by Ryan King
9/07
Let me start out by saying – again – that having a model to follow in building one’s ride is necessary, but it is by no means, a plan.
A model is essentially a semi- or fully thought out vision with all, some or many of the finished details figured out.
It is a fantastic tool to help guide one’s plan. A beacon like the Northstar was for Christopher Columbus.
Like Christopher Columbus, however, it’s more likely the Northstar will only get you so far and you’ll be lost at sea, just off the coast of the “New World” where some nice Native Americans will find you. Or you may just be lost at sea and die there never realizing how close to your destination you were.
This is a real danger for the neophyte car enthusiast on his or her first build.
A plan is like a map. It differs from quite a bit from a model, much like the Northstar differs from a map. It shows you a path to follow to get to where you are going.
I didn’t have one of those.
So I started my project where ever I wanted to and worked my way through whatever meandering path I chose to follow.
That’s why I began by rebuilding the transmission.
That’s right, no sage reason. No wise mentor telling me where to begin. Just me saying, I want to do that. So I did.
It’s important to understand that when I rebuilt the T5 for this car, I’d never rebuilt a transmission before and in fact, did not even understand how a manual transmission worked. Thankfully I had a few things on my side going into this build.
1. The factory repair manual which included all the disassembly and assembly instructions as well as measurements, illustrations, and required tools, equipment, and supplies.
2. Enough intelligence to figure out ALL the instructions before I got started.
3. The disciplined focus and patience needed to figure out ALL the details and execute each one precisely.
It was a success but not without its challenges.
After reading the rebuild procedure, I decided the best course of action would be to start by source the tools and equipment I was going to need as well as order the parts.
As I mentioned in Chapter 3, the first and most obvious problem with the transmission was the worn and grooved front bearing retainer. Being made entirely out of aluminum in ‘87, meant that the throwout bearing easily destroyed them beyond use.
The remedy was to purchase a new service part from Ford which replaced the all-aluminum piece with one that has a steel collar – that the throwout bearing rides on – pressed into an aluminum plate. Although this assembly is not a strong as the all steel pieces now being offered in the aftermarket for high performance T5 builds, it is much more durable in a stock application than the original.
I knew I was also going to need a complete rebuild kit and after doing some research, discovered that Ford Racing sold a rebuild kit for the heavy duty T5Z they offered and that it would also work on the regular production T5s. I ordered up a rebuild kit and once I had the tools I was going to need, got to work disassembling the transmission.
Disassembly went fairly smoothly, but reassembly proved to be a bit more of a challenge.
The first challenge came from the slider keys on the tailshaft. The keys kept slipping out of position while I tried to reinstall the sliders. Once I finally got the sliders on, assembly continued smoothly until I reached the installation of the front bearing retainers and its loose roller bearings. Thankfully, my friend Jack came through with a solution: filling the bearing cavity with petroleum jelly or Crisco. Either of which would work as Jack explained it to me, the important thing is that either one would hold the loose bearings in place during installation, but would liquify under the running heat of the transmission, melting away and not causing slippage of the friction materials such as the synchros inside the transmission after it began circulating it throughout the transmission during operation.
I ran into my next challenge when I tried to assemble the tailshaft. The fifth gear/countershaft assembly has a small plastic funnel that is pressed into it. It also slips into a cavity in the tailshaft housing. I destroyed several funnels trying to get the assembly together.
The last challenge I faced was really simple...if the shifter rail isn’t pushed fully forward, it’s impossible to get the offset lever on the end of the shifter rail. It’s also very difficult to get the shifter rail forward once the transmission is fully assembled. However, the shifter turret went on very easily once I was able to finish the shifter rail/offset lever assembly.
That wasn’t the end of my transmission build, however. I ended up disassembling it five times to reset tolerances and fix assembly mistakes, but when I did finally finish the transmission, I was very pleased with the results. In fact, the transmission is still on the road as of this writing, still sitting in the same chassis, now owned by my cousin Brandon. It happily survived the torque of a 347 and 50,000 miles of life behind a pumped up 302.
Although I began my project in a way I would now consider very haphazard, I managed to execute its start well and I was under way to getting the Project LX ‘87 back on the road.
Check back in for Chapter 7 when I will delve into the engine build and get Stage 2 closer to completion!
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