My T5 grinding and not shifting right . . .

I spent $1,000 on a G-Force gear set that I got from someone who deals in transmissions. For that price I got a WC T5 case and the upgraded 5th gear set. In general a case would have cost me somewhere around $200, $1,300 for a G-Force gear set and $350 for the 5th gears.

However, with a lot of things that come used comes some trouble. I've had trouble getting this thing together for a few months and then when we did finally get it together the thing was a mess. Enough of that. We finally had a chance to get the T5 apart to see what's going on, what a mess!

Removed the T5 pretty easily without even having to remove the exhaust.



Got everything apart pretty easily.


Initially we thought it was actually a problem with the clutch not releasing fully which we thought was causing grinding in the 3rd and 4th and 5th gears when putting it into gears. There was a loud howling in 3rd and very loud in 5th gear.

So then we thought the only problem was maybe the 5th gear. The guy who sold me the T5 went ahead and ordered a new 5th gear set. Well here is the pic side by side. The ones on the right is what came out of my T5 and the one on the left is the new one. Well the one on the right doesn't mesh up well. And the surfaces are really messed up.



Then we started taking apart the rest of the T5 and wow, the surfaces on all the gears were so beat up, unbelievable. So our transmission guy looks at it and says that something must have been wrong with the gears and that he was going to send them back to G-Force.

Bryant starts looking at the T5 and the counter shaft gear cluster is flopping around in the housing like a fish out of water. Come to find that the bearing retainer was marred on the inside which means the backlash probably wasn't checked right or the race wasn't seating properly.

Take a close look at the gear surfaces.













So what's the plan?
I bought a new gear set $1,300 and I lost out on $1,000. I guess down the road I will sell it off for a profit but I really wanted to spend that money on other stuff.

 

IMO, after driving a t5 in my 89, and the TKO500 in my 69, the TKO is worth the extra money.

 

A G-Force T5 is around $2500-2900 and a stock TKO is a bout $2100. But if you mean stock then yes, I could get a T5 for $900. Now a T56 might be something worthwhile.

 

I'd have been real tempted to buy a different case and/or fix the shafts, and reassemble it. The gears don't look like they've been hot and have no damage other than some surface brinneling. I'm not a cheapskate, I just hate tossing something that still looks useful...

 

that depends cuz the tkos certainly do not power shift past 7k without being opened up and modified.....depends on your driving style....I am at some point in time will be running a gforce t5 behind my 4.6l sohc....one of the few large purchases left. the weight savings of 50lbs issomething to consider as well.....tkos t45 t56s are much heavier

gforce has an all new beefed up case as well if you wanna spend more!!!!

 

also I hope you ran the gforce specific fluid...........just a thought

 

you know I actually didn't. I realize that probably wasn't very smart on my part however I followed the advice of the "transmission guy". I will do it right this time around.

I think this G-force will last me quite some time. I may upgrade the case down the road from G-force. I'm trying to see if I can get a used one, if not I may invest in that later on.

 

So the box arrived from G-force:

 

That is a manly setup. I'll back down from my earlier statement, my junk dosnt see 7grand. They are both mild street cars compared to the stuff some of you guys build.

 

well I guess there is truth to both. I don't know much about this but I've talked to Bryant a lot before we picked this transmission and there are some very nice TKO's out there. I have a personal preference for a T5.

 

i got it 98% put togther. just need to set up the input shaft preload and thats it. you will be banging gears tomarrow!

 

oh man you rock!!! that's a really good surprise . . . see you tomorrow

 

Jeez you guys ever sleep over there in Cali, or do you just have a bunk in the back of the shop Bryant?

 

i stoped working on it at 5. its nice having my own shop. im able to work on what ever i want between the paying jobs. we do have a spare office that we may rent to mo so he can sleep there.

 

where do I sign the lease?? I would have NO problem sleeping there at night . . . closer to my work, more space than my condo, no noise from upstairs neighbors . . . I can keep going.