Does Anybody Make This Transmission Adapter Out Of Steel (CNC or Laser Cut)?

The amount of time I spent making a pattern/s for one of those and then giving up was worth at least half the cost of that thing. I havea ton of respect for guys like Alchemy that can make patterns now!~

 

you need to make friends with a retired machinist, if i cut out the part and did my own drilling and tapping i have a guy around here who would machine that up for $50, he used to be the boss at a local machine shop and now does little projects at home, i dont use him anymore as i have all my own equipment, that reminds me he wanted to sell me a DRO he bought and never installed, think i'll give him a call.

 

Yes I made a very similar piece when I put a Pinto 4 speed against a Lotus 907 in my roadster. Kept it and used it when I put the '32 Plymouth engine in the roadster. And again with the '26 Dodge Bros. engine. Pinto has a long input shaft. Made mine more rectangular. Mostly lathe work cutting it down to make the collar and boring the pilot hole for the Pinto trans. These are precision dimensions. Need to be right to locate the trans to the crank. The piece of aluminum cost more than $100. By the time I go to Alen steel and find it and get back home, there's an hour. Plus a few miles on my truck. Lot of measuring to decide how thick it needs to be to space the trans correctly. Measuring the diameters. Maybe I have 3 hours total into it before the cutting starts. What is shop time where you live? Runs $80 - $100 an hour here.

 

I think Scrapiron hit it on the head. The price reflects not only the work and material in the piece but the fact that there is a somewhat limited demand for them. A regular run of those at the shop they are made at is probably ten or 20 at most where as some lower price similar items are knocked out with cnc 1000 or more at a time.

Several guys on here could make one pretty easy or one of my buddies could knock it out easily in his shop but I think the cost would be at least double the 300 asking price for the first one.

 

That's what I'm talking about! I didn't even think about a wood pattern. Excellent idea.

 

40K is a gross exaggeration.

If you are looking for a coffee can lid and two Popsicle sticks solution that's not going to happen. The part that has some surfaces that need to be machined to an accuracy of .002" or better. And while I can sympathize with your financial situation, the world at large doesn't care that you are short on cash.

You said you have time a patience. Maybe you can find a good price on a used part. Or as has been suggested, find a machinist who doesn't put much value on his time..

 

After you make it out of wood, dont be so lazy. Get your hack saw your and make one out of the proper thickness of steel

 

If I was making it a wooden pattern would not help. I would need exact dimensions that I earlier mentioned. Thickness, OD and ID of the pilot hole. The rest is boys work.

 

I really don't think he is Lazy.....He want's to build the damn thing. SBK to bad you aren't closer, I'd let you loose on the tools with a little supervision.

 

That was my problem when I made my adapter for my Flatty I just didnt trust the MDF pattern but it at least got the creative ball rolling.

Scotch if you have a second check out he thread I started a couple of months ago about adapting a t5 to shoebox ford flathead. It was lot of head scratching and measuring with my vernier caliper but it is do able.

 

My pattern has dimensions written on it....exact dimensions. My dad has the know how to transfer it to aluminum on the mill.

 

Thanks man.

 

you dont need that fancy shape anyway i bet, to me i say you need 4 DIM's, and a piece of plate the right size and thickness.

 

Your thread was what got me started on thinking that I could make my own. I like the work you did. It looked really good.

 

I made one very much like that........took me the better part of a day. I can make the second one in half the time....................Thing is , I have the first one but I want to pay the price of the second one.

 

Ive got CNC equipment, get some dimensions together and I may be able to help. Trades are just as good as money in my book...

 

When we were racing stock cars, several of us took night school machine shop classes at the local tech school so we could use the machines. We made a lot of our own parts. You can find a lathe or a mill but the tooling is the big problem.

You might try contacting a tech school to take a class or see if they would make the part for you. They sometimes like to have an example of what a machinist will encounter.

It probably would cost about what they are charging to make one adapter. Once the engineering is done and a CNC program written, it probably costs less than $50 to make the part. The old way of making parts was to set up and make several copies but computers have changed that. Just like you can easily make a copy of any document you have stored on your computer, a CNC machine can make a part that you have programmed it to build. You just need the piece of stock to make it out of.

I would much rather have this made out of steel. I would use a piece of flat steel and make a bushing for the center.

 

That's what I was thinking. I went and got the S10 T5 bearing retainer out of storage last night, and I checked it up against a Chevy bellhousing that I have to make sure that it was a perfect fit. Then I got to thinking, "What if the Ford T5 bearing retainer I have is the same size as the opening in my flathead bellhousing?" Too bad I can't check it at the moment. I'm still waiting for the bellhousing in the mail.

I was thinking that if the Ford T5 bearing retainer is the same size as the opening, then all I would have to do is make a mount for the S10 T5 with the same opening as the Ford T5, use the Ford bearing retainer to line it up with the flathead bellhousing, and weld it up clean. I know that I will have to have a spacer plate between the two, but at least with a good mounting point to the bellhousing the rest should go much easier. I know there are people here who offer laser cutting services for reasonable. It wouldn't cost much to have them cut out some patterns for spacing. Problem solved, right? Well, at least the mounting part of it.

 

Just checking out the dimension of the centre bore on my 3d model and I get 2.362 the diameter should be about .005" smaller then your bell housing so when it mates the flange is what make the connection and the bolts just sandwich everything together. The depth I made that flang was .220" but its not to critical its just what mates to the bell.

 

Thats the way I would do it, with a piece of flat and a ring added. the engineering is a big part of it. Nowdays with the software we use, it takes longer to draw the part, writing the program is fast, and setup takes alittle bit.. Id guess without exact dimensions it would be prob 30min machine time give or take.. When you got good tools you can fly through steel pretty fast..

 

Everyone say CNC, i have a buddy with a water jet business. If i had one to copy he would cut it out of steel, it looks to be 3/4" thick for $80-$90 and his machine is precise. Have a small ring machined and press it in.

 

I put a Ford top loader to my Packard V8. The Ford bearing retainer was .100 larger than the hole in the Packard bellhousing. I could have bored the Packard bellhousing to fit the Ford trans. But I noticed the Ford bearing retainer was bigger than it needed to be to retain the bearing. So I turned it to fit the hole in the bellhousing. The input shaft was a little short, so I made a bushing that allowed me to install the pilot bushing 1/2 inch farther to the rear in the crank and thereby pick up the input shaft. Other than that it was just drilling and taping. More than one way to skin this cat.

 

I say CNC, because thats what I have, I have a CNC plasma, but it isnt accurate enough for something like this. A laser or waterjet would work they would be able to cut a ring to press in place as well.

 

$300 bucks retail, is probably $150 wholesale.

Back out the cost of the raw material,
engineering/design time,
cost of tooling, labor, and overhead.

What is left is a small profit, for the guy
who has done the hard part.



OR just make one yourself.


Not that hard.