On a S-10 T5 trans can I change from an electric spedo to an older mechanical drive? Is it as simple as pulling the tailshaft and swapping a pickup for a gear?
No, you will have to move a gear from a S 10 mechinical drive to the electrical drive shaft. It must be shimmed for a press fit. You drill a releif in the late model shaft in the same location as the old model shaft for the ball bearing,then shim and install the gear. The late model shaft is smaller than the early model shaft in the speedometer drive gear area. Google "Modifing the S-10 T-5 transmission". I found an article on the Inliners International site about this very subject.
PM 'snarl' - apparently, some can be modified & some cannot. He's the man when it comes to this conversion.
Thanks guys. The Inliners thing I already saw but that is for using an S-10 tailshaft on a Camaro T5. I found the answer here, as long as these guys are right. = http://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/printpost.php?tid/181432/ "Thadd" is saying that if going from a S-10-electric to a S-10-mechanical it is a matter of pulling the electric reluctor and installing the mechanical gear in it's place. I have a complete mechanical trans that is toast, and am seeing if I can swap in another '92 T5 that is electric by just swapping the tailshaft parts. PLEASE if I am getting bogus info there and you know it then jump in here and steer me right. Flat Earl - I'll PM "snarl" for back-up.
If you've got all the components from a trashed tranny, you should be able to swap them. Do you know the year on your electronic speedo one? Is it WC or NWC? If it's WC & the mech speedo is NWC, I honestly don't recall if the tailshafts will interchange or not...
No they're both NWC. The one I'm changing out is still installed and the electric one is not at my shop yet. Otherwise I'd just pull them both down. I am trying to make sure that the electric one will work, otherwise I need to find a different one with a mechanical drive. When the rig shows up I won't have a lot of time if I can't use the other one. BTW the one I'm swapping out is a 193 from a 89 S-10 so if anybody has a good working one laying around that they want to give up let me know. I'd rather do that and save myself a PITA under the gun.
This isn't an exact answer,but this is how I relocated the speedo drive gear on a WC Camaro T5 mechanical speedo tranny when I swapped on a S10 tailhousing to move the shifter foward.If you have S10 mechanical speedo tailhousing,you can make it work with shims and a Dremel tool with a stone bit can drill the gear positioning tab hole in the hardened mainshaft.This set up has worked fine for quite awhile now.
The position of the opening ( the angle) in the electric speedo tailshaft does not allow the mechanical speedo gears to mesh properly even after relocating the gear on the tailshaft. To use the electric tailshaft, you'd have to plug the existing hole and machine a new one at the proper angle. It's much less work (and a chance for greater success) to find a mechanical speedo tailshaft (1988 & earlier). vic
I hope I didn't confuse anyone, I should have said "tailshaft HOUSING" in my post above. As far as I know, the 88 and earlier housings will interchange with the later model transmissions, at least within the Chevy species. Not sure about Ford T5s. vic
The mechanical drive one is from a '89 S-10 and is a NWC V6/4 cyl box. it's a 193. Guarenteed it's from an '89 and is mechanical. I don't know where the " '88 and earlier are mechanical" comes from because I've seen that one before it's wrong. I have the entire '89 mechanical tailshaft housing, gear drive, shaft etc., because I have the whole box. This trans is jumping out of first gear about half the time and that just wont do. I have available a '92 S-10 NWC electric spedo T5. My original post asked simply if I can pull the tailshaft housing and mechanical drive gear from the mechanical trans and install those parts on the electric drive trans. Sorry if I wasn't clear. The '92 electric drive trans is a good trans for a good price that I can get locally. If I have to go through some serious alchemy to get it to work it's not worth it to me. My god, it's a T5, I'll just find another trans that's correct.
'88 and earlier are all mechanical. '91 and later are all electronic. '89-90 you could find either. So I have no doubt that you have an '89 with mechanical speedo. Yes you can convert with all the parts. I haven't had an electronic one apart in over 10 years (I just avoid them) - you may have to swap output shafts as well as the tailhousing... I could be wrong though - the mech speedo gear may very well go on the electronic speedo output shaft - like I said, I just don't fool with 'em - too easy to find mech speedo trannys.
First, If you really want a mech speedo S10 T5, then get one that is that way to start with. You're going to need to get one anyway for the parts to do the conversion.... Otherwise, To convert an electric NWC S10 to a mech, you need to swap the tailhousing, speedo sender w/gear, tailshaft gear and its clip. But there is one other issue... On the electric ones, the reluctor is pressed onto the shaft and it has a detent ball that helps to locate the position of the reluctor when its pressed on. On the mech versions, the worm gear is held in place on the shaft by a clip. This clip has a tab on it that goes into a hole on the shaft. Now for the problem. The hole for the detent ball is much larger than the hole for the clip. So, if you try to use the clip on the electric tailshaft, it will be loose and cause the gear to wiggle and walk out of position. Not alot, but it would worry me to try and run it that way. I can't remember offhand if the holes are in the same position relative to the end of the tailshaft, either. Whether you could fill the hole in with steel epoxy and redrill to a smaller size for the clip, and have it hold up, I can't say for sure. You could try drilling another hole in the shaft, but I think the shaft is case hardened, so that's going to be tough also, but I'm sure a good machine shop could do it for you. Otherwise, you can get a "little black box" for about $300 that will convert the electric impulse to a cable drive for you. The Camaro/S10 hybrid info isn't relevant to what you're trying to do.
Thanks guys, A good T5 around here is 2-300 bucks so I'm going to find a mechanical drive unit. I have a machine shop and the knowledge to do any of these conversions if I need to and have the time. The problem is that the rig is coming in and I have 2 days to pull the bad trans and repair or replace and then the rig is driving away again. If this was my own rod then it would be an adventure to figure it out and create something that is cool. I just don't want to get into a time crunch situation here. I can pull the old and stuf the new (correct) trans in a couple of hours. Thanks for all your help and good info.
Snarl - but if he has the Mech T5 already, he can just change the whole shaft out & not worry about the reluctor hole size or position...right? Granted, you're talking almost a complete teardown, but if the need is there...
Of course you can change the shafts, if they are both NWC. Or just rebuild the mech T5 in the first place. It's probably cheaper to rebuild it that replace it, depending on whats wrong. I've had good luck with Zumbrota Bearing & Gear. 507-732-7994 8-5 central time ask for Craig. I belive a NWC rebuild kit is about $120. Fast shipping too. Or you can get the "Cable X" converter box from these guys for $319 http://www.transmissioncenter.net/speedometer_calibration_______va.htm You have several options, it all comes down to time vs. money...
I haven't had any luck yet finding a mehanical drive unit locally. Damn, I've found 2 other electric ones (besides the first one I was talking about). I still have a couple of weeks though until the rig shows up so I'm not in the woods yet.... I've got no problem rebuilding the "bad" one except the time element. If I just have to do a straight rebuild - bearings and syncros etc then it's no issue. Because this one is popping out of first I'm going to be in trouble time-wise if I need to order gears or something. See where I'm at, it's a time thing. Snarl - thanks for the Zumbrota tip. I'm going to end up rebuilding the "bad" one no matter what. Even If I change it out I will rebuild the one I pull for later use. Maybe I'll just order the kit now and get ahead of myself. Better to have it on-hand sooner then later.
OK, just to finish this thread up I found a suitable replacement trans. I put a "wanted" up on the local CL and some guy called and gave me (yes, free) an '89 T5 S-10 trans in good shape that he pulled from a S-10 V8 conversion. Wow, it doesn't get any better then that...... Thanks for all your help and good info.
i had a little bit of a hard time finding one, i found a local guy that offered a free electric one when he swapped to a v-8. that sucked. free but not exactly what i needed. i almost too kit anyway. but then i found oen last week in a junkyard. got all excited when i thought i found another one, but it was the t4.
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