Hey everyone, I did the 700r4 to t-56 swap this weekend. I started at 8:30pm friday night and finished by 6am saturday morning. THe job went smooth except for the pedals/cutting holes in the firewall (pain with no space) and I had the torque arm mount from a 3rd gen instead of the 4th gen. I was cutting and welding a whole new mount at like 4am lol. The finished product is beefy as hell and works great.
The car is so much better to drive, My car ran a 14.1 at 101 with the auto before and it feels so much quicker now. I have 3.42's and the lower ratio t-56 (3.36 first intead of the 2.9x). The B&M ripper shifter is great too.
Does anybody know where to find a dakota digital conversion box for cheap? I also got an SES light, gotta throw the scanner on it.

Finally I want to thank everyone who posted instructions online. It was a great help. If anybody is wanting to do this swap let me know any questions you have. I'll be happy to help in any way possible. Thanks

 

Thats awesome man, great job, I'm looking to put a T56 in place of my 700 and I'm really iffy about the specifics.

VSS conversion so my mechanical signal can be converted to electrically....how hard is that to set? I heard that the unit is like 250$ to convert, and that you can't change gears and stuff or it won't read the right speed.

Flywheel won't work with a 2 piece seal....

What other little things don't bolt up? I've got an 87....I'm putting in a 70s 350 block next week....i know my 700 isn't going to hold long....anything info would be great

thanks and great job

 

I already have a elec. speedo in the car (it's a 92) so i jsut need the 79$ sgi-5 box, not sure about the mechanical speedo. For the flywheel you need a centerforce retrofit flywheel, get it from summit or jegs. The swap ended up costing me about 1500 after buying everything and selling the old tranny, it is def. 100% worth it. The car is so much more fun to drive now.

 

3rd gen resource sells a conversion setup for 1500$, so after that id still need the flywheel and electric conversion, so im looking at 2000$ if im lucky....would i be better off locating a used t56 for like 800$ and gathering the parts myself or will i end up killing myself trying to find every little part for a decent price...

i have no idea what the T56 is even going for right now....how much are those flywheels?

the clutch/pedal assembly out of a t5 works just as well right? i mean, other then the wiring, how much fabbing is needed to make the tranny fit? the xmember, but after that does it just "bolt" in?

 

T-5 pedals work if they're from a hydro-clutch car ('84 and up.)

NEW clutch hydros run about $100.

The early-model flywheel runs about $300 or a little more depending on where you get it. Centerfroce part #700107

If you have the knockouts in your firewall for the clutch master cylinder then the only "fab" work you have to do is cutting a hole in the floorpan for the shifter, but there's nothing to that. If you have to drill the holes for the clutch master then that's a PITA.

I bought my 6-speed for $500. However, the guy thought it was blown because it wouldn't stay in 3rd or 4th. A $16 clutch fork and some time to dissassemble the trans took care of that. I don't reccommend trying this if you've never rebuilt a manual tranny.

HTH

 

500$ I wish...I want to avoid "f body" junkyards and such, they tend to be overpriced, id rather go to a salvage yard, pull the tranny out myself and pay like 500$ with no warranty, do places let you do that?

I'm not too worried about it being broken, as long as teeth aren't broken i mean...im not exactly sure what to look for, the guy whos garage i do all my work at, he knows all that, i've been told that there really aren't that many things to go wrong in a manual, just gears....


but as for the swap, it's pretty much just pedals, bolt the tranny in, and set up the speedo to work, thats it?