Trans Fail

[JimG]

I was headed up to the Hunt Valley Horsepower Event this am, a hour and 45 minute drive when and hour into it my T-9 trans failed! Luckily I was able to limp back home in 4th gear, coasting through a few stop signs on the way. All other gears sound like the trans is going to come through the firewall!

Looks like my winter project is going to be a T-5 upgrade! For those parts hoarders, I will be starting to gather the necessary parts (and funds) to make this happen.

[eaton53]

When I had my '85 many years ago, my T-9 failed at 59K, 62K and 90K. It only totally failed the 1st time... the other times I still had some gears.
At the time of the failure, Ford had the Lifetime Service Guarantee. I emailed Rapido and asked them what was the best course of action.
I told them about the LSG and they said rebuild it since it's on their dime forever.

They got to rebuild it two more times after that. The 3rd time the Service Manager got kind of upset.
I responded that this POS ain't my problem, I got a LSG so it's yours so put a guy that knows what he's doing on it.
It didn't chuck itself again after that.

The moral of the story... my car's an automatic. I wouldn't trust a T-9 as far as I could throw it.

[merkurdriver]

Jim, you will be very happy with a T5 in vs the T9. Have many of the T5 parts on hand, I'll send you a PM regarding those.

[dunhamr1]

Jim,

What was the oil level in your T9? Anything will fail if the oil level is low.. See what it looks like when you pull it out, you'll see on the side of the case where the level was.

T5 is a great upgrade, I myself am amassing parts for an eventual T5 swap, have a few T5's in pieces because I'm picky. Make sure you find one with ratios that will fit your needs, don't just use any old T5 you happen to find. They're not quite plug and play but I'm sure the vendors will fix you up with the right parts.

[Longitudinal]

I have a TC T5 and Mustang BH with release fork and bellcrank that I probably won't use.