I'm replacing my Automatic in my 91 with a 5speed from an 85. The VSS from the 85 tranny is cable, and my car has electric gauges. Will an electric VSS from a newer T5 plug right in to where my cable VSS is supposed to go? The Automatic one is completely different.

 

Hmmm...I am not sure. The 85 T5 is a Non-World Class and the T5 transmissions that would have came with a VSS are World Class (if I remember correctly, 90 and up Camaros had a electronic speedo, and 88 and up Firebirds had an electronic speedo (or was it 89?)). Anyhow, I wonder if the tail shaft housing and design is the same between the T5 designs so that you could place a VSS sender from a WC into a NWC. As far as I know, the changes from NWC to WC were all in the gear box...

 

I think it was 86+ Firebirds had an electric VSS, I'm not positive though.

I tried searching this topic, but couldn't find anything definite. If I can't put the newer VSS in looks like I'm gonna have to find a cable and then convert it back to electric with a DD box to be able to run my 4th gen cluster. =\

 

It sure will...just be sure it has the right gear on/in it to keep your speedo reading properly.
Enjoy.

edit to add: Oh yeah, it's the 86 and up 'birds with gauges that had the electronic speedo; the 86 and 87 without gauges still used the cable-driven unit.

 

Yes, it will. I just did this conversion in my f-body and had to do the same thing. The bore for the VSS is the same size if its a cable driven or electric model VSS.
Good luck.

 

As said before, it will fit. I went through same problem with my T5 swap. Also, if the trans you got came from a car w/ different final drive gears than yours, you'll need to get the right speedo gears so your speedo is correct.

In my case, my car has 3.23's in it, but 5-speeds never had 3.23's. So instead I got speedo gears for 3.08 rear and my speedo is pretty close to exact.

 

Do you know what gears were stock on my 91 firebird?

Also what rearend gears did T5's from the factory come with?

 

Find your RPO sheet in your center console and then use this sites RPO decoder.

The V6 T5 cars came with 3.42's......maybe other gears, dunno. I've been out of thirdgen loop ever since I got my 325.

 

3.1L Auto cars are 3.23 (2.8L Auto's were 3.42) according to https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/techdb.shtml
The extra torque must have allowed them to switch to the 3.23's with the 3.1L autos.
All V6 Manual cars came stock with 3.42 gears.
Both of my V6's with a T5 came with 3.42's stock.

You can also run you RPO codes through https://www.thirdgen.org/cgi-bin/rpo/index and see what axle ratio it says your car has.
GU5 is AXLE REAR, 3.23 RATIO, GU6 is AXLE REAR, 3.42 RATIO. Usually the G-- code is the axle ratio I believe.

 

Ok, so since I have a 3.1 Auto, I guess I have a 3.23 rearend. So there's no T5 VSS that will work properly with it, since no T5's ever came with a 3.23.

How can I get the speedometer to read correctly if I put in a VSS meant for 3.42?

Or should I just get the 3.42 VSS and then opt for the posi,disc,3:42 rearend sometime in the near future?

 

I had the choice of buying 3.42 speedo gears or 3.08 speedo gears (V8's used em). I went with the 3.08 because it was numerically closer to 3.23. My speedo is pretty accurate.

I might have the part numbers around. I'll look for them.

 

Don't have the p/n but here's what you need:

3.08 RED Drive gear w/9 teeth
GRAY Driven gear w/ 22 teeth


3.42 PURPLE Drive gear w/ 7 teeth
WHITE Diven gear w/ 19 teeth

 

CaliCamaroRS, the chart says the car this transmission came from had a 3.42:1 rear (85 2.8). So if I get a vss for a 3.42:1, I don't have to replace the driven gear inside the tranny, correct? Or do I have that backwards and it's the drive gear inside the tranny?

If that's right, I'll find the 3.42 VSS and then change out the rear gears sometime in the future. I don't really wanna put in a 3.08 VSS, only to still have it off a bit, and need to replace gears inside. The transmission is going in tonight, I don't want to have to drop it again for this little thing.

 

If you get the VSS gears for a 3.42 rear end and then swap out your current rear end for 3.42's, you'll have the proper VSS gears.

 

Gear or gears? Do I need the drive and driven gear, or can I just replace the sensor unit and not worry about replacing the gear inside?

 

Sorry...just the VSS for the 3.42 is all you need with the 3.42 rear end.

 

Sweet, thanks man! Now all I need is a P/N for a 3.42 VSS if anyone has one. :lala: :lala:

 

The VSS's are all the same. The plastic gears are different. It's not hard to replace the drive gear at all. You only need to pull the tailshaft off.

 

No, I need the entire unit. I only have a cable driven sensor for this tranmission, I need to replace it with an electric unit.

Edit: Hell, even if someone could give me their VIN# to their stock 3.1/T5 car that would work just as good.

 

Try 10456087 for the VSS. I'm looking through my swap recipts and this was the only part listed as a sensor so I assume it's the VSS. List price is $90. I paid $49 at work.