The noise is similar to the old style casette tapes rewinding. Like Brian said, it's the sound of gears meshing. Kind of like the sound of a coffee grinder from a fair distance.

The leak issue is a combination of a few things.

1. The Ranger doesn't have a seperate shift turret and turret oil. Ford uses internal tranny pressure to sling oil up into the shift cup. Not the greatest of ideas, since gravity will pull the oil back down. It also means you can't vary the viscosity of the turret oil to adjust the shifting action. It also means you can't add friction modifiers without effecting the internals of your tranny. In short, I don't like the design.

2. The shifter pivot ball on the stock and FX4 shift assembly is under a pressure cap. Ford essentially seals the pivot point under a steel lid to keep the oil from squirting out. The Hurst moves the pivot point up a few inches, and thus the oil must squirt up further. Problem is, the Hurst uses a thin plastic gasket, and it tends to leak. Brian used some gasket material, and fixed the problem. I never had the issue during the time I tested mine. Others have reported major oil leak issues. Its really hit-or-miss on this one. I believe Hurst should re-evaluate the gasket design.

3. The Hurst absorbs some major heat from the tranny. The OEM and FX4 shifters contain that heat under the cap, but the Hurst shifter is taller. There is a potential that the heat is cooking the thin gasket, and allowing oil to leak. Again, this could easily be solved. I still have a concern about the amount of heat I felt on the Hurst shift cup during my evaulation. It's possibly due to the fact that not enough oil is circulating through the cup, and cooling it properly.

4. Since the turret is not a seperate part of the tranny, there is also a tendancy for oil vapors to travel up into the shift cup. Not a problem for the OEM design, but the it could collect in the Hurst. As it cools, the oil will become liquid, and could leak out. I didn't notice this in my testing, but the internals of the Hurst were usually coated with lots of oil when removed. Fortunetly, the oil never made it's way to the top of the shift cup.

So there's my review. Hopefully some of the questions are answered.
As fas as which one to get, we'll that's a more personal choice.

The Hurst is by far a better shifter, but it's does have some issues.

The FX4 looks good, the bend helps improve shifting, but the action is still stock.

The OEM one...well... it just plain looks like crap and shifts like a broken chicken wing in a bucket of nails.

 

I notice a lot of heat on the FX4 shifter in my truck too. The lower on the shifter you touch, the warmer it becomes. This isn't burn your hand hot, it's just warm to the touch.

 

You'll notice it more because the FX4 and Hurst arms are solid metal. The OEM is a hollow pipe with an insulating sleeve. Ford put a lot of money into making it look as bad as it does. The big rubber boot also helps contain heat and noise. I've noticed my FX4 arm has a tendancy to ring at certain speeds. Between 60-65mph, the tranny must put out just the right vibration for it to ring like a small bell. I kinda like it, I know when I hit 70, cause it stops.

The heat was causing me some concern with the Hurst, as the whole shift cup was getting hot. Considering the amount of sound deadening I had around it; I was concerned about a potential fire. I never did have that problem.

 

Yup, that is very true about the stock vs FX4 shifter. It's been a bit of a sorespot for some of us owners. I still have what I consider excessive gear noise in certian gears/speed ranges. It seems you take the good (better looking) w/ the bad (more noise) though.

Mostly the noise isn't enough to bother me. I have poor hearing anyhow. My GF on the other hand, it drives her nuts!

 

Yep, the condition of my gasket was indicative of heat combined with pressure. The gasket is NOT adequate for the job, but a silicon sealant has done a fine job in its place. I have not noticed any leakage.

In a few weeks I'll be temporarily going back to the stock shifter to take it in for transmission service (as a favor to the tranny tech, so he doesn't have to waste any time worrying about losing parts or putting it back together right) so I'll report on the overall mechanical condition of the shifter, but I've logged over 40K miles on it between this truck and my wrecked 02 it was originally installed on.

 

I noticed this is an old post, but I just put the hurst in mine and yeah, it has a little bit of noise to it, but the shifting is improved so much that the noise doesn't even matter. I actually notice the noise less now that I've had it for a couple of weeks now. The best price I found was at summit racing. I had the fx4 shifter for about a month, it looks better than stock, but thats about it. It does nothing for improving your shifting. I say the hurst is the only way to go if you are looking for improved, more positive shifting without all the slop.