F41eatsFords

OK, so I've been looking at my Howe TOB installation instructions (Hedman long-tube means bye-bye external slave), and I have a concern about the installation, and how the system will bleed after installation. According to the instructions, install the locator bolt at 2 O'clock and install with the inlet and outlet "stems" on each side of the bolt (see left image of attached pic, from the Howe instructions).

My concern is, looking at my "new" T5 and the rotational offset the trans will be installed with due to the bellhousing, this will mean the bleeder "stem" is laying almost horizontal. Won't this prove problematic when I bleed the system? Like, won't air get trapped in the upper half of the TOB? Would I be better off getting a 2nd installation stud for the 10 O'clock position and installing the TOB (as shown in the right side of the attached image), getting the bleeder close to the top? I do have the Lisle bleeder tool (glorified hose-in-mason jar rig) that allows me to bleed without sucking air back into the system, if that makes a difference. I just want to know if I'm over-thinking this or not, before I get it all put together, just to find out I can't pleed the system. Thanks!

F41eatsFords

Bump - Is my thought process right from a hydraulics standpoint? Bleeder should be as far "up" as possible to keep air from getting trapped while bleeding?

jmd

iTrader: (4)

Nice draw-up. You'll find on the production T5, your 4-bolt pattern is rotated to the right. So your 2 O'clock bolt will become 3 O'clock.

Assuming you have a TOB that looks like a Howe 82870, I wouldn't worry too much; the cylinder on which the TOB rides / slides has a fairly thin cylinder surrounding it in which fluid resides and pressurizes. And that model looks like it has some leeway in how you attach it to the 4th bolt (replaced as stud.)

And beyond that, to absolutely get all air out, you should set yours up so you can pump it, endlessly routing the bleeder fluid up to the reservoir. A one-way valve like is sold for brakes is one way of doing this. If you set it up and pump aggressively for a couple minutes, you will have no air.

F41eatsFords

Thanks jmd; I have the 82876, which to my understanding is the "improved" version of the 82870 (according to the Howe website).

So you're saying the TOB cylinder is thin enough that the fluid will naturally push out any air, even if the bleeder is oriented horizontally? I know with brake lines, if there's a high point, the x-sectional area is small enough that the "thick" fluid will push any air past a high point in the line, so I understand there is a correlation between x-sectional area and fluid viscosity. That was why I was asking; I wasn't sure how much x-sectional area the TOB cylinder would have.

Is there any reason I shouldn't install it with the second stud, like the right-side image? Even if it should work as installed per the included instructions (left side), I would like to make this as fool-proof as possible from the get-go, and if installing it with the second stud is a way to do that, then that would be my preference. I will likely set the system up to bleed it like you've said, since that method seems pretty fool-proof itself.

jmd

iTrader: (4)

Agreed; shouldn't have to be absolutely positively up top. Close is good though.

On the 2nd stud: Maybe Howe designs it to work (and bleed properly) with a T10 (and others) which have zero degree transmission mounting rotation and zero degree rotation of the 4-bolt bearing retainer pattern.

Look at your T5.
The T5 retainer 4-bolt pattern is rotated ~15 degrees or so towards LH driver's side.
The F-body T5/bellhousing adds another 17 degrees rotation towards LH driver's side.

I had understood your goal to be to avoid that kind of rotation and potential issue.

F41eatsFords

OK; I actually ended up bleeding it before installing the trans, and it's all back together and working great (even though it rained today, I couldn't resist driving it to work).

When I reinstalled the console, I ended up adding a "custom" touch on the shifter plate. The shift **** that came with it had the shift pattern on it, and I felt it was too redundant with the pattern on the plate, so I covered the console pattern with electrical tape, found a GM logo online, printed it off, wrapped it around a piece of cardboard and laminated it, and secured it over the blacked-out shift pattern. I though about using the Z28 logo, but though there'd be too much redundancy with the one on the dash.

z28guy134

just curious do you remember how many shims you used? doing this swap now