My car seems to have a thing against transmissions. My freind owned the car before me and changed the tranny in it twice before selling it to me. I drove the car for a while and noticed it hit hard sometimes and slipped others, so i knew i was in for some fun. Not to long after on the highway, the car lost drive and overdrive... got to love the good old 700r4's. So i was sick of the autopilot anyway and put in a t-5 set up out of another car. Soon after i had the set up completed the shift fork broke and the car lost 3rd and 4th gear. I had the fork fixed and it drove fine for a month or so, but soon after lost 5th gear. The tranny works fine other then 5th not working, but still annoys me.

My solution to this dilema is to buy a TKO 600 and hopefully never touch it again, but ranking in at about 2000 dollars all of my friends want me to put a TH 350 in it. I hate to give up 2 gears and i keep asking myself if i will like the automatic in it. however, i can get an autopilot for around 800 bucks fully installed.(leaving lots of money left over for motor goodies, like a turbo ) I have been contemplating putting one in out of summit, with a full manual valve body.

Just looking for some basic thoughts and ideas on peoples expereinces with both standards and automatics and what they think is better....im stuck in the middle....

 

Unless you do alot of hiway driving i would have to say TH-350 all the way. The TH-350C in my car was a junkyard trans and has had the ever living **** beat out of it over the last 10 years without a single problem!

 

Its not so much that i do a lot of highway driving, but the fact that i love top speed... Thats why i love my CBR 900RR so much it does like 170(most ill do on it...) i want to be able to do atleast 145 with my car, and with a TH350 im looking at about 6600R's with 3.23's These RPMS will be fine, if i build the destroker i am thinking about building with that extra grand from teh tranny swap... but im still a little un easy about losing 2 gears and going from 5-3.

 

Well for one, use an aftermaket shifter that has stops so you'll stop breaking the forks. Pro-5.0 is the best IMO.

Second, the 5th gear problem is common. Whoever fixed the trans probably re-used the snap ring and the driven gear slid back on the mainshaft and presto, no 5th. You can NEVER re-use snap rings in these transmissions. It just isn't worth the hassle. The solution is very easy. Get the snap ring, take the tailshaft housing off, install the new ring and re-seat the gear, then re-install the housing. Back in business.

If you like the T5 they can be built to withstand up to 500 lbs/ft and 600 HP. Sounds like your issues are more idiosyncnratic anyway (meaning they are common and easily fixed, because they are just common T5 issues).

 

It is true most of the problems are easily fixed, but the tranny makes distinct bearing noises, which leads me to beleive it is going break soon anyway. Thanks for the advice on the 5th gear thing though, that is some handy info to have. It isnt so much that i am attached to the T-5 itself, but i do like having a standard and all 5 gears to keep the car in its powerband better, but i have no faith in the durability of a stock t-5. I do know a guy who can rebuild my T-5 to withstand 500 hp for about a grand, but im still unsure what i want to do.

Thanks again.

 

If you like top speed and like the manual trans, go with a T-56 and you won't be dissapointed, TMO