To rebuild or not to rebuild......

[Iron Ranger]

This goes out to anyone doing a swap of any kind. My brother and I just opened up the T5 tranny 'cause we were going to rebuild it anyway, and wouldn't you know it, it is FULL of metal shavings from the syncros. Luckly, the gears are still good, but this thing was ran HARD.

Had the same issues with the 302 I bought from a guy I work with. Head bolts broken, piston rods bent, 8 quarts of oil, half the oil pan bolts gone, 6 of one set of injectors;2 of another size, and de-stroked pistons.
But hey, I runs like a champ(yeah right)

If I hadn't decided to spend the extra $$$ now to rebuild the stuff, it would have cost me major $$$ down the road, plus I know that those components are new.

Long story short, if the seller says "Needs minor work", plan for extreme work.
Rebuilding saves you in the long run.

 

[Blacksheep]

+1

 

[Will]

I think the moral is--buy smarter.

Rebuilding is much more expensive than it used to be. The last automotive machine shop closed in my city a couple years ago. Now, I wouldn't know where to go for machine work. Wherever it is, it won't be cheap.

 

[Iron Ranger]

Rebuilding is much more expensive than it used to be. The last automotive machine shop closed in my city a couple years ago. Now, I wouldn't know where to go for machine work. Wherever it is, it won't be cheap.

Thats not even the worst of it. I just found out that my t5 is not a wc like the seller told us it was. I looked at the bearing face on the front of the casing to see the "lip" size of it. It looked like it to me, except I've never seen that bearing in a wc before. I got shamboozled, but I think I have an answer......

If I buy a wc gear set(shaft and all), it should still fit in the casing. right? I mean, I read that the casings were pretty much universal on the t5.

P.S. Any machining that I need done can be done where I work for free, it just may take a while.......

 

[Iron Ranger]

I got shamboozled in this tranny I bought. We tore it completely apart and not only is it a non-world class, but EVERY SINGLE SYNCRO is ground into a slurry at the bottom of the casing. The ebay description said

Sometimes slips out of 3rd gear, might be bad syncro

OH, YEAH!!!.

Absolutely unacceptable. Not to mention that the
5th gear syncro is mangled up(gear and syncro are one piece) so now I have to find a new 5th gear. Plus, to top it all off, the main cap bearing(in the front of the casing) COMPLETLY EXPLODED!!! The schrapnal is probably the reason why everything is ruined. But you have to wonder, it MUST have been making an aweful sound no matter what gear you're in.

So today's tip: Unless you are CERTAIN of the condition, buy the tranny new or one with a warranty of some kind.

Wait till I post the pics......You have GOT to see this............