URGENTHelp T5 wont go in reverse/Shift Smooth

igotyofire · Jan 11, 2007

well my mechanic and i dropped the tailshaft housing today on the T5 so that we could install the output shaft drive gear so that we could correct my speedo. And upon reinstallation everything seemed to go smoothly. and fit right. We started the car up and couldn't reverse it. it felt very notchy and hard to even go in 1st,2nd,3rd..-5th. we pushed it into the street and it drove but it would grind gears, or bang into gear. Sometimes at a stop i couldn't get it into 1st or 2nd without using alot of force. Does anyone have any idea what could have went wrong with just removing the tailshaft and putting it back. The hardest part was putting the ball and spring back but i held that on the top while sitting in the car while he pushed it back into the shaft/shift rail.

So for right now i really need some help as im without a car and we are out of ideas

kpack5982 · Jan 11, 2007

I don't know how this would apply, but it sounds to me like a clutch not engaging fully. I dont know if you did anything with the clutch cable or anything, but that's something that's happened to me. My problem was I still had the stock clutch quadrant and needed to pull up on the clutch pedal until it clicked in order to adjust the clutch, which in turn engaged the clutch properly without grinding gears

I doubt this'll help, but just something to check

Roland69 · Jan 11, 2007

could it be something with that shaft that your shifter goes down into...

Slo 5.0 · Jan 12, 2007

check your clutch adjustment, if youre having trouble getting it into all of the gears that is probably it.

igotyofire · Jan 12, 2007

Slo 5.0 said:
check your clutch adjustment, if youre having trouble getting it into all of the gears that is probably it.

the clutch worked perfectly fine before this. the front part of the tranny we didn't even touch, all we did was take out the rear mount, and let it hang down enough to slide off the tail shaft. i doubt cluctch is it even tho it wouldn't hurt to check

seijirou · Jan 12, 2007

The tailshaft can go on wrong, and I think it probably did. I've seen transmissions lock up and not turn because the tailshaft isn't installed just right. I would go ahead and pull the trans out if I were you. If you already had it tilted back, you're only 4 bolts away (15mm) between the case and the bellhousing and the trans out. Look it over and put her back together on the bench if it isn't going together happy on the car.

seijirou · Jan 12, 2007

About the shims: Good chance that it's okay since you didn't get in the case, but you should check it out anyway.

igotyofire · Jan 12, 2007

seijirou said:
The tailshaft can go on wrong, and I think it probably did. I've seen transmissions lock up and not turn because the tailshaft isn't installed just right. I would go ahead and pull the trans out if I were you. If you already had it tilted back, you're only 4 bolts away (15mm) between the case and the bellhousing and the trans out. Look it over and put her back together on the bench if it isn't going together happy on the car.

how can it go on wrong, the top of it has to line up with a pinhole which went in fine. it did shift into third while sliding it on tho. but we put it back in nuetral to light up the hole. But i guess the output shaft some how didn't slide in right....iono

Italian-LX · Jan 12, 2007

There is a nylon bushing that goes in the shifter block. Are you sure that was in there when you reinstalled the shifter?

If you don't have that bushing in place, then you will have excess play in your shifter and you will have problems like you are describing.

bchampion · Jan 12, 2007

What year is your T5? When you pulled the tailhousing off, was the tranny in the 3-4 neutral position? Did you pull the tailhousing completely off to change the speedo drive gear?

igotyofire · Jan 12, 2007

bchampion said:
What year is your T5? When you pulled the tailhousing off, was the tranny in the 3-4 neutral position? Did you pull the tailhousing completely off to change the speedo drive gear?

out of my 95 cobra, yes it was in nuetral 3-4 ibetween those two gears, yes we pulled it completely off
im going to work now so ill be back to check this thread after work, and then be heading back down to the shop somehow

bt15 · Jan 12, 2007

On certain T5s, there is a "directionally keyed" washer that attaches to the very end of your reverse / 5th idle shaft to allow the shaft to move X amount of degrees in order to provide for smooth engagement into reverse or forward gears. If you failed to align the "tooth" of that keyed washer with the notch (which is about 2/3 of the diameter of the area into which the shaft fits), you may be experiencing binding there and will eventually cause the c-clip to fail. The first time I experienced this, of course my wife was driving the car back late from work, and was stuck in 3rd gear due to the binding - Call the tow truck! If you pull off your tail again, look for that "notch" and make certain that the washer aligns with it before you tighten everything back up - worked for me.

Italian-LX · Jan 12, 2007

bt15 said:
On certain T5s, there is a "directionally keyed" washer that attaches to the very end of your reverse / 5th idle shaft to allow the shaft to move X amount of degrees in order to provide for smooth engagement into reverse or forward gears.

Actually, that "keyed washer" is part of the reverse brake that was supposed to solve the grinding when going into reverse that the T-5 is notorious for. It was introduced around 1992 and most newer T-5's will have it.

Your right about it needing to be aligned corectly with the tail housing; however, I would think it would be mpossible to seat the housing all the way if it were not lined up. Seems like it would break off if it were not aligned.

igotyofire · Jan 12, 2007

well guys i made it home, i guess they pulled the tranny again, and opened it up to check it out and made sure they could get it to shift out of the car before putting it back in. i think they twisted/turned the shaft so they could get it to shift. But whats funny is when i drive it the car is still hard to shift now. but i noticed it got easier once the car and tranny warmed up a bit. they said its probably just gonna loosen up because now since we touched it everything is all tighted up so its like a new car. Make sense to anyone? i think so kuz it seems to shift nicer once its warmed up, in any event my 373s are awesome, 1st gear just spins , and before it would just rev on out to 50mph with 3.08s. I guess next ill be saving up for a Gforce tranny since i kinda dont like the way this one is feeling now,heh well see if it gets better

Mustang78 · Jan 13, 2007

the steel shaft that fits into the aluminum case is a very tight tolerance, if they banged on that shaft with a steel hammer it's most likely bent, or mushroomed out on the tip like my toyota tranny was, i used a dremel and made the end of the shaft beveled a little to get rid of the small mushroom head and ti shifted perfectly, look down those holes for scrape marks, that's likely your problem

~Mark~

94GTCoupe · Apr 12, 2011

View attachment 191815

FYI,when re-installing the tailshaft housing,the Tranny should be in neutral, and the metal tab should be in the 12 o clock position.

URGENTHelp T5 wont go in reverse/Shift Smooth

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