Im looking to swap out my old T5 with a new Tremec T56 from Spohn.com

They have this site that says all you need is a new crossmember, tourque arm and driveshaft, and its all of which would total roughly 3000 dollars.

My question is, is this true, is it still a pain in the a$$?
How much would it cost if i brought it to a mechanic to do? or is it easy enough for a weekend mechanice to handle?

http://www.spohn.net/product.cfm?productid=1343
http://www.spohn.net/product.cfm?productid=1307
http://www.spohn.net/product.cfm?productid=1341

 

I'd think so long as you get the right parts, it should be a bolt-on. But I'll let those that have them chime in...

 

Here, I'll save you $500

Call Liberty transmissions in TX $1875 (IIRC) and get the trans there, if not call Mike Forte at www.fortesparts.com $19xx

Get the spohn crossmenber with tq arm, shorten your driveshaft 2" and go like hell.

If your going from a T-5 to an aftermarket T-56 my mom could do the swap in a weekend. 24 bolts/nuts under the car and your done

 

wanna have your mom come to my house? I'll punch out the clutch hole for her even

 

Piece of cake and everything works bitchin'

 

the swap was easier than putting headers on my tpi air conditioned bird (that took three days, auto to manual trans swap... day and a half) . if you get the parts you mentioned it will be very easy. these are some of the experiences and problems i had.

that trans is very heavy. support it properly and do not let it hang by the input shaft while you are putting it in. if you do i promise you will distort the clutch disc spline hub and you will have big problems. also if you let it hang you can crack the bearing surface on the adaptor plate that the throw out bearing rides on...this leads to it eventually breaking off and results in a nice noise that sounds like the trans is about to fly apart. trust me... i know.... i did it, i got lazy and tried to put the trans in by myself after i put a new engine in...and that was the result.

use three guys to put the trans in if you doing it on the ground with a floor jack. 2 under the car to handle trans, one guy up top.
once you have the trans input shaft through the clutch splines have your buddy up top push the clutch pedal down and the trans should slide right in.

with the adapter plate and the fact that the tremec is a beastly sized trans, you have very little clearence in the tunnel. put the cross member up and check to see if any part of the trans or plate is hitting or close to hitting the floor. you may have to take a pry bar and push sections of the floor up to improve clearence. if it hits and you let it go, you will have all kinds of nasty vibrations.

tail shaft is longer to. this can increase drive shaft u-joint operating angle. it may be necessary to shim the tail up and use the torque arm to angle the pumpkin to get you the appropriate operating angle for a comfortable fairly vibration free ride on the street. if operating angle is too great you will chew through u-joints so fast it's not even funny. if i think of anything else i'll post it up. good luck.

 

i spent about $3300 to get all the parts. the trans, all the spohn stuff, new clutch, pedal assembly, brand new GM hydr. clutch release assembly (pre- bled~so nice).