I am going to fit a sbc to my 33 pickup. I also want to go for a 5 speeed manual trans but I am concerned about the shifter being too far back. Has anyone fitted a Tremec and sbc to a 33? What trans is the most suitable? I have heard of the S10 trans but these are not available here in Aust. Thx, Max
Max, Sounds like we're building the same truck! If you find out, let us know. For now, I'm going with a Saginaw 4-speed, for a more vintage vibe. But I'd be interested to know which S10 5-speed would fit well within the confines of that cabin. V
Instead of T5 or Tremec, what about the Toyota Supra trans. I remember it being quite popular in your neck of the woods.
its a 32 but should be vary similar. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=876 he has very good build threads that can be found from his profile.
...and you would be wrong... The Tremac was designed as a performance replacement for the T5, but shares no parts with the T5 at all. As far as putting one in your '33, if you can afford to do it - DO IT! You'll love it. The nicest thing for us doing the hot rod thing is that the current crop of Tremacs have a body that makes it easy to put the shifter in one of four posistions to suite your needs. Mine is in the mid shift posistion, but I suspect yours would be happiest in the front posistion. You do have to purchase the proper shifter for your application, and there is a little install of of shifter stuff inside the case, but it's simple to do. Mine has been in my car for well over 100,000 miles now, and is as close to indestructable as can be. You'll love the over drive too....
The Tremec TKO500 and TKO600 have three shifter locations to choose from: The rear is suitable for bucket seats, the center location is ideal for a bench seat, and the front location is almost directly below the dash on most cars and is designed for ac Cobra kit cars. I purchased mine from Keisler Engineering in Tenn. Keisler has a selection of shifters made by Hurst. Also, I execised the option for short throw which allows you to bang the gears faster. Here's a pic of the center location mounted shifter in my '56 Delray. The '56 had a M21 before and had to weld up the hole for it. The Tremec TKO is a very tall tranny. Same length as a Ford Toploader.
Sorry Johnny, I don't want to start a pissing match, but they are not. Within the last ten or twelve years or so, Tremac has aquired the rights to build the T5 trans from Borg Warner, but the "Tremac" that is commonly refered to as such by us the hot rod guys, is a TKO series. They have nothing internally in common. The earlier verson of the Tremac was the 3550 series. And just for the record, the TKO series actually does have four shiter positions, The rear most position can be flipped and used two different ways. There are then a mid position, and a front position. The earlier 3550 Tremac had only three.
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