They said it could happen and it definitely did. My new 300+hp/tq broke the T5 in pretty short order. I was driving it pretty normally, too.
Anyway, this thread is mostly for historical purposes for those who are searching for whether or not a T5 will hold up over time and what you might expect to see if you go the same route.
Video:https://www.facebook.com/42420511/videos/661929442667879/

 

Yup, unfortunately pretty normal to see

 

Pretty much how they tear up. Although, the more "stereotypical" way is, the clutch gear vs the countergear. All you tore up was 3rd and the countergear.

Congrats.

I've tore up DOZENS of em in various ways. Welcome to The Club.

 

for me it was always 3rd...I went trough 4 or 5 before upgrading to a upgraded T56

 

I also notice, that car has been driven for a fairly long time by somebody that doesn't know to put the car into a forward gear before trying to shift into reverse... there's ALOT of metal missing off of those teeth from where they just let it grind until it was beaten into submission.

 

1st then reverse, always. Sometimes 5th if I'm feeling funky lol

 

Can you give some more details as to how it happened? for the sake of folks who find this later? Maybe some more info on how long you drove it, etc?

 

Driving Pretty Normal To One Person Could Be Abnormal To Another

 

Here's why the Ford version of the T5 2.95 gearset seems to be much stronger than the nearly identical GM version...
https://grannys.tripod.com/clutchtameruniversity.htm

Grant

 

I lost count of how many T-5s I tore up at about 8. After that, it was just another "here we go again".

The 1st 4 or so were behind the stock 305. One time it even tore up the output shaft; I tried to repair it. Mistake. The rest were behind a 400 in a handful of different configurations.

I had 4-speeds from the time I first started driving. I got REAL GOOD at not lifting my foot off the gas during a shift. I could shift as fast as most automatics. Problem is, that's what tears up transmissions. And oh by the way... rear axles too.

I put a T-5 from a 1LE car into my 83 in maybe 94 or so. After I tore it up a couple of times, I resolved to NOT drive it like a 4-speed. That one lasted probably 7 or 8 years after that. The car didn't go quite as fast but I wasn't replacing clutch gears and countergears every 2 months either.

 

The mainshaft isn't supported for a damn with the loose rollers. Sadly, this cost savings in the design wasn't updated to a tapered roller across the board, nor early enough.