under stress and behind a poweful motor, whats the first things to be expected to break on a t-5? and is it a fixable solution? thanks

 

When you get to 12.90's or 1.8 60' times the third gear will break w/ the cluster or the front main drives. It costs more to fix than buying another one.

 

I'm replacing the first and second gear pluse the slider between them for $250

 

ok PLUS , NOT PLUSE SORRY

 

The case will stretch first, then everything else just kinda flies to hell..

 

ok thats one of the biggest myths around...the T-5's fails due to chinesium materials used for gears and ratios,...as i recall G-force kits that are rated to 600hp dont replace the case...as a matter of FACT they use the same stretch prone factory case...sure the case will "wear" out around the front bearing seals, but they break becasue of cheap materials....

and another myth is that the mustang t-5 is stronger then the GM...well thats a load of stinky mhmmm aswell...my tranny guy has been building NOTHING but T-5s since they came out mid 80's...and the GM is Stronger then the stang tranny...teeth count on the gear and materials makes the difference...and with the stang taller gear ratios they are more likely to break then the GM...this is from a guy who has almost 20 years buiulding and dealing with these trannys...

i asked him about he case strecthing thing and he gave me one of these looks ...he said "im so f####n tired of hearing that," he motioned for me to follwo him and took me to a SHELF of G-force trannys i mean atleast 20 (all GM btw) sitting there!!!...then he said "now if the factory GM case was the weak point dont you think theyd build a stronger case?..ive built over 100 of these and not one has failed, even behind cars with over 600 HP"....

i aksed him why he had so many G-forces and he said becasue when they first came out he couldnt keep them on the shelf, now he got a nice stock of them..

$1,900 out the door WITH a shifter!




as posted before, the 3 gear/cluster gear will go first...

 

Aybody that thinks T-5 cases don't stretch, I've got a shelf full of 1st design T-5s that I'll sell you, that I won't run any more because the cases are stretched so bad that the front countergear bearing won't seal. I have no further use for them, although most of them have at least some good parts in them. None of them have good clutch gears and countergears because their cases stretched far enough to allow misalignment. But if you think the cases are good, and you can run them, and you want them ..... make an offer.

In all the years I ran T-5s, I never broke a 3rd gear. I tore up countless clutch gears and countergears; and I bought a core from somebody once, that had the mainshaft twisted off; and I trashed the bearing between the clutch gear and the mainshaft once (probably not the transmission's fault, more likely the pilot bushing). Basically the vast majority of failures I've had, has been the case stretching and either allowing misalignment, or allowing all the fluid to leak out. Which it will do in short order, since there's no seal or any other method of keeping it in, other than the bearing's drive fit into the case.

OBTW, a T-56 swap isn't much more than that $1900, and it's a helluvalot better tansmission, in every way except weight.

 

t-56 suck! I have one.... I wish I could have found a t-5 when it broke. the t-56 is stronger no prob there but the gearing sucks I now have more weight and I have to spool up a heavy *** flywheel and clutch (which slips) and now If I buy a stronger clutch I will be spending $$$$. I spent less than 400.00 on the whole trans(with the repair) no one would sell a good t-5 for 400.00 I thought well a price of a new flywheel , slave , speedo box and clutch why not. wow BIG mistake. (my car did get slower!!! I also got the sophn mount and arm (planned on getting the one for the t-5)

 

you have a pm

 

ohhh i beleive you RIBS...My tranny guy literllay has a 5000 sqaure foot shop and half as many trannys around....hes got 5 50 gallon oil drums FULL of old blocker rings lol....hes shown me a pile (maybe 25) or cases that were blown out...to the point were the bearing race was almost egg shaped, or cracked right down the middle, were cracked in circles aroung the magnet on the bootm of the case...the cases will strect no doubt, but the strethcing around the countergear race wont cause them to break per say...as long as the case is good to go, with the G-force kit the case isnt the problem..as i said hes built over 100 g-forces and never had any of them fail...i think if the case was the main weakpoint they wouldnt make a gear kit that CAN withstand over 600Hp/TQ in a case that will stretch behind 350 ft pounds...
doesnt seem like good marketing to me lol

and WTH you still have all those NWC's for lol....atleast get some 2nd designs in there so youll have a selection lol

 

Why would I want to do that? These are just junk transmissions that have been rebuilt and rebuilt and now are too far gone to rebuild any more, and they have just piled up over the last 20 years.

I'm done with T-5s, tired of tearing them up and having to rebuild them all the time, and tired of having to keep finding cores that aren't already trashed. Good cores are getting harder to find all the time; especially ones with the better gear ratios. And I'm not so fond of the T-5 as such, that I'm willing to keep working on them and spending money on them. I'd rather just put something in the car that I can drive without worrying about it, and not have it tear up all the time.

I keep seeing all this about the G-force upgrades. I'm unconvinced. I won't comment on whether a T-5 will hold up over the long term with that in it, because I've never had one. But, considering that every T-5 I've ever had that failed, failed because the case wore out, I can't see how changing the gears is going to affect that. I don't believe that you can build a T-5 to withstand 600 ft-lbs of torque, no matter what gears you put in it; but that's just the result of my personal experience. I don't believe that a thin piece of aluminum that stretches with stock gears, will stretch any less with gears of different metallurgy in them. But I have no "proof" or experience in that matter, and I'm not willing to bite off on the cost of an inherently superior transmission, just to find out.

Although, I've got a 305 back in my car now, instead of a 400, so a T-5 would probably last better than it used to; and besides, I learned how to drive a T-5 finally. I realized that it just isn't a 4-speed, and won't stand up to the same level of abuse that I was accustomed to in Muncies and T-10s for all the years I drove those. In fact, the last T-5 I had in the car, lived for 30 or 40,000 miles behind the 400, and then another 30 behind the 305; it's starting to get noisy, obviously needs rebuilding, but since I didn't ever speed-shift it, the case is probably still OK. But I'm not going to be bothered wasting the money on it to find out.

 

RB83L69--do you sell those tranny parts? I need a mechanical speedo drive for my '91 T5.

 

Would it help if the torque arm wasn't attached to the tail housing?

That can't be good for it.