Originally Posted by feets

The T5 transmission is garbage. Aftermarket shifters did help for those who were aggressive. You could adjust the stops to prevent over travel when going to 3rd gear. We had tranny swaps down to an art in a friend's Mustang. It took less than 30 minutes using hand tools and a pair of jack stands. He was abusive beyond a doubt but never broke the Tremec after we got tired of the T5s. The clincher was spitting 3rd gear out of the case in nowhere Kentucky during the dark of night. Nothing like a catastrophic failure 1000+ miles from home. No doubt his abuse was to blame. The kicker is that we were behaving ourselves at the time of departure.

The transmission in my 1980 D100 (not my '92 D250 Cummins automatic) was an 833 like the one in my hot rod. It was a newer overdrive version where they swapped 3rd to an overdrive ratio and flipped the shift lever upside down. It was hard on the tranny to have the power in overdrive running on the side shaft but if you didn't beat on that gear. I had one in the hot rod for a little while but it didn't hold up. The side shaft beat the aluminum case badly.

I've never been into the Mercedes 6 speed. They were only available here in the C-class coupe and SLK. Even in those models they're pretty rare. I've never driven one.

Despite beating on my hot rod and working the truck hard, I do take care of the equipment. I built the car from the ground up. I even fabricated parts in my home machine shop. If I break it, I've got to rebuild it.

I wasn't trying to get anybody upset. You happen to know what double clutching means. Unfortunately, you're in the minority. Many people out there haven't a clue.