Hello my name is Thomas. The tranny went out in my 1991 Camero Rs with 305 tbi. I got another tranny from a used car parts store. All i know is that it came out of a 1987 Camero. I install it but when i was connecting the wiring back there was a different connection. It looked like a speedometer cable connection. Am i going to have issues? Or what do i need to do to convert it to the electrical connector?

 

Not sure about "Camero"; don't even know what that is; butt if it's a Camaro, like the label on the side of the car might say, then all you have to do is take the piece with the electrical out of your existing transmission, take the speedo cable "bullet" out of the other one, and put the electric thing in its place.

If you're lucky the gear mounted on the output shaft is the same. You can look down in there and compare. Ideally they're the same color and have the same # of teeth. If not, you'll need to pop the extension housing off the back of the transmission and swap that over as well.

Definitely READ the stickers on the car and make sure we're working on the right thing here. Then you'll know what to ask questions about.

 

I cant thank you enough for the information. I prayed someone here could help me out and I could feel secure enough to attempt the process you suggested. Really makes me question my abilities when i miss spell such a common word. Its like the word Fiero. It to, in big letters is printed on the whole back end of the car and ive caught myself misspelling it before. I appoligize if i offended any one it wasnt intended to. Age may have alittle to with it. But i hope it taught me to preread before i post. And make sure i post the vehicle correctly so information i may recieve is correct for the vehicle im working on. But in the last few days (she) has been renamed multiple times , because of my mistakes. Like the dust shield before the bellhousing if the starter is leftbin place. I should have remenbered. And i cleaned it before installing and i noticed it didnt have the electrical plug on the speed sensor. but continued with the install anyways. And i dont have access to the old tranny. I took it to a tranny shop first and they told me it was shot, rebuild was $2850. They were about 1hr 45 min away. I sent them $180 to look at it then i asked them if they would get rid of it for me it would saving me gas money and time. Wishing now i hadnt been so lazy.

 

Man, $2850 for a rebuild? That's rough. Maybe you could look into some local junkyards for a compatible transmission? Might be cheaper, but I'm not sure if it's the best solution.

 

Thanks Iami, at 69 you would think i would do my homework when swapping parts. Here in Colo it seems rare to find a third gen Camaro in the salvage yards. At least when ive had the need to look. So i relied on a used auto parts online store. The one i used had one but when it went thru the insp dept theu found a hairline crack. Then the sales person put it out on a hot line and a affiliate store had this tranny out of an 1987 and they said it was compatable with low miles for $1150. I purchased it and installed it and ran into this issue of speedometer cable on the 87 and Halls Effect on my 91!!

 

So thats why im here, if there was any where folks have come across this same issue and could guide me thru the process of getting it corrected.

 

So thats why im here, if there was any where folks have come across this same issue and could guide me thru the process of getting it corrected.

 

The cable vs electronic speedo thing isn't a third gen issue, as such. It's a year model issue.

Regardless, all the parts just swap over from one to the other. In either direction. Later transmissions are considered better for example, so people often try to "update" theirs, and have to put mechanical goodies in where electronic ones were before. Just as easy.

THAT'S a real problem then... not so much because you can't get the parts, but because you don't know what the right ones to get are. You'll need to match the speedo gears to the rear end gears and tire size the car has, and assuming the speedo was right before, you now no longer have access to that. But once you get it figured out you can get the parts here, as well as various other places. https://transmissioncenter.net/?prod...edometer-gears

 

All good now?

 

Hi, not all good yet! But have a understanding better of the issue! The company i purchased the tranny from has been trying to help nut to no avail. The tranny works good its just the check engine light is on and no speedo. The used car company is watching for a tranny so if anyone has one for sale i could refer them to you and see if they would purchase it ?

 

Hi again, i was reading " everything you know about the T5. And it said 83 thru 87 used gear oil. And 88 thru 92 used automatic tranny fluid. Is that correct?

 

Yes and no. Yes, I think that's what the manual said. But people have used both with success. My 82 had an 83 t5 and I ran atf for years. It did really well. Was it the proper fluid per the manual no. Do you have a t5 now?

 

Yes.

The factory (not the transmission factory, whose specification never changed; only the car assembly factory's) waffled back and forth on the fluid spec acoupla times during the 1st design lifetime. From the outside it looked like an argument between the engineers and warranty dept, who would want gear oil which is the proper fluid for the application, against the CAFE dept, who wanted the thinnest fluid possible to eeeeeek out the last possible .001 mpg. All of this of course without any change whatsoever to the underlying parts, which are identical overall to older 3- and 4-speeds and such, with straight roller bearings and brass blocker rings, which call for gear lube. So whatever "my 8[x] manual says to use ATF" noise you hear, and you WILL hear plenty of it, THE PARTS need gear lube.

The 2nd design uses tapered rollers with preload, and composition blocker rings. Same basic materials and techniques as are used in automatic transmissions. Those need ATF.

So yes, your summary is correct.