T56 swap

I wouldn't want that loop, no knock on its quality or fitment, just not fond of the design. I've thrown a driveshaft on one of these cars.....
 
I am running that loop because I'm having a machine shop make it a loop on the bottom as it should be so if the drive shaft breaks it will lay in the bottom as it should.
 
Got the crossmember modified and put in today. Here is WA list of the things a hade to do to make it work.
1. Remove the rubber bushings and cut the front bend portion off of the front of the crossmember
2. Acquire 2 4 5/8 long 2" wide 3/16 pieces of steel and have them welded to the crossmember. Have 2 holes drilled in the new pieces spaced 1 5/8" center to center from the old bolt holes to the new ones.
3. Test fit the brace to ensure that it fits. The large box of metal in the center of the crossmember has two rivets in it that must be removed. Remove that piece out of the crossmember before or after you test fit it and now you will see that the slot in the crossmember needs notched slightly to one side. The lengths I have explained are good for the lt1 t56 with a sbf bell housing.

http://http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?75969-T56-Install/page8
Here's how I did mine.
 
Final RE Installation and problems found

Well its been quite a while since I have posted anything on the progress of the t56 swap I did on my 92 5 speed. After I got the car back from Carlisle I was pulling it off the trailer and the clutch pedal started sticking about center stroke of the pedal or maybe a little less. After re bleeding the system several times changing the pedal stroke and everything else I could think of I pulled the tranny back out to move the slave cylinder fwd to reduce the gap between the clutch fingers and the throw out bearing. Sooooo that didn't really change a lot (made it stick a little less) but still had the problem. So I pulled the tranny down once more to start the process of eliminating things that could cause the clutch pedal to stick, and I started by disconnecting the slave and sending it back to McLeod racing for them to look at it. I also had a strange bearing like noise when I would down shift or push the clutch in rolling to a stop. I got a call from Mcleod the first part of the week telling me that the fitting had ben ran too far into the slave cylinder body and that they where rubbing the piston! While I was reveling in the good news and fortune of getting the problem fixed on the first guess I pulled the pressure plate off of the ring on the clutch and inspected everything. I removed the six bolts that hold it on with all the washers and everything looks good so I got out from under the car with the pressure plate to take it to the bench I heard something rattling around inside of the pressure plate? I thought maybe its one of the washers that had fallen when I took it down, but after further inspection a flywheel alignment pin that they had put in the package got trapped inside the pressure plate lol. I removed it and put the pressure plate back on, now I am just waiting for the slave to come back to reinstall the tranny.

What I wanted to talk about next is the fit of the transmission and the way the car drives. IF YOU USE EVERYTHING I DID YOU CAN NOT GO WRONG!. The transmission, Bell housing, Clutch, pilot bearing and everything I used works very well together. The input shaft of the transmission sits into the pilot bearing about 1/2", Bell housing fits great, Tranny cross member only needs the light modifications I explained etc. If I had all of the mechanical components on hand to do this swap that I used there is no doubt in my mind I could do it in a weekend. The only thing that was a bit of a challenge is the shifter location for me but most guys wont have to do what I did because I also converted my interior at the same time to a mark 8 dash and console. That console sits at least a couple inches further back than the thunderbird does. I used an mgw t56 shifter and had a custom 4.5" extension made for it to get the shifter exactly where I wanted it. The car with 410 gears and 285 35 19s does 1900 to 2000 rpm @ 73 mph on the interstate but I really have to keep it in 5th @60 mph when in a 55 zone lol. It shifts like a finely tuned t56 should and hopefully since all of my bugs are worked out I will know if I can speed shift it soon!
 
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