what is available now? someone suggested a S10 5 spd? what do I do about bell housing? what is the "tEMEC"? RAMJET
The S10 T-5 has a forward-mounted shifter & is why most folks opt for it. The T-5 came in hundreds of cars from mini-vans to TVRs and everything in between. There are at least a half-dozen different gear sets available in different ratios. It's reasonably strong for street duty, although the 5.0 Mustang crowd beat on theirs pretty hard from time to time. If you use a pre-'93 T-5, you can use any Chevy manual trans bellhousing. B&W originally built the T-5, but sold the design to TREMEC who have been building ******s for years. So the T-5 is still available new aftermarket. TREMEC also makes their own 5-speed of a similar design - often referred to as the TKO. The TKO was just one model & all are stronger than the T-5. The TREMEC has multiple shifter locations as well.
When you go looking, pay attention to the speedometer style--later S10's had electric speedo's. I didn't realize that until AFTER I retrofitted my Camaro box with an S10 tailshaft, and now I don't have any way to figure out how fast I'm going. I don't know what year they changed--maybe late 80's???
When looking at the speedo drive to determine whether it is for mech. or elec. if drive is missing- the mech. drive hole goes into the case at 90 degrees to the shaft, the elec. drive is at a 45 or so degree angle up. Also, I just learned today that the later trannies, 93 or so and up, have a better shift ratio. For a "short throw" shifter, one of these will bolt to your earlier trans. They are easily spotted in a comparison, the tower is taller. I picked mine up for 10 bucks!
Whats the difference? I have a 93 s10 ****** and the bolt pattern is the same. I havent mounted it to a bellhousing though. Please help me out on this.
Given that the Astro and GMC Safari vans had the left hand offset shifter, would a S-10 shifter bolt right on, so one wouldn't have to use the offset version?
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