Hi Everyone,
Yes, I have a T5 behind my alpine motor. The combo to use is a 85-89 T5 with a 94-95 input shaft. I am running a .73 5th gear. This combo puts the shifter in the perfect spot and does not require the input shaft to be turned down (IIRC). I did not use the T5 tail shaft mount, rather made a plate that bolts to the T5 tail housing bolts, which are mostly in the same plane as the alpine tranny mounts. I just made a bracket to adapt to the Alpine tranny mounts.
To make the T5 mount to the Alpine bell housing, I made an adapter plate with a concentric ring on it to ensure the tranny aligns coaxially with the bell housing and crank. The bell housing was machined down a bit, it was bored out so the adapter plate slips into it, and in my case, holes were drilled into the bell housing for mounting a Tilton PN 61-401 linear clutch release bearing. Most important after making all these parts, is to bolt the bell housing to the motor with a dial indicator on the crank then slowly turn the crank and measure the inner bore of the adapter plate. Move the bell housing around until there is essentially zero runout. Then pin the bell housing to the engine block to maintain this position. If the input shaft is not coaxial with the crank, hard shifts and decreased life of your tranny and associated parts will result.
On a side note, ensuring there are no more than 3 degrees of pinion - driveshaft angle is also crucial. I was constantly grinding into second gear for years, then I rebuilt my rear suspension and found my pinion angle was way off. Once fixed, my shifts are as crisp as can be.
This is probably more info than you were looking for, but I figured since I had it, I might as well put it out there.
By the way, my website is now
www.turbosunbeamalpine.com. I haven't updated it in 11 years so unfortunately none of the rear end work, brakes, or new dyno sheet are there, but there is still a lot of info and pictures.
Hope every one is doing well,
Brian