hotrod9168

Just finished installing a T56 into my 1991 Z28. Still have the shifter boot and console to piece back together. But otherwise it is a very straight forward and easy install, minus the knuckles and four days of work. My biggest trouble with the project was the availability of tools at the Military Base do-it-yourself garage, just too many Chinese flim-flam wrenches. Thankfully only one more ratchet broke than bolts rounded off. Still I was very surprised the way everything fell into place.

Currently I live in Germany, just part of being in the military, and trying to hang with those BMW and Audi's has been troublesome at speed. The car is a 1-LE which means the T5 doesn’t have the tall overdrive ratio that came in the other Z-28’s and RS’s of the day. But from the factory the speed-o reads 150, and the darn thing will do it right up until I start to worry that this sustained 5500 RPM run could shorten the life of my little V8 and I slow down.

Parts
>I used everything that was named to fit a '94 Z-28, sort of, keep reading and don’t throw anything away until you are done.
>The transmission is out of a '94 Z-28 I found on E-bay from a guy who sells junkyard/swap-meet parts he finds from time to time. Don’t ask about the shipping I paid to Germany, I don’t want to remember. But he sent me everything I asked for: the old clutch assy with pressure plate and flywheel (they were smoked anyways), the entire hydraulic system, shifter, all the pressure plate-flywheel-slave cylinder hardware (you must get the pressure plate bolts, I had to re-use them b/c they don’t come with the new pressure plate from McCloud), the torque arm mount (didn’t need it, but the hardware was nice to have), and the exhaust mount (didn’t use it either), oh and about 3.5 quarts of used ATF fluid. Can you imagine the look on the Manager’s face at UPS when the fluid spilled out of the tail housing when I pulled the yoke out so I could count the teeth. The thing was full. All this was after I loaded it into my buddy’s truck mind you. I just smiled and drove off laughing at the number of environmental and hazardous material shipping laws we had just broken.
>Flywheel was a NAPA part# NNC506503. 153 tooth. Cost less than half of what Summit had listed, including shipping. Had it shipped direct to my military PO Box too via USPS. Did you know that NAPA has subcontracts to small businesses (I mean simple private businesses run sometimes out of guys back yard garage) run by retired U.S. military members who reside here in Germany? NAPA is awesome!
>Clutch is from McCloud part# MCL-75116 ordered from Summit. Summit, not Jegs ships to military PO Boxes via USPS. And USPS is half the price of Fedex or UPS.
>Slave cylinder is ’94 GM replacement. Refer to lesson #1 for more details.
>Spoon cross member fit very well except I couldn't re-use the bracket that hangs the cats off the end of the xmsn. See lesson #3.
>I bought a new pilot bearing but decided not to use it. My car has under 30K on it and the bearing looked fine with no other clutch issues to speak of either.
>Brake Fluid. My car called for DOT3. refer to lesson #1.
>Four Quarts of ATF DextronII or equivalent.

Tools
>A transmission jack is a must have. End of line.
>Everything is metric and mostly either 15mm or 13mm. The torque arm to diff bolts were the largest at 20mm. Only the ARP flywheel bolts I bought for some added safety, and since you can’t reuse the old ones, were standard size.
>An impact wrench made disassembly easier.
>25 to 85 foot pounds capable torque wrench.
>Blue Lock Tite for things like the slave cylinder, pressure plate, or bellhousing.

Here is what I learned that could help others. Not all of this is new info. Others have posted the same information before. But some of it may help. This is what I didn’t know going into this… Read below…

Lesson 1
>You can mix and match the '94 and '91 hyd clutch systems. I was able to procure the entire hydraulic master/slave clutch assembly from the donor car. And due to the lower mileage of my car and equipment I chose to modify the two systems ('91 & '94) into one. I kept my pedals and clutch master cylinder but used the longer braided line from the '94 and a new slave cylinder for the '94 to fit the T56 pull type clutch. The original slave cylinder for the '91 would have fit but the plastic looking hard line from the master cylinder would have been kinked and maybe too short. To use the braided line from the ’94 system I only had to file down one metal end to fit into the '91 master cylinder. The line has a ridge or nipple that makes the metal end of the braided line to big to fit into the older '91 master cylinder. A simple hand file worked just fine. No leaks. The hardest part was removing the master cylinder from the car to punch out the pin holding in the line. My pedal is now a little heavier, due to the aftermarket clutch, and engagement is right at the top of travel. Which if anyone has driven one of these cars before that is where it has always been. Final thought, a ’94 slave cylinder is self bleeding.

Lesson 2
>I couldn’t get the transmission to seat all the way no matter how hard I pushed or where I positioned the xmsn. My first thought was that I should have replaced the pilot bushing, it’s the wrong size. But I had done a side by side comparison of T5 vs T56 before installation. My second thought was that I positioned the clutch disk to high in the pressure plate during assembly. Incase you didn’t know. Even with the plastic pin used during assembly to mock up the input shaft, you have some room for error. So, after a silent prayer I went with my second thought and pressed the clutch pedal to the floor. Now on a pull type clutch system the clutch fork will be bolted to the xmsn, the slave cylinder to the bellhousing, and the throwout bearing is attached to the pressure plate. This means that the hydraulic system will pull the xmsn into place and let loose the clutch disk relieving that last little bit of misalignment; but you have it just about there anyways or it will just bind and you can’t get it back apart easily. Never pull the xmsn together using the bolts.

Lesson 3
>While using the Spoon T56 cross-member you can still use your stock exhaust hanger that hangs the catalytic converter assy off the end of the xmsn. Here is how. You are going to have to bolt the bracket to the cross-member. As you may know this bracket is made of three parts (two stamped pieces of metal and some rubber all riveted together). The metal part that usually bolts to the xmsn, lets call this part A and the other that bolts to the cats is part B. First, remove the rivet holding part A and the rubber together. Next find a bolt the same size and thread count as a tapping tool you have on hand and will fit into the same hole the rivet did of part A. Now, cut part A into two pieces using the rubber strap as a guide. What I mean is you are going to bolt this rubber strap directly to the cross-member so cut away the pieces of part A that would be in the way but leave enough to support the rubber and not tear it. Last thing I did was drill and tap a hole into the cross-member. Do measure twice where to drill on the cross-member. I drilled the hole to close to the cats and had to really do a lot of bending of part B to get it short enough to fit. Do all of this with the cross-member installed in the car, xmsn is optional to be in the car for this operation.

Lesson 4
>Probably already known by everyone, but you can fill the xmsn with oil through the shifter housing.

Lesson 5
>The flywheel used is 153 tooth and my ‘91 starter works fine, no shims either. The flywheel must be for the xmsn you are installing

Troubles I still have to solve.

1) VSS and reverse electrical connectors. I think I have it figured out that I have to preprogram the PROM with the pulses per mile that the T56 17 tooth reluctor wheel will produce. Not sure if the computer will do it, but I’ll try. So I need a clean way to connect the two sensors into my existing harness. Just need the plugs is all. Wire is cheap.
2) Shifter boot. I had to clearance the trans tunnel a little bit to make room for the taller and further to the rear shifter assy. Now the boot won’t fit the new length of the hole in the tunnel. I am thinking of some scrap aluminum sheet metal could that could work to fill the gap. But I have to redrill the holes for the boot to move back about two inches.

I hope this helps those of you trying to do something like this. I had to spend a lot of time searching the post at this awesome site to find the information I needed. And believe me, to read most of your way through a thread thinking you’ve hit the mother load of how to’s to find out the guy doesn’t know what type of clutch set-up (pull or push) is used with the transmission he is telling you how to install is just plain frustrating. So trust the catalogs and write stuff down. The fact that a 1991 camaro Z28 has a 153 tooth flywheel might be of use when deciding which size clutch disk to purchase or even if your current starter will even work. And not all 153 tooth flywheels are the same even if they will bolt to the same blokc and crank. Always measure twice before cutting and do your homework before buying.

As I get into the break-in and further completion of this project I will update this thread.

Anyone know of a good way to solve the troubles I am still trying to solve?

Brian

jmd

iTrader: (4)

I remember trying the programming the .bin for ppm and it never working out. Less time and nonsense to get the SGI-5 and run with it IMO.

2" back and this was a 94 bellhousing / trans into a 91 5spd car? I didn't think it was back that far. I guess I'd get a 4th gen boot for the slit shifter opening instead of the round hole. Then, drill the spot-welds out of the ring under the floorpan that the boot screws to, move it back, tack it in place and have a bit of metal welded in up top. None of that is super-critical for strength so there are easier ways to do it, such as quarter-panel bonding adhesive material.

PS: nice detail.

hotrod9168

JMD,

Did your effort to change the .bin to calibrate for the some 45,698.04 pulses per mile for the T56 prove to much for the computer or was it something else? Can you explain what you tried to do a little more. Where did you get the electrical connectors?

I might be exagerating with the 2 inches here. But my car has the rectangle hole for the shifter in the xmsn tunnel and I cut quite a bit of it back, better than one inch for sure. Now, I can access the four bolts to the shifter without issues too. My set-up places the shifter bolts right up against the floor board. So if I had not clearanced the shifter I fear that the bumps in the road would bring the two together. I did not check my U-joint angles though, So the cross-member my be a little to high and causing the shifter to be unusaully close to the xmsn tunnel. I did also use a new xmsn mount for a '94 Z-28 though and that might be the real culprit. I have to check.

For me to relocate the shifter boot I have to remove the center consol to have the room and do it correctly. It's on the list to do.

Oh, I noticed you use a 200-4R xmsn. Which car? How do you like it? Are these xmsn's similar to the TH350's in length and output shaft spline count? I have a 1968 Camaro back home that will be in need of a new xmsn and the better gear ratios of the 200 along with the overdrive seem perfect for my set-up. Currently a TH350 does the job with 4.10 cogs. It's very quick on the street and touches on 7's in the 8th mile. But the car really needs an overdrive.

Thanks for the help

Brian

jmd

iTrader: (4)

It's been 10 years and I don't remember the tune details.

Yes. I have an 88 SS trans in my 87 with a bad TCC solenoid I just noticed today (easy fix but annoying) and 87 SS & 86 SS cores for future use.

TH200-4R has TH400 crossmember location, TH350 length and output spline. 27 spline input/converter. Should be cake to swap into a '68 as long as you do the TV cable hookup at the carb correctly for good shifts. And the TCC lockup isn't too bad an addition. Last one of those I did was I think the B&M kit which taps into VSS and only locks up at a speed you select.

On your crossmember height, see what your driveline angle is from the trans. and the pinion angle from the driveline. If it's close and the car rocks and rolls without vibration on the autobahn, cool. Bump your floorboard to keep the shifter away from the floor a little bit and enjoy that trans!

Jaxom

The problem with the pulse-per-mile .bin adjustment is resolution. It works by changing the factor the pulserate is divided by, which gives the end result that in the low ranges (under 10k) adjustment is reasonable, but the higher the PPM gets the bigger the jumps are in the adjustment. For instance, it jumps from 43k to 46k in one increment, then 51k, 57k, 61k etc. I've been using 46k as the "closest possible increment" and it's been working fine as far as the ECM is concerned, but I don't know how or IF it will affect the stock speedo.

The VSS connector, if I remember right, is identical to the engine coolant temp connector which is common to all GM cars for like 15 years. Should be able to find one. For the reverse lockout, I chose to NOT connect it electrically. Instead, I pulled the solenoid apart and cut about a turn and a half off the spring inside it, which allows for a sort of bias-pressure when shifting into reverse that's stiff enough to keep you from hitting R when shifting 6-5, but not so stiff that you have to brace yourself against the door to put it in R. The other option is to wire the solenoid in parallel with the brake lights, so that you have to press the brake to shift into R.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Even better option is to just leave it out entirely.... I seem to have got along just fine for several decades driving stick shifts without such as that, don't see why it's necessary now all the sudden. It's mostly just an annoyance.

Same for the CAGS. Leave it out.

Yes that's what I did in my swap.

One of em takes I think it's a 30mm freeze plug; the other takes a screw-in plug that happens to be some oil drain plug you can get at AZ or wherever else has those things hanging on cards. Don't recall which is which.

hotrod9168

I have to ask, is there a way to adjust the pedal travel and engagement location of the clutch in this car? I know the Clutch master cylinder is non adjustable, but is the slave cylinder? Or could I adjust something on the pedals? I just remember the dealer being able to adjust my cousins S10 from back in the day. Maybe I'm remebering it wrong or half informed.

Brian

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

No, not really; it's self-adjusting.

Older vehicles, with mechanical setups, required adjustment on a regular basis. Not so with hydraulics.

What makes you wish you could adjust it?

hotrod9168

Update!

Autobahn cruising today, 155 MPH! Not a wobble or shake. But the LB9 305 really works hard in 6th gear, had to do it in 5th all the way into the red before shifting, and thats with 3.42 gears. The TPI just doesn't make any power up top. Although, not bad for a bone stock 5.0L that's 20y/o. LT1 intake is almost ready.

Still haven't fixed the VSS, just got the connector in the mail last week. I had to check my speed with the Garmin.

92camaroz28ss

iTrader: (1)

What I did with mine to solve the high pedal engagement is create an adjustment. I took out the hydraulic assembly, cut the rod between the master cylinder and where it attaches to the pedal. i actually used a thread from this site as a guideline - i can pull it up if you want.

I have the same problem with the trans tunnel and can actually smell exhaust fumes when sitting still (and a lot of heat too) through this hole. I havnt come up with a way to fix this yet, even after doing this about 4 years ago. If you come up with a solution for the extended hole let me know - i might use the idea also

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

I don't have the slightest problem with that...

First, a leak-free exhaust system is a big help.

Then, I just used the stock T-5 rubber boot over the T-56 shifter, screwed to the floor like it always has been (except that the screw holes across the rear are gone because of having to enlarge the hole an inch or so). Seems to seal up just fine.

hotrod9168

The Latest Development!

Well, I am deep into the head/cam/LT1 Intake swap and I am using Hooker 2210 headers. I plan to start another thread on that topic, but I wanted to keep some of the lessons in this one b/c they apply tot he transmission cross member.

I mocked up the exhaust pipes I am planning to use. WARNING! The spoon crossmember is like a hoover dam when trying to decide which route to take with your exhaust. The only answer I have come up with is to cut and moddify the crosssmember so it is higher and out of the way.

As far as the shifter boot fix. I am using a peice of sheet metal/aluminum cut to size to cover the gap left by the boot. I also re-drilled the mounting holes. I should have done all of this before the transmission was put in, might have avoided pulling the center consol.

MoJoe

iTrader: (5)

Nice write-up.
For the crossmember, search here on TGO for "drews crossmember", although I don't think "drews" is making them anymore.

Good pictures in post #9 in this thread...
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-...iver-side.html

Here is another homebuilt crossmember for T56 + longtube headers...
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...-tube-t56.html

- Joe

hotrod9168

Found a very nice crossmember from HAWKS. Got it today and will try this weekend to install it.

The car runs again, didn't think the cam I got from COMP was that 'nasty'. Doubt I'll get it past the German inspector. Di est a jinst da rules Ja! Not really German, but if you say it just right, you'll get the accent correct.

Your car cannot be too loud over here. Due to age, the Z-28 is not subject to the smog police. But roll through town cam'n like hell and you'll be get looked at like that guy who played the wrong anthem at the world series.

hotrod9168

Update,

The Hawks thirdgen cross-member made specifically for the T56 conversion is the perfect fit. Put it in with less than than two hours invested. The only hold up was the fuel line/return line/brakeline gaggle that runs down the driver's side of the trans tunnel. The cross-member interfered with the lines and I had to push them up higher in the tunnel, drill a mounting hole in the cross-member, and remount the hanger in the cross-member. Now the full header to dual cats to y-pipe can be tucked up between the frame rails.

All that is left is to solve the VSS hook-up and this part of the project is all done.

86 Money Pit

Thinking about doing this myself, good information.

hotrod9168

Final Update to the T56 swap.

Used the Dakota DIgital to convert the pulses from the trans to the ECM and Speedo. After the dyno tuning was done last month, I asked the tuner at the dyno to help me calibrate the speedo. I also calibrated my tach as well. There are plenty of write up on that one on this site.

The issue with the speedo and the tach is that the signals are not entirely linear, so the variable potentiometer and converter from Dakota read inaccurately when the needles are the extremes (hi/lo speed or rpm). I did not know this until I was on the dyno. So I picked a typical speed and calibrated the two guages in the dash. So at idle the tach is hi, but dead on at 5G, need to know that I am not over revving the engine, duh. And the speedo reads low at say 130 mph but dead on at 75. Had to compromise. I feel sorry for the next owner who doesn't know or forgets what I tell him about the guages.

Thanks to all for the support in the project, it has been real fun to learn and overcome the challenges.

Hotrod

DanZ51

Interesting. I'm using a Dakota Digital on my '86 Vette / T56 conversion. I haven't noticed any "non-linear" issues, yet. Guess I'll have to check it against my GPS again.

FWIW I replaced my OE style bronze pilot bushing with a roller bearing as recommended for a T56. Found a cheap National (MOOG) pilot bearing, PN 57080 (made in Germany) that has a rubber seal at Advanced Auto.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...5-vette-3.html