The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop T-5 FUN!

It has been a cold winter with an unheated garage so I finally got back under the '52 last weekend. I got the T-5 in and operational in the fall but there was a constant rubbing noise. Turns out the splines are .188" longer from the face of the transmission on my T-5 than on the original transmission and is rubbing the pilot bushing. I have two options as I see it: Have the transmission disassembled and the splines shortened to the proper length or have the pilot bushing trimmed. I like the latter. Anyone else had this experience or have any input?

Make sure the pilot bushing has been driven in all the way. Also, make sure this is the actual problem, the clutch can also be hitting the bearing retainer snout. And your splines may rub towards the back of the input shaft. Just make sure the input shaft etc, compares exactly as did the trans you removed.

The trump card here is that the bushing was in all the way and the front of it was all chewed up from the splines. The overall length of the input shaft and the length of the bearing retainer match the original transmission. Put that in conjunction with the splines being 3/16" longer on the T-5 than the original tranny and I am pretty sure this is where the problem lies. Just curious if anyone else had this issue and if so did they do anything different?

Jthuma94,do you have the correct pilot bushing istalled ? If i remember correctly,mine seats flush with the crankshaft.You're talking about the brass pilot bushing in the crank,right ?

Mine was making a grinding or growling noise when i first installed it.My problem was the splines needed extended,and i even ground the surface of the splines on the clutch disk.That took care of my problems.It sounds like your pilot bushing is too long.Did you cut off a 1/2" of the snout ?

Brass bushing seats flush with the crank, already extended the splines (might extend them a little more while I have the bearing retainer off) ,shortened snout to match overall length of the input shaft on the original transmission... gonna work on this over the weekend and I will let you guys know. Maybe I did not extend the splines far enough back but it sure seems to me that the wear on the pilot bushing coupled with the length of the splines from the face of the tranny being 3/16" longer than on the original tranny is the problem.

The easiest fix would have been to use a spacer between the transmission and the bellhousing. That way you wouldn't have to modify either the shaft length or the spline depth and use all stock parts if you need a new transmission. I can't uderstand why it isn't always done that way, can anyone explain why that isn't the preferred method?

The bell housing matches up to the flange (if you will) around the input shaft on the face of the transmission to ensure that everything is kept in a straight line. This flange is appproximately 1/4" thick. To match this up would require a 3/16" spacer leaving 1/16" left to keep everything straight. Not enough in most people's book...

Be sure to have the clutch disc next to you. You will need to make sure it's sliding on your extended splines.

How hard would it be to extend the front bearing retainer? Does Buffalo, or someone else make a transmission adapter that is nothing more than an extension of the rear bellhousing face? I can see that only 1/16 inch overlap could be a problem when installing a transmission with the engine in place, too much chance of not noticing that the trans was not fully seated before tightening everything.