I just have a few questions for the guys who have swapped out their 700's in favor of a T5:

1) Where did you get your T5? (place and/or vehicle it came from)
2) How much did you pay for your T5?
3) Did you rebuild your T5 before swapping it in?
4) If you didn't rebuild it, did you have any problems once it was in?

Thanks in advance. I'm just curious about what you guys have done. I'll be doing my swap in the next 3 weeks.

I got my T5 from an '89 Camaro for $50. Half-off day at Pick-A-Part kicks @ss. The car i pulled it from had massive oil pan damage so I assumed the owner killed the motor and the trans was OK. I'm not rebuilding it but I did pull the cover off. The gears have virtually no wear and the input shaft has very little play. I'm am very nervous though.....

 

^^^^

 

You bought a 5spd trans from a V8 Car, a 1989 for $50 bucks?? Wow, that's cheap! You can sell that tranny around here for at least a grand!!

 

A couple things come to mind about your swap. Was the tranny you got out of a V8 or a V6 car? There is a difference in the spline count on the input shaft. V6's have a coarser input spline, where the V8 cars have a finer spline. In you SIG your car is listed as a V6.

Also your automatic car will probably have a pretty high rear gear. Possibly 2.77's. Stick cars have a lower gear. My 305/tpi 87 car had 3.08's in it, and I just swapped a 3.42 rear with a zexel. I got the 3.42 rear out of a V6 stick car, then added the zexel. So you might check on this.

Then if the trans came out of a car with a different rear gear, then you will have to swap speedo gears. They will be different. Like I said I went from 3.08's to 3.42's and my speedo is off by about 10 mph. In the trans there are two gears for the speedo. One is the drive gear, the other is a small plastic driven gear. Driven gears can be easily swapped, but the drive gears are a little harder. You have to pull the tailshaft off the trans to swap it out. I rebuilt my T5 about 3 months ago, and just swapped rear's out this last weekend. I've got a 22 tooth driven gear in now, but like I said the speedo is 10 mph fast, so I need to either go 3 more teeth on the driven gear, or swap the drive gear out. I'm going to try and put in a 25 tooth driven gear, but I'm not sure it will fit or not. If it doesn't then I have to pull the tailshaft off the trans to swap the drive gear. (great fun-not!!) Anyway, it might be best to get this worked out before you put the trans in the car. It's a whole lot easier to swap the speedo drive gear with the trans out of the car.

On the tranny, if everything looks good and there are no large metal chunks in the bottom of the trans, I'd say try it as is and see how it works. And, if the trans is really from an 89 car, you got a WC (World Class) trans. These have improved bearings and syncros over the NWC (Non World Class) trannies. Basically you stole it. You should be locked up for a find like that!! They got any more for $50??

 

Yeah, I wasn't aware that it was a WC trans until I took it home and looked it up on www.5speeds.com . They usually sell for $100 at the "self-serve" yards but I went on 1/2 off day. $50 took it home. It is HARD to find a T5 newer then 1986 around here....guess I got lucky.

Steve: No it was from a V6 car.

Alloy: Yeah, I had a problem with the speedo gears. My car has 3.23's but 3.23's were never used in the T5 so I can't get the right gears. Instead, I put 3.08 speedo gears in it. I figure the speedo won't be off TOO much.

 

How many teeth on your speedo driven gear? You only need to go 1 or 2 teeth larger to get your speedo right.

 

Alloy:

I used these gears---

DRIVE: Red w/ 9 teeth
DRIVEN: Gray w/ 22 teeth

 

You would probably have to change your drive gear to a 7 tooth to get your speedo to read correctly. I'm in the same boat. But today I made the decision to just buy one of those speedometer gear reduction boxes and do it that way instead of pulling the trans apart. The gear boxes are $60, and having the car put on the rollers to check the speedo is $10. To me it's worth the $70 not to have to pull the trans apart again. I just rebuilt it about 3 months ago, so really don't want to mess with it. Besides, the gear boxes are adjustable with many different gears, so if I ever decide to change gear ratios again, I simply just change the small gears in the gear box.

 

Where are you getting the correction box from??? $60 sounds reasonable......plus I can use the dyno at work to verify actual speed. I might just do that. Is it a simple install?

 

The "gear box" just attaches to were the speedometer cable goes with the same type of large knurled nut. Then it has an output connection that the speedo cable goes onto. Maybe 5 minute install at most after you get the car jacked up.

I'm getting the box from a local speedometer shop. I would think almost any speedo shop could make you one up. If you have access to the dyno with MPH readout, then you can just tell them exactly what correction you need and they will make it up for you on the spot. The guy told me there are literally hundreds of different ratios the boxes are capable of, so if I ever make any more gearing changes, I can correct the speedo with a simple and inexpensive gear change in the little gear box I'm buying.

I'm going to get my gear box tomorrow morning, so I'll try to remember to take a pic or two of it before and after the install.

 

Oh, does your car have a cable speedo??? Mine uses an electronic one. Well, I'll see if I can find any info for a correction box for an electronic speedo......

 

Yes it does have a cable. I don't know anything about the electric speedos. Sorry.