Drivetrain TKX Shifter Position Question

fasterthangas said:

Those of you who have installed a TKX into a 94-95 GT; how did the TKX shifter sit in relation to your seating position?

What was your solution?

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Did you index the bell?

revhead347 said:

I had a 3550 in my Mustang. The change in shifter position is not noticeable. The factory shifter on the TKX is a known problem area, so it's best to replace it anyway. The MGW shifter offers a large range of adjustment.

Kurt

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Hey Kurt, did you index the bell? The 95 I bought in 2016 has a lakewood scattershield and I'm removing it for this 331 setup. I have the appropriate bell to use and talking to a few guys that I know personally, they have never indexed any Tremec they've had and didn't have any issues.

fasterthangas said:

You must index the bell. It's stated in the instructions and the warranty is only valid if you do so.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu9bg-fJdnc

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My bell is used tho just an Fyi, so no instructions.
But yeaaa...

fasterthangas said:

Why is that an issue? A bell housing is a bell housing.

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I was just letting you know about the instructions in the warranty part of what you said

fasterthangas said:

Watch the video. The warranty is for the TKX and not the bell housing. The bell housing must be indexed before installing the TKX. If you install the tranny and it's side loaded, it can cause shifting issues and binding. That tranny needs to be centered with the crankshaft.

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I understand all of that. What kind of warranty length does that trans have? I bought the car in 2016 the trans was on the car and so I don't know anything about the history of the trans, when it was bought, ect.

fasterthangas said:

If you bought the car in '16, it doesn't have a TKX.

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No I stated I had a 3550

fasterthangas said:

In post #25 you asked if I indexed the bell of my TKX. This thread is about the TKX shifter position. It would have been nice if you started your own thread about your 3550.

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It's all good I've talked to some people on other platforms and got a pretty good opinion on the matter. Appreciate all that reached out

Some people get lucky with transmission alignment out of the box, some don't. One of the guys I work with put a TKO500 behind a BB Chevy running in the 450 HP neighborhood without checking. It took around 16k miles before an input shaft bearing let go and took out the trans. He's lucky it didn't take out his crank, I've heard stories about misalignment being really hard on the thrust bearing. Expensive lesson to learn. The bummer is that the alignment plate is around $140, but sometimes goes on sale for less. You could probably bounce it on Ebay after you're done and minimize the cost for using it. For as much as these MTs cost now, it's probably not a bad idea to spend the money and take the time to check. It's jsut a drop in the bucket by the time you total up the whole conversion package. I can't say for sure, but a big part of this could be aftermarket quality and their variable tolerances. We swapped a lot of T5s with factory bell housings back in the day without checking anything, and never seemed to have this problem. Maybe that's because factory tolerances were better or we didn't make enough power for it to be an issue scraping mid-300 HPs in an NA 302.