mos68x

Does anyone know how to tell if the shifter forks are bent? I don't mean the easy stuff like broken or cracked, but just bent. I'm about to take mine apart to verify part serviceability and rebuild it and I wanted to be sure.

Does anyone know how to verify the part number of the transmission with it still in the car if the trans doesn't have the tag bolted to the back of the transmission?

Thanks

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

When you get them out and look at them, you won't have any trouble figuring it out. Kind of like, straight..... bent...... straight..... bent....... Not much harder than picking out a straight 2x4 from a pallet of studs at Home Depot or something.

What difference would a part # make? That is, what would you do differently, depending on the "part #" you found? Maybe there's some other way of figuring tht out instead. In fact, there CERTAINLY is, because the part # is all but useless even at best. All it tells you is what you already know; namely, that it's the transmission for your car.

jmd

iTrader: (4)

They don't bend.
They may wear at the hole the shift rail goes through.

Wiggle them to see if that part is worn.
Inspect the two fork ends where the shift pads mount for wear / tear / abuse.
Replace as needed.

mos68x

It makes a big difference what the part number is since there are different rebuild kits for them, that's the only reason I'm having to ask. That and I want to verify by part number that this transmission is a WC, this transmission is not the original transmission to the car by any means.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Does your transmission fit your car?

No other T-5 besides a thirdgen one will fit in a thirdgen. It has a torque arm mount, it has the classic GM bolt pattern, and it's rotated 18° to the driver's side, so the shifter pad and the trans mount pad are also rotated. Totally unique, different from any other car ever built by anybody anywhere, ever. No other trans will interchange directly with it.

Well then, once you get past it being a thirdgen, there are exactly 6 possible part #s it could be. 3 of them are 1st design, 3 are 2nd design. In each age group, the 3 part #s are 1 for the 6-cyl cars, one for the low-perf V8s (LG4 and L03), and one for the high-perf V8s (L69 & LB9). The 2 V8 versions are the same except for the 5th gear ratio (roughly .63 in the inferior ones, and .72 in the good ones). The 6-cyl trans has a smaller clutch gear with fewer splines, so there's no direct interchange between 6-cyl and V8 transmissions. The 6-cyl also has SUPER crappy wide gear ratios, I guess so that those underpowered motors have a prayer of disturbing the vehicle from a traffic light, in only a few eons.

There are exactly 2 "kits" that fit T-5s. One for the 1st design, one for the 2nd design. That's IT. Some mfrs may offer more, with additional parts that are somewhat more car-specific, like the extension housing bushing (where the drive shaft goes). However, all the bearings are the same, snap rings are the same, thrust washers are the same, gasket is the same (comes in a tube), front seal is the same, the O-ring that goes on reverse gear to keep it from rattling is the same, and so on. Therefore, if you don't need the drive shaft bushing, you can use ANY of whichever design T-5 kit for the transmission you happen to have. Mustang, S-10, whatever. Last one I built (a 91 1LE one if memory serves) all I had in stock ATM was a Mustang kit, and it worked fine. Didn't use the drive shaft bushing.

Easiest way to verify that your trans is the 2nd design is to look at the front countergear bearing. You can see about the bottom ¼" of it with the trans still installed in the car. It's about 2½" in diameter, down low on the front surface of the trans where it meets the bell housing, toward the pass side. 1st design looks like an upside-down freeze plug, absolutely flat with sort of rolled-over lookign edges, and shiny. 2nd design is despressed in the center, makes it look like it has a ridge about 1/8" wide all the way around it, has a dull gray finish not shiny at all, sharp edges, and usually (maybe always) says "Timken" on it. Here's some real crappy pics I took of a couple I have laying around. 1st design on top, 2nd on the bottom. Obviously these are both V8 ones, and I'm pretty sure they're both the L69/LB9 version, as well. I can't be bothered with the lower grade ones, especially not back when there was nothing I could do to keep my car on the road except keep buying T-5 cores on a regular basis. I got out of that racket though.



Part #s are WORTHLESS.

Like I said, if you are looking for some kind of information that you think you need the part # for, you don't really need that, there's better ways to figure stuff out; but feel free to ask how to find out what you need to know, and I'll be happy to tell you how to get there without worrying about some part # that nobody can look up.

jmd

iTrader: (4)

The metal tag had the Borg-Warner number and there can be a decal on the top of the transmission (on the shift rail plate) which has it too. Doubtful you can see that one, unless you drop the crossmember, have a light, a mirror and luck.

mos68x

Since I’m not 100% sure of the car that this transmission was removed from I have to defer to the part number, NOT just what the transmission looks like on the outside(even though I already know that I have the 2nd design –WC). So to know which rebuild kit to get, once again you have to know the PART NUMBER, so that you can be sure to get the RIGHT kit for the V8 ones. I’m pretty sure that I have the high performance once, BUT I want to be sure I order the right one first, rather than waste 2 to 3 weeks because I ignored a simple part number and ordered the wrong one. Which, then I would also lose the money from that order since the fault was on me and not on the shipping clerk.
This table here goes through about 38 different part numbers just for the WC alone, not including the STD ones.
As long as no one has moved tags around between a bunch of T5 cores at a transmission shop, the PN tag will tell you what it is supposed to be. The only thing that would make me happier was if it told me the gearset ratios inside the transmission.
Thanks, that’s the info I was looking for. Hopefully that tag is still there and readable. I can’t remember one being there when I put the transmission in the car, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t there.

I went and looked before I posted the reply to this post and saw the tag there, rusted pretty good, but still there. I sandblasted it off and wrote down my numbers (13-52-176), so that verifies that it IS a world class, which I could tell anyways just by looking at it compared to the posts on TGO about T5 WC and NON WC transmissions.

The only other question I have now is this…..does anyone know if thegearbox.org is reputable? If I’m going to be spending almost $400 I want to be sure that I’m going to be getting my money’s worth. I’m looking at the their premium MASTER rebuild kit with the bronze pads added. It should have EVERYTHING added to it so that it nearly replaces everything in the trans, minus the gearset itself of course.

jmd

iTrader: (4)

It really doesn't benefit anyone to feed the trolls by replying.

IIRC, the last T5 I personally had in a car was a 1352-176.

Kevin & Judy are great. Order without hesitation.

mooch1

hi, i have a t5 on the bench as a spare ,,it is a nwc V8 Model...it has a very loose input shaft ..it moves quite a bit up and down and left to right..the gears go in easy and eveything else works fine and the shaft rotateds when in gear,,,what part do i need the change?..can i just fix that part?(input shaft bearing)...what part would it be ?

mos68x

Were you happy with that transmission? gearbox says it has a limit of 335 ft lbs and about 350-400 hp, I don't think I'll be hitting those kind of numbers any time soon but I just wanted to know how happy you were with that transmission since I have the same exact PART NUMBER, lol. I know all the WC trans's are the same but I've never had that much power in front of this transmission before so I'm not sure if there's anything I should look out for.

I would at least get a master rebuild kit for it from gearbox and go from there, but if you're trying to do as little work as possible then I'd at least do the bearing kit from what you're describing.





Do I have to have any special tools to do this rebuild? A press shouldn't be an issue, but hand tools is more of what I'm concerned about right now. Special tools to take the gear sets apart??