T-5 In a 73...Possable?

Absolutley, but I've never seen a crossmember for either trans in a 71-73, but I've seen it done. You'll have to make your own crossmember and probably linkage too, the rest is really easy

what engine do you have? if it's a cleveland the T-5 is a little weak in the torque dept. just something to consider.

I don't know a whole lot about 73s other than they are HUGE! Couldn't you get a TKO or something like that in there?

steel1212 said:

I don't know a whole lot about 73s other than they are HUGE! Couldn't you get a TKO or something like that in there?

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they may appear big on the outside but they aren't that much bigger on the inside. or heavier for that matter. from what i remember the TKO will require tunnel surgery to get it in. i think a richmond is pretty much a bolt in though.

ok, here ya go................

Alarus said:

Anybody?

Click to expand...

i was looking at doing the swap, probably would have if i had been hanging around these forums BEFORE i had the c4 rebuilt.................but i have decided that i like the automatic and the purr i get at higher rpm's while cruising at highway speeds......

anyway, 85-93 mustang T-5's will work

90-93 can handle more torque 310 lb-ft
85-90 are 265 lb-ft

i hijacked this from a different forum

My t-5 swap in my 1973 mustang
by Nina Steel 1/22/2005, 2:35:11 PM

Putting a T-5 into my 1973 Mustang was the second best thing I’ve ever done, the first being, buying the Mustang in the first place.

My basic Mustang started out in life with a 302 2V, C-4, A/C and a 3.25 rear end.
Since I pick it up 2 years ago, I’ve rebuilt the engine (9.1 compression) and added a 4V manifold/carb and headers. Then a ripped the body completely apart, sand blasted it inside and out, sprayed it, rebuilt or replace all the switches, rewired most of it, put in a Mach 1 Tach with three up center gauges, new interior, and on and on and on. And I’ve done all the work myself.

However, even with all of this, I was really unhappy with the 14-15 MPG highway I was getting. We won’t even talk about the city mileage, which was about as bad as being hit on by a drunk salesman at a nightclub.

As this stang is my daily driver, 2000+ miles a month, when gas prices hit 2 bucks I threw in the towel and purchased a used 1990 T-5.
The 1990 T-5 is rated at 300 foot pounds of torque. The gears are 1 st 3.35, 2 nd 1.93, 3 rd 1.29, 4 th 1.00, 5 th 0.68. In 5 th gear at 72 MPH the engine lopes along at 2000 RPM.

The swap took about 15 hours of work in my driveway with the stang up on 18” jacks. I sure it would gone faster if I had help. The C-4 weighs a ton and even though I can bench 110 it was still a effort getting it out. The T-5 is much lighter.
I installed a 157 tooth, 28oz steel flywheel and a Zoom clutch. I didn’t know until I was driving it that I had installed the pressure plate incorrectly and I was getting some vibration between 2000 and 2500 RPM. Now vibration can be good in between the sheets, but not under the hood. That’s what I get for getting excited and rushing through it. The two things you never rush through is fixing something on your stang and sex.

The only change I made to the tranny was I swapped out the stock input shaft bearing retainer with a steel one, which was $35 new on e-bay. One from a ford dealership is $109, ouch!! The steel shaft lasts longer and if there’s one thing a girl loves other than a Mustang is a shaft that lasts a long time.

If you’re using the T-5 bell housing, install it onto the tranny with, of course, the fork and throw-out bearing. I tried it both ways, mounting the bell housing first and then trying to slip the tranny into it. Sometimes it’s fun to slip it in yourself, but I just could get the damn throw-out bearing to line up on the shaft. It was almost as bad at having sex with a guy who’s erection challenged. Putting the bell housing on the tranny makes life much easier. To make it easier still, I screwed two 3.5 inch threaded rods into two of the bell housing’s mounting holds on the engine block allowing 2 inches to stick out. This helps guide the tranny in, which is just like most guy, they always need help guiding it in.

I didn’t bother with one of those after market cross members. I just took my old one and installed it backwards. Then I welded up a rectangular bracket out of angle steel and mounted this between the tranny and cross member, drilled some holes in it and bolted it up. It cost almost nothing to do and works just fine. You’ll have to remove the stock, cross member mounting bracket if one comes with the tranny.

The C-4 drive shaft yoke slid into the tranny’s rear hole just fine (I like it when things slide in nice and easy.)

The drive shaft length is not an issues, although a lot of guys think it is…well kinda…sort of. What I mean is the drive shaft will bolt up the rear end once the yoke it in the tranny, but with only .375” of play. Nonetheless, even though it fit, I still had it shortened by 1”. Cost 55 bucks.

Since I was using the T-5 bell housing had to use a cable. This meant I had to make a lever behind the dash right between the head light switch housing and the steering column since I had to pull not push on the cable. One end of the lever was connected to the clutch pedal with ball bearing rod ends and the other end I attached to the cable with a threaded adjusting rod which I made myself. I designed the lever with a 2 to 1 advantage on the clutch pedal side to make it easier to deal with bumper to bummer traffic. The lever, ball ends and rods cost me about 20 bucks from Mc Master Carr (see the web). I also had to fabricate a bracket for the lever to mount to, but that was a no brainer and cost less than $5.

It may sound like I thought of everything…even though the T-5’s shifter mounting bar fits exactly where the auto shifter use to be, I forget to buy a shifter. Well it was late and no one was open and I was dying to drive it, so I clamped a vice-grip to the T-5’s shifter mounting bar and off I went. WOOOOOOOOOOOOW what a difference, not only did the T-5 turn my rather sleepy 302 into a really wild man, but my highway mileage went up to 22 MPG at an average speed (over 5 hours) of 70 MPH. I almost had an organism when I refilled the tank and did the math.

For the number of miles I drive, the swap will pay for itself in about 6 months. Then I’ll take it back out again and rebuilt it as it was a used unit.
The payoff was a 50% increase in mileage, a wild man 302 under the hood and a very happy girl behind the wheel and I didn’t even break a nail during the whole process. Now if I could only find a wild man between the sheets.

Note: There are a great many parts to can buy for a T-5 swap: cross members, hydraulic clutch cylinders, special this and special that, but all that cost big bucks. If you just use your brain and have a little mechanical skill you can save yourself a load of cash, which you can spend on something else for your Mustang ;-)

Mustangs and Girls Rule,

Nina Steel

lot's of info in the thread

http://www.fomoco.com/mustang-forum/reply.asp?ID=166236&Reply=166236

i also got a complete quote for all the parts from these guys:

http://moderndriveline.com