

    I did a quick dive into my '83 factory manuals. The only thing it references for a shifter surround for the LTD/Marquis in '83 is the standard Fox non-console shifter surround. It's called a "Console Tray Assembly".

    I looked up an '83 sales brochure for the '83 LTD and it had no pictures of a manual car.
    83 TC "Clone"
    85 Marquis LTS
    86 LTD Wagon

  4. #4
    FEP Senior Member
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    Dec 2016
    Location
    Grand Rapids, MI
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    Default

    Interesting modification of the earlier T-Bird/Cougar console. It is hard to find one of those cars these days let alone one with a console. Most that I've seen did not come with the console.

    I think you are right int that they did something cheap and cheesy like the non-console Mustang 5 speed shifter base. I looked around quite a bit, but could not find any pictures of an actual car. The only actual mention of the manual transmission in the brochure is in the options list. I'm betting the take rate wasn't real high for this.
    '89 XR-7 5 Speed
    '95 SC 5 Speed
    '91 Crown Vic P72 351W
    '97 Thunderbird
    '85 Ford LTD Squire

  5. #5

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by KevinVarnes View Post
    Interesting modification of the earlier T-Bird/Cougar console. It is hard to find one of those cars these days let alone one with a console. Most that I've seen did not come with the console.
    The car was a factory Recaro/console car.

    I'd buy it back from the current owner if I had space and time for it.
    83 TC "Clone"
    85 Marquis LTS
    86 LTD Wagon

  6. #6
    FEP Senior Member
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    Dec 2016
    Location
    Grand Rapids, MI
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    Default

    Was dorking around looking for more pics when I came across this on BaT: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1983-ford-ltd/ I've heard of people using the aero Bird console and they said it fit well, but never saw any actual pictures and figured their definition of "fit well" might not be the same as mine, but this actually looks pretty good.There is an '87 XR-7 at a junkyard near me with a console. Might have to pick it up.
    '89 XR-7 5 Speed
    '95 SC 5 Speed
    '91 Crown Vic P72 351W
    '97 Thunderbird
    '85 Ford LTD Squire

  7. #7

    Default

    Yeah, that doesn't look terrible.
    83 TC "Clone"
    85 Marquis LTS
    86 LTD Wagon

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