Thinking about rebuilding your T5 yourself?

[richpet]

A couple months ago I purchased a Hanlon T5 rebuild kit from v8only and several board members wanted to know about the experience when it was done. I am done! I have not driven the car yet, but...

To recap, the teardown, inspection went well. Actually pretty easy. There is a previous post about it.
Cleaning can get tedious, be sure to lightly oil to prevent flashover rust. It's worth $10 to have a shop wash the case/tailhousing.

The rebuild went well. Video from Hanlon is awesome and well worth the money. When all said and done I can honestly say that having a book would not have helped any more. It went together very well, but if I had to do it all over again I would only do I thing different--Use a press for the bearings.
Getting the rear cluster bearing on is easy. I used a seal driver kit. The other three bearings required a press or redneck ingenuity. I chose the latter. In order the get the bearing down the shaft I used an open ended wrench (1 1/8 for two, 1 1/4 for the other) and a hammer and as gently as possible worked my way around the bearing. The wrench allowed my impacts to go to the inner bearing ring and not the bearings themselves. If I do this again I will purchase a hydraulic press or carry the parts as needed to the shop and have it done. Much less chance of issues.

Will the tranny work? Man, I hope so!. I installed a shifter and had no trouble with any of the gears. When will I REALLY test it? Soon!
The motor is in the car. I have to install the clutch, tranny, quadrant, driveshaft and the new 8.8 rear. Also new springs at all 4 corners. My goal was Sep 1st. I should be close, but next month seems a reality.
Hope this was interesting/helpful to someone.
I will happily answer any specific questions about the process (be warned- I am not on-line evry day. Dial up ya' know)
Rich

[yellow351stang]

cool i hope it all works out for you and works great,as least you have the rebuild under your belt now and have the upper hand on your tranny :D

[v8only]

That's some serious experience you know posess!!! you can make good money on the side rebuilding those for mustang guys ( a lot of guys locally do this)

I can't wait to see how it is, but I think you'll be fine (or it'll be minor adjustments) I still want to do this one day.

thanks for the update!

[fordfreak300]

So how did you get everything aprat, did you have to presd the gears or bearings off?

[richpet]

Most pieces slid right off with no fuss. I had to tap a couple items off lightly with hammer, but I was shocked how easily it all came apart. The only item that took a minute to remove (literally a minute) was one of the bearing races. To get the cluster out of the case you cut the bearing cage and remove the bearings. That gives you enough room to slip it out of the case. I just used a hammer and punch to drive the old race off. As a reminder, before this I had never seen the guts of a standard transmission, and only done the fluid/filter stuff on an automatic. If oyu do a search for my last post on this subject (in July) it gives a wee bit of detail on the dismantleing and inspection. Just follow the video.

Jeremy- I would do it again for myself or to help a buddy, but since I have zero formal training one would be rightly nervous trusting me! :) I will keep my gov't job. I think the only adjustment I may need will be to recheck the front bearing retainer endplay. When I got it together with no shim endplay was zero on the nose. I did switch to a steel one. Maybe I just did not need one with the right combination of machining tolerances. Maybe the input bearing is not 100% seated. I think it is. I know the gears are on right because all the snap rings went on perfectly, and if you are off the snap rings will not fit in the grooves. It shifted fine on the bench.

[fordfreak300]

I don't have the video. I will be going off umm this looks liek it needs to come apart lol. And doing as much reading as i can on the internet.

[v8only]

mark, go to hanlonmotorsports.com, he'll sell just the same video for like $15 or so.

[fordfreak300]

Blah what fun is whatching a video lol... I have a feeling that it is really just my bushing in the tail shaft rubbing and my worn out rubber tranny mount isn't helping any. I have solid motor mounts so I need a poly tranny mount anyway. So i will see if it is that bushinbg first then go from there.

[fordfreak300]

what i really need is to see pics inside a tranny at teh rear to see where this bushing is located.

[351Capri]

here is the ford manual. http://ga.stang.tripod.com/id12.html

[MurPHy]

here is the ford manual. http://ga.stang.tripod.com/id12.html

8O Wow. That looks exactly like what's in my '92 Shop Manual. Niiice.

[v8only]

The tremec site has a COMPLETE line up of free downloadable manuals from the t5 to the 3550 to the tko 600

[fordfreak300]

Ok that site was cool but it also did not show a bushing inthe tail housing. Could it possibly be that my rubber tranny mount is that worn and letting teh joke slide on teh housing itself because the tranyn is dropping lower or something?

[351Capri]

Ok that site was cool but it also did not show a bushing inthe tail housing. Could it possibly be that my rubber tranny mount is that worn and letting teh joke slide on teh housing itself because the tranyn is dropping lower or something?

From what I can remember when I rebuilding T-5 at the dealership I never replaced a bushing in the tail shaft just the seal.

[fordfreak300]

great that spells trouble. i get w whine from the shifter area from 35 to 65 mph then it goes away. guess i need to tear into to it to find the problem.

[richpet]

1- There is a bronze bushing in the tailshaft housing the yolk rides in.
2- The video for rebuilding from Hanlon is $19.95 plus shipping. PM me if you want a used one.

I would think if tolerances are off because of wear, bent parts, etc it would cause the gears to ride in a slightly different spot or angle and possibly cause the noise of which you speak.

As far as trying this with no manual or video-No way! Unless you really know the insides of the tranny from memory. There are too many small details (springs wound from the same key but in the opposite directions, which replacement bearing goes where as they look VERY similar, etc).

Just my thoughts after having just completed this.

[Evan]

why was this tranny rebuilt, 2nd and 4th gear????? going out. whining or just completly blowed up???

ive got a t-5 sitn in the garage. me and mechanic freind of mine dropped new bearings and some gears into it a few months back, 2nd gear was going out and it whined doing 75mph or so.

tranny went back into his car after the rebuild and everything seemed good. shifted great on the bench just felt good. ouince back in his car. this is sitn behind 347.

back in his car the whine had gone away but. 2nd gear is hard to go in. you realy got to reaf on it to get it in.

tranny is dropped out of the car and tore apart same day. he put some more new stuff in it and tossed it back together. couple days later its back in the car and drivn but second still goes in hard. while everything is is smooth as silk.

he fina gave up on the tranny when he came across a used tremec. swapped the tremec in and all was good in mustang heaven for him.

t-5s sits around the shop for a few months when i finaly ask what hes doing with it. he says take its yours you did as much work on it as i did.

so there i am a fresh t-5, everything feels good but 2nd gear. hmmmmm what to do.

i was half wondering if pro 50 shifter or the like might fix the problem or possibly hide it. actualy it almost feels like its engaugeing like good pro 50 shifter would . how dou you exsplain it. kinda just clunks into gear with solid feel instead of smooth like it should.

what should i do. been concidering haven a shop look at it only because i got it free. dont know if they could fix anything but theyd sure let me know im sure.

what should i do.

thanks
Evan

[fordfreak300]

1- There is a bronze bushing in the tailshaft housing the yolk rides in.
2- The video for rebuilding from Hanlon is $19.95 plus shipping. PM me if you want a used one.

I would think if tolerances are off because of wear, bent parts, etc it would cause the gears to ride in a slightly different spot or angle and possibly cause the noise of which you speak.

As far as trying this with no manual or video-No way! Unless you really know the insides of the tranny from memory. There are too many small details (springs wound from the same key but in the opposite directions, which replacement bearing goes where as they look VERY similar, etc).

Just my thoughts after having just completed this.

Ok good there isw a bushing in there. I am thinking this is where my noise is comming from. After I get my new truck home in a week I will have time to take the tranny out and check it out for sure.