Ok, I'm looking for any tips, tricks, or watch-out-fors... my t-5 transmission died a few weeks ago, I had it rebuilt, and I'm gonna put it in this weekend... while I was at it, I replaced the clutch, the pilot bearing, resurfaced the flywheel, got new transmission mounts, and I'm putting in a Hurst shifter. I've been pretty **** about making sure i did stuff right, because I don't wanna do this again 2 years from now, but I've never done this stuff before... so, anyone who's done transmission or clutch work, what are some things to double check, watch out for, or re-do? Thanks in advance... I know I'll have to break in the clutch, but other than that, what should I know about running a new clutch and transmission for the first month or so?

Did you...

wobble the clutch alignment tool so the disc was relatively centered up/down before tightening the pressure plate bolts?

bolt the shifter on and shift it dry into all gears and spin the input / watch the output?

clip the fork and it's spring clip into the same groove of the throwout bearing? (common mistake is clipping the spring behind the TO brg.)

inspect and replace the ballstud in case of wear? Lube it before replacing the fork onto it?

verify speedo gear tooth counts match the old?

use brakleen on the flywheel and pressure plate before installing the clutch?

This is absolutely critical to making sure the clutch works right... (jmd's 3rd "did you...")

JMD - Yes, not yet, yes, yes(actually), not yet, yes.....respectively. The speedo gears... I feel stupid, because I've repaired/replaced most of the mechanical stuff on this car now (but I guess that goes for most of us, aye? ) and yet I'm not sure where this speedo gear is or how I'd verify the tooth count... i'm assuming it's not inside the transmission itself, and we're not talking the flywheel gear, so what/where is it?

sofakingdom - thanks for the pic... there were two of that exact pic inside my new clutch assembly, and both the instructions and the warranty both explicitly demanded it be done the way you explained.

Um... question. Is the spring clip supposed to hold the throwout bearing securely? Because mine is fairly loose... I assumed the input shaft would keep it in place, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense for that spring clip to actually do something. -.-

Also - I'm picking up the transmission on Thursday, which is why I haven't installed the Hurst shifter yet (or put it in, for that matter.) That's why I haven't verified that the gearing is smooth.

Speedo gear is inside the VSS which has an electrical connector on the driver side lower area of the tailhousing.

You can bend the spring clip out a little on the fork to snug it up a tiny bit. It doesn't need to be super tight.

Ok... if the spring clip doesn't need to be real tight, I'm not gonna mess with it... it oughta stay put until we get the input shaft through it. Hoping to take it to a friend's house on Saturday to borrow his lift to put it in... otherwise I'll have to put my car on jackstands and find a way to slide under there with the transmission on top of me and lift it in. -.- I'll check the speedo gear to make sure it's the same number of teeth against my old transmission (it ended up being cheaper to pick one up elsewhere than to rebuild mine)... is there a trick to this? I just don't wanna find out this is one of those things you need some silly tool or trick when I go to put it in. :P

Thanks everybody - I got it in, it drives *great* now. Pictures up tonight on how the Hurst shifter looks (because I was looking for a couple hours on here without any luck on pics for that -.-) and what I did with the boot. Ended up using the old speedo gear because the new rebuilt tranny didn't come with one.

That's how it looks, in case anybody's considering the Hurst and wants to know how it fits. It really is a much shorter throw than the stock shifter, and you *know* you're in gear when you shift.