Well, I discovered that the T5 dust cover comes no where near fitting the T56 bell housing. And the T56 version is supposedly discontinued by GM.

So, what has everyone else used for this? I've called several Pick-n-Pulls with no luck, eBay, etc. all come up empty.

 

Very different from my experience...

Although, I didn't even bother checking with GM, because I already knew THAT would be a waste of time. 2-pc rear main seal motor + T-56 = nonexistent as far as the dealer is concerned.

However, what I did find during all my usual swap mock-ups before actually installing it, was that the place where the T-5 cover's bolt holes is, matches up with undrilled bosses on the T-56 BH. So I just marked, drilled & tapped the T-56 BH before I put it into the car. I suggest you do the same before you put yours in while it's still easy to do that. IIRC the reverse (drilling the cover to match the BH) is not possible, because the bolts go through little tabs on the cover.

 

try all these Fbody salvage yards. hey might have something. You may also try GM if they are wiling to do a nationwide search for you. Sometimes a dealership or warehouse has one collecting dust on a shelf. If all that fails then I guess your fabbing one up out of thin gage aluminum. Mock it up with cardboard of a a thick piece of paper for drawing.

 

Well, I didn't find one (they're extremely hard to find, rare, and discontinued by GM), but I did come up with a solution....

Take your old T5 cover and modify it to fit/work. Here's what I did:

First, remove the starter completely and place the T5 cover plate in position and put in the bolt that goes in by the starter. That hole lines up fine (It's the only one that does).

Slide the plate up flush with the bell housing and tighten that one bolt to hold it in place. Take a magic marker and mark where the other three bolts are showing on the edge of the plate. Because of the way the T5 plate is shaped, you can see half of the bolt holes in the bell housing that don't line up with a hole in the plate.

Now take the plate off the bell housing and use a Dremel tool or hacksaw and cut little V-notches where you marked the BH holes. What you are going to do is place a large washer on the bolt, put it thru your notch, and thread it into the BH while holding the plate in place. Since the notches are on the bottom of the cover plate, it can't fall off once the bolts are tightened.

It's a lot simpler to do this than it sounds. What the hell - I managed to do it so it has to be!