I picked this 88 IROC convertible up on monday for $3,800.00.

The good: It has a T-56 6 speed, Edlebrock headers, hot cam, Hooker 3in cat back, 4th gen disc rear w/ 3.42 gears, and 4th gen 30th anniversary leather seats.

The bad: It will need a top soon, driver seat is torn, speedo and tach aren't working, it's really tough to shift into 5th and reverse, and the paint needs a few small areas touched up.

I may have over paid but I love it and I've been told love is sometimes enough. Let me know what ya'll think or if you know the car. I bought it from a 16 year old kid who didn't know much about it.

Here's a little vid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGj03...ature=youtu.be

 

Looks great. Im sure you will get it to where you want it. Welcome

 

Thanks. I'm pretty geeked up about it!

 

Love the blue color and the silver stripes. Not a fan of the 91-92 Z28 spoiler, though...

BTW, how did a 16-year-old kid get a hold of that? Aftermarket parking lights, new paintjob, custom wheels, billet grille, cowl hood, clear side turning signal, etc. That's a lot of time and money for a 16 year old to invest in. (Unless he bought it like that.)

Looks like it found a better home and someone who will appreciate it more than it's P.O.

 

Thanks for the comments. As for how he got it. His parents bought it for him finished by someone else when he was 14. In two years he beat the **** out of it pretty good. I found another surprise today, the headlights are wired into the fog light switch. LOL!

 

Looks great man! Seat covers are not very expensive, and easy to install. I think that is a great price, maybe not a steal, but overall car has amazing potenial!

 

I'm amazed at how crappy some people treat their possessions.

How many miles on the car?

 

Very sweet looking! Enjoy

 

The last reported mileage in its history was in 1998 when it showed 75,000. It now reads 69,000. So who knows. I'm already dreaming up big ideas for this one but they Will have to wait until the paint is finished on my 89 IROC.

 

For 3800 bucks it qualifies as a steal! Nice find..welcome to the club!

 

My opinion, I would put 4th gen leather seat in it. They are great especially the Pontiac ones.

 

It already has them.

 

Thanks man. I'm a huge fan of your cars.

 

Does anyone have any ideas on why it's so hard to get into 5th and reverse? 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th are great but 5th and reverse take alot of muscle. It doesn't grind though.

 

Thanks. Nice IROC you have there!

 

What do you plan on doing with it? Restoration or modding it to your liking?

 

Restoring it to stock would take more time, money, and effort than I'm willing to spare. So I'm going tidy it up a bit with new carpet, top, recover the drivers seat, freshen the paint up, dive into the suspension and chassis, and I've got a roller 350 that's really wanting to be a 383!

 

Video added. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGj03...ature=youtu.be

 

Nice looking ride.
I'm actually starting to like the z28 spoiler on verts.

 

looks great ! welcome to the club.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. I wasn't a fan of it at first, but it's really starting to grow on me.

 

Thanks!

 

I like the 91/92 spoiler on verts. Did one back in '09
Plan to do it to this vert I have now too

 

Sounds good!

Looks even better with the top down.

 

reverse will be hard because the T56 was equipped with the reverse lockout solenoid. The solenoid was deactivated when the 4th gens were going under 5 mph. This feature stopped owners from shifting into reverse by accident. As for 5th gear, it could be the shift rail or a synchronizer.

 

Added some spit and polish today and started removing the headlight switch. Also removed the rigged up wires running to the foglight switch.
I also have a bit of a noob question. How are you guys adding pics of your cars for your signatures? I know. Don't be to rough on me.

 

That's a nice vert.
Maybe a bit of lowering coming up as well?

 

Yeah, I think a 2 inch drop front and rear would do alot for it's stance.

 

Looks great enjoy the wind and sun

 

Will do!

 

Looks great man. I would love to have the spoiler mod done to mine. Looks clean. As for the signature I think there is an option under your user preferences, you can link to your picture via photobucket, etc.

 

As posted above there is a reverse lockout solenoid, but with yours also being hard to get in 5th, I'd suspect you want to pull the shift boot up and look at how its adjusted or IF its adjustable.

I've had a Hurst billet plus shifter on the -16 T56 in my '96 Impala SS for 8 years now. I have the reverse solenoid wired to a push button on the Hurst shifter. What I have found is I used to use the release, and the reverse selection is a little easier with it, but over time I have stopped using it sinced I have learned the feel to overcome the tension without releasing the solenoid.

The Hurst billet plus shifter has some adjustable stops on it, but primarily for forward/backward motion limiting. HTH in some way.

 

Thanks for the info. As in your case I've gotten the feel for reverse and it's no big deal, but 5th is a pain! When I try to shift into 5th it's like it hits a brick wall. I have to move back to neutral then slam it really hard to get it in. I'll look and see if there's any adjustments on the hurst shifter. Thanks again!

 

Is your shifter a GM or aftermarket like the Hurst? I have not had my shift boot off in a long while, but recall if the two adjustments on the Hurst are not correct that can make it hard to get into gear. Or if they off the other way, it will tend to pop out of gear sometimes. Sure hope you find its just an adjustment. Way better...

Also, seems like you got a very decent deal. The car looks and sounds very good.

 

ItS a hurst shifter, I don't know if it came factory with the T-56 out of the '97 it came from or not. I don't know much about 4th gens.

 

BTW, all you need to know about 4th gen's is they make a GREAT source of parts of us 3rd gen guys.

First order of troubleshooting is to determine if the adjustments are there and if they are interfering with getting the shifter into the 5th gear position. If adjustments in the forward shifter stop don't help here, you likely have a bent 5th/6th fork, rail or lever. I hope its a simple adjustment, I have seen adjustment issues cause this symptom more than once with other T56 conversions. Don't slam hard on it. Hard is not good, it means something is not right. You can bend forks etc without a lot of effort. Ask me how I know. :-(

You have to get to the top of the shifter, which may mean pulling your console. I know its a pain, but you have to gain access to the adjustments. And depending on how the person doing the conversion did the job you might find some differences. Done correctly (IMHO) there should be the upper leather trim boot inside the console opening, and then a larger boot under the console that covers the opening in the floor pan. That lower one is important to keep heat and road/tranny noise from coming in. (again IMHO)

Here is a link to Jegs that shows the billet plus. Look right below the Hurst boot and you will see the adjusters sticking out the front and back of the housing.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Hurst/530/391-...rentProductId=

When you can get to the shifter... and if its a billet plus, there should be a front and rear adjustment. Loosen the lock nut on the front one and back out the adjustment stud just a turn or two. Check 5th gear access and see if it feels different or easier. Another turn or two on the adjustment stud should tell you something. There is not an abundance of adjustment here, but there is some. You should have a feel pretty quickly if this adjustment is helping. Don't back the adjustment stud out too far. Past a certain point it has little effect on an issue like this and can actually cause more problems, i.e. too much stress on the shift forks etc when slamming gears. Adjust correctly and you will have the minimum throw for your tranny and won't be doing damage to the internals by having too much throw.

Adjustments are a lot easier than the alternative. But your 5th gear difficulty is being caused by something and this is the first place to start. If you can't get the adjustment to make a difference...there is something else going on. If adjustment helps, go back and make sure you still have good shift feel for 1st and 3rd. And if this continues to help you might want to check 2/4/6 on the back adjustment to get everything how you like it, and working as it should.

Bottom line is these adjustments are there to tweak the shifter throw a little for each tranny. Too little throw and each gear won't fully engage, perhaps even pop out of gear under torque. Too much throw and you could damage a shift fork etc when shifting fast/hard. Make the adjustements carefully, and drive test drive the car before you put the boots etc back together.

One last thought since my experience is from my '96 Impala conversion, is if things work differently when the console is off, check interference with the console itself i.e. the upper part of the shifter hitting on something.

Here are a couple of good links for parts, manuals and Tremec T56 specs.

PARTS
http://para.noid.org/~lj/T56/T56parts.htm

MANUAL
http://www.gmassie.net/13secss/T-56_Service_Manual.pdf

Tremec Specs
http://www.ttcautomotive.com/english...s/T-56.asp#Car

I hope something here helps you.

Gerry-

 

Hey Gerry, let me just say WOW! Thanks alot! You've gone above and beyond. If i can't figure out my issue with the amount info you've supplied maybe you could come here and slap me upside my head . LOL! BTW this link looks to be my shifter except my **** is white.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HUU-3915061/?rtype=10

Thanks again. I'll update on my progress as i work on it today and tomorrow!

 

Nice looking 'vert. I'll have to look into it but I think I'd like that spoiler mod on mine. Nice find.

 

Thanks. Yeah, the spoiler looks good on this car. I've seen some with it that I didn't like @ all. I think the paint scheme makes the difference on this one.

 

So I pulled the shifter cover off today and found that I have a B&M base withs Hurst lever and ****. I made some adjustments on the front nut and guess what! No improvement with shifting into 5th. Figured it was a long shot! Here's some more pics. Everyone loves pics! (I think)









BTW, I also removed that sweet sony and the badass custom dash kit while I was at it!

 

Don't worry, we do lol.

 

Looks great. I love the high rise spoiler (see my sig pic )

 

You are welcome. Sharing experience and knowledge can short cut a lot of headache and gremlin chasing. If the adjustments don't appear to be helping my next step would be pull the shifter out and make sure the ball and socket setup looks to be undamaged, not bent etc. It may be very hard to tell. Look at the shaft and adjustment studs, make sure they look like they are attempting to do their job and are in fact adjusting the shifter position as you tweak on them. If you can come up with another shifter or a correct OE one for that tranny, I suppose that might be the last thing to try. Just don't predict a lot of hope for success but you never know. I have no feel for the B&M but the Hurst has a solid reputation. Might want to check around this board and maybe some of the LS/LT forums.

Past this I suspect you will need to find a good T56 repair source locally if you are fortunate. Choose carefully. My experience here in a fairly large 'metropolitan' area was some shops will profess to have T56 experience when in fact they only have general experience with manual transmissions. We have a really solid Corvette club in the area and I was able to find their 'expert' to ask some questions. I ended up exchanging the T56 from my Impala two years ago for a rebuilt one that was specifiically a 'little tougher'. It had been in the car about 6 years and was just a little noisy, which they all can get to be, but was giving me a little issue with 2nd gear. It had about 50k miles on it and a 'number' of 1/4 mile passes. Shipping it out and paying shipment on the replacement was about $130 each way, in addition to the tranny exchange fee of about $850. I used Bruce at Hawks Third Gen parts. They do a lot of LSx/T56 3rd gen conversions and I have been very happy with the tranny I got back from them.

Gerry-

 

Okay, so 5th has started to grind. I shut the car off and it went in fine. So I'm guessing syncro?

 

There are a couple of things it could be, and this gets to the edge of my knowledge. Synchros, blocking rings, engagement teeth, bent shift fork are all possibilities. If 6th works fine that rules out a couple of things but I'm at the end of my expertise, not a doubt.

You can google on "T56 grinding 5th gear" and get a lot of hits, I think you have likely drilled down to the cause being a mechanical issue inside the tranny.

Your first post said you have 3:42's, so ... you have limited flexibiliy here. I have 4:10's in my Impala and can go from 4th to 6th if I run the rpms up in 4th a little more than usual. Fifth gear for me though (with the 4:10's) is my 40-45 mph cruising gear, so I use it a lot around town. Might be hard to work around but you do have 5 others.

 

Thanks! Good luck with the August COTM voting!

 

Well with the T-56 needing removed and me not in the mood to mess with it right now I decided to work on porting and painting some pieces for the 89 IROC. The intake still needs some smoothing and paint. I ported the SLP runners all the way through and the plenum has been ported and bored for a 58mm throttle body.

 

And the 113 heads which I polished awhile back.

 

Those heads are currently up for trade or sale if anyone is interested.

 

Well, I swapped out my broken headlight switch w/ NOS Delco my local dealer happened to still have setting on the shelf. As for the job let me just say what a P.I.T.A! I had a major meltdown when the plastic nut snapped in half while taking the old one out. I ended up going to the hardware store and grabbing up a plumbing 3/8 to 1/4 inch union that worked perfectly, THANK GOD! I really didn't feel like starting up that search. The best part of the plumbing union is if I have to do it again I can use a socket. While I was in there I couldn't find anything wrong with the connections on the tach. I'll save it for another day.