Input Shaft
 

Is it ok to have play in the input shaft of a T5 tranny? Does anyone know if there is a spec on it?

When my tranny was out last week I grabbed the input shaft and the darn thing moved in my hand. I don't mean it rotated, it moved back and forth. I doubt this is good, but does it mean the front tranny bearing is bad, or could it be something more expensive?

Steve

it shouldnt move at all, if it does it should only have about 1-2 thousanths of an inch endplay, you probably just need to re-shim it, all you have to do is take the 4 bolts of the retainer and pull it out, put some new shims in there and bolt it back on, you dont even have to take the trans apart.

Is there a shim kit I would need to buy? How many do I put in? Wouldn't I need to shim it to a certain height? Thanks for the help.

Steve

give either d&d or hanlon motorsports a call, im sure they sell just the shims, they say that you need a dial indicator to shim it right but if you cant get ahold of one, i say just add one shim at a time and wait until there is a VERY VERY slight drag on the shaft, then bolt it down and go.

Hey thanks for all your help, we'll see what happens.

Steve

The imput shaft will mve back and forth and up and down (which is what I believe you are talking about)..however it should not move in and out which is the endplay, you want .002 end play there.

Yeah, not end play. Its like up and down and left and right. Thats ok to have?

Steve

Some play is fine, that is normal as long as it doesn't move more then say 1/4" either way or hit the bearing retainer you will be fine:)

thats news to me, mine is shimmed up properly and there is almost no side to side movement, or up and down.

There is always a little movement side to side and Bob Hanlon has said that is normal it is just very important that there is no excessive endplay, that will kill a T-5 if it is too tight or if the bearing see's preload.....the front bearing on the T-5 by a bad design starves for fluid, if you end up taking the imput shaft out you will need to replace the counter shaft, and the 2nd and 3rd gear cluster as well as a basic rebuild kit $550 in parts. Power shifting kills a T-5, even when build properly.

Above I was a little out of context saying "1/4 either way" it will move side to side but should not be excessive. I have not seen a T-5 that didn't do that and I rebuild them.

Oh well, looks like mine is almost done for then. The shaft hits the bearing retainer when it moves back and forth.

Man $550 in parts! I might as well spend another $550 and get a new tranny, maybe a T5 Z-spec. My tranny does have almost 200K on it and its never been opened up so I guess I got my money out of it. Plus it is a stock 83 tranny, and those things are sposed to be wicked weak! It handled 320 HP for a few years and 25K miles, so maybe it wasn't that weak after all.

Thanks again for your help. I guess I will put it back in and see if I can't get the summer out of it.

Steve