Okay I recently bought a 1988 GT 5.0 and when I bought it the tranny was whinning in all gears but 4th. Well I filled it up with Mercon Dexron III to see if that would stop it. Well I drove it down the road to see if it quit but when I turned around to come home I got through 1st, 2nd, and when I put it in 3rd and stomped on the gas it sounded like something broke and started grinding real bad. Well, when you try to put it in gear it will go in fine and clutch still feels the same but when you go to release on the clutch it grinds in all the gears but 4th. It will act like it wants to pull and go in all the gears but it grinds real bad in all but that one. It will start off and not grind at all and drive fine but that is the only gear. Could it be that the synchros in all the gears are gone but 4th or what could it be? I am totally lost.
Problem with T5............
- Thread starter Tacos88gt5.0
- Start date
Jay5_o
New Member
4th gear is 1/1 ratio , wich means its whole main shaft that turns in fourth , You blew your tranny, definately needs a rebuild. Same thing happend to me 3 times with the t5's they would only drive in fourth and just grind in the other gears, they cant handle too much abuse before they break.
You will definately need a gear or two plus synchro's , best to tear it apart first then go from there.
You will definately need a gear or two plus synchro's , best to tear it apart first then go from there.
See http://www.ttcautomotive.com/English/onlineorder/product.asp to download a FREE service manual for T5 or Tremec 3550
You will need the Adobe Acrobat viewer which is also a free download – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
See http://www.ddperformance.com/index2.htm 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://cartapes.com also has a video on how to rebuild your T5 or Tremec. It costs less than $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 need the Adobe Acrobat viewer which is also a free download – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
See http://www.ddperformance.com/index2.htm 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://cartapes.com also has a video on how to rebuild your T5 or Tremec. It costs less than $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.
Tacos88gt5.0 said:
Common problem in T-5's. It's usually caused by Mainshaft scoring from running low on tranny fluid. No real way to fix it without replacing the mainshaft and any associated bearings that may be scored. It should be loudest in the lowest gears (1st and reverse) and get quieter the closer to 4th you get with no noise in 4th at all.
As for what you broke? Well hard to say without pulling the tranny apart. T-5 rebuilding is very easy. It's probably the easiest type of manual tranny to rebuild do to it's simple design.
Well, since I am going to have to rebuild this is there anything I can do to make the tranny any stronger to be able to hold up? Also one more question. I have a friend that has a T-5 and it is really hard to get into 2nd gear and if you do get it in it is hard to get it out. He said he would sell it to me for $50 and he thinks that it is only a syncro that has gone bad or something like that. Would it be smart to buy that one and fix it if that is what is wrong and save up to build a stronger T-5?
Tacos88gt5.0 said:
Well you can upgrade to the 90-93 gearset. That will increase your torque capacity from 275 to 300 ft-lbs. It's gonna cost you like 300 for the parts though.
As for your buddy's tranny. could be a broken shift fork ($30) or it could be a bad synchro. The thing is synchros are made up of a lot of parts. The cheap and easy peices to replace are the blocker rings which are like $20. They line up the gear and synchro slider and when they wear you can get grinding. Thing is sometimes there is physical damage to the dog teeth on the gear that the slider engages and the sycnrho slider. I just replaced these parts on a t-5 due to bad grinding going into 2nd gear. Cost of new parts? $85 for slider, $80 for sycnrho, $20 for blocker rings. I also needed to replace the mainshaft in this trans due to whining in every gear but 4th. It was scored badly where it contacts the input shaft. Cost of new mainshaft is $250.
I ended up paying $130 for all those parts buy buying good used parts. It's good to have a few spare T-5's sitting around to rob parts from.
If your friend's T-5 is from a 90-93, it may be worth it to buy for $50 and then rebuild it with parts from your T-5. Keep in mind gear ratios are different so you cant use your 2nd gear if you need to. Youll need to buy a 90-93 spec 2nd. But you can use your sycnrho slider and shift forks.
Similar threads
