Thought i would post up a few pics of my on going saga of work -

What happened was i wanted to retain the stock style t-5 clutch ( i had already ordered a clutch and didnt want to be sitting on a new clutch...

SO... i found out that mcleod makes an adaptor plate to bolt an ls1 t-56 to a t-5 bellhousing. Along with that you need an extended pilot bushing.

So when i ordered my transmission, i ended up having a custom one built by RPM Transmissions T56 T-56 4L60E 4L65E - instead of getting the ls1 tailshaft, i instead chose to go with a viper tailshaft... supposedly, the viper tailshaft locates the shifter 2" FORWARD of the stock t-5 spot... well, i don't know if it is because of using the t-5 bellhousing and clutch setup or what, but the viper tailhousing placed the shifter exactly, and i mean, exactly in the middle of the stock hole...

So anyways, i run the hooker 2210 long tube headers - so i also wanted to get myself a little more clearence to tuck the exhuast up more. here's what i ended up with. I also needed to make a mount for the torque arm.

I used 2" angle iron for the parts that bolt to the frame. For the tubing, i used .120 wall 1" square tubing. All parts were ground and cleaned to hell before welding with a MIG welder. One snag was the fact that the viper tailhousing will not accept a stock fbody mount - the bolt pattern is too wide. I have made due with using poly swaybar endlink bushings between the bolts and the mount, and the trans and the mount. I haven't taken the car for a ride yet, but because the car is a bit of a cruiser, i am hoping it keeps vibration and noise to a minimum!

For the torque arm mount, i cut a piece of 3/16" plate steel, which was in turn welded to the tubing. I also gusseted this piece, it's hard to see in the photos! Because i didn't have any of my stock mount pieces, i also had to take a piece of 2" flat stock (which fits the mount perfect btw) and bend that to the contour of the mount, as well as have tabs for putting a bolt through. Surprisingly, the bolts are pretty easily accessable when bolting everything down! two wrenches and away you go. FYI, i am running a BMR torque arm!

So, with out any further to do, here's how it came out! From what i can tell, it should be strong enough to withstand the forces of a hard launch. I have considered adding some tubing. I will do a test launch on the street infront of my garage (lol) and then bring it back in and take some measurements to check for movement. overall, the pieces feels solid as a rock!









If you have an opinion on putting some more support on the mount, i'm open to constructive critism!

 

Impressive!

Ironically I am right in the middle of a similar project putting a 98-02 T56 into my '82.I am using 1/8" mild plate steel and 1 3/4" .134" wall mild tubing left over from an S&W roll cage kit.Used what I had ya know.

I should have it finished up,well tacked together anyway in about a week with some pics.I also am running 2210's and planning duals so until I actually run the exhaust I won't totally weld mine in case I wanna change it up to make room for the pipes.I also went to a seperated crossmember mounted TA mount to go along with my Random Tech TA.Pretty similar in alot of ways to what you did.

Alot of my obstacles have been using such large pipe for it,very tight under there.

 

yeah - that 1 3/4 would def make things a PIA... i'll post some pics of how the exhuast came out... didn't end up getting me any more clearence than i had before... at least thats how it seems, which is kind of a bummer... oh - such is the price for that extra power those long tubes unlock

 

Two things. First how or what VSS are you running? Mech or electronic? Second, you could have gotten the F-body style replacement trans that is similar to the one you have but uses the stock type mount. I have that one but my only problem is the VSS.
Looks good. I kinda wish I hadnt gone to Spohn and had him make me the k-member that I have now, so little ground clearance, I am thinking of cutting some of the angle off the k-member to get some clearance back

 

Ok - first off, i went with this peticular trans for a couple of reasons -

1- it will bolt up to an ls* when i finally put the motor together.
2- The trans was availiable with the fbody or viper tailshaft, the retrofit one was 500$ extra...
3- this trans will hold just about anything i throw at it..
4- i wanted to mount the torque arm to the mount rather than the trans...

Speedo - using a stock sending unit, and using a dakota digital box to regenerate the signal into one the stock gauge understands. Skulte Performance Designs - Skulte Performance Designs is the place to find out about this in his swap tutorial.

 

Ok two things I have to ask now that I think about it.

#1 in pic.How did you determine how far away/apart from the output shaft to mount the front of the TA?
I measured from the rearend yoke to the middle of the torque arm mount and plan to make the front mount the same distance away from the trans output shaft.I came up with 2 3/8" IIRC.

#2 in pic.How did you determine/decide where to mount the nose of the TA heightwise?I should have measured this before I sold my stock trans.

 

OK maybe I shoudl rephrase my question about the speedo. Are you using the stock type hall effect sensor? Or a gear driven VSS? Mine uses the gear driven and I cant get it to work (now it looks like the sender may be bad) so I was wondering what you were doing.
Ok that makes sense if you are going to go with an LS engine later, but will you still be able to use the t-5 clutch? I would think not, but maybe you just didnt want to buy another clutch again for the LT sytle trans then have to buy yet another one when you go LS...... right?

 

Not bad… what is the poly bushing that you’re using? What was in the second picture that is not opening now?

 

[/QUOTE]One snag was the fact that the viper tailhousing will not accept a stock fbody mount - the bolt pattern is too wide. I have made due with using poly swaybar endlink bushings between the bolts and the mount, and the trans and the mount. I haven't taken the car for a ride yet, but because the car is a bit of a cruiser, i am hoping it keeps vibration and noise to a minimum!
[/QUOTE]

 

I'll answer these one at a time

Well, to be honest with you, the mount is normally mounted up the the trans ont he t-5 - so i knew it had to be close.... The other deciding factors were the TA rubbing on the fuelline and brake line holder that bolts to the trans tunnel, and the fact that the TA was in a state of "straight" and non bind where it was welding on - no measuring, except to make sure things were straight and whatnot. The TA pretty much had to go in that position. One thing however, i believe that it is mounted LOWER than the stock t-5 position... On the flip side of this though, the skip shift solenoid is right there and it would have been in the way otherwise.


When this mount was made, i made sure that the jack stands in the back were under the rear end so that it would be mimicking ride hieght for the ds, TA and whatnot... I will say, it didn't seem that this was too critical, as i was able to use the angle adjustment on the torque arm to bring it backm to 3* of pinion angle (what i normally run)

Also, if your curious about how i decided where to put the height of the trans, the trans is as high as it could go int he tunnel without hitting the body.
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It is a stock t-56 VSS - i'm assuming it is a hall effect sensor, as there seem to be no gears. It doesn't exactly look easly removeable...

I will be using a dakota digital box to convert this signal to one that is useable with our stock speedometers.
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Ummm not sure why it isn't showing up... i had some issues uploading files... i'll try and reupload it.

Anyways, thanks - i actually used a set of poly swaybar endlink bushings... we'll see how they hold up... i'm not horribly optimistic... however, i have finally had a chance to take the car out for a ride, and they surprisingly seem to work quite well at dampening noise and vibration...



Some more side notes now that the exhuast has been completed and whatnot...

Exhuast - well, cleanerence is not even close to what i had hoped it would be... Two reasons... i cheaped out for times sake and bought some 3" flex tube... it wouldn't make the bends i really needed it to... eventually i will make up a new y-pipe... for now, this one works, it just hits EVERYTHING... some of it is due to the fact the flex tubing sags, but, just overall, i didn't pick up any clearence... i really wish i had....

Clutch - went with a stage 2+ from spec... so far, chattery... some times it's smooth, if ya drag it too long, chatters... spec say it will go away after 500-800 miles... guess we;ll see - he flywheel was machined, everything was torqued down properly, and the flywheel was checked for run out... everything is ok there, hopefully it will improve...

 

I ran into the same problem.The TA mount plate I am using,cheated here and went with an already fabbed piece from the aftermarket,was too high as well and had to be trimmed down to clear the reverse lockout solenoid.I plan to make it the same distance away as the rear yoke like I mentioned before.Whatever works will be how it ends up though.The height is pretty much set as the TA mount plate is already drilled for the 1 3/4 tube,but it does have a ton of adjustment up and down for instant center changes.I don't know that much about suspension changes like that,so for me it just gives me the holes I need to put it where it needs to be and set the pinion angle with the TA from there.

I have the trans in my car almost touching the floor but obviously plan to leave it down a little more to ward off any vibrations.My stock DLA was 5.5-6 degrees,most I can get now is 7,so thankfully I have the adjustable TA to set the pinion angle once done.I just wanted to try and get it as close to stock angles as possible.

I should have mine tacked together this week with some pics in and out of the car.Then the exhaust from the headers back needs to be started which is out of the budget for awhile so it will sit awhile longer.I envy that you can drive yours already!

Nice job and thanks for the explanation.

 

I think that you’re describing the donut shaped busings on the tranny mount, I was asking about the bushing around the TA pivot. I don’t see any good reason why the endlink bushings won’t work, the only issue is to keep them centered in the hole to prevent metal to metal contact.

 

Thanks 1badz - it's been a while since i've driven it!

83 - i'm sorry - i indeed thought you were talking about the mount for the trans. The poly bushing is the one that came with the BMR torque arm i am using - it just has about a 1" hole in it for the tubing of the TA to slide through.

So far so good with them moving off center - i did drill the holes a little on the larger side to help ward that off

 

What kind of ground clearance do you have to the lowest point on the crossmember under the trans mount at ride height?

I finished up my CM last weekend and putting the car back on its wheels I end up with 3" of GC!! Now this is with small tires on junk rims that the car sits on in the winters..IIRC they are 205/65-15 or 215/60-15.They are only about 24" tall so hopefully with a stock sized (245/50-16) I will gain alot!!

 

the crossmember never goes lower than the exhuast, by a lot...

i dont have a ground clearence measurement, but there is a ton of room... i would ruin a lot of other things before ever touching the crossmember