This is an article I've been meaning to write some time. While there are a couple of nice video's out there, sometimes a nice tech article with simple pictures can't be beat. I'm going to start halfway through the build on mainshaft construction. I didn't take pics of disassembly and cluster shaft...so next time I put together a t5, I'll finish the article and post that up. I'll also show how next time to set input shaft and cluster shaft play/load.

As well, if I have a lack of technical terms for some parts, you'll have to excuse me, I'm home learned here.

For now, i'll post up the meat of the build.

-take your mainshaft and place it in a vice so that the long end of the shaft points up as show. Insert your springs into the slider on the shaft so that they wind opposite directions as shown in the slot on the slider where the key goes.

-insert your outer blocker ring, your new lined syncro (lubed in atf), and your inner syncro part not shown and slide them down until it bottoms out on the slider on the shaft as shown.

-soak the needle bearing unit in atf and slide it on until it rests on top of the syncro's

-slide first gear on with the dog teeth pointing down as shown and make sure the slots between the dog teeth go in with the tabs that are sticking out on the syncro




-next, lube the big bearing in atf, slide it on (non press fit), slide on the fifth gear drive as shown, then put the locking c clip onto the mainshaft. It should fit perfectly in the groove for the clip. sometimes the 5th drive gear slides on, other times it's a press fit. If you don't have a press, you can use old bearing races, or get creative and place it over the mainshaft onto the gear and tap it down with a hammer until it seats.

-next goes on the speedo drive gear. the black retainer clip snaps into the hole in the mainshaft, and you gently tap the plastic gear onto the black clip until it snaps into place on the plastic gear. Shown here is the green gear, which comes on 90+ t5's and is good only up till 3.27 rear gears. The YELLOW gear that comes on pre 90 units is good to 3.73's, and you can buy a black gear that will handle 4.10's +



-The next step is to turn around the mainshaft in the vice.
-next slip your keys into the slots on the slider. There are 3 keys. I use my fingers to hold all three in place, but you can use a rubber band to hold them in place while you slide the slider on.. Make sure that the outer blocker ring tab slots line up with the keys you've just inserted, if you don't, you'll break a key, or the 1/2 slider won't go on.

-If you look inside the other slider shown, there are three sets of three indentations on the inside of the slider. the middle indentation on each of the three sets gets lined up with the key that you've inserted into the inner slider part. Carefully place the slider on as shown and slide the slider down. A few karate type chops without TOO much force will help it down.

-if it's not going down, several things to look for are that the keys are lined up perfectly with the slots in the outer black blocker ring, and that the keys haven't actually slipped down. On occasion they will slip down while installing the outer slider and overlap the black blocker ring. Make sure they don't do this.



-Next you have two large thick spacers. the larger goes on now. You can't goof this up, the smaller won't fit



-the spiral lock, as I believe it's called goes on next. There is a super thin slot in the mainshaft. Seperate this spiral lock with a tiny screwdriver and wind it around the mainshaft as shown, then tap it down until it perfectly "snaps" into the groove on the mainshaft



-Two thin spacers come in the kit...again, only one will fit right...at this point it's the larger that you slip on, and it'll rest right on top of that spiral lock