Issues fitting Agile Offroad shift cable retention bracket

[C-Mack]

I’m running into some issues fitting the Agile Offroad shift cable retention bracket. There must be some variability between build dates as the bracket does not fit into place and actually interferes with the heat shielding in the transmission tunnel. I’ve had to bend the bracket at a couple of different angles to create some clearance but there is no way the shift cable is going to sit in the cradle as designed on my vehicle. In fact, the cable only seems to fit on the opposite side away from the cradle where it is supposed to be zip tied in.

The shift cable can’t simultaneously bend around the edge of the head shielding and back up to run through the bracket support there isn’t enough clearance on the cradle side. My build has the aluminum shielding around the cable making it more difficult to manipulate or reposition. The only solution I can think of is to use an aluminum P-Clamp and turn it around so the cable is supported on the non-cradle side of the bracket.

I’ll most likely have to cut the cradle end off of the bracket at the point where the slot is for the zip tie in order to make sure the bracket doesn’t interfere with the shielding and allows for some small relative movement between the chassis mounted bracket and body mounted shift cable. It’s a bit of a DIY fix but certainly didn’t plan on it being this much of a hassle.

 

[anand]

If you have the shielding on the cable I think that coincides with MY24.2... The first vehicles I saw with the shielding were the QMs at last year's Overland Expo West

Have you contacted Agile yet about it?

 

[C-Mack]

Yes, I’ve reached out to them and supplied some images so I’ll be curious to see what they say. Mine is a 04/24 build so I’m wondering if the shielded cable routing is just different enough to make the bracket not work without some modifications?

 

[BA_Greni]

I purchased one last month, but have not attempted to install it yet. Wonder if I'll have the same issue. @C-Mack please update with what Agile responds with. Thanks

 

[Agile1]

I’m running into some issues fitting the Agile Offroad shift cable retention bracket. There must be some variability between build dates as the bracket does not fit into place and actually interferes with the heat shielding in the transmission tunnel. I’ve had to bend the bracket at a couple of different angles to create some clearance but there is no way the shift cable is going to sit in the cradle as designed on my vehicle. In fact, the cable only seems to fit on the opposite side away from the cradle where it is supposed to be zip tied in.

The shift cable can’t simultaneously bend around the edge of the head shielding and back up to run through the bracket support there isn’t enough clearance on the cradle side. My build has the aluminum shielding around the cable making it more difficult to manipulate or reposition. The only solution I can think of is to use an aluminum P-Clamp and turn it around so the cable is supported on the non-cradle side of the bracket.

I’ll most likely have to cut the cradle end off of the bracket at the point where the slot is for the zip tie in order to make sure the bracket doesn’t interfere with the shielding and allows for some small relative movement between the chassis mounted bracket and body mounted shift cable. It’s a bit of a DIY fix but certainly didn’t plan on it being this much of a hassle.

Hey C-Mack,
What are you using to clamp the cable to the bracket?
You want to have the cable body flush to the metal, nothing spacing it up.
I've installed several on the ones with the foil cover, and it is tight to the foil shield.
It helps the loop the zip tie onto the cable loose, then bolt the tab in place while guiding the cable into place.
You may have to push up on the foil shield a small amount.
If you need more details email me directly, john@agileoffroad.com
Cheers
John C Brindell

 

[C-Mack]

Hi John thanks for reaching out. I viewed the installation video you created which was really clear and straightforward. Out of the box the flat bracket would not fit and interfered with the transmission tunnel heat shielding directly above it where it mounts on the sub-frame. I offered the bracket up to the mounting hole but the top curled corner of the bracket where you are supposed to place the shift cable and zip-tie digs into the shielding above making the whole bracket bind in place. I could force it in but the edge of the bracket would push up on the against heat shield with enough force it would knife edge its way into the shield which didn’t seem right and would damage the shield.

The only way I could gain enough clearance for the bracket to fit was to introduce two bends, one at the base of bracket just above the sub-frame about 15 to 20 degrees backwards toward the rear of the vehicle and a second 15 to 20 degree bend near the top of the bracket bending forward again so the top mounting surface was sitting level again. This essentially offset the entire top of the bracket backwards so it cleared the heat shield as it curves around the transmission tunnel but not by much.

I tried to move shift cable over to the spot where you are supposed to zip tie it to the bracket but I can only get it halfway over before shift cable becomes jammed in-between the bracket itself and shielding above. I don’t want to mess around with the heat shields and bend them out of shape or move them around from their factory positions as they are silent and rattle free.

On my vehicle the shift cable wants to sit naturally toward the left side of the bracket closer toward the transfer case and has enough clearance in this position. It’s basically opposite of where you currently have the cradle and zip-tie slot. I don’t know what could be different with my specific vehicle but it’s not going to fit cleanly as is and I would need to modify the bracket and secure the shift cable differently.

In the pictures a posted above, I’ve got enough clearance to attach a p-camp to the top of the bracket and run the shift cable through it so long as it is oriented toward the left hand side of the bracket closer the transfer case. If I mounted the shift cable in this manner I’d would probably cut the cradle part off most likely starting where the zip-tie slot is as this would keep bracket from rubbing against the heat shield above.

I totally get how the bracket was intended to be mounted and figured this would be an easy install but for whatever reasons on my vehicle there seem to be some clearance issues. The vehicle is unmodified, with only 600 or so miles on it so nothing has been changed underneath it’s still clean from the factory. It’s a head scratcher for sure but I do appreciate you wanting to help which says a lot.

One other thought I had was if the top of the bracket was completely flat and had a long slot in it and you provided a clamp that went over the shift cable with two bolts on either side which secured the clamp down through the slots onto the bracket this would provide some lateral adjustment and placement of the shift cable which might be helpful.

 

[TheDocAUS]

Just fitted mine 5 minutes ago, the trick when you have no car lift is to get the orientation of the bracket to fit flat onto the cross member. I got that wrong a few times in the limited space under the car. Once that was done everything fell into place. My original connector was still working so the pipe has two places of attachment. If you don't get the orientation correct the bracket keeps hitting the heat shielding and the bolt hole does not line up and the bracket is not flat against the cross member.

I think it was a smart thing to get the bracket as that pipe is so close to the spinning tail shaft.

 

[Asnes]

Just fitted mine 5 minutes ago, the trick when you have no car lift is to get the orientation of the bracket to fit flat onto the cross member. I got that wrong a few times in the limited space under the car. Once that was done everything fell into place. My original connector was still working so the pipe has two places of attachment.

I think it was a smart thing to get the bracket as that pipe is so close to the spinning tail shaft.

Same here. Took some fiddling… then once I found the correct plane/angle it was an “ah-ha” moment.

Good piece of kit and good price of mind.

 

[C-Mack]

Yeah, I tried several times and made sure the bracket was mounted flat to the sub-frame and flush at the bottom where it bends out to meet the lip of the subframe but no dice. I’m not giving up on this bracket I want it to work as it is a much better solution than the haphazard dealer remediation zip-ties hooked around all the plastic valves and whatnot underneath. The routing of cables and radiator hose pipes does not seem to be IA strong suit apparently.

 

[JKAlpine]

I did the install a couple of weeks ago and mine has the foil shield on the cable. It took a minute or so to get the right angle, but once I did it snapped in place. Snug, but works without modification.

 

[C-Mack]

Here are some clearer images showing the current shift cable routing on my vehicle. The cable runs in free air without interfering with or touching the heat shield. To get it to sit in the cradle on the right hand side of the bracket I have to force the shift cable over fighting tension in the cable where it becomes jammed in-between the bracket and the rubs against the heat shield. I’d prefer not to have the cable abraded against anything and remain clear of the shield.

With the plastic shift cable retainer in place the cable doesn’t want to move over nicely to attach it to the Agile bracket it wants to unclip itself so they fight each other. If the bracket had an attachment point in the middle or more on the left hand side in my instance the cable could remain in free air not rubbing against anything but secured by the bracket.

Also, without bending the bracket backwards it would bolt to the subframe and the cradle would jab into the heat shield directly above. The clearance I was able to get and what is shown in the images is the result of putting a couple of slight bends in the bracket.