i am putting a T56 in my 85 Trans Am 5sp tonite please if you have done this before and would like to help please tell me what i am going to need and what problems, bty i have welder, tools, torches, all that good stuff and 10years experience on all of them, thanks.

 

I swapped a T56 in for a 700r4. It was pretty straight forward. I had to tilt the motor back to get the tranny in. That is really the only difficulty I had, aside from hanging the pedals. The swap took me 2 days. The various tech articles on the subject cover it well.

 

I had to take the bellhousing off and mount that first, then the tranny. I tried to put it in all in one piece, but there was no way it would go in, as the bellhousing would hit the floorboard before the input shaft got close to going into the pressure plate/throwout bearing. You don't have it that bad, as your car is already a manual. Just take things nice and slow, and you'll be alright.

 

what i was wondering was issues with cross member and drive shaft lenght and stuff like that, the instalation i can do. thanks

 

if your T56 is from a 4thgen, then driveshaft length is the same. however, you will need a "custom" crossmember because the mounting plate sits differently from t5s/700R4s. Even your stock torque arm will bolt up. Hope this helps.. aloha

 

For a crossmember I have the spohn member with a built on drive shaftloop. It is a real nice piece, just expect to wait a while for it. I think it took me 4 weeks to get mine.

 

thanks SSupa

 

i hear you have to cut the hole for the shifter back a little farther

 

I forgot to mention on my first post that I had a problem with my Spohn crossmember. I had to elongate the tranny mount holes to be able to slide it back some for it to align with the crossmember. I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem, but thats what happened to me.

 

My Spohn crossmember has the holes already elongated.

 

downwithET, i just noticed that you aer doing this to an 85 5speed car, which means you will not be using the original flywheel if it is a 2 piece rear main engine, i may be able to take that item off of your hands

email me if you are interested guffer3@mchsi.com