Hi Guy’s, I’d love to make my Camaro a manual transmission. What advice do have and how much of a pain is it to do ?? Thanks

 

Most of under the car is not real bad. Putting in the third pedal was the bad part for me but I have a bad back and shoulder that limit the tight underdash stuff and make it bad for me. You should read many things before starting as many things that come up are not obvious until you get there.

 

I have recently embarked on this adventure. Picked up an 87 IROC for parts, came with a broken T5 WC, I rebuilt that and now I am in process of swapping the pedals to my 86 IROC that is auto. I can say that removing the pedals was not fun for my back, but it didn't take very long. The center console is the same as auto just need to change the insert around the shifter, and cut the trans tunnel hole bigger. There will be some adapting perhaps for the pedal switches and trans shifter switches such as reverse lights, I am learning as I go, I have heard it is not that difficult in general labor and skill wise BUT getting the pedals, the console, brake master/slave, etc.. That is hard to find OEM. I was lucky to pick up a good donor car for $600 that had everything in good condition. Rebuilding the T5 was fairly easy!

 

I’m lost in this installation. Is this a cable clutch or is there actually clutch linkage? I’ve done a few 60s cars but this is entirely different. Will a t5 transmission hold up to a mild built 383 ? There are pedals available on eBay just not sure what all I need. Thanks

 

I'm only gonna offer one piece of advice here, as the rest of it is pretty straightforward......

Manual shift cars came with a firewall stiffener for the clutch master cylinder that (of course) an automatic car don't have. This means that a MC bolted to the firewall of an automatic car without the stiffener is in danger of cracking the MC mounting area due to the firewall flexing every time the clutch pedal is pushed. Here is a pic of the part I refer to, any and all of you doing manual swaps REALLY gotta get one of these from a donor car and weld it in, lest your clutch MC tear itself outta the firewall......

(look close at this section of firewall from a donor car, see the doubled section of metal at the clutch master cylinder hole?)

 

Member on here sells this part for the clutch master. He also makes a template for the master cylinder holes. I just did this swap and the pedals are the hardest part. I got my cousin who is like 100lbs soaking wet to do the under dash stuff.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/17631076537...Bk9SR6zIp-eNZA

 

Not too bad of a job. I just did it to my friends 86. We got the clutch brace off ebay and used it as a template for the master cylinder. Then I made a support to go around the shifter hole. Took about 4 days of intermittent work

 

I did NOT acknowledge this so THANK YOU for pointing this out. I am actually a fairly experienced at metal fab so it should be easy but I simply was not aware of this.

 

So.. as far as the old question about the T5 holding up goes, I can say that this is a subject that has been beatin to death. I have a t5 world class from an 88 IROC, I rebuilt it and installed the billet counter shaft support, and got the bearing preload set properly. IF it is built properly, and you are not trying to launch at high rpm with slicks in a heavy car, it SHOULD hold up to 400hp/400tq in theory. I built a super 10 for my 81 camaro, ran some low 12s, then broke the input shaft in short order, after replacing the case with a nodular iron casting, setting it up right, I beat the **** out of it for a few years with no damage. Case flex is BAD for the gears, the T5 has a relatively wimpy case, but built properly it CAN hold up fairly good. Installing the torque arm relocation crossmember can help as well, it takes some stress of the transmission in general. I am gonna put my T5 to the test, I will be sharing the results here on this forum, if it breaks OH WELL!! I will learn and move on.

 

Your welcome, glad I could help


Oh, and, , not nit pickin or tryin to be a know it all here, but Fullmonte 77's EBay link is not for the clutch MC stiffener, it's the brake MC stiffener (Which may not be a bad idea either)


PS, if the user name Fullmonte 77 refers to a 77 Monte Carlo, back in the 1990s I had one hell of a sweet example of one

 

Yes it does. I got it when my grandfather when he passed in 2001. He bought it new in 77. Unfortunately I sold it years ago. And you are right about the brace. I had a brain fart on that one.