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240 Redblock 5-speed Gearbox Options in 2020

It is a Ford T5, not GM. Thanks for the advice, I ordered the input shaft and will do the swap.
I wish I chimed in earlier.

Don't start screwing around with ANY of the GM T5s. It's not worth it even if it has the Ford case. The GM input shafts and extension housings are going to end up requiring extra spacers, different clutch disks, and the shifter will not land where you want it.

The Ford unit will always be your best bet.
 
I will definitely try to do this, thanks.
Hence my advice to keep the input shaft end of the transmission pointed down so when you take it out so the roller bearings stay in the input shaft cup. I've had the input shaft out 3 times and haven't lost a roller bearing yet
 
I will definitely try to keep it angled on removal. Is reinstallation the same? (I'm guessing it is but is there any special trick?). Also, it is a World Class version because of the Timken countershaft cover, so someone must have swapped a 4 cylinder input shaft into a v8 transmission? Maybe I'm wrong. It's good to hear other t brickers have done an input shaft swap, seems simple but I really don't want to mess up the trans.

Hence my advice to keep the input shaft end of the transmission pointed down so when you take it out so the roller bearings stay in the input shaft cup. I've had the input shaft out 3 times and haven't lost a roller bearing yet
 
I swapped the Ford V8 input shaft into a T5 out of a Nissan 300ZX turbo. Not sure about the other V6's.

Really? I was under the impression that the 300zx used the nwc t5 that has a different style of input shaft&bearing, but maybe that's just the 280zx l28 t5 units. I was thinking about one in mmt Z if I do a strange combo of a swap
 
I will definitely try to keep it angled on removal. Is reinstallation the same? (I'm guessing it is but is there any special trick?). Also, it is a World Class version because of the Timken countershaft cover, so someone must have swapped a 4 cylinder input shaft into a v8 transmission? Maybe I'm wrong. It's good to hear other t brickers have done an input shaft swap, seems simple but I really don't want to mess up the trans.
Just use some regular bearing grease to hold the bearings in place, you can reinstall it in the horizontal position. There's a big flat washer thing that sits on the shims from what I remember. Definitely YouTube it to see what you need to do. I would order the peel away shim kit and re- shim it. I just kept taking out shim slices until it was tight and not binding but there's a way to actually measure it, again watch the YouTube video.
 
Really? I was under the impression that the 300zx used the nwc t5 that has a different style of input shaft&bearing, but maybe that's just the 280zx l28 t5 units. I was thinking about one in mmt Z if I do a strange combo of a swap

I've beaten on it mercilessly, I only paid $100 for it. Drove it today even
 
I will definitely try to keep it angled on removal. Is reinstallation the same? (I'm guessing it is but is there any special trick?). Also, it is a World Class version because of the Timken countershaft cover, so someone must have swapped a 4 cylinder input shaft into a v8 transmission? Maybe I'm wrong. It's good to hear other t brickers have done an input shaft swap, seems simple but I really don't want to mess up the trans.

Throw up some pictures If you can. Just to make sure it's the same style of input shaft I'm thinking of. Did you measure the 4cly one to come to the conclusion it was one?

You'll also want a new bearing. Make sure to shim the input shaft correctly ( many videos go over this on YouTube ) or it won't last long
 
I've beaten on it mercilessly, I only paid $100 for it. Drove it today even

I've seen your autocross videos, quite the beating

Do you have pictures of it before setting it up for a volvo? I was under the impression nissan got the NWC units as most of those guys seem to hate them, quoting NWC torque specs. I've yet to read anything about nissan guys having luck using ford units. But if you can take a nissan unit and set it up with the 5.0 input shaft it's gotta be compatible???

How long is the tail shaft housing? Same 28 spline output shaft?


%99 of what i've read out of the nissan community is ****ting on the T5, https://datsunzgarage.us/borg/ This is the only page praising it over their
It does list the pre 89 units as NWC, and the z32 never got a T5 so It seems yours is either not a WC unit, or not a 300zx unit,? Or I'm missing somthing, got the case tag?

edit- From this link
datsun Z garage said:
"The input shaft has a smaller pilot diameter and different spline count (24t) than Ford(10t) or GM(21t). This means it's not a straight bolt up to a V8 even with the proper bellhousing. You could swap out the input shaft for a V8 version but given the expense and time involved it's a lot easier sourcing a true V8 T5 if that's your path."

Well **** I guess you can swap ford and nissan input shafts?
 
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Yes, I measured the shaft and it's 0.591 which is the 4 cylinder shaft. I'm going to be using the Dee works retainer and his adapter kit. I will buy the slightly different bearing and shims, I really don't want to screw up the shimming. Haven't done it before though.
Throw up some pictures If you can. Just to make sure it's the same style of input shaft I'm thinking of. Did you measure the 4cly one to come to the conclusion it was one?

You'll also want a new bearing. Make sure to shim the input shaft correctly ( many videos go over this on YouTube ) or it won't last long
 
I'm going to be using the Deeworks retainer but I don't think there's really any difference in the shimming process or anything. Thanks for the tips, feel a lot better ordering the shaft now.
Just use some regular bearing grease to hold the bearings in place, you can reinstall it in the horizontal position. There's a big flat washer thing that sits on the shims from what I remember. Definitely YouTube it to see what you need to do. I would order the peel away shim kit and re- shim it. I just kept taking out shim slices until it was tight and not binding but there's a way to actually measure it, again watch the YouTube video.
 
I've seen your autocross videos, quite the beating

Do you have pictures of it before setting it up for a volvo? I was under the impression nissan got the NWC units as most of those guys seem to hate them, quoting NWC torque specs. I've yet to read anything about nissan guys having luck using ford units. But if you can take a nissan unit and set it up with the 5.0 input shaft it's gotta be compatible???

How long is the tail shaft housing? Same 28 spline output shaft?


%99 of what i've read out of the nissan community is ****ting on the T5, https://datsunzgarage.us/borg/ This is the only page praising it over their
It does list the pre 89 units as NWC, and the z32 never got a T5 so It seems yours is either not a WC unit, or not a 300zx unit,? Or I'm missing somthing, got the case tag?

edit- From this link


Well **** I guess you can swap ford and nissan input shafts?

It's an '86 I believe, NWC for sure I think the tag was 1342 but not 100% sure. Guy I bought it from said it was holding 15psi in his 300ZX, but 4th gear synchronizer doesn't work. I bought a rebuild kit specifically for this T5 and have tried 2 of the synchronizers out of the kit with no luck. I've given up on that and just double clutch 4th gear. I think the tail shaft must be longer, I had to cut and weld the shift lever in a Z shape and do a little hammering to the end of the transmission tunnel to make it work in my 242.
 
Being a manual NA car from the mid-80's I'm fairly confident my car has the 3.31 rear axle ratio so I don't think that would work with the .68 overdrive gear very well.

I think ideally you would want whatever rear axle ratio that allows the engine to turn at a good rpm for highway driving and four or five closely spaced gears, with the highest one being 1:1. An overdrive gear just bogs down the engine when you shift into it and doesn't let it accelerate very well so you end up having to shift down for passing, going up steep hills, etc., Plus when you have one in a transmission the rest of the gears get spaced out more so you're not as able to keep the engine running in its ideal power band. I doubt many top level race cars run overdrive gears.

Well....I'm about to find out on this one. When I went down that road with my swap, I was thinking that it would make for decent interstate cruising (70-80mph). I'm less concerned about acceleration with an N/A brick...

I've just got a few odds&ends to wrap up, and then it'll be back on the road...

Just a quick follow-up on this. As previously mentioned, the gearing match-up in the box is definitely taller. For the performance-minded individual, you would definitely want a lower rear-end.

Personally, with my project, I'm less concerned with acceleration/performance.

I will say, I've read a lot of stories/conjecture on weird vibrations and noise associated with the T5 box and driveshaft setup. I went with a stock 2-piece, shortened with a normal slip-yoke. I pretty much just eye-balled the driveshaft alignment, so I could get it out on the road. So far, with around 20 minutes of drive time, I'm very pleased. None of the aforementioned side-effects. In 5th gear, @ 70mph, it spins at ~2200rpms. But it still cruises smoothly. It leaves from the line like it normally would....except I'm not worried that it will disintegrate if I give it too much gas. If I want to pass someone on a 2 lane road, I'm pretty sure I'd need to downshift....but I'm pretty sure I'd need to do that anyway with the m47.
 
I'm still gathering parts and figuring out how I'm going to make this work. I did get my adapter designed and bought a large chunk of aluminum but haven't had time to machine it yet. I'll just have to see how i like the gearing once I get to that point.

I got the driveshaft off of the Mustang the gearbox was in. It's really large in diameter - bigger than the one on my Firebird even and I've never had trouble with vibration on that car. I suspect some of the complaints about vibrations happening with one piece driveshafts are due to the driveshaft being out of balance. All the old GM cars that I've owned - as well as this old Mopar I'm working on - that have had long one piece driveshafts have run very smoothly in the drivetrain department.
 

That reasoning seems mainly theoretical: I have never seen the problems mentioned in that article on cars that had properly balanced one-piece driveshafts. Cars and trucks have been built with one-piece driveshafts for the better part of a century now - if this was such a bad design it would have been abandoned a long time ago. Two-piece driveshafts are a good example of over-engineering and they just end up giving you more parts to wear out eventually, such as the center support bearing.
 
This is how I understand it....I'm sure there are a lot more variables at play here...and some/all of this may have been covered earlier in this post, or many other posts on the internetz.

It's not just about DS balance. It's also about angles....the u-joints don't rotate at a constant rate (They aren't CV joints), there are accelerations and decelerations as it spins. If your DS angles are on (front 10* and rear 10*), those accel/decels are going to cancel each other out, similar to sound cancelation. If your angles are off (front 10* and rear 20*), those accel/decels are going to result in noise/vibrations.

For me, all my original noise was coming from my m47's bearings disintegrating, not from the DS. So, if I re-utilized my 2-piece DS, I figured I'd have a higher likelihood of success. When actually slapping everything together, my initial concern when installing the DS, was that I didn't have a second u-joint to cancel out those Accel/decels before the DS support bearing. So, I needed to get the angle between the trans and the carrier bearing as close to zero as possible.

Now, I do not have any experience in how finicky the angles are....how nuts-on do they have to be... or they can be off by X-amount and still not have to worry about noise/vibe. Like I said, I just eyeballed my trans/slip-yoke angle, and didn't worry about the rear angle since it wouldn't have changed.
 
I am interested in this topic as well. Inland Empire Driveline has a great website I have used before when setting up a t56 swap in a Chevelle.

I am wondering if one solution to all the ambiguity would be to order a new Tremec tko 5speed. One can choose gears, bolt patterns etc and have a strong transmission.

This is not a cheap solution, but with the supply of good used t5s shrinking it may be less expensive in the long run. It is also not a cheap solution in terms of money and time to buy some used transmissions one cant use, put it in a few times, have it rebuilt and then still be just ok with it.

There are stronger tremec transmissions with more variety of ratios, but

"the Mustang Cobra spec T5 5-Speed, new, Ratios 2.95, 1.94, 1.34, 1:1, .63
Comes with our 2 year American Powertrain warranty"

This transmission comes in under $2,000
 
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