I've been waying some options for a stick tranny.... What's the cool Gm 5 speed? One that will hold up to some abuse and be interchanagable with the early four speeds? I need Models and what cars they came in.... I don't know much about this new stuff. I tried to call our salvage supplier, but unless I spell out all the info, he can't help..... Is it a T-5? what year? Basically I want to bolt it to an adapter for an early Olds to a Chevy 4 speed. Thanks.
Bob, I've used the camaro T5, the S10 T5, and a hybrid Camaro T5 with the S10 tailshaft/shifter. I prefer the hybrid cause you get the good camaro gearset and the benefit of the the s10 shifter which moves the shifter forward and very close to the original ford shifter location. I know someone will correct me on the years, but the year tranny you want are the '84-'92 for both the Camaro and the S10. There are also World Class, and non-World Class trannies. I'm not quite sure how to distiguish them exept that the world class trannies were in the later years. Borg Warner fixed input shaft problems by using a bigger/better input bearing and a larger shaft....along with a few other things. The bolt pattern is exactly the same as the early GM car....ie Muncie 4 speed. On some cars you may need to cut 5/8" off the end of the inputshaft, but you should measure to be sure given your adapter. Your current pressure plate and throwout bearing stuff should still work. You should use a clutch plate that matches the tranny. The camaro Z28s of that era came with an 11" clutch and it is readily available. However, if you use the S10 tranny, your clutch options are limitted. The S10s came with a 9.5 inch clutch. Places like Advanced Adapters (Paso Robles, Ca) make a custom 11" clutch that will fit the S10 tranny. They are expensive ( about $160) and I had to return two of them. They might have fixed this problem, but the tollerances were way to tight on the input shaft and would not always disengage the clutch. Swapping the S10 tailshaft onto a Camaro tranny is pretty straight forward. The two things to remember are that once you unbolt the removable shifter, you'll see a "thingamajig" that locates the plastic shifter cup. This must be removed. To remove it, you should tap the roll pin straight down and out of the bottom. Stupid me spent hours trying to pull the pin out the top. Secondly, you have to do some rigging to use your speedometer. The speedometer gear is located in a different places. This will be obvious when you remove the two tailshafts. I've not seen a clean way to fix this yet, but most people relocate the gear by sliding it foward, shimming it using shim stock, then epoxying it in. This two will be obvious once you see it. Hope this helps.
you will be real happy with a 5 speed. thats what i always ran in my deuce. blew up a few though thay dont take a thrashin like a muncie.. but the overdrive is graet on long halls .. i blew the saginaw in the merc last year and have been lookin for another 5 spd to replace it,but havnt found one in my 50$ price range so i had to throw a faggy th350 in it temporarily..as long as you dont try 3 gear holeshots towing a bike and trailer you should be fine..
Bob, read this.......http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14025&highlight=running+styled+speed
Bob - you'll want a late-model, WC, high first gear ratio T5 to even stand a chance behind the Olds. The S10 unit tailshaft/top-cover is a bolt-on swap for any other NWC trans, but I'm almost positive it requires some machine work to bolt onto a WC trans. I think the best combo, if you want the S10 tailshaft, would be an 83-85 Camaro/Firebird T5 out of a V8 car. Tag numbers: 1352-028 1352-062 1352-070 1342-072 These are NWC, but have a higher torque rating due to the gearing & the S10 tailshaft/topcover will bolt-on (although the speedo will require some work). They have the following ratios: 1 - 2.95 2 - 1.94 3 - 1.34 4 - 1.00 5 - 0.73 Your typical S10 tranny has 1st gear ratios either 4.03/3.76 - which would make them nearly useless behind the Olds with it's torque. It would be like a granny gear in a big truck. The later model WC trannys are stronger still than the early V8 Camaro/Firebird, but may require some machine work on the tailshaft to use the S10 pieces - I'm not sure, I've never done it. If you're intent on using the T5, you could piece together a very strong tranny - GM WC case, S10 tailshaft/topcover, Ford SVO gears. Wouldn't be horribly cheap, but not stupidly expensive either. However, for a few bucks more, you could step up to the new Tremec which has 3 shifter positions & a much higher torque rating than any T5. Your Olds will thank you.
Curiousity question for you guys... would an S-10 5-speed be alright behind something like a Duntov cammed 283 that made all its power in the upper RPM range instead of being a torque thumper? '39 Ford boxes seem to survive alright behind them.
Yes, but I'd use a V8 Camaro/Firebird box...the I4/V6 S10 boxes are really wimpy - something like 135 & 165 lbs/ft torque ratings depending on the gearset.
I've got a 5 speed ( supra tho ) behind a flathead in my roadster, made it a totally diferent beast, much better to drive and top gear is fantastic .82 overdrive and the flathead still pulls up hills like a train...
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