I finally got around to installing the TKO500 in the 1994 Mustang GT. This was a little bit more involved than I expected it to be. Read on to see what I went through.
Removal
With the help of my buddy Frankie, we got the car up on jack stands. The removal is pretty straightforward. First, disconnect the HEGO sensors and remove the mid pipe. Then pull the driveshaft - put it in gear and emergency brake on. Remove a bolt. Take it out of gear and emergency brake off, rotate the driveshaft, put it back into gear and the emergency brake on again, remove a bolt. Repeat for all 4. Then take the driveshaft out. At this point, we moved inside the car and removed the shifter nob, then the boot, then the two bolts to remove the shifter handle. Back to under the car. Removed the clutch fork cover and used a pry bar to release the tension on the clutch cable, and removed the cable from the clutch fork. Remove the cable from the bell housing. Disconnect the speedometer plug and reverse light sensor plug. This should be all of the wiring harnesses. Next we removed the 4 bolts that bolt the trans to the bell housing. Support the trans with a jack enough to relieve the weight from the crossmember, and remove the two bolts where the crossmember bolts to the chassis. At this point the trans can be moved backwards and taken out of the car. This took about 2 hours. Next we removed all the bolts for the bell housing and removed it along with the clutch fork.
TKO Installation, Part 1
The TKO500 requires a different bell housing. It has the same 10 spline input shaft as the stock T5, which is nice. We didn't have to mess with the clutch / disk/ flywheel at all. It's basically new / fresh as of last year so I didn't even inspect it. If a new clutch is in order, now would be the time to do it with a fresh re-surface of the flywheel. Remember to put thread sealer on the flywheel bolts. Another thing to note is that the two top bell housing bolts are shorter for the 94 / 95 bell housing. We installed the bell housing and new clutch fork. Then installed the new Steeda Tri-Ax shifter on the TKO and adjusted it (no handle yet). Then hoisted the transmission up into the bell housing. It was at this point that I realized there was an issue. The work stopped here this day.
Issues!!!
The shifter handle looks like it's pointing to the passenger side A pillar. Looking at how the transmission is sitting in the tunnel - from the back of the car looking forward, it looks like it is clocked towards the passenger side of the car. Upon further inspection, the entire motor looks like it is clocked toward the passenger side of the car. It took a lot of checking and thought, but eventually I decided it had to be the motor mounts. I bought a set of used Prothane motor mounts. These are nice because they don't have that alignment 'nipple' that sits into the slot of the crossmember.
Motor Mount Install
I got the Engine crane back to my house. I used some axle tie down straps and wrapped them around two header tubes on the passenger side. I did the same thing on the drivers side. Then I used some towing shackles and attached the passenger side two loops to one side of another strap. Same thing on the drivers side. I removed the motor mount to K member nut on both sides and positioned the crane to lift from the strapping. It lifted the motor straight up. I won't get into all the details, but it was a basic remove / replace job. Take one motor mount out, put in the Prothane mount. Once the drivers side was done (this was the easy one) I moved to the passenger side, which was much more of a pain due to the starter and position, which is directly above the K member. After some time, I swapped that mount out for the Prothane. It was then that I realized that the motor mount that was on the passenger side was severely bent. I think that this motor mount came from a 'parts car' that was hit hard in the front. Anyway, those two old motor mounts went right into the trash. I used the crane and lowered the engine back down onto the K member. The engine sat perfectly level! I torqued the motor mount nuts and removed the crane and all the strapping.
TKO Installation Part 2
Back under the car, I loosened up the four bolts that connect the trans to the bell housing. I then twisted the trans towards the drivers side as much as it would go. This got the shifter to sit practically straight up. Finally! the next thing I had to address was the crossmember and spacing. I am using a stifflers cross member - configured for the TKO. There's also a TKO spacer kit that will sit between the transmission and the energy suspension transmission mount. I installed the spacer kit and was able to get the transmission to sit perfectly on the crossmember, with the crossmember bolted to the frame. The transmission is very close to the tunnel, but it works! The transmission did hit the metal part of the lower shift boot. I needed to notch the metal frame on that lower shift boot and re install it. I also glued the boot back to the metal frame where it was pulling apart. Next I connected the wiring to the trans, the cable to the clutch fork and the dust cover for the fork. I moved into the car and installed the shifter handle, shift boot, and the knob. Back under the car it was time to install the driveshaft and the driveshaft spacer that sits between the pinion flange and the driveshaft flange. Its the same dance as the removal, but this time using a torque wrench. I also bolted up the 'new to me' BBK X Pipe after swapping over the oxygen sensors. I mounted it up and plugged in the sensors.
After getting it down off of the jack stands and starting it / moving it around, I realized a few things. First was that there was a terrible exhaust leak where the mid pipe meets the header flange. I eventually fixed that with the help of a friend later. Next I noticed that the clutch pedal adjustment was way off. This was resolved by using the firewall adjuster and the maximum motorsports clutch cable spacer (MMCL-17). I fine tuned the pedal feel over the course of a few sessions driving the car. Finally, the tail shaft seal on the transmission was leaking. I did get around to replacing that seal, but it still leaks. Likely it is due to the transmission yoke. I'll either have to replace that or polish the yoke. I think replacing it would be best. I'll put up another post on the shakedown cruise!
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