So, I drove the slant + T5 for the first time yesterday!

It felt great! The low first gear made the tired old slant feel peppier than expected!

Per the last post, I needed to take up at least .250" of free space between the face of the release bearing and the fingers of the pressure plate. After pondering a while, I decided that the solution was to machine an extension for the release bearing and press the release bearing in - no machining of the bellhousing, lengthening of studs or any other funny business!

Bolted it all up, installed a new shifter (a rather fancy splurge), and off we went! I ran it up through all 5 gears, plus tested reverse, and was very pleased with the result. It's going to be a blast when it's finally all buttoned up.

Now that I know it works, I can focus on making this a finished project, and return my Dart to at least semi-daily-driver duty once again.

To Do:

• -Weld floorpan
  -Find a boot for the shifter
  -Switch to bucket seats
  -Find a speedo cable
  -Add a handbrake
  -General cleanup
  -Enjoy!

Attached are some pictures!

Adapter and transmission together

Adapter and transmission split, with release bearing

Release bearing removed

Release bearing spacer

Release bearing pressed in place

Engine drop

Combo u-joint: Mopar shaft to T5 yoke

Ready to test!

Shifter location feels awesome. Need buckets, though. The bench is all the way back.

Release bearing, bottom view

Release bearing, and flywheel

Very nice work! Hope you enjoy the driving. I have been very happy with mine. Glad that another of those bellhousings is in use!

Best wishes,

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

A final update to this thread - the setup works!

I was able to drive it to work last week (about 40 miles round trip in Atlanta traffic). I then took it on a roughly 800 mile round trip to St. Mary's, with a good mix of back roads, city driving and freeways.

Clutch feel is excellent, transmission shifts wonderfully, generally no complaints at all! The 5 speed is a ton of fun. It's currently in front of a 2.90 rear, which I'll most likely change to a 3.55 or so in the future, depending upon where the engine build goes.

So, more pictures!

Mocking up the new transmission tunnel:


In progress:


Tacked up! (You can see the bucket seat reinforcements I added, too)


Welded up solid. Also added a floor mounted ebrake from Lokar. You can also see that I welded most of the original transmission tunnel back in place. i was apparently a little too enthusiastic when I was making room for the T5.


I had to take the plate I made for the new clutch master cylinder out and add a brace. The firewall flexed a frightening amount without it. The angle iron mounts to the old hand brake bracket. The flex is almost entirely gone. I need to find another place to tie off of for it to be perfect.


Mostly put back together.


Done! I'm eventually going to get the interior re-done properly - for now there's just going to be an eruption in the floor where the shifter lives. The seats are Procar seats, borrowed for now. I would like to replace them with something a little less racy looking (I'm never going to add a 5 point harness). I did sand out all the surface rust on the floor plans, primer, seam seal and paint, just got too involved to remember to take a picture.


e-brake and new shifter


5 speed.


I suppose my next project ought to be a 6 speed, I see there's a pretty promising thread going on that conversion, I'm behind the curve, and having gear envy!

Congrats on your successful install. Enjoy the 5spd drivin...

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Re-hosted all the pics on this thread. What a pita. If they die again, I'll probably just start hosting my own S3 bucket...

What follows below isn't for the budget minded... but it's pretty awesome to drive.

New Stuff:

• long rod slant build
  Mcleod dual pattern flywheel
  Mcleod diaphragm pressure plate
  Mcleod clutch disc (organic/ceramic, iirc)
  Mcleod hydraulic throw out bearing
  T5z close ratio 5 speed
  3.55 gear set + positraction installed in 8 1/4 rear

I'm using all the same linkages, brackets, shifter, etc from the build above. Just a new engine, transmission and flywheel/clutch/PP/ToB assembly. I'm intending this to be the final form for the drivetrain.

I've taken it to work a few times (good old Atlanta traffic), and on a nice weekend trip to Oak Ridge, TN via backroads, and another nice trip through some North Georgia backroads, so around 1k miles so far. I love it - it's very peppy for a slant, and this build revs to 6k pretty easily, so the taller gearing is nice. The T5z has a .63 OD ratio, so it's a breeze at 70+ interstate speeds. Around town, the 3.55 and close ratio gears feel great, the shifting is snappy and it's a joy to drive. Clutch engagement is predictable and easy.

Note that the old transmission was a 4cyl unit, so it had a smaller diameter and different length input shaft. This one is a V8 unit, so it takes a larger input bearing and also has a shorter shaft. It required machining a new input bearing adapter.

Compared to the RAM unit, the Mcleod ToB is ridiculously easy to set up. I had to order a longer screw and a spacer to take up all the space on this setup, but you simply turn the screw to set the ToB height. Provided that it lasts well, I like it a lot.

Pics!

New clutch stuff from Mcleod

Hydraulic ToB

Making a new input bearing spacer

Perfect!

Input bearing and flywheel installed

Prepping the clutch assembly

Clutch Cover installed

ToB mocked up

Setting the ToB clearance

Assembled

Beginning to drop it in

Down we go

Installed and ready to button up!

Very cool!

Would you mind posting part numbers for the clutch cover, disc, and TOB? Can you still get the cover, or did you buy it recently?

Thanks much and enjoy the drive,

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Nice documentation etc..

Can you list Part #'s for the New stuff above List?


Thank you,

Greg

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

part numbers are here: http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic ... 9&start=75

Looks like I need to update some picture links on that thread, too. Shame on photobucket.

ToB unit part number is: 1400-20 from McLeod

I don't have the spacer I ordered in my notes, but if you have a lathe (or a big stack of washers) it's easy to figure out.

When you mention ordering the Flywheel and talking to Bob At McLeod is that Bob Scheid?


I see him listed on the website.

I want to start gathering some parts etc. for a build of this setup on my 64 Dart.
The flywheel is the most concerning part as of now.

Greg

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Is the w/c T-5 from a '96 era Firebird/Camaro with the 3800 V6 a good choice ? I've seen several of these in the local salvage yards. These were used with a hydraulic t/b.

Sorry, 72Polara, But I guess I have more questions..as I am scheming and saving to do that same install.

It seems that in your Pics you were using 2 different t-5's? or the second set of pictures on this page the trans is Cleaned up quite a Bit more.

Are you using a Speedo? is it cable driven or Speedo By Wire?


Thanks for the great writeup,

Greg

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

The ratios on this model aren't pretty:

1=3.76
2=2.18
3=1.42
4=1.00
5th/OD=0.72

Luckily they do make a 9.75" clutch for the smaller engines (chev small block is about 11" though).

The major hurdle is chevy uses a 1.125" input shaft nose and 26 splines vs standard mopar at 1" and 23 spline... (which Ford uses 1 and 23 on many applications)...

FYI. Back to our regular post...

The numbers on the case are 13-52-065-922.

Hey Greg,

I thought i'd already replied, sorry for the delay.

Good eye - it is two different transmissions. The first one is from a 4 cyl, so NWC, longer snout and smaller pilot bearing.

The second is a brand new (probably re-man in reality) T5z, so world class, short snout, larger pilot bearing.

I got the first one for super cheap on craigslist and used it to do all the mockup work and initial driving/POC. The T5z was a bit pricier. It also shifts better and has gearing that is more fun.

I'm not using a speedo. My plan is to get a custom cable made that goes from the Ford rear to the Mopar gauge, but Waze or Google maps is so easy that I'm lacking motivation on that. The lack of an odometer sucks, though. I'll hopefully correct this soon.