Another T5 question; I'm in the middle of a 700R4 to T5 conversion in my 84 Camaro. I have removed the transmission, bellhousing, etc from the donor car (91 Firebird) and noticed that the pilot bushing was missing from the end of the crank. Unfortunately, I have no history on the donor car, but I'm sure it didn't come from the factory this way as it has a pre-'86 flywheel/crank so the engine must have been swapped at some point.

My question is how do I tell if the T5 input shaft, front bearing, or anything else has been damaged due to the missing pilot bushing? The input shaft does shake up & down a little bit, is a little shake normal? Can I remove the front housing cover to inspect the bearing and expect to put it back together without tearing the whole thing apart?

 

A little amount of movement is ok and does not really mean anything is bad. However if it seems excessive you may want to remove the retainer and pull the input out and check the condition of the 15 roller bearings that are in the back of the input and ride on the mainshaft. Sometimes the mainshaft and those rollers wear out and the input will have alot of extra play. That is a pretty common thing that happens. And with no pilot bearing to support the other end of the shaft that definately didn't help it at all. If everything is ok you can go up a few thousandths on the shim if needed. Bob