Blew my t-5..

M

Matts89Notch

New Member
Jan 26, 2007
62
0
0
#1
Well I have been looking at getting a new tranny and motor combo and found a few deals but have heard nothing back on them...

Tonight I went out for a cruise and went to open it up in the first few gears. My t-5 was on it's way out because it grinded going into 2nd gear unless I dbl. clutched it and it shifted good. I went wot in 1st and all was fine went into 2nd with some spinning and went to hit 3rd really hard and it poped out and sure enough you could hear carnage sounds and the tranny begging for mercy...:bang:

Well I limped the car into a parking lot and with it out of gear you could tell the clutch was slightly engaging because it was spinning the tranny anfd it was making crunching noises...I decided to try and make it home about 1.5 miles away and it was really rough....It crunched and made a lot of noise in 1st slowly going into 2nd and I could not get it to go into 3rd, but 4th and 5th was the same as 1-2....:shrug: :notnice:
Time for a new tranny I think which way have you others went that have had this happen to you..keep in mind money is not the best right now.:nonono:
 
#2
welcome to the club! i got 2 busted t5's sitting in my garage and the one in my car now is on it's way out. i'm broke as hell too, i'm gonna try and save up to get either a t5z or an astro. it'd probably be the t5z though cause it's cheaper. that or i might get the z gear set and rebuild one of the ones i have with it. but more than likely i'm probably gonna end up just getting a normal rebuild on one of the ones i got because i'm too broke to get anything better. :( ooohhh if i had disposable income...:nonono:
 
#3
get a 4 banger unit, every junkyard in america thinks they are crap compared to the v8's so theyre really cheap, but yeah welcome to the club, im in the process of buying 2 trans right now, yes 2, one for my 96gt im buying next week lol, and one for my 86, ive blown up like 3 t5's though a nice h/c/i car with gears and sticky tread just never has a chance ...... get used to swapping them out, see how fast u can do it!!! lol
 
#8
I'm keeping my eye out for a w/c t-5 but it's gonna be like $700 on ebay. The guy says it's rebuilt with the 3:35 first gear and all the good stuff ect, with 0 miles on it. his feedback is good and it looks like he has done it a few times b4 and everyone that gave him feedback said their tranny's came perfect....what do you guys think??

But on another note the teardown has begun...today I got about an hour to work on the car and I pulled out the h and the catback out.

Next is to mark & pull out the driveshaft. then disconnect everything from the tranny. After that It will come out and I will see the carnage....

I'm undecided on what to do with buying a tranny...I want to buy a new unit but my budget is like $1200 on the tranny because I'm getting a few other things also. The car will get a new clutch and shifter ($300) and maybe a alum. ds if I can get a cheaper tranny..

Any more tips or suggestions on what I should do, where are good places to buy a new t-5 for under $1200??
 
#9
if you feel like doing the rebuild yourself, both astro and g-force offer just the gear kits themselves in your price range. thats what im hoping to do when this t5 breaks (hopefully not too soon)

other than that, scour ebay and the classifieds, sometimes you can find a really good deal.
 
#10
Well I'm waiting on a deal from a guy about 6hrs away with a used t-5 for $300. I hope its what he says it is becuase than I can get this thing back together before school starts. I ordered a pro 5.0 sts and have a king cobra clutch kit that im keeping an eye out for $165. Is $330 too much for the shifter and clutch kit shipped to my door?
 
#11
Matts89Notch said:
I'm going to try and get a nice w/c t-5 but I can't dish out 1k for a tranny..
Click to expand...



Pretty much ALL Mustang transmissions are World Class. Even the 4-bangers. It has nothing to do with strenght. All it means if the transmission has 3-peice synchros.



You guys are probably thinking Z-spec with the 2.95 first gear. Standard T-5's come with a 3.35 1st gea
 
#12
Ic.

Well the driveshaft is out....and how come no one told me it would take but 15 min...:rlaugh:

I also disconnected everything from the shifter asembly and that was cake also maybe 5 min of work....I only got this far than ran out of light...time has been tight...

Maybe tomorrow I can get everything unplugged and unbolt it...

To those who have done this before did you guys unbolt the tranny from the motor first, then unbolt the crossmember before dropping it?? Any tips from this point on? This is the first time I have gone this far with the car...aside from the full exhaust dropping the ds/tranny is a first for me..
 
#13
You are going to have to tilt the trans down to reach the top bolts anyway.

Remove the X-member first, then unbolt the 4 bolts holding the trans to the bellhousing and pull it off. A jack or a buddy who is jacked would come in handy here.
 
#14
Cool thanks for the help. I have the pro 5.0 and cobra clutch on their way as of today...now I need the tranny..

What other little things would you guys go about replacing along with the things I'm already adding. What about the fork, and the clutch cable?
 
#15
Replace the clutch fork pivot ball inside the bellhousing if it looks worn. Clutch forks rarely bend. The cable can be replaced if you want.

Degrease the hell out of everything and replace the rear main seal. Also, if you take the flywheel off, throw those bolts out and buy new ones.
 
#17
Well the tranny is out and I have it taken about half apart. I need to get some snap ring plyers to take out the 5th gear asembly.

TALK about a walk in the park it took me about 1 hour and 20 min. Thats counting me jacking it up and explaining every step to my girlfriend along with clean up...not too bad for a first timer...

Well the bad news.....half the teeth on 3rd gear are gone and you can see the wear on the syncro rings bad...the car really would grind going into 2nd and well it shows. Also the rear houseing of the tranny case looks all spidered with cracks...not too sure if this is normal but it sure don't look like it too me...pics comming....
 
#18
Lol i could have told you you blew 3rd. It's the most common t-5 failure. It's due to mainshaft flex since 3rd is the farthest from any sort of support.

tailhousing cracks are tough to say. I'd need to see pics. Sometimes aluminum castings tend to do that naturally. Do yourself a favor and DEGREASE the hell out of everything. When i rebuild t-5's, i get them down to bare aluminum to check out for cracks and other potential probs. You could eat off my trans when i'm done with it :)


As for rear main, it's pretty simple. DO NOT NICK THE CRANK. Just pull old seal out and push in new seal.
 
#19
Well jeeze that simple enough..lol..yea I knew I blew out third cause I limped it home and 1,2,4,5 worked...it went boom when I shifted into 3rd at wot....Well I'm this far already and I have yet to find a good deal on a hole unit....do you think it's really that hard to rebuild it with that video and the basic tools needed? The only thing I can't do is the pressing but I could afford to take it to a local mech. shop and have them do that part...What would I need, I can't just buy a new 3rd gear and the gear that drives it can I and the rebuild kit from ford can i??..or am I just better off getting a new unit already built?
 
#20
I don't know how you feel about the DYI thing when it comes to gears, some people don't like the idea of working on transmissions. If the DYI transmission fix idea isn't something that you would rather leave to someone else, here are some resources:

See http://www.ttcautomotive.com/English/onlineorder/product.asp to download a FREE service manual for T5 or Tremec 3550/TKO
You will need the Adobe Acrobat viewer which is also a free download – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

See http://www.hanlonmotorsports.com/ or http://www.ddperformance.com for parts

A T5 rebuild kit with syncros, bearings and other small parts costs about $160. It does not include any gears or shafts.

http://www.hanlonmotorsports.com/ also has a video on how to rebuild your T5 or Tremec. It costs about $20, and is worth every penny of it.

I did a Tremec 3550 rebuild, and it wasn't that difficult. The video was an immense help, and I would recommend viewing it. At $20, it will give you an opportunity to look and decide for yourself if you think that it is something you want to try to do.

You will also need a magnetic base and dial indicator to measure the endplay ($40-$120). http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNPDFF?PMPAGE=1303&PMCTLG=00

The tricky part is that you will need some shims to adjust the endplay in the two shafts: the new bearings will change the clearance. There is no way of telling what it will be until you get to the point that it is time to measure and check the clearances. Halon has the individual shims if you can wait for them. If you can't afford the wait, the auto parts store can sell you some shim stock and you can make your own, or have a machine shop make them for you. The shim stock comes in brass (easy to cut) and steel, in varying thicknesses. That's where the dial indicator & base come in - there is no way to get the clearance right without it.

Getting the car jacked up high enough to get the trans jack in and out from under the car was somewhat challenging. Since I didn't have a helper, getting the trans out of the car and back it was one of the more difficult things about the job. I built a trans jack out of 2x6's, some angle iron and a $25 floor jack. If I hadn't done that, I would have needed a helper or to rent a commercial trans jack. At 100+ pounds the Tremec 3550 was far too heavy for me to lift by myself.
 
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