So if it’s quiet in 4th it’s likely not shifter vibration. It also points to it being something related to the countergear as the load is taken off that in 4th.
If it’s constant, it could either be a bad bearing, or even the input/countergear meshing. I would think that if it was one of the speed gears (1, 2 or 3) the pitch/volume of the sound would also change as load is on the gear.
Countergear is original? How did those teeth look?
The sound itself and how it changes in each gear is going to be the biggest clue as to where it’s located.
Counter gear is original. It visually looked good. It is obvious that it isn’t new though. I measured tolerance between the teeth on counter gear and input shaft teeth at .006
Did you make sure that counter shaft bearing was pressed all the way on at the front ? It goes down a little bellow the end. If it isn't you can get a whine from gear mesh issues.
Most likely. I didn’t remove the counter shaft this time. When I had it out two years ago, I followed a rebuild guide very closely, which made an important note of the step.
I have this picture from two years ago. Should the shaft stick past of the bearing?
It should stick out just a little bit. If I remember correctly ther is a small chamfered edge on the shaft. It should go on to the bottom of that edge. This is why I used an old bearing race instead of something flat. If it's not pressed all the way it can screw up the swimming of the counter shaft. Would make sense from your symptoms. With whining I'd expect to see some flecks in the fluid but with roller bearings sometimes it doesn't leave noticeable trash. It's like having a loose wheel bearing.
It's a shame the t5 would have to come back apart to inspect it.
Darn. I might just run it at this point haha. I drove it for a while today and the whine gets quieter as the transmission warms up. Also, it shifts much better than before... I didn't mess with any of the synchros or anything. Weird.
That would defintely cause the whining. You can see the damage on the teeth as well.
Does the input shaft have similar tooth damage?
Question is, what caused the tooth damage and the crack. Do you think this was existing prior to your first rebuild?
Is this a Tremec counter gear or aftermarket? What about the input shaft? I'm wondering if there was a mismatch in tooth pitch? The damage is right across the face of the tooth where the engagement occurs. Normally the teeth shouldnt rub across the face and cause that sort of damage, unless this trans was run completely empty of fluid. Lots of load on the input shaft so makes sense damange would show here first. I would inspect all your other gears as well
I’ll see if I can get a picture of the input shaft. It looks good. The wear pattern is clearly not correctly aligned. Hard to say if the crack was there prior.
The input shaft is an AMP Distributing Mustang 5.0 T5 Input shaft replacement. Forged steel.
@90sickfox
Maybe you were right about the cluster gear bearing being improperly seated. Here is a picture of my brand new input shaft wear pattern. Notice how the mesh was incorrect.
Looks like it was misaligned for sure. The shimming at the plate end of the cluster gear set could be loose....or the plate could be distorted. Would be a great time to add a billet steel cluster plate. They keep the cluster gear from walking in the bearing races when putting power to the ground.