The big bolt that holds the front spherical bearing assembly is touching the case of my transmission. Its right at a empty bolt hole location on the transmission case. So do I have to grind down the case a bit to make it fit? or do I grind the bolt head down to make it fit? Anybody else have this problem?

Thanks

 

Lengthen all the rod ends somewhat, at both ends of the torque arm, to move that bolt forward a half-inch or so, maybe a little more.

 

Thanks for the tip I'm going to try that. I would much rather do that, rather than grinding my transmission case or bolt head down.

 

or you can grind down that empty bolt flange. mine just barely touched when i did the swap. now i have the car apart again and am going to grind.

 

Don't hack your car. Just adjust the parts correctly, and they'll fit.

In fact, that bolt hole is supposed to have a bolt for an exhaust bracket in it; if you do as I described, you can even put the bolt in it, and fully assemble your car.

Hacking is a last resort for when all attempts at doing it right have turned out futile. It's not the first thing you do when presented with a problem. That's the way hacks think, not serious hobbyists.

 

i hardly call grinding a small amount of material off of an empty bolt hole in the side of the transmission "hacking". i personally, as a tech, take offense at that remark. and just because you ground a little off does not mean you can't deburr the hole and run a tap through it to ensure good threading and use the hole just as you mentioned. it is possible for there to be slight descrepancies from customer to customer, even car to car, when you make bueatifully fabricated custom parts for custom swaps by hand, the way Steve Spohn does. a good friend of mine purchased the Spohn crossmember and arm several years ago. he put it on his '83 t/a, he ended up changing cars a little while later. we went to put it on the new '84 and it would not line up correctly. we had make it work. it's a part of fabrication. what do you think custom car builders and race shops do all day... they make stuff fit the way they need it to. our cars were designed to use a stamped steel torque arm that mounts to the trans, not a big, beautiful, hand fabricated tubular integrated torque arm and crossmember. it's all just a part of the game.

 

Whatever....

I'm not a "tech", I'm more of an engineer; although actually I'm not even that since I have no marketable skills, I just play one on radio and TV. But just the same, if I can adjust something properly to fit, I won't leave it mis-adjusted contrary to its instructions, and then hack on the car to keep it from interfering, and call that good. The part in question is designed to fit, and will fit when preperly installed.

Improper installation + cutting off the part of the car that the improperly installed part hits = hack

 

whatever yourself...

just cause you have a better way of doing something doesn't mean you have to act all high and mighty, cause your an "engineer", going around and calling people hacks. these boards are supposed to be a helpful and supportive place where people can can give suggestions without fear of being called a hack by someone like you.

 

Improperly installing an aftermarket part and then cutting the car out of the way = hacking

I can't think of very many things that qualify any better as "hacking", with the possible exception of indiscriminately taking a Jeffrey Dahmer saw to the wiring and emissions devices.

When I see "hacking" going on, I'll call it "hacking". Personally I consider giving advice on how to install a part correctly in order to avoid "hacking" like in the above definition, as being supportive and helpful. Most of us don't want our cars to look like the only tools we own are tin snips, hammers, and saws. But if that's how you want to treat your own car, go right ahead; just don't expect me to approve of it, and tell others how great it is, and to find some politically correct word for "hacking" so that people who hack on their cars won't get offended.

If the shoe fits, wear it. Sorry if you don't like it.

 

I'm glad you agree.

 

there's no need to be rude. you have a better way of doing this particular job. i might even try it my self. i never thought of doing it that way. so i am actually going to say thanks for the good idea. i was wrong and you were right.

also, you don't know anything about me, or my car, or the kind and quality of work i do. so assumptions are totally uncalled for. as are twisting my words into something that i never said as Red Devil did in his post. thers just no need for that kind of crap.

we all share a common passion for making our third gen f-bodies better, and everyone should be treated with some respect.

thanks and have a nice evening.

 

Put a fork in 'm Sonny, he's done!!!

Mike, it was a JOKE hence the >> . I have an aptitude with the written language. I've been known to demonstrate it on occasion. This thread has not been one. Take the proverbial deep breath and relax.

In fact I do agree with RB, but I also saw you coming around. Stop being so touchy.

Incidentally, what do you think of cutting into the rear sheet metal to help take out the fuel pump?

 

Grind the T-56 tailhousing down about an 1/8". That is the best solution.

Extending out the Rod end is more risky then filing down an unused bolt hole and will not garantee that the bolt won't make contact during the TA travel on the road. RB83L69 is usually correct but not in this case. If modifying parts to work together, parts that weren't there from the factory, is called hacking then you better tell Chip.

 

Steve ships his arms with all the rod ends screwed all the way together; to make them as short as possible I suppose, for shipping.

If you have one like I do, you would notice that the front of the TA goes to a sort of link that's about 2-2˝" tall. If you put the arm on as it comes, the link is not perfectly vertical, but rather tilts rearward about 30°. The top bolt, where the front of the TA itself bolts to that link, interferes with the bolt boss on the trans. I know because I did that and observed, and actually gave some thought to what the best way to deal with it was, rather than just doing the brute-force thing and reaching for the die grinder and cut-off wheel.

If you lengthen all 3 rod ends about ˝" each from their all-the-way-screwed-together position, it makes the little link tilt frontwards at about the same 30° angle; and clears the boss on the trans easily. It's not like you are doing something wrong by adjusting the rod ends. In fact, the amount you need to adjust them all out, is less than the amount you change the bottom rear one by, in the process of adjusting the pinion angle.

But I guess if you just really want to install something wrong and then hack on the car to get it out of the way, that's totally your own business. That doesn't keep it from being a hack though. Kind of like if the only tool you know anything about is a hammer, then every job looks a whole lot like a nail to you. I prefer to use my brain a little bit rather than just indiscriminately hacking on something because I can't (or don't even try to) figure it out. It's especially a shame when it's so easy to do it right.

I found it completely unnecessary to hack on my car in the process of installing that part. It essentially bolted right in, fits right, works great, does exactly what it's supposed to do. Obvously it was designed correctly and doesn't require hacking parts of the car out of the way to allow it to fit.

 

RB83L69,

not a rod end but not quite 30* like you stated. Even my rod end did not go back 30*. When adjusted almost perpindicular to the TA the bolt on the link still was too clost to the tranny. You assume too much.


You call trimming an unused mount a hack? haha...I call it weight savings How can you call something a hack if you can't even tell it what was done?

How did you get a speedo to work with your T56?

 

Looks rather familiar.... except I have the version with the drive shaft loop.

If you back out the rod end in that pic (the one that's screwed all the way in) about 5 or 6 turns, it will clear everything. Then you don't have to carve on anything

I used the JTR conversion, where they machine a whole new hole into the extension housing, and put in a little piece that accepts the speedo cable gear sleeve. The T-5 drive gear just fits right onto the mainshaft, right where the reluctor is.

 

I believe that he also has the drive shaft loop, except its not showing in the picture.

I have that same crossmember & torque arm for my car, and it clears the transmission without grinding anything. Unfortunately I have other issues with it, such as the fact that hard launches have started levering out the crossmember mounting bolts. I managed to pull the threads out of the frame this weekend on one of the bolts with a launch. Maybe the threads were weakened or something. However, I may now need to rework the subframe with new steel.

Then there's the clunking noise:

Anyone expereinced this?

Those big grade 8 bolts have too short of a shank and one of the links is riding on the threads.

 

I think the reason why the flexing is so evident is because of the DS loop. It is pretty far back from where the crossmember is bending. That is also why the crossmember is flexing in the first place. The mount for the torque arm is pretty far back from the bolts that hold the crossmember to the car. It also looks like there is a gap between the fram and the crossmember, right where the frame is countoured upwards towards the end.

Maybe if you stick a shim between the 2 of them the crossmember wont want to bend up as much? The shim wont help with bending down unless you can figure out some way of bolting it up. Also, it may be a good idea to try and reinforce that little torque arm 'lever' to keep it from twisting the channel that it is welded to.

What camera is that, get if from chase cam? Your car sounds nice!

 

I created my own in-car camera system from scratch. I use a SONY 1/3 inch superHAD CCD camera with replaceable lenses. I couldnt find an in-car system with a quality camera. The sound is from a Sony external mini-shotgun mic that is mounted adjacent to the camera and boosted to line input levels with a miniature battery powered audio amplifier. The mount is a solid magnetic base with about 110 pounds of pull so it's not going anywhere.

As for the flexing, I think ít's all in the subframe and that the crossmember itself isnt bending. I'm going to either add a third mounting point from the top of the driveshaft loop into the trans tunnel, or else reweld and reshape the whole subframe section to spread the mounting points apart for better support. Maybe I'll do both, or neither. I want to make clearance for my hooker long tubes, so I might just take it all off, sell it, put on a BMR track-link and a create a custom crossmember that offers long tube clearance and lots of support for the transmission.