Do all TKs whine?

[Daniel Black]

I currently have a TK 5-speed in my '87 Ranger and prior had one in an '86. Both of them sound the same. They whine, whistle, whur, zing. They just make all sorts of noise. They both shift fine. So is it just a normal thing for a Toyo Kogyo? The '86 had atf in it when I got it and it made some serious noise until I switched it back to gear oil. The '86 had 260K miles on it so I expected it to make some noise but my '87 has 170K, i thought it would be quieter.

 

[fastpakr]

Do they whine in 4th?

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Ive had a few TKs and the only noise i ever got was that "errrrrrrrr" when going fast in reverse.

 

[Mike Tonon]

My dad bought an 87 with the TK5, new and I had it for years after him and it ALWAYS whined. Not like a Model A transmission, but something in between that and a newer Ranger manual. Never had major issues with it. It had a tiny leak near the driveshaft end, but over several years time, I never had to add fluid. I sold the truck after about 21 years and 185,000 miles. I kind of liked the whine, it had character! ? like driving around the parking lot, it’d go, “werrrrrrrrRRR...” then I’d let off the gas and it’d go, “wer wer wer”.

 

[Daniel Black]

They whine all the time. They both do the deal in parking lots and when you're coasting. I do like that noise as long as it's nothing too serious. They seemed to be loudest in 5th gear. That's when it turns into sort of a high pitched annoying whistle. I'm guessing maybe the input shaft bearing is causing most of it but I don't know why it would change pitch through the gears. It whines in neutral with the clutch out but if you mash it in it stops. I think that means input bearing. I think throw out bearing would make noise with clutch in then stop when it's out.

 

[RonD]

In a modern manual transmission ALL the gears are meshed all the time

Diagram here: https://s.hswstatic.com/gif/transmission-5speed-gears.gif

Green shaft spins at engine RPMs, it spins the red shaft that has "the gears", which spins the Blue "gears" even Reverse

In the drawing the transmission is in Neutral
The three Purple "dog gears" are always connected to the Yellow output shaft

The shifter moves the dog gears to engage say 1st gear, the dog gears are where "syncro-mesh" is used, as the dog gear slides into 1st gear the syncro slows down or speed up 1st gear to match the RPM of the dog gear
The clutch disengages engine RPMs which allows 1st gear to speed up or slow down, to match dog gear RPMs, which might be 0 RPMs if vehicle is stopped.

So gears spin at Engine RPMs only, even in Neutral
The dog gears and output shaft spin at vehicle speed RPMs, drive shaft RPMs

So it REVing the engine changes "whining" sound then its caused by input shaft or gears.

If SPEED changes the whining sound then its output shaft related

Yes, it could be the Mesh on one gear that's making most of the noise, so when using that gear noise would change


Helical gears(angle cut) are quieter than straight cut, but helical gears also put forward and backward thrust on the shafts, so stronger thrust bearings and trans cases are needed

 

[Daniel Black]

Then it could be a more serious internal problem. These should be fully synchronized transmissions but with both of them you basically have to stop to go back to 1st gear. I thought about an m5od swap but I've broken those transmissions with a stock 2.3 and I've seen countless ones that grenaded after all the atf leaked out. In my opinion the TK is the stronger of the two. I've never rebuilt a transmission before but I might look into how hard it would be.

 

[Shran]

FWIW, "TK" stands for Toyo Kogyo... AKA Mazda. Those old 4 and 5 speeds were made by the same company that built the M5OD.

I have only seen a couple broken M5ODs and I will concede that I have never seen a broken TK or FM-xxx trans however I have seen PLENTY that were just straight up worn out. They are ALL light duty transmissions. I know the M5's have their leaky shift rail plug reputation but that doesn't make them junk, it just means there was a minor issue that a lot of people ignore. You could lose a seal in any mechanical device and destroy it when the oil is gone.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Back in the old days of TRS the old time tranny guys pretty much conceded that in order of strength...

1- M5OD.
2- TK 4/5.
3- Mitsu FM's.

I like the TK for the fact its got a 3.96:1 1st.

 

[fastpakr]

If nothing else, getting away from the ball bearings of the TK/FM transmissions is a step forward.