88pony

looking for an opinion, and or some advice. i bought an 88 mustang gt about a year ago. 80,000 on the body, 43,000 on the motor. new 5.0 H0 motor was put in by ford in 1996. when i first got the car i noticed a grinding noise, which seemed to be in the transmission, which is a stock t5. it first was only grinding in 5th gear at higher speeds, but also grinding after throwing into nuetral from 5th. i pushed the shifter up towards the motor, and the grinding reduced dramatically. i couldnt afford to pull the tranny, so after several months of driving the car without a fix, the grinding got worse. it now would grind in 4th and sometimes in 3rd . i thought it might be the syncro's. well soon after, it had another problem, witch was with starting. it had a fairly new starter, but seemed to be grinding with the ring gear. sounded like the teeth on the ring gear were bad. it would start fine at times, but other times it wouldnt start. now i talked with several mechanics, tranny rebuilders, and friends, to get some advice. i am currently looking into replacing the tranny with a world class, putting in a billet steal flywheel, and a new starter. in hopes to fix both problems, the grinding, and the starting problem. now i was given the possibility that this may not fix the problem. one guy said, the thrust bearing in the crank might be bad. im not thebest mechanic, but with his explaination, it seemed to link both problems together. if the crank was bad, the grinding noise might be the ring gear grinding, therefore theres the starting problem. i honestly believe the crank is fine. in hopes to hear some advice, on what to do, or look at. should i throw a new tranny,flywheel, and starter, and see what happens?any opinions or advice is great, thanks.

creepshow

Put the car in Neut, maybe even slip the belt off, and reach under and grab the crank pully. See if it will move front to back. If it moves it's the thrust bearing, if not I say your problems are clutch, throw out bearing, or tranny problems. All of the above possibly? Good luck and yes rank bearings are common problem with 302's. It holds the end play of the crank.