Drivetrain T5 Teardown Question

Glliw

Member
Oct 21, 2019
22
1
13
Sheboygan, WI
Hey everyone,

So the '90 LX 5.0 that I recently picked up had a whole hose of transmission issues with the T5 so I took it apart and have a few new questions. The symptoms were grinding going into every gear, with 1-2 being the worst and had to be perfectly rev-matched to let it into the gear and 5th gear being non-existent. Also, the speedometer did not work at the dash.

Last night I got the transmission out of the car and popped off the top cover and tail assembly to get a better look at the gear train. With the tail off, the two smaller ring halves in the picture on the table fell out. Pulling off the bearing retainer, I found that it's 4 screws were barely installed, and one of them was entirely stripped out of the casing. Certainly not helping the issue!

The 5th gear looks to have taken a few hits as well as the teeth are pretty marred on the outer surface.

When I pulled the gear-train that is not pressed in, I could see a bunch of junk in the bottom of the case. The following was down there:

  • 2 spring clip halves
  • what looks to be a couple of grenaded synchronizer keys
  • the speedometer gear retaining clip
  • a LOT of metal shavings

There was also some damage to the sidewall of the case, though superficial in nature.

There's a few pictures attached.

I believe the larger ring is the 1-2 or 3-4 syncro spring but haven't dug in deep enough to confirm. This is my first transmission teardown, so learning as I go here.

Can anyone confirm which parts are the actual failed parts or what else I should be looking at due to those failed parts? Would you consider this still a good candidate for a rebuild?


Thanks,
Will
 

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Synchronizer clips and keys. Your synchro won’t work without that. Inspect the synchro hard parts for damage and replace if showing wear from grinding.

Still a rebuildabke trans. Just might need some hard parts.

I also spy the clip for the speedo gear on the mainshaft
 
Thanks man. I'll take a closer look at the hard parts later this week. From looking around, clips and keys are pretty darn cheap, at least from what I see at allstategear.com. This is going to be one of those projects where I spend more on tools than I do on parts, lol.

Yeah, somehow that speedo gear clip got into the main case which was a little surprising to me as that little yellow plastic gear rides along out at the output shaft.
 
I got a few minutes this evening to take a closer look at the referenced video above (actually is a different one by the same guy than what I had previously watched) and spent some time staring at my assembly. Definitely learning a lot here as I've never had to dig this deep into a transmission before.

From what I can tell, the synchro rings look to be in good shape though the synchro ring between what I think is 1st and reverse is entirely loose on the shaft. That's probably where the broken big ring came from.

First gear on the main shaft looks to be a bit higher than desired on the contact patch area.
 

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The inside dog teeth on the 1-2 synchro slider (3rd pic) are bashed up. That part needs to be replaced.


Cant get a good view of the other gears to comment
 
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I've just rebuilt a spare t5 I had.got a lot from Paul c. At fivespeeds.com,same guy Eric is in video with. I would get the complete kit with bearing retainer.
 
Thanks everyone. I just ordered the complete kit from LMR as well as the front bearing retainer. Harbor Freight's running a deal for Thanksgiving on their 20 ton press, so I'll pick that up Friday AM and hopefully get the rebuild done over the weekend.
 
Fingers crossed. If not, I'll just wait for the $16 peel one from 5speeds.com since I'm in no particular rush. The car will be sitting until the snow melts anyways.

Yeah, I got the upgraded piece through LMR for the bearing retainer.