T5 behind a flathead (shudder)

35 coupe

35 coupe

Senior Member
I put a t5 behind the flathead of my 50 f1 over the winter, and when leaving the clutch out in 1st and reverse it makes the truck shudder, when the clutch is out it runs fine, and runs fine in the other gears. Never drove with a t5, is the nature of them or is it something else. THANKS. The flathead was done by Walt Dupont and it runs really strong with two 97's on it.
 
Clutch judder is rarely the fault of the transmission and usually the clutch and/or motor mounts. The early fords even had steady rods to help eliminate this to some extent.
 
I don't run a T5 but I did have a chatter when letting out the clutch in first and reverse. found that the static springs in clutch plate was very weak, put in new clutch plate and things were fine. I run a 30 coupe.
 
An excessively loose pilot bearing/input shaft fit could cause shudder in low gears. Did anyone check the fit during assembly?
 
Had the exact same problem with my F1. Took everything apart but couldn't see a problem. Got a new pressure plate and clutch plate, put them in but still had the shudder. Decided to give it a little time. It has slowly gotten much better over time. Still does it a little when cold. When warm it goes away. I didn't think to check but I'll bet they are Chinese parts.
 
No chatter rods, everything is new, flywheel was resurfaced. I had the same pressure plate on the original 3 speed and it was good. New throw out bearing,clutch plate. New motor mounts. I know I didnot get any grease on it. Rebuilt ******. Can't figure it out.
 
I'm going to guess your resurfaced flywheel needs to wear in a little. The freshly machined surface will tend to act differently until it gets a typical burnished finish.

You might try slipping the clutch a little to help the wear in process. Carefully, don't smoke it, just a little here and there so it can rub without getting hot.

I noticed with my T5 what seems to be less dampening of the normal backlash in the gears, compared to old Ford stock transmissions, and suspect it's because of the light weight trans fluid and very free running bearings. Tends to make chatter easier to come by until it gets broken in.

Ray
 
The old ford 3 finger type clutches tend to chatter worse than the modern diaphram pressure plates. solved the problem in my roadster by using a modern diaphram pressure plate. you may or may not be able to find one that matches the bolt pattern in your flywheel. any automotive machine shop can redrill your flywheel to the required pattern. check the release brg to make sure it will engage properly. i used the stock ford release brg. it will require a bushing to work on the s10 trans.
 
Some of the speedway motors clutch plates have a slightly shallow engagement on the spline , just enough difference to cause a little shudder on release from a stand still.
 
You don't say what type of clutch you have but a common problem with the Long type is finger adjustment. They must all be the same height.
 
I have been following this thread with a great deal of interest because I have the same problem. My story reads the same as 35Coupes but have had the T5 in for about 7 years. I have pulled the trans, clutch and flywheel off to check the height on the three arms, as Pete has suggested on the Borg and Bech pressure plate. They were off by quite a bit so I made them as close as possible. I still have the shudder in 1st and reverse, not near as bad but it is there. So the fingers being out of adjustment was part of the problem. The pressure plate was a so called "rebuilt Ford original " the chev disc was new but I don't know where its from. It would be nice to get to the bottom of this not uncommon problem.
Al
 
I have the T5 out of my F-1 pickup right now (2nd time) for this same problem. I believe one issue is the lousy quality of the repro clutch disks. I am trying an OEM disc this time.....will require some machining to the flywheel though. We'll see......

BTW, F-1's never had anti chatter rods to my knowledge, not sure what you would even hook them to....
 
I might be wrong (again!!) but I've always thought that the anti-chatter rods were only used with a torque-tube rear end.
 
RMR&C please keep us posted on the outcome of using an OEM disc in front of the T5 and also what machine work needed to be done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top