Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

I keep hearing about how terrible the T5s are, and how they break constantly. Has anyone ever had good experience with T5s? Not for racing, just for daily driving and the occasional blast through the gears. How long can they last under good care?

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

i had to rebuild mine after letting my girl friend drive my car, she ground the syncros down to the point that they looked almost perfectly round. other than that i can't had any problems... my car is stock however, but i beat the hell out of the trans. if you take car of them and it's a daily driver with the occasional rip threw the gers it should be fine... i mean if i can kill a new king cobra clutch in 3k miles and my trans is fine i wouldn't see y u would have anyprobelms with if unless ur pushing a good about of power, i have the world class version of it though i think they started making the WC T-5 in 86 or 87... now sure of the actual year

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

my '89 still is untouch with the same clutch..they break because people can't drive:D

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

t 5 suck i went though 3 of them tko now. 3rd gear the first to go on everyone of them.

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

you can't drive:D

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

the only prob i have now is the clutch center force gold can't handle 700 rwhp. i got a promotion one now. good for 800 hp http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...CFDISCONLY.jpg

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

i think i can..[&:]dont go by my R/T time. i had a bye run , so i went when i was ready.http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...6TIMESLIP6.jpg http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...knumber666.jpg tko baby, im lauching at 5000 rpms on the spray. shifting at 7600 rpms, , ill have a video soon. 408 with 200 shot , and another 50 to go. 12to1 compression cam is 264/274 at .050. lift is in the .701 range. with all good internals

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

haha! you guy's kill me!....i have seen t-5's hold,but iv'e seen them blow to hell!...try driving home in reverse for like 20 miles!...that sucked

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

aw those hillbilly runs:D

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

I would LMAO if I saw that!!!

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

i hated that clutch it wouldn't hold up to my stock 5.0, got a stage 4 center force (got sick of replacing clutches every 3-5 k miles looked as if it was never in the car after 15k, i decided to check it when i rebuilt my trans.

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

mine has 193k miles on it, and 3rd is starting to whine pretty bad. i think its starting to go...

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

t-5'are good little trannys. Like all manual trans, ppl do stupid things to them. I.E. engine braking, power shifting, missing gears. Yada yada.

It all depends on who previously owned your car and how they and you take care of it.

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

My T-5 is in good shapre expect for the 2nd gear syncro going out. It is actually ok if I don't rev higher than 3k and don't try to ram through the gears.

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

my 3rd gears went out in 3rd them puncing it , so it wasnt a shifting error, hell there only rated for 300 ft lbs or so.[&:] if you got a real G FORCE you got something straight cut gears baby 1000hp;)

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

im starting to think mines going .. but ive beaten on it pretty good..

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

T-5's will hold up just fine as long as you can meet this criteria. 1 dont "ram" through the gears, 2 dont drive fast, 3 change the fluid often (about every other oil change), and your car doesnt lay down more than 300 ft. lbs.
But if youve got anything done to your car they WILL NOT hold up. In 2 stangs I managed to kill 18 of em. Yes 18. My '79 was roughly pushin around 420 ft.lbs. And Im sure my '85 has more than that. I didnt kill mine on launches, mine more often than not dumped at a high rate of speed. Dumped one @ 140 :(. One started to lock up at around 110, then as I was slowing it locked up completly at around 80, bye bye tires. On one I bent the shift forks almost 45*, then you couldnt shift it, and teh bearings were toast. In another I lost 2nd,4th, and R. It was really fun parking, I had to get good at doin half donuts into tight spaces or park on hills. The list goes on and on.
Most of my T-5s had bearing failure, they just got too damn hot, they DO NOT like extended high speed runs. The bearing that would fail in every single one of mine were the ones between the input and output shaft. When they fail they actually start grinding on the output shaft and destroy the tip of it. A new output shaft from Ford costs better than $500, so instead of repairing my old ones I just bought new ones as they were overall cheaper. Now I figured out how to run the 4cyl T-5's :D, theyre VERY cheap, and the best part is that the 2.3 has no power so the T-5's have almost NO wear on em. :D
-P.

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

Thanks for all the replies, folks. I mean, either way, I'll put a heavy duty trans in when I can afford one. It's just strange that T5s are so delicate--you'd think they'd be more rugged.

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

mass production means cheap parts....

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

it's the 5k launch on slicks that will do it.

input shaft or an axle usually goes.

on cheaters, keep the launches around 3500 and you should be fine for a long time

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

I had my T5 in my car for six years and beat on it hard. I twisted the splines on the main drive, ovaled the 1-2 reverse slider, and cracked third speed gear but did not tear up the cluster. I was on a tight budget and learned how to make them last. Driver is about 80% of it. I powershift and leave the line at 5000 rpm on ET streets. Third goes out because it is the thinest speed gear and the furthest from a bearing. If you have ever rebuilt one you know about shimming the clearances on the cluster and output shaft. This is critical in the survival of it. I'm not saying it will last under 500 rwhp but I was running low 12.40s at 109 mph with no major problems. I still have the transmission in my shop.

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

third it the most common gear to have fail because 2-3 is the toughest shift we have.
It won't take many missed shifts at 5-6k rpm to destroy things.

By the way, I have missed my share of 2-3 shifts [:@]


I have over 220k miles on my original T5. I modified the 302 with an intake at around 110k, and swapped over to the 351w at about 180k. The 408w went in around the 200k mark.

Better than 40k miles on a 351w or larger motor.


Also, a friend of mine ran a 4cyl t5 on his built 302. For a good 10k miles he TRIED to kill it. Power shifting, and clutch dumpin' as often as he could.
A couple years back I needed a transmission for a class project and traded some new LX tail lights for his T5. When I pulled that thing apart it looked new. No major signs of wear anywhere.

I have been in cars with many folks who thought that because they could spin their tires, they knew how to drive a manual. There is an art to that most people don't understand.

I am not as good a driver as I would like to be, but I do fairly well.
The above mentioned friend is much better with a manual than I am, even when he is abusing the t5.



I know many will disagree, but that is my opinion/experience on the matter.



jason

RE: Has anyone's T5 held up?
 

20 years, close to 200k miles, T-5 in perfect condition, even the original clutch had life in it ;)