I just talked to a small machine shop about building and adaptor plate to bolt the t-5 up to our slant. The plan is to remove roughly 150 thou from the slant bellhousing (trans side) then build a 1/2 aluminun plate to bolt the t-5 up to. I have made measuements on my t-5 and that should only move the the clutch disc to within 100 thou from the end of the splines, and it was late and forgot to cover the shaft adaptor but we will. He wants 250.00 for 1 but would drop the price to 200.00 each for 3. Does anyone out there think they are interested? He is slow now so would need you bellhousing quick before a high paying job comes in. Please let me know what your thoughts are.

Does that $200.00 include the shaft adaptor?

Where would the bellhousing be sent? (ZIP Code to figure shipping costs)
This sounds pretty reasonable if it includes the plate and shaft adaptor.
DD

The 200.00 does not include the shaft adaptor but I would think that will not be much of a project so I will get that info in the morning I hope. The zip is 97004 (beavercreek OR). I should note that the measurments I took were on a turbo t-bird (4 cyclinder) tranny so I do not know for sure that the splines are in the same place on the 5.0L units. I got a good buy on this and it has 5.0L gears with the longer 4 cyl input shaft. Maybe Lou or someone who has used the more common 5.0L tranny could comment.

Steve

Hey guys,

The 4 cyl trans input shaft is, I think, 7.85" long instead of the 7.18" for the V8 unit. This does not really matter, except for the pilot bearing placement relative to the tip of the input shaft. Is this "shaft adapter" just a pilot bearing spacer/collar, or something else? You might tap Dartvader on .com for information too, since he used the 4cyl trans on his swap and also made his adapter plate from Aluminum (I used 1/4" steel).

On my V8 trans, I used a late-80s 5.0L Mustang pilot bearing (needle) pressed into a 0.9" long collar that presses into the crank flange where the torque converter hub would go. This collar is quite easy to make (just a cylindrical shell of steel).

Keep up the good fab work...

Lou

I talked to him this morning and it looks like he will want $50.00 for the shaft adaptor. The adaptor we are looking at is .748 diam with a .590 hole in the end to take the smaller end of the t-5. It is about 2.1" long and slips over the t-5 (actually press on, we're thinking) and it would be the same dimension as the 833. I thought this may be the simplest design. His price may not be worth it to others who do not have a tranny yet. I would think you could get it done local for the same money after finding a tranny. If anyone wants I will be more than happy to work out the dimensions and get it made with the bellhousing.

Hi Lou

I was wondering if the 1/4 steel you used went right on the the bellhousing or did you remove some material? If you just bolted it on then the splines should be in the same location on the shaft. If that is the case then the only real issue on the shaft adaptor would be length and dia like you mentioned. Your adaptor was larger than .748 diam ?
Would you have dimensions of yours if Doc or anyone else wanted to use the 5.0L units?
I was also wondering what you did with the fork? I was thinking of making a bracket to mount the ball stud for the ford unit then just add a little length to the end to match our factory mopar unit.

Thanks
Steve

Steve,

I only milled the bellhousing about 0.020" for flatness, and did not remove a lot of material. So, the steel plate face sits about 0.23" rearward of the factory bellhousing face.

I am not using a shaft adaptor as you describe to lengthen the input shaft. I left the input shaft alone and instead used a Mustang needle pilot bearing pressed into a collar 1.815" OD and 1.56" ID (have to check that ID for you), and 0.9" long. This presses into the crank flange and puts the pilot bearing at the right depth for the input shaft snout.

Also, I did away with the mechanical linkage altogether and used a hydraulic TOB from McLeod (PAW catalog) and a Wilwood clutch MC. This is a slick setup requiring little clutch effort, no bulky linkages, and it is self-adjusting. This is, I believe, the way all modern clutches are actuated.

I have all dimensions measured if anyone needs them.

Happy building,

Lou