I need help, bad. T5 swap in 88 5.0

I just bought this 88 5.0 from a guy who converted it from an auto to a 5 speed. He told me he had issues with the bell housing being wrong, something about the length of the input shaft, and having to modify the driveshaft. I don't know the details, he didn't seem to know a whole hell of a lot. Anyways, the speedo wasn't working and 4th gear grinds. I know the synchro is the cause of the problem in 4th, but the speedo I didn't know. I jacked up the car, removed the speed sensor and to my shock found that there was NO gear inside the tranny on the end of the output shaft! I pulled the tranny ID tag and found "1352-260" on the tag. Its a damn 99 T5 and according to what I found, uses an electronic speed sensor.. This explains the lack of speedo function. I've been told its not possible to put the newer T5's in the fox's.. So my question here is what am I dealing with? Is it something I can fix? Should I be concerned? Should I toss it and get another tranny.

Anyone? I need to get this resolved shortly, I hope. No one seems to know anything except "I didn't think those trannies would work in that car"...

nmk_61802 said:

Also what he was telling you is that after 93 Ford moved the shifter location back an inch or so. The change resulted in a longer input shaft, and a longer bellhousing. That is why the driveshaft was shortened. Does your shifter fit in the console correctly? I bet the tranny tunnel hole was inlarged some as well.

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Yes, he said he needed to enlarge the opening some. It "seems" to fit correctly in the console, but I wouldn't know 100%. This is my first fox, so I don't know everything about them. So anyways, is this tranny something I should waste my time with or something I should get rid of? In order to get the "correct" T5, I take it I will need

1). The tranny
2). The bell housing
3). A new drive shaft

am I correct?

Sicarius428 said:

I believe the 99 mustang came with a T45... The T45 has a built in bellhousing that mates to the 4.6.
Kevin

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He did say it was a T45, but everything I have seen says its a T5. Its clearly bolted to a bell housing. Nothing looks "built in" as you say. I could easily detatch the tranny from the bell housing if I needed to.

Alright. Little update. His friend who did the install apparently worked at Ford and was a master tech. Don't really care about that, but he says the tranny came from a 94 5.0. The bell housing is also from the same car. Something about the tail section was different and that is where the mix up comes. The rear section of the tranny (I assume just the case) was swapped. The drive shaft is also from the same 94 5.0. Does the 94 use a gear driven speedo sending unit just like my 88, or is it electronic also? What can I do to get my speedo working? Simply install the gear on the output shaft?