Ah, this certainly makes me miss my GTA. White 88 just like this one. Had a curse or something on it though (maybe it was a target sign) People hitting me one after another until the end all. Funny thing, bought it for $2,800 and made over $6,000 in insurance claims that were not my fault.

Hey, man, don't jinx me like that...

Although it would be nice to collect lots of insurance money, I hope to be in for the long haul with this car... I haven't even registered it yet, and I'm already in love.

She'll be a daily driver, but stay inside when it snows.

Lol, not trying to jinx you. Mine really was, this happened over 4 years ago and still have the rims, and the emblems. I had to take what I could, and don't want to part with what's left.

I know you'll enjoy that GTA when you get it up and running, mine was a fun car, that TPI 350 would scoot. So I believe that 305 with the T5 will make it great fun. My Camaro had a TBI 305 with the T5 and it was amazing on highway mileage. Drove from the border of MN and WI all the way to Chicago IL on one tank of gas many many times. If you ever want to have more power but don't want to sacrifice the 305, just put a wet shot of nitrous on it, I ran over 20 ten pound bottles in mine before I yanked it for the 350 I built, and it still ran like a champ

I know I'll enjoy it, too... for now, I'll be happy to get it into service.

When we last left our hero, he was preparing for a T5 swap... and then he learned that his beloved GTA had excessive steering play and a leaky radiator...

Meanwhile, the Queen of Hunnidoo, affectionately known as "Our Lady of Great Insistence" demanded that space be cleared for indoor parking facilities for the Royal Coach.

This was accomplished over a period of about 5 weekends, amid much wailing and gnashing of teeth...

WILL our hero successfully clean the garage workbench and begin the T5 rebuild? WILL the Queen begin dropping 1000 lb. hints that yard work needs to be done? WILL the heirs to the Kingdom find sneaky, doe-eyed ways to tap into our hero's car repair slush fund?

Tune in again... next week...

Lol

Hunidoo - now that's funny, Tim!

Well, I was frustrated that I had no progress to post... and a little bit batty from all the other stuff that kept getting in my way.

This morning, I will be dealing with a pile of nuts, bolts, assorted parts, tools, and other items too fierce to mention. It is my belief that there lies a workbench underneath it all. The Queen has been appeased... for now...

Yah - I'm waiting for a friend to get his commercial discount sorted out over at the local Advance Auto Parts, and then I'm going to buy a whole pile of front suspension and tune up parts - The car goes okay, but will be better with new struts, center link, and plugs, etc . . .

Well, just as I was about to slap a piece of Formica on top of the newly-cleared bench, our smoke alarms went off... it seems that the Princess chose that moment to set her bedroom on fire. Fortunately, most of the fire was confined to a wastebasket and a bookcase...

Although I managed to quench the fire before they arrived, the firemen still had a great time hacking holes in the wall and lecturing my daughter on fire safety. The Queen has decreed that the first available weekend will be devoted to a father/daughter home repair project.

Nuts.

Well better to spend a weekend repairing an accident than spending a week trying to dig your things out of your burned down home. Could be worse

OH, Amen to that. Unfortunately, we will be doing neither. My brother-in-law just passed away, and we will be traveling to NY for the funeral.

Ah, now I feel as though I should have kept my mouth shut. I'm really sorry to hear that.

No, please don't feel that way. How could you know? Besides, you were exactly right in what you said. And anyhow, I could have a burned-down home on top of it all.

It would be nice if next week was a little bit better...

Oh, and thank you for the kind words.

my condoleances for your loss. I also had a loss in the family as well. my uncle died last thursday if it was not for him i probably not be an auto mechanic

Thanks, KITT. Sorry for your loss as well.

thanks ternanades good luck on the GTA
**** happens, life is too short to live in misery, just enjoy as you go along or you will never will.

Sorry for your family's loss, Tim - I hope next week is a better one for you, as well . . .

you can get a new ignition with correct VATS key from gm. they got me a new ignition for mineas the PO buggered it up as well.

Thanks to all. mudskunk, since I now have it running with the resistor bypass, I am working on other stuff.

However, I appreciate the info. Eventually, when all the rest of the little kinks are worked out, I want to swap over the GTA steering wheel and all that goes with it... also need the cruise control turn signal stalk. When I have it apart, I'll decide how I am going to handle the ignition lock. I may just leave it bypassed.

Well, I am finally back in the saddle. A week after my wife's brother passed, my best friend's wife passed away... also from cancer. I just need to move on...

I got my workbench all nice and clean, and I put some formica down on it. Then I put the T5 on the bench, and with the help of Hanlon's DVD, it was more or less painless. The insides of the tranny were looking pretty good, all except for the front end of the shaft (see pix).

I bought this tranny as a basket case, and the guy I got it from thought the input shaft was bent. As it turns out, there were missing roller bearings, and the front end of the shaft is just a mess. Not sure what I am seeing here, but I will turn the shaft over to Bob Hanlon of Hanlon Motorsports. He says he can repair it.

In the meantime, I will do some cleaning of the re-usable parts, and then I'll take our '86 bird ("Nellie") up to the body shop to get her frame pulled straight before I start to repair the body. She's not really worth all the trouble at 227K miles, but she has lots of sentimental value... besides, I enjoy a challenge. I'll run her for as long as she holds up, then I'll do a V8 swap.

Sunday I went to Advance Auto and bought one of the Optima Red Top batteries. It appealed to me not only because of the legendary performance and durability, but because it has both top and side terminals. I connected her up with the existing side terminal cables, and now if I ever have to give or receive a battery boost, I can use the top terminals.

After swapping in the new battery, I returned the other battery to "Nellie", our 86 bird, who has been sitting patiently outside the garage since August. One flick of the key, and her 230,000 mile engine roared to life, with no smoke or other unpleasantness. Gotta love it. As soon as I can get a few gallons of gas in her tank, she's off to the body shop to get herself pulled straight on the frame jig.

I had ordered an inside door handle, and a rubber boot for my T5 shifter, so I went to work on those. The boot is actually marketed for the Jeep with T5, but it fit my shifter very well. (I'm talking about the boot that is actually part of the shifter).

Since the door handle was riveted in place, it was a challenge to drill out the rivets without removing the door panel, but I got it done. As soon as I got the new door handle in place and working, I spotted something under the driver's seat: a used replacement handle that the PO had evidently acquired... oh, well. Now I have a spare.

Now that my door handle works from the inside, I don't have to leave the window open.

The next step is to get that mainshaft shipped to Hanlon for repair, after which I can start to reassemble the T5.

You drilled the rivet out? I just beat it out lol. In retrospect your way probably would have been easier lol.
Why are you putting Nellie on the frame jig? Was she in an accident?

Yeah, that's how all of this got started. Nellie was my son's original car. He ran her up an embankment and bent her up a bit. Our search for used parts turned up a parts car that was so clean, we decided to fix her up for my son, so he could drive Nellie while we worked. The GTA was also originally supposed to be a parts car... you see how that turned out.

So now while I am waiting for my transmission parts, I'll take Nellie up to the body shop and get her pulled straight. Then I'll park her alongside the garage again until I get the GTA on the road. Life gets so complicated sometimes...

Bob at Hanlon did a quick turn and a great job on my T5's output shaft... I sent it off on Friday and it was back in my hands on Wednesday, along with the rebuild kit.

I got up early today (had to work yesterday -- the trouble with being self-employed is that your boss is guaranteed to be an @$$hole) and started the reassembly of the transmission.

Hanlon's DVD is a must-have, unless you have lots of experience with these trannies. He tells you what to expect and how to deal with it. After a back-breaking day at the workbench, I got all the subassemblies done. I stopped at 5 PM when I realized that the input shaft seal was missing from the kit. I'm sure that will be solved with a phone call.

In the meantime, I am going to take a rare holiday off tomorrow with my family. We live on a lake and I plan to indulge in some serious recreation.

OK, nice relaxing weekend...

I got most of the T5 assembled. I am now waiting for a speedometer drive gear. The trans came with a red gear, which is a 9-tooth. I was not sure if it was right for my car, since the trans is from another car.

So, I jacked the car up... I finally got it up high enough to get under it (yes, the fat guy's nightmare). I went looking for an ID code stamped in the axle tube, saw nothing but rust even after using a wire brush for quite a while.

I pulled the VSS from the auto trans, and it has a black driven gear, with a grey drive gear... which supposedly translates into 3.42 -- which seemed odd to me. Then I learned that a 3.45 option was available, but it looked like it only came with the manual trans, and the car is originally automatic.

I finally noticed two tags on the diff cover bolts. The one was a caution tag to only use approved fluid. The other, after quite a bit of cleaning, revealed that it was a 3.27. It's a Borg Warner 9-bolt disc brake rear, and a quick spin of the rear wheels with the car in the air confirmed that it is a posi. I would have expected such from a GTA.

Now that I know that the axle ratio is 3.27, I know that I need the blue (7-tooth) speedo drive gear. I have one on order from ROCKAUTO (about 12-13 bucks including shipping).

I have a VSS that I got from Hanlon with the brown (18-tooth) gear, so I think I am all set now.

I decided to stop working, since there are still a few parts of my body that are not in pain, and chill out. When my son gets home, I think we will run Nellie (the '86) up to the body shop to get a full body massage on the frame straightening machine.

We had a busy day yesterday; Alex graduated from high school with his Advanced Diploma... then we went out to lunch... rested up... went to church... then went out to a magnificent dinner courtesy of my parents to celebrate.

So I lost the whole day. Hey, he's my only son.

I got up early this morning, and promptly spent several hours reading up on the Mercedes SL series... the Queen wants one... I was toying with the idea of an LSX swap with a T56... before you answer, I gave up on the idea... at least for now.

So, I had a nice big breakfast, then went out to the garage, and went to work. My speedo drive gear has not arrived from ROCKAUTO, but I realized that I can't put the T5 back together until I pull the driveshaft and make sure the yoke slides nicely in the new tailshaft bushing.

Since I was going that far, I figured I might as well pull the old transmission, since it has to come out sometime. About 4 hours later, it was on the ground. I took my time, did as neat a job as possible, and did not damage any parts, nor my knuckles. No cuts, no bruises... even my arthritic back is not really complaining...

I give most of the credit to the 90+ degree heat I was working in, which I find quite agreeable. Except when the sweat starts running into my eyes... the only real problem I had was snaking the TV cable out through the TPI runners, but even that was not a big deal.

A quick inspection showed a nice, dry flexplate and torque converter, which tells me I have no main seal leaks... some people have suggested changing the main seal while the car is apart... I am not sure I should disturb it unless I find that it is already leaking... opinions, anyone? The engine has 138K miles on it.

Well, I got in touch with ROCKAUTO today, and they explained that my speedo gear is a special order, so it won't ship for another week yet.

Naturally, this means that I won't get the car finished this weekend, but on the other hand, it gives me plenty of time to swap out the pedals and cut the hole for the shifter. I am having trouble finding a console shifter plate, but it looks as though I might be able to use the auto plate until I can find the one I need. Anyone done this?

I was just putzing around on ebay the other day, and I tripped over a set of 15" silver crosslace wheels, with halfway decent tires on them, for $240 shipped. They are complete with center caps... now I have a nice set of wheels for "Nellie" -- although she's still waiting to ride the frame jig. Not that it matters... it will be a while before I'll want to put nice wheels on her.

This guy who swapped in a T-56 into his automatic firebird did just that with a neat custom touch.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...1-post139.html

Here's the original thread:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tran...ap-thread.html

Now THAT is cool! I really like the "FIREBIRD" engraving on the indicator panel... I might like that a lot better than using a 5-speed plate.

yeah thats on carbed engines with the mechanical fp on the block. we(me and this guy) have got electric in tank fps

The scary thing is that I remember when fuel pumps were all mounted on the engine.

I had a great day today. Once again, we had weather in the low 90s, and humid, and I felt terrific! It was like I was 10 years younger. Sure, I'm a little sore, but I had more mobility and less pain than I have in a long time!

I dug out my bellhousing, pedals, and hydraulics that I had bought off different guys on TGO... scrubbed 'em up good... and test fitted the bellhousing. Apparently, I have the correct starter for an automatic... and I never removed it... since it appears to be just slightly big for the bellhousing, I'm gonna take a crack at just shaving the nose down a bit until the bellhousing goes on easily. I have nothing to lose... if it breaks, I'm no worse off than if I had gone and bought a different starter.

So now I figured I'd better check the front end to find the reason for the excessive steering play... I had assumed it was the idler arm. When I jiggled it, it did move, but something seemed odd. Then I happened to take a look at the steering box from underneath -- of the three heavy bolts that hold it to the frame, only one was secure. A second was so loose it might as well not have been in there, and a third was broken off completely inside the steering box. Nice.

As it turned out, I had to remove the steering box to get at the broken bolt, which I was able to remove rather easily. Then, of course, it all had to go back together, and it seems they are a lot easier to remove than they are to install. I got most of it back together before I had to quit for the day. I suspect the steering will be more than a little bit tighter now.

Tomorrow being Father's Day, and my Dad being out of town, I will probably just spend the day with the GTA. I figure I can get the clutch and flywheel installed at the very least, after I finish installing the steering gear. I still need to swap out the pedals and cut the hole for the shifter, too. Then I will have to wait -- my speedo gear will ship tomorrow, and I am also waiting on a clutch fork boot. Plus, I just realized I need to pick up a torque arm mount. Hopefully, I'll have it all by next weekend, and be able to put the car all back together.

I can't wait to drive it with the t5!

that sounds like the knock sensor. its on the passenger side kind of at the bottom of the block around the dipstick and near the 6 plug

The sensor that I was referring to was up in the head, and turned out to be the radiator fan switch, and I have since gotten it repaired.

thats good to hear. anymore progress since?

I just realized that I don't have a shifter ****... and I'm still searching for a torque arm mount... anyone got these? Please let me know.

UPDATE -- never mind about the shifter ****. I just found a NOS one on ebay...

ohhhhh my butt is draggin'... but I still feel pretty good. Temps in the 90s again today, nice and hot and humid... loved it!

I have read everything I could find on this board about the T5 swap long before I actually attempted it... I gotta say, this is one that you really have to experience for yourself. The guys who say it can be done easily in a weekend may be stretching things a bit. Although, if you had all the parts together at one time, and weren't rebuilding the trans, I suppose it'd be do-able.

I will agree with the one poster who said that the pedal assembly change is the hardest part. That was what I did today, and it is a challenge. First, I had to take out the driver's seat in order to have enough room to work. (You skinny guys, keep your comments to yourselves!) The GTA driver's seat is a little more work to remove than it was in my son's car, but it came out easily enough.

Removing the old pedal assembly was not impossible with the steering column in place, but I am certain it would have been a whole lot easier with the column out of the car. The trouble is, I have fond memories of my recent struggle to install that column, so I worked around it. You also need to remove the power brake booster, and I did so while leaving the brake master cylinder installed and just pushed aside.

The hardest part seems to be making the hole for the clutch master cylinder. It's pretty tight in there, whether you are working on the inside or the outside. Plus, there are no markings or punchouts on the firewall (at least not on my car). A few have suggested using the carpet backing, which has a template of sorts, but mine was all stretched out of shape and torn.

I decided to use the strut braces that go from the pivot bolt to the inside of the firewall as a guide, but that proved to be inaccurate as well. I finally consulted a couple of swap threads with pix, and saw the approximate location of the holes... then drilled one bolt hole. Then I made a paper template of the gasket for the master cylinder, and went from there... still working on it, as none of my power tools could get in there easily... I am going to get my Dremel tool from the radio station and bring it home to finish that up.

So, that was my Father's Day... my son invited me to lunch when I was elbow-deep in the car, so I took a rain-check. My wife was at work, and she got home a little while ago, and she and my daughter are preparing me a special supper. It looks like I'm not going to get the car driveable until after Independence Day, but I should be done the weekend after...

Well at least you're getting it done. What you're going through kinda makes me want to rethink the T56 swap for my Trans Am lol

Nah. Don't forget, I'm an old guy. We love to complain. My biggest problem is that I'm just a weekend mechanic, and I work a 70-hour week running two businesses. I am actually thinking along the lines of someday putting an LSX/T56 swap into "Nellie"... (if I do, it's all five7kid and pocket's fault )... but only after her current power plant dies. I want to see how long I can run her with the original engine... 230K and counting.

Well, now... ROCKAUTO has just notified me that my speedo gear has shipped... hope it gets here before Saturday.

I bit the bullet and bought a torque arm mount off a guy on ebay... paid too much, IMHO, but at least I'll have it. I could have modified the existing one by cutting and welding, but there's guesswork involved and I have enough to do. Again, I have to hope that it gets here in time for a chance at finishing the job this weekend.

I just realized I still need a lower shifter boot, but I am just going to go to Advance and buy a universal one.

• trans -- $200
• Bellhousing, clutch fork, and pedal assy -- $65
• shifter -- $45
• shifter boot -- $25
• clutch fork boot -- $40
• torque arm mount -- $65
• Shifter **** -- $29
• flywheel -- $100 (new)
• clutch -- $100 (new)

Total $669, without rebuilding the trans. It was not usable the way it was, so add:

• trans rebuild kit -- $250
• machine work to repair damaged output shaft -- $90
• VSS -- $30

total brings me to $1039, and I haven't bought the lower shift boot yet.

On the plus side, trans will be a fresh rebuild, and the clutch and flywheel are brand spankin' new.

I suppose just like any other major swap, the lesson here is to try and find a donor car... that way you don't get nickel-and-dimed to death on all the little extras.

No such thing as auto restoration on a budget! Unless your totally 100% SURE as to what you'll be facing... learned this the hard way with my 91 Trans Am... and still am. Oh well, I still love the car and wouldn't trade the world for it.

OH, you don't have to sell me on that score... I was just pointing out that it may have been a little more cost-effective to buy a whole T5 swap... although by the time I got it shipped and then rebuilt the trans, I might not have been all that much better off.

Good stuff is happening... I got my torque arm mount wednesday, the speedo drive gear on thursday, and the shifter **** came today.

Plus, the Queen and her minions bought me the HVLP spray gun set that I had been wanting... killed me to have to put it away for who knows how many months.

I will approach the project with renewed vigor tomorrow, in the hopes that I can be driving it Sunday afternoon...

Another great day today! 95 degrees and humid, and I worked like an animal.

I finished the installation of the clutch master cylinder and pedal assembly. I also finished reassembling the T5, and she is all good to go. I just have to fabricate a simple retainer for the VSS. It's just a small piece of flat stock with a hole drilled in it for a bolt.

I went to Advance and bought a universal shifter boot to use as my lower shift boot. I also bought two pedal pads, but the clutch pedal and brake pedal are different sizes. So I still need a brake pedal pad. I'll return the other one and see what I can find.

I'm also wondering if there might be some kind of a nylon bushing for connecting the clutch master pushrod to the pedal. It is a little sloppy, because the hole in the pushrod is bigger than the pin on the pedal.

Anyway, I used my Dremel tool to make the hole for the clutch master, and it worked better than anything else I tried. I had a little bit of a challenge getting everything installed, but it is all in now except the switches.

Tomorrow, the console comes out and I'll make the hole for the shifter. Then (hopefully) I'll get the flywheel, clutch, and trans installed, and maybe even finish this job.

After 22 years of marriage, I have learned that when the Queen wakes you up at 6:30 to ask, "What are you doing today?", it isn't really a question.

I got my marching orders: She found a flea in the guest bedroom, so it was now up to me to purchase flea protection for the dog and 3 cats, and powder for the carpet. Never mind that the place that sells these items is not open on Sundays. I had to travel to the next town over to get anything close to what she wanted.

SO, as long as I was out, I made a stop at LOWE'S and bought some hardware that I needed to finish the tranny swap, and a stop at AUTO ZONE nearby got me my missing pedal pad.

I got home just in time to take a phone call from my son, whose car wouldn't start, at his job at the State Park, a half hour away. He had a bad battery cable, so I went and got one, drove over to the park, paid a $4 parking fee, and bailed him out.

We got home just in time to start setting up a tent in the yard for my daughter and her friends, who were having a sleep-over. The Queen had to work, so rather than risk my saying 'no', they arranged it all and then informed me.

I did get my new brake pedal pad installed... and ordered a reverse light pigtail from tpi_parts on ebay. That's the sum total of the work that was done on the car today.

*>sigh<*

OK all you hares out there... this is the tortoise checking in with my progress.

Since family and friends were coming to the lake for Independence Day weekend, and also since things were a little slow at work, I decided to skip out of work early on Friday, and also to take today off. Object: finishing the dang T5 swap.

Friday was fairly productive in view of the fact that I only got in about 4 hours' work. I filed down the starter nose until the bellhousing fit well, then I installed the flywheel, clutch, and bellhousing. I installed a brand new rubber clutch fork boot, and removed the console in preparation for cutting the shifter hole.

Today I removed the shifter and measured for the hole. I saw somewhere in a thread that measuring 22" back from the bellhousing gives you the center of the hole. I saw another thread where the guy said 21" gave him a better center, and that was my experience. I used 22", and my hole was about 1" too far back. I didn't cut the hole full sized, so I had some wiggle room. It took a little while, but I finally got a hole cut the proper size in the proper place.

I amazed myself by being able to install the trans without help, and bled the clutch cylinder, and now all I have left is the driveshaft, torque arm, and shifter (at which time I will add trans fluid).

I could have finished today, but I don't want to push myself and risk messing something up.

Well, as it turns out, last weekend was a total bust. I had to work Saturday. Sunday, I was tasked with driving about 3 hours each way to pick up my daughter, who had stayed with my best friend and his daughter for the week. So the project was put on hold.

I got out there yesterday bright and early, and discovered that my clutch slave cylinder (the plastic one) was weeping brake fluid. Ack. I had been debating whether I should go ahead and replace it with an aluminum one, and this iced it.

I also noticed that the torque arm bushing was backwards when compared to the one from the 700R4. A little research told me that they are not "all the same". Fortunately, Advance carries a bushing replacement kit (does not include the metal brackets). To complete my day, I found my clutch start switch pigtail, but it's not obvious to me how the switch mounts and operates. In any case, Advance ordered my parts, and I am picking them up this morning.

I decided to use the rest of the day to swap the air-bag style steering wheel from my replacement column to the GTA wheel with radio buttons. It took a while to figure out which parts I needed from the old column to make it work, but I finally worked it out. I wasn't quite done before I had to drop the tools and get ready for church.

I got a surprise after church: My brother came up with his family for the weekend, and he offered to help with the car. I might actually get this done.

More later today.

Following Murphy's Law of Projects, the closer I get to completion the more little things pop up and the longer it takes to deal with them.

Got the slave cylinder, torque arm bushing kit, and clutch switch today.

The new torque arm bushing is a single piece, urethane deal... it matches my car... but also matches auto version, which meant I had to cut it in a couple of spots to get it to fit in the 5-speed mount. Then it was quite a PITA to get it lined up correctly and installed, but eventually I got it in.

The clutch slave cylinder was a piece of cake by comparison, but I am not sure I have it bled correctly. When I went to start the engine, the battery had drained so low that it needed a charge, and of course, my charger was at my Dad's house. So I broke off for the day, and spent the rest of the day swimming with my brother and his family.

I also had a bit of a problem with the plastic ring that has the wiper on it for the horn and the steering wheel radio controls... it doesn't want to line up correctly, so I think I may have to shim the turn signal switch in order to fix that...

More later this week as I tinker in the evenings...