My T-5 is now a 4-spd...

[haromaster87]

So I went bowling with some friends today. Comin home goin down the high way I was in 5th at about 55mph. All the sudden the car kinda hesitated for a second, and then revved a bit higher(my foot never moved) so first thing I think is "great, there goes the clutch". So I put the car in 4th and it's fine. I don't think anything of it and go to get into 5th again, it goes in, but feels real loose, then I realize there is no 5th! lol So I drove home in 4th at the hottest time of the day, at an avg. of 3000rpms. It got upto about 210. However i'm stumped on what could've cause the gear to just let go, not even under load. I checked and still have reverse and my other 4 forward gears, just no 5th. Looks like i'll just be runnin a 4spd for a while. lol

On a side note, there's this kinda scraping noise my car's makin, it's in the engine bay, sounds like it's from around the alternator, like a belt/pulley related noise. Any idea's? Will a quick shot of WD-40 help? lol

[yodaddyz82gt]

dude that sucks! man i wish the best for you. save all ur $$$ for another t5, unless you gotta buddy that can rebuild it for you.

[haromaster87]

Right now it's not so bad. lol I know a guy sellin one super cheap so we'll see. However I can live with a 4 spd. I really mainly drive to school and back and hardly use 5th. Funny thing is I always joked about wanting on of those old school 4 spd's that could handle anything, well, I sorta got my wish. lol

[306gt]

The c-clip that holds 5th gear on the cluster probably fell off. When this happens the drive gear will slide back and disengage with the driven gear. Pull the tailshaft off and look. It may be a quick fix.

[haromaster87]

^^Gotcha, I've been readin around and thought this. Question, if I just drive it as a 4 speed for a bit and just avoid 5th nothing will get damaged, right?

[embler]

^^Gotcha, I've been readin around and thought this. Question, if I just drive it as a 4 speed for a bit and just avoid 5th nothing will get damaged, right?

I thought the same after my second mustang, an '88gt. drove it for 2 days without 2nd gear. on the third day, it made a loud clanking sound and then almost a boom. all I had left was 4th and reverse. didn't even make it the 5 miles home before it totally let go. imo, I wouldn't drive it until its fixed. could be a simple fix that if left alone could turn into something expensive.
the wd-40 thing, don't spray any of that stuff around the belt. pull the belt and crank it up to determine if it is in fact coming from one of the pulleys

[At1Maverick69]

I agree with Embler, no WD40 on the belt, it'll just saturate the belt and make it weak. What I would do though is this- take of the belt from one pulley at a time, spray a little WD40 on the bearing of that pulley(not on the pulley itself, and install the belt. If it goes away, it's one of the accessories then. it might take a bit of time, but beats replacing all those things to get rid of the noise. Good luck!

[85GT-79FJ40]

Sorry to hear about your tranny. Mine won't downshift from 5th to 4th unless I push it up towards 3rd first. But it's apparently been like this for about 50k miles (20k with me) and hasn't changed so i'm not too concerned. But if you get nothing at all from 5th I would check into what 306GT suggested right away. I've seen him make a few runs down the track and I can imagine he's been into more than a couple T5's. The scraping sound is probably either your smog pump or alternator. Both are on the same side of the engine so it might be tough to tell which it is without a mechanic's stethoscope to listen with. As long as you don't have smog checks a shorter belt can take of the smog pump. And alternators are pretty cheap for these cars. My smog pump made a scraping sound for about a week before it seized up and burned the belt right off the car about 5 miles from home.

[haromaster87]

^^^Damn, lol, that sucks. When I said the WD-40 thing I meant spray it on the pulley, I wouldn't spray the belt. lol Ima try and track it today and see what I can do. I'm almost convinced it was just that clip that fell off. I drove it today and it drove no different save for no 5th. I figure the clutch in there is kinda old so i'ma drive it as a 4speed till the clutch starts to go then me and my bro can pull the trans and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

[bob85gt]

an easy way to tell is to take the belt off and then spin the alt and the smog pump. my smog pump had bits of plastic ( bakeolite type stuff) break off the vans. needles to say it needed to be taken apart and removed the chunks. worked fine for another year ( done this twice so far) not to bad off a job if i remember.

[rcoupe93]

also on the scraping noise try and crank the car for a minute with the belt off and see if it still makes the noise. i had one once that i tried and tested everything and still had the noise, then i tried it without the belt it still made the noise and found that the distributor was going bad and luckily found it before it locked up. good luck