I have a T-5 transmission that I'm not ready to discard at this very moment. I'm planning to upgrade to the T-56 in about 6 months but for now I need to make this T-5 work if possible. It's gotten really hard to shift mostly in first and second. I have to start it in first gear b/c it's almost impossible sometimes to put in gear. I'm thinking about changing the clutch first (centerforce dual) but I just wanted some input in case it might be some simple part to replace or repair. All comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

mine did the same thing mainly 1st to 2nd some times 2nd to 3rd it got so bad that you could not slam it in to 3rd you had to move the shifter up 1/2 way move it over to the right then into 3rd (almost lost my 1st race ever to a 5.0L because of that thank god 4th pulled hard ) I have no idea what was wrong but now it fine it fixed it`s self it shifts smooth as hell now what I did was put some lucas tranny auto fix in where the shifter gose in the tranny that helped alittle

is your just stiff or dose it feel like its grinding? mine was just stiff a tranny guy said its just the shift linkage in the tranny and not to worry about it but after a couple months its fine hopfully yours will fix itself.

 

the problem here is the inherent weakness of the t-5...the t5 was never really capable of standing up to a stock 305 tbi car....the things just eat synchros and wont shift

Ive had 2 cars originally equipped with t-5s and both were smoked when i got the car (2nd gear is the most common to go)

If your planning on putting a t56 in a 3rd gen f-body i hope you know what your in for....that is one monster of a project. the t-56 tranny is much wider than a 5-speed too making it a tight fit.

If you want a tough tranny, the best bet for the money is a tremec TKO 5 speed. very tough transmission, great shift feel, its light and it can be built to handle serious power (if it ever breaks) which cant be done with a t5. That is unless your dead set on a 6 speed.....but the tremec is a much easier swap, i have one in my car and i love it.

 

What, you want to make it worse? Dont put in a CenterFARCE clutch. Its my opinion they are horrible.
If you're going to change the tranny to a T56, just put in a stock clutch and save your money. If you're going to get an aftermarket T56 that uses the stock T5 stuff, then get a McLeod clutch now.

 

The reason for wanting to go with the T-56 is that the TKO is only a couple hundred cheaper. So I figured I spend the couple hundred and get a better tranny with a bigger overdrive. Where did you get your TKO from??? And I'd like more info on the McLeod clutch...

 

if you read my signature at the bottom of my posts, you will notice that my motor is making some serious power....i have a centerforce dual friction clutch (the racing clutch not the stock replacement one)

I have beat the living hell out of it on regular basis. not only does it grab like a mother, but ive never had a problem with it....also ive had the same clutches on other cars, also nothing to complain about.

The tremec for the f-body (or any gm car) is available from 2 places that i know of. unfortunately i cant remember the second. I got my tremec tko from Forte's parts connection in massachusetts (someone had a plug for them in a feature car in super chevy awhile back too) they have a website http://www.fortesparts.com/

 

Yeap, I'm familiar with Fortes. I was hoping you'd have another vendor to throw at me. If I'm not mistaken they want about $1900.00 for a TKO. I was looking for a better price than Fortes. If I don't find a better price. I'll be going with Fortes.

 

I bet if you pull the T5, take that clutch out, get a stock replacment clutch from PepBoys or something, put it in, and put synthetic ATF fluid into it, it'll shift fine! Centerforce has a very common problem with stuff like that (clutch disk warping and dragging on the pressure plate ever so slightly, making the car not go anywhere but stil try to spin the input shaft making the syncros work hard when you shift gears).

 

dude this poor guy has a 91 with a t5 in it.....if the car was completely stock its entire life, and was driven by mrs doubtfire, there is still a 99.9999% chance that the tranny would be either junk or on its way out. The borg warner t5 is extremely weak and cant even take abuse from a stock TBI 305.

as i said before ive had 2 3rd gens with t5's and both were junk....and there really isnt anything you can do to one to make it tough....even the worldclass t5 isnt that great, the case is just useless and the internals suck

 

Oh I know. I broke 5 T5s behind my 355 shifting at 6500 RPM. This is in less then 1.5 years. I finally got smart and put a th350 into it, beat the crap out of it for ever and it finally needs clutches, but still works ok. Took it out, bought two V6 T5s at a local pick your part, and am currently using one with another spare one. I KNOW all the downfalls of T5 and must had tons of problems. From Broken counter shafts, to broken main gears and output shaft, fifth gear flew off a few times, car locked up, etc. The thing is, the T5 is a good tranny when it works good, syncros can last ok if you drive it right, not for ever, but they are cheap. Problem is, the counter shaft is a one piece cast with gears and all. Makes it weak. Case is prone to flex and even the slightest slack between gears when shifting (caused by case flex, high input shaft RPM or high speed (output shaft RPM like 174 mphs with 4.10s :-), makes for a catastrofic mesh and stuff starts to fly. The T56 in my '94 is so nice compared to the countless T5s. Two of those T5s were world class, with hardened cluster shafts and a few other changed hard parts.

Still though, I think he might have a clutch problem though, I have seen it a few times, on Mustangs friends have owned with T5s. One had a centerforce that did that, and the other had a broken clutch quadrant so you would have to FLOOR the pedal to get the clutch to dissange, made for hard shifting. Aluminum quadrant fixed that.

 

you have alot of good points there.....our friend here expressed to me that he was seriously interested in swapping the tranny anyhow though. I have to ask, why would you bother with that many t-5's? for all the parts, time, stress, agravation, swearing, throwing tools etc, you would be far better off just getting a good tranny. my tremec is awesome, and well worth the cash(im pretty sure my motor is gonna break it someday though) If it does break though, the tremec has a great rigid case and any good shop can build it to take a massive power thrashing. and you can have liberty gears pro shift it for you relatively cheaply

 

Because what ended up happening is me getting my money back on warranty for most of those but one T5s. That is why getting a better trans was always put off and then I got my fourth gen car so the other one got a bit neglected. I liked the LT1, it gave me great milage and with a nice clutch it was fun to drive. I never worried about braking the tranny. But I would definiltey say put a Tremec in your thrid gen if power is what you are looking to make. I hate T5s.

 

haha rock on my brotha

i didnt know you were dealing with trannies still under warranty, i probably would have done the same thing

 

Even these V6 Pick your part trannies I got in the car now have 90 day money back, they don't ask any questions, just take it back. So I got 90 days to figure out what I am gonna do with the car for a tranny, and get my money back. sweet.

 

I must have had a freak T5 in my 86. I drove my car hard pretty much all of the time, the only problems I had were a stock replacement clutch burning up after 2K miles (CenterForce Dual Friction solved that problem) and 3rd gear grinding when shifting really fast. and my car wasn't slow, 14.1@99 with an LG4 converted to a TPI.