Identifying the T-5 5 Speed

["Joe Wyatt" <jwyatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For those that haven't had enough on the T-5

Information found at:   http://www.5speeds.com/t5/index.html

The T5 5 Speed was originally manufactured by Borg Warner Automotive. The 
first T5 5 speeds were manufactured as far back as 1982 and are still being 
made at the time this page was written ( 2001 ). The T5 was the only 
American made standard transmission to span almost 20 years of production. 
Before the GM's Muncie 4 speed held that honor. Because of the large 
quantities of T5's produced, many parts are interchangeable, allowing one to 
create interesting 5 speed combinations. No other transmission allows this 
to be done quite this easy. There are now over 260 different T5 transmission 
assembly part numbers.

There are 2 basic kinds of T5 5 speeds. Non World Class ( NWC ) and World 
Class ( WC ). The T5 is an evolution of the Borg Warner SR4 4speed. The SR4 
was a lightweight design, ball bearing and needle bearing counter gear box 
using bronze synchro rings. The T4 was an improvment of this design, using 
tapered input and output shaft bearings combined with a drawn cup roller 
bearing countergear. The T5 NWC was a T4 with an added 5th gear.

NWC T5's were issued in 1982. First applications were in S-10 Blazers. By 
1983 Ford started using them in the Mustang, GM had them in the F body 
Camaro and Firebird Cars, AMC had them in the Eagle and Jeep lines. AMC 
dropped the T5 by 1985 to make room for cheaper Peugeot and Toyota boxes. By 
late 1985 the first WC boxes were used by Ford. The WC boxes had 1st, 2nd, 
and 3rd speed gears riding on roller bearings instead of solid shafts. The 
countergears saw an upgrade to tapered bearings. The bronze synchro rings 
were replaced by fiber lined rings and dual cone designed rings to improve 
ring surface area. GM started using WC boxes as early as 1988 in the Camaro 
/ Firebird line but still kept NWC boxes in S-10's and Astro Vans. By the 
mid 1990's most of the GM T5 installations were all World Class.

How to identify T5 5 speeds.  There is a TAG ID program. The TAG ID program 
requires the stamped number off of the tin metal tag bolted to the tail 
housing. No other numbers on the case, tail or cover are needed or will tell 
you anything.  Over this 19 year span we have seen improvments to casting 
designs, synchro ring designs,alloy changes, addition of reverse gear 
synchro's and sadly the sale of Borg Warner's T5 line to Tremec Corp.

Send me an e-mail if you would like a copy of the Tag ID's that I have 
started in Excel...There are over 200 listings by number and vehicle the T-5 
are used in.

Joe W.......................