I have a 1989 Iroc TPI w/5speed. The tranny whins in 2nd, third and I get little gear scrape in fourth, (unless I allow the engine to rev down). I was told by the guy who sold me the car that it was just the clutch needing to be replaced. The clutch has a goog feel so I dont think that is it. Do you think that I may need a rebuild? Everything is pretty much stock on the car.

 

¿"Gear scrape"? Do you mean it crashes 4th? Does it whine in 5th or 1st the same as it does in 2nd and 3rd?

The clutch will not make the trans whine. However, a bad pilot bushing might account for all your symptoms, if you mean that it crashes into 4th.

 

I dont get any noise in first or fifth gears. It doesn't really crash into fourth, I just get a little gear grind unless I let the engine rev down. However, downshifting from fifth to fourth is just not possible, ( nothing but gear grinding). I have to down shift to third, then to fourth.

 

Its on its way out. Mine would grind going into third and fourth up or downshifting, unless i let the rpms drop way down like you mentioned.

 

My advise would be to pull the trans before it gets worse. If the trans is an 89 model, it should be a WC. I did the NWC T5 in my 87 a very short time ago and had to replace the cluster shaft. The front cluster bearing went bad, and wiped the bearing surface on my cluster. I also used a Hanlon motorsports rebuild kit along with using their video. Again, I highly recomend the video. Overall it went pretty smoothly. It shifts better now then when it had 4 miles on the clock.

Another reason I say pull it now before it gets worse is my employee's S15 has a T5 in it, and it started to act up. He wanted to wait for 1 more week to be paid and I offered to rebuild it for him for free (He needs reliable transportation to get to work for me). Anyway he waited 1 week too long. When I pulled the trans apart he had lost the input shaft, cluster, 3-4 hub, 3-4 slider, 3rd gear, and one shift fork. Now he's getting up a 5:30am to catch a bus, and walking the last 1 1/2 miles to our shop to get to work at 8am.

I was quoted $1500 to do my T5, and even at our machine shop rate of $60 per hour, (I own a machine shop) I made money taking the time off work to do the trans myself. I've got about 10 hours in doing the trans, and $350 in parts and supplies. So around $950 total with my labor of $600. This also included replacing the valve stem seals while I was waiting for my new cluster shaft. I really don't have a way to break out the trans labor time from the valve seal replacement to give you an actual time for the trans work, but I'm still way ahead of the game as far as money goes, and I don't have a smoke screen at startup anymore.

Hope this helps.-Dan