I hate T5s (sorry for the ranting)
 

I just need to vent a little. This morning on my way to work, running a little late. Get to the end of the block shifted normally, until I stop and try to pull it out of 4th and it's stuck. It drove fine the night before. I haven't driven it hard in about a month. I've had to rebuild it 4 times in under a year and half, and I treat it nice. Best I can figure it's a broken shift fork. At 600 bucks a rebuild I think it's time for a tko. Ahh, it feels good to get that out.

I know you are thinking of a TKO, but have you ever thought about going auto. Not a C4 but a well built AOD;) I swapped from an 3550 to an Art Carr AOD and love it.... I have always had stick shifts but wante dto try an auto with my 86 since I am about to add a blower...

Man, everyone I hear online talks about how T5's suck. I have never had a problem with them. I have bought two online and had one in a car that I bought and all three worked fine. If you keep the fluid fresh (change about once every three oil changes) and don't slam the hell out of them (I hate it when people brag about how hard they shift their transmission, it's not cool) AND KEEP YOUR CLUTCH ADJUSTED PROPERLY!!! When you let your clutch out from the floor in gear, it should not start to bog the motor until at least an inch and a half from the floor and it should completely engage near halfway through the travel of the pedal. Your clutch pedal should not be sloppy and swing back and forth when your foot is not on it. I have seen people who say that they read that you should let there be a lot of slack in your cable when the pedal is out so that the clutch has full pressure on the disk. TRUST ME! It doesn't have to have a lot of slop. Make sure it engages about halfway from the floor and makes sure when your foot is on the floor that it is completely disengaged. this is why people wear out T5's so fast in my opinion. If your clutch does not completely disengage between gears, your synchronizers and shifter forks (especially when you slam the hell out of them) are going to suffer. There. Sorry for the ranting. And no offense to you jwboner. I'm sure it's possible that you've gotten some trannies that have sucked and blown up with no fault of your own. But I've never had a problem.

But T5 is my name :(

I been through 4 T-5s in the last year and a 3550. I'm with you T-5's suck if you have any power under the hood. I think the Art Carr AOD is a good idea. I had a Art Carr 200R4 in my Grand National and it was great. my grand national ran low 11's and I never had any problems with it. Since I got my mustang I can't find a good 5 speed. I'm going to send one to G-Force and let them rebuild it I hear they are very tough. You can also get a X2C Modified tremec I hear they are extremly tough as well.

I would go auto if it were a racer only but I drive it just about everyday going somewhere. Plus it is so much more fun shifting a sportscar. Maybe when I retire it from daily duty. Hey, no offense T5superduty, I guess it's just one of those unfortunate coincidences. There is not one thing on my car that is out of adjustment or tune. In fact it is the state of tune that is breaking the trans. Not my driving. The T5 holds up great on stock 5.0s but come up short when you put hardly any more power in them like Bry said. I know I never should have even put one in and expected it to last but it was handy and tremecs are getting expensive. At the moment I don't race it b/c I don't have a trailer. And dad always said "if you break it, it's a long way home when you're pushing it" I really hope to get one of the new Novi 1200 in by next fall too. So it would've been time to ditch the T5 anyway. Thanks for the replies

I have heard alot of people talk about how bad the t5's are but myself i have a 4 cyl t5, yes you heard me right, in my mustang and it is holding up GREAT. While i have never powershifted i have taken it out to the track and i go through the gears pretty quick. And this is with it being behind an engine that was dynoed at over 350hp before the new roller cam and headwork.

I thought the same thing..And had a hard time deciding to make the swap.. My car is a street car and not a racer. Good thing about the AOD I have it can be shifted manually or if you feel lazy you can just put it in D and go.. But I alway shift it manually, kinda like driveing a stick without the clutch ;) ... Also it has the electric OD delete so OD only come on when you're on the highway and flip a button.

I've never had problems with T5's.....then again i've never made a massive amount of power. From talking to the last owner, he blew up the T5 in my GT at about 80,00 miles and the "new" one has lasted now till 135,000 (i believe) miles and still feels great. The one i had in my '84 5.0L lasted 155,000 miles until i sold the car.
I'm sure that the one in my car won't last long since i'm using it with slicks and i'm about to install ported GT40 heads, B303 and nitrous within the next 6 months or so....or until i get to the track i should say.

My bet is that you're not rebuilding them correctly. Try this (with a buddy):

1. Remove driveshaft.
2. Have your buddy push the end of the mainshaft towards the engine as hard as he can. It's easier to do this from the input shaft, but I'm assuming the trans is still in the car.
3. While he's pushing, try to get the trans into neutral.

If this "unsticks" 4th gear, you most likely have either not shimmed the input shaft at all, or you did not shim it enough. I bet you have way too little preload (read: too much fore/aft play) on the input shaft. While your in there, check the coutershaft endplay also.

I think the endplay should be 0.002 to 0.005, but I don't remember exactly. Also, don't forget that the trans will loosen a little as you drive it more, which may be why this didn't happen right away.

Let us know how it turns out...

Good luck,

Rich D.

That's why I use a little pre-load on the input and coutershafts when I do them. They'll loosen up that .002" as they wear in.

My T-5 has been great since 1990. I don't power-shift it, but I work it hard and is has help up fantastic. When I rebuilt it a couple years back, I just had to replace the 1-2-R slider due to some chips in the clutch teeth (from the pre-Hurst shifter days), but it has performed flawlessly!

i have the stock t-5 with a hurst short throw and it has worked like a champ since i got it..... only think is i got on it a little to hard in reverse and the car wheel hopped and reverse gear is now missing some teeth.. oh well just have to roll it out of the garage. lol

Well I haven't done any of the work up until now. I've taken it to two different places. The first one didn't a good enough job, and I've heard good things about the other. I took the tranny out a few days ago and took a look inside and everything LOOKED good except for the sloppy end play in the input shaft. Shimmed that up till there was no end play. I thought that would take care of it. When bench testing it, it kept doing the same thing so I opened it up again and dial indicator says the 3-4 slider is warped and doesn't slide on or off of 4th very well. The tranny is a year old since last rebuild so it has held up longer than I originally thought. I've had to put it back in b/c of lack of muney for tko, crossmember, and new clutch disc. Driving it now feels like it could give up the ghost at any moment. You all are lucky to have t5s that have held up for so long b/c mine has been nothing but a pain. I've never power-shifted, missed a gear or anything, and clutch is always set right. The people at the trans shop say that a T5 will hold up unless you shift poorly or something happens when you're under power like losing traction or hitting a bump and the tire comes off the ground. The slack in the gears when they slam together will make a gear into a circle. Thanks for the help.

What about cluster gear end play - did you check that?