t5 swap - mid project questions

[SadbutTrue]

Just thought I'd update everyone and try to clear up a few issues I'm experiencing. We have the transmission in the hole and the bellhousing (with clutch, f/w, etc) mounted. My dad has fabricated a quadrant and welded it to a clutch pedal we got from NPD. If all goes well we'll have it runnign this weekend.

My first question has to do with the shifter how its supposed to be positioned relative to the stock shifter hole. We have a pro-5.0 shifter, which has a slightly larger base than the stocker, and we've needed to cut a decent amount of metal off to get it to fit. How far through the hole should the shifter base be poking through (if at all)? And should it be perfectly centered (I'd think so...)?

Second, steve from mustangsteve.com said he uses a stock length fox cable in a 66 with a 351w with heddman longtubes (essentially the same setup as me). He routed the cable through the side of the engine bay behind the shocktower and then back around to the bellhousing, instead of just routing it straight down (which I can't do because the headers are in the way) as its done int he foxes. Anyone have experience with this type of setup? I'm purchasing some heatshield and insulation for the cable to protect it from the headers as well...

Third, how would you recommend going about filling/draining this transmission? It doesn't have a transmission fill tube as far as I can see... refilling it seems like it is goign to be a pain. Can I use my C4's old fill tube somehow? I'm sure i'll figure out a way but it looks strange at the moment.

Finally, I'm probably going to modify a crossmember for it instead of buying one. I have my original C4 crossmember as well as one for an AOD swap. Will either work as is? I know bottlefed70 used his FMX crossmember and modified it... if I need to modify one, how should I do it?

Thanks! Definitely looking forward to the 't5 swap summary post' in a (knock on wood) few days...

 

[180 Out]

As I recall, there is a fill hole in the side of the case. You can get plunger pumps that screw into a quart bottle of ATF that will pump the juice. It's been awhile, but my memory is of feeding a tube from such a pump into that fill hole and pumping in two or more bottles until the juice starting overflowing the fill hole.

Another way is to do it with the tranny on the workbench. You put one of those commercially available stoppers in the hole for the slip yoke and then fill the tranny through the shifter hole. But once you've got the thing installed that's hard to do or impossible.

 

[Rapid]

I don't have a 351 but my T5 with Pro shifter / 289 is a little to the right of center and a little forward. I had to trim to get it in but it works well.

No headers, HIPO manifolds, but I am using the Mustang Steve quadrant and ran it the way his instructions described, again, it works well.

I filled mine in the car by buying some fuel line lone enough to get above the fill hole by the passenger door. I then hung a funnel on the door handle and filled it up till some dripped out of the fill hole. Worked great.

 

[88dragtop]

I just did the t-5 swap and had to trim front and passenger side and agree with rapid. The shifter sticks pretty far into the car on my Hurst. I 2nd the tube and funnel.

 

[SadbutTrue]

I just did the t-5 swap and had to trim front and passenger side and agree with rapid. The shifter sticks pretty far into the car on my Hurst. I 2nd the tube and funnel.

Mine also is slightly to the right and forward. Had to hack it up pretty good. Good to know thats common.

How far up does the shifter base stick up? Any rough idea inch-wise? And any help with the crossmember? Thanks!

 

[red65]

Third, how would you recommend going about filling/draining this transmission? It doesn't have a transmission fill tube as far as I can see... refilling it seems like it is goign to be a pain

If you still have the shifter out (or even if you have to remove it), you can fill from inside the car through the shifter hole. It takes a few seconds to drain into the case from there, so you fill, then wait, fill, then wait, but it beats crawling around underneath with hoses and funnels trying to fill through the regular fill plug. Leave the fill plug out and stop adding fluid when it starts to seep out the fill plug hole. This is a nice trick that'll save you some aggravation.

 

[iskwezm]

If you still have the shifter out (or even if you have to remove it), you can fill from inside the car through the shifter hole. .

YUP.

 

[88dragtop]

I'll post a pic tomorrow, car not here. Also forgot, there is a fill and drain plugs on the passenger side of T5, 3/8 drive fits right in

 

[65mistress]

Ok, another question concerning this thread. My shifter is on the passenger side of the hole. If this is the case, will I have to be leary of burning through U-joints or having driveshaft wobble? I did a test fit of my driveshaft and it fits with virutally no room to move the drive shaft further into the tail housing, do I need to cut it down by 1" or is it going to be ok? The car is off the ground when I test fit the drive shaft.

 

[red65]

Ok, another question concerning this thread. My shifter is on the passenger side of the hole. If this is the case, will I have to be leary of burning through U-joints or having driveshaft wobble? I did a test fit of my driveshaft and it fits with virutally no room to move the drive shaft further into the tail housing, do I need to cut it down by 1" or is it going to be ok? The car is off the ground when I test fit the drive shaft.

If the driveshaft is bottomed out in the transmission with the rear wheels off the ground, you've got a problem. You're going to need to shorten it to allow some travel into the transmission as the rear suspension compresses.

 

[SadbutTrue]

Any recommendations on fluid? I'll pick it up after work and dump it in through the shifter hole when I get home. I've heard synthetic stuff is tough to beat...

One other thing, sorta afraid to ask but might as well. We found a few shards of what seemed to be glass when we took the stock shifter off to replace it with the pro 5.0. Is there anything in the transmission that would shatter like that? It was pulled out of a wrecked car, if that matters. I was going to drain the rest of the oil and feel around before freaking out too much.

Thanks a ton for the help, this board defnitely knows whats up with the t5 swaps...

 

[my70stang]

maybe get a water bottle like this

<img src="http://www.robbinssports.com/sporting-goods-store/images/everlast-boxing-professional-boxing-water-bottle.jpg">

fill that up, put the straw in the hole and squeeze the bottle
thats what i did and it worked fine

as for the shifter on my 70 it was to the front, we had to cut a hole in the floorboard to get a ratchet on them

we also ran a clutch cable kit...worked perfectly but i also had new custom headers to work with it

 

[Rusty67]

Don't know about the glass, that is wierd.

Get the pump like 180 suguested.

 

[SadbutTrue]

Don't know about the glass, that is wierd.

Get the pump like 180 suguested.

Drained the rest of the fluid and didn't notice any fragments. Maybe when they pulled it or when it got rebuilt someone dropped the glass in the shifter valley... shrug. We'll see.

/knocks on wood...

 

[Rusty67]

If you really want to be sure you can yank the trans back out and pull the tail shaft housing off of it. I know its a lot of work. Your decision. I don't know if glass could cause a problem with the metal parts that are in there and I would guess they would just sink to the bottem of the case and stay there if they were in there.

 

[88dragtop]

some pics of shifter you requested

 

[SadbutTrue]

some pics of shifter you requested

thanks for the pics, can't look at em yet but i'll see em at home (work filter sucks)

as for the glass, i'm just going to drive it around and see what happens. if i hear massive grinding noises... then... well.. i'll deal with it when i come to it.

 

[SadbutTrue]

few new ?'s

1) How close did you guys get with the driveshaft? I used NPD's swap yoke and the driveshaft appears to fit... baaaarely. It doesn't bottom out in the output shaft during what we simulated to be the normal range of travel for the rear (by jacking the rear up and down as far as it could go during normal driving, but it comes within 1/4 inch or less at points and its tough to predict the rear suspensions' actual movement witha jackstand.

2) Anyone know what size torx head the fill port uses? We couldn't find one and were wondering if it was some obscure size.

3) We got the clutch cable heat shield. I'm thinking about putting more insulation between the actual cable and the heat shield though... anyone have any cheap suggestions for this? Just more rubber insulation (some standard hosing?) or another material? It looks like we might ahve to route the cable in between two of the header primaries witha bout 5" total clearance, so it needs as much protection as possible

4) I've got 2 qts of mobil 1 synth dex V atf, and was planning on mixing half a quart of normal atf in with it. Should there be any issue with this?

Few random updates:
We are using the cheap AOD swap crossmember we found. We're going to have to modify the parking brake mount to be a bit higher, and I'll get pictures of that for future reference.

For the clutch cable, we fabricated the quadrant and firewall adjustment surface in an attempt to use our stock length fox clutch cable in order to save some $. Again, I'll post pictures for others of that if it works.

Sorta OT... anyone know what adaptor I'll need to plug my Sun pro super tach II (mini) to my MSD?

 

[Rusty67]

few new ?'s

1) How close did you guys get with the driveshaft? I used NPD's swap yoke and the driveshaft appears to fit... baaaarely. It doesn't bottom out in the output shaft during what we simulated to be the normal range of travel for the rear (by jacking the rear up and down as far as it could go during normal driving, but it comes within 1/4 inch or less at points and its tough to predict the rear suspensions' actual movement witha jackstand.

2) Anyone know what size torx head the fill port uses? We couldn't find one and were wondering if it was some obscure size.

I would shorten that drive shaft an inch if I were you.

Its a torx ? I've never seen that. I've always seen it as a 3/8 drain plug. You should be able to just stick a socket wrench in it.

 

[SadbutTrue]

I would shorten that drive shaft an inch if I were you.

Its a torx ? I've never seen that. I've always seen it as a 3/8 drain plug. You should be able to just stick a socket wrench in it.

I might take it to the shop that shortened it when i stuck in my 9 after the projects done and see what he says. Its really $150 bucks I don't wanna spend, but obviously its something i can't risk.