1fststang wrote:

How many of you are running the stock tremec shifter that comes with the TKO?  how well does it work and feel?

I was planning to run mine with the one that came with it but now wondering if I should swap it out and if I do what brand shifter do you recommend?

I know the Pro 5.0 is popular and not terribly expensive  

pro 5.0 on ebay is cheaper
 

I left the original T5 shifter, and am fine with it.  I just haven’t seen the need to upgrade, I don’t race, or bang shift, anymore.  If I were to change, the Pro 5.0 unit seems to have the best reviews.

I ordered a pro 5.0 today so hopefully it will arrive early next week.  

Now i just need to find a shifter boot that i can mount over the fox lower boot and still fit/work with my console

 

BobE wrote:

I left the original T5 shifter, and am fine with it.  I just haven’t seen the need to upgrade, I don’t race, or bang shift, anymore.  If I were to change, the Pro 5.0 unit seems to have the best reviews.

The T5 stock shifter is alot smoother than a TKO600 stock shifter. 
The pro5.0 will make either tranny shift alot better, though, especially when it comes to downshifting to third gear.

I wish i would have swapped the shifter prior to installing motor and trans.  The shifter of course is sealed with rtv and trying to break it loose from the trans while in the car has proofed to be frustrating to say the least.

thanks for the suggestions

 have the hole opened up to a decent size since i am installing the fox lower boot.

Hard to get to the shifter to give it a good whack with anything.  Can't jack it up high enough in the hole to get from the top and can't drop it low enough to get to it from the bottom.  I've taken some pieces of hard wood and a ball peen hammer to try and catch the edge where it overlaps the trans but that hasn't worked.  I don't have a brass drift. Kind of hard to believe i don't since i'm a tool finatic.  Guess thats something i need to add to my aresenal.

Haven't never seen rtv hold something so tight.

I should kick myself in the butt for not swapping in the new shifter before installing the motor and trans.  I'm sure if it were out of the car i could pop it off easily.

You never have to break the seal if you aren't pulling the trans because you broke it anyway.

There's two schools of thought on the stop collar/limit bolts.  School one says the shift forks being only cast aluminum can be damaged and fail as a result of over shifting (basically banging gears and exerting effort against the fork after the slider has stopped moving and the trans is already in gear).  In this scenario the fork is the weak link.  The limit bolts in this scenario exist to prevent the fork from being stressed.  The bolt stops the movement of the entire shift mechanism before the fork gets stressed, and fork failure is averted. 

The second school says that's not why forks break.  Forks break because of a botched shift where the slider doesn't engage the teeth on the speed gear before the clutch grabs.  The fork is still the weak link, and fails due to stress placed on it, but only if the shift is a bad shift.  In this scenario, the limit bolts would do nothing to prevent fork failure because the bolt hasn't been contacted yet when this happens because the trans is never actually in gear.

Knowing the T5 as I do I can tell you a couple things from personal experience.  First, I've never seen a broken fork in a T5.  I've heard about it enough to believe it happens, but not with the frequency I hear talked about.  Second, I have seen a lot of improperly adjusted clutches that don't fully release, which have caused all kinds of transmission issues.  Third, you can break anything if you lack sufficient skill or try hard enough.

Summation, I once was dead sure those limit bolts existed because scenario one was 100% real.  After many, many years, and rebuilding/building many, many T5s I tend to think scenario two is more probable.  I keep my limit bolts adjusted because, well, I could be wrong, but I think in reality they exist as a solution that doesn't actually address the problem.