Jazzer The Cat

The Jazzer bit the bullitt today and going with a nice new 6 speed. Gear ratios are FAR better than the current and looking forward to losing the bearing howl I currently have in all gears

T-3650
3:38
2.00
1:32
1:1
.68

T-56
2:97
2:07
1:43
1:1
.8
.62

Jazzer is a shifty character









Brand new #1260 with Cobra cross-member and Dynotech alum. DS. Unfortunately, I had to replace my current alum. DS with a 1" shorter one due to the extra length of the T-56. I also have a nice new Pro50 shifter and is red-to-go

This new trans has a reverse lock-out switch and needed to do some "adjustments" to avoid the need to run 12vt. power lines to access reverse:

This was VERY easy to do, actually, and will not need to run any power lines OR completely give up on the nice little safety feature of the switch. Before you start, just try pushing in the button on the end of this switch.... OUCH!!!

Below is a pic of the switch with original parts removed, and new ones below on the RH side:

The clip on the top RH side is the keeper that holds the spring assembly inside the switch over on the LH side. Use some small specialty pliers to collapse and remove this clip. The spring is VERY strong, but held a small "C" clip (see last picture below). The energy will NOT cause it to fly out of housing, so don't wory about it "putting someones eye out" like in school

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Below is a pic of the heavy ORIGINAL spring, the small spring (on bottom) once removed and the replacement springs with some original, but newly oriented, parts to be installed above:

Down inside the tube of switch, there is a small 1/4" pin that is the actuator from the solenoid switch. If you reach down inside, you can easily push this button out of the way. On an OEM car with this switch, power would be applied and this little button would be drawn out of the way. This would allow the "little" spring to be the ONLY resistance to finding reverse with shifter. Without power, the little button holds keeper just behind the small "C" clip and forces the BIG spring to cause MUCH resistance finding reverse with shifter.

We are going to remove the small spring, and collapse the keeper to remove the small "C" clip to then remove the BIG spring.

THIS SPRING IS UNDER SOME PRETTY SERIOUS COMPRESSION. TAKE MUCH CARE IN REMOVING IT AS IT WILL PUT SOMEONES EYE OUT...NO KIDDING. WEAR SAFETY GLASSES WHEN TAKING THIS ASSEMBLY APART!!!.

The above pic also shows the two new springs to be the resistance springs to finding reverse. At this point, the trans is not installed and cannot be sure if this will be a good amount of resistance. It will remain to be seen and may have to experiment with different ones. I could just remove all the guts and go w/o any resistance at all, and the trans would be 100% fine oporationally. This would create zero resistance find reverse when looking for 5th during a downshift. So if you do this swap, you can decide for yourself. I currently have a resistance spring in my T-3650 and kinda like the idea. You could even leave the original spring and would not harm the trans in any way, but would be a little tiresome on your arm when in need to back-up.

To re-install NEW spring assembly, you will have to do a little jiggling go get the keeper/spacer in the bottom of the switch (see LH side of new springs in center pic) This is needed to get by the 1/4" solenoid button, but not difficult. Just push the springs inside, and attach the big clip with the two little holes in the end, and your set. This NEW spring set-up will not be NEARLY as strong so restance to finding reverse will be very much reduced.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the final product with the original springs and small "C" clip no longer used:


Now try pushing on the end again..... ahhhhh

There you have it, ladies and germs. LMK if I missed something or you think I need help

JTC

Jazzer The Cat

OK, pepes.... didn't get done, but MAJOR progress


Ran out of time today as my buddy and I had to spend 1.5 hours JUST making enough room to get my car up on the lift. The shop has 7, count 'em, SEVEN major resto projects going with pretty much zero done on any for many a year!

Anyway, we did all the hard stuff today, and even found a missing nut on the passenger side of exhaust manifold causing a small leak and will be fixed. The old trans came right out, and the new one went right in. I had read MANY times of the "massage" work needed in the tunnel for install, but seem to have lots of room. Passenger side has 1/2" all around at closest point and driver side (the side that will see the most movement at WOT), had nearly 1". OK, now some pics:

This is the existing clutch and pressure plate with a new FRPP billet fly. The clutch has about 15K on it and my buddy was pointing out the surface and said it appeared to have about 200 miles on it, at most! Installed a new T.O. bearing and reusing the clutch fork that was installed at same time as clutch, last year.



Here it is just installed and ZERO tunnel work needed to fit. Just the cross-member bracket needed and some wiring for reverse switch needed:




Completely installed along with new aluminum drive-shaft (1" shorter than previous one) and all toqued in. Once it was all installed, the clearance was still really good, so cannot see why all the installs saying tunnel work was required. The cross-member was for a Cobra and may not have even been needed. The "nuts" on the body are actually a sliding part that have alternate holes that are oval to line-up cross-member and would probably have worked with stock one. The Cobra one fits VERY nicely and was worth it either way:





Here is the reverse switch that is now connects on the passenger side. The wires had to be extended 1' to reach over the trans. I just cut the two wires and soldered two 1' pieces of wire inbetween and applied heat-shrink tubing as protection. I then wrapped the two wires with electrical tape so they would remain clean and not tangle up on anything. I also had to rob the reverse switch from my old T-3650 as the connection "posts" of switch were not only too large, but not spaced the same as connector:



The speedo connection went right in and don't see any other obsticles so far. We will hit it up tomorrow morning and get 'er done, as we just ran out of time today . We will also have to machine a new clutch spacer as the Ford cable has NO adjustment and is just a solid line with pressed ends on it. Appearantly, the T-3650 bell-housing is just a little deeper or something and the clutch cable is now about 1" too long. This is no prob, as Wes is good at machining stuff.

Will finish up and take a roadie with the galpal tomorrow and give y'all a little review of how it drives.

I almost forget.... MAJOR props to Bruce at Modern Driveline for all his help. Bruce was absolutely wonderful from start to finish on this project. He helped me diagnose the "howl" issue I had with my T-3650 and worked with me on how to address it. I mentioned that I was unhappy with the ratio's and was told a T-56 was the way to go. He looked at all the options and came up with the 1260 as a suggestion. I was VERY happy with the ratios and he hooked me up with the '03~'04 Cobra cross-member and confirmed a direct fit into my ride. Just this past Tuesday, he spent 10 minutes on the phone with me trying to locate me the proper flywheel as the Ford dealer could not get one in time. I received it the next day and was a perfect fit. Even got me a new set of bolts/dowl pins so it would all go together well as the 10.5" and 11" clutch need different bolts to anchor pressure plate. Thanks Bruce

Jazzer






Got 'er all finished up this afternoon and is wonderful Little bit taller 1st gear so going into 2nd is a bit smoother. Nice and buttery shifting thanks to a nicer transmission as well as the new Pro50 shifter and happy as a pig in poop

The galpal and I are going to take a little road trip here in a few for a little more of a test drive. So far, I have not found reverse except when looking to find it. It is a little strange to push the stick over and forward to get into it though, been driving two different 5 speeds for about 23 years and reverse has ALWAYS been over and back. I have had a bit of trouble finding the proper gear when coasting to a stop and light turns green. You know, kind of floating at 15mph and look for 2nd and found 4th a time or two. This will not be an issue for long as I am not use to how close the gears are to eachother. The reverse lock-out spring is absolutely purrfect! Just enough resistance to "want" reverse and not just fall into it. Over time, I may decide to remove the spring altogether, but so far, seems just fine

I needed to make/install a new clutch return magnet and hence a new video uploaded to Streetfire. The lighting is MUCH improved as my video skills are now completely mad!








That thin curved piece is actually 1/2 of a hard-drive magnet set-up with a VERY strong magnet. It doesn't actually touch the clutch fork, yet has plenty of strength to pull T.O. bearing away from pressure plate. This should help extend the life of the bearing and has a nice little "release" of pedal when depressed, yet does not add resistance as a spring would.

Ok, pepes.... I'm outty

lé Gato dú Jazzee

NOTE: AT SOME POINT, I WILL DELETE THE LINKS TO PICS. I WILL KEEP THEM ON MY DRIVE AND CAN E-MAIL THEM IF NEEDED, SO PM ME

mylongvictor

Yo that was an excellent and imformative post! Major props to that one!

Jazzer The Cat

Had a couple road trips now and can only say the following...







1st~2nd is nice and smooth now, and less likely to get a herky-jerky as the ratio is much closer. That's not all folks, just check what's behind door #2... The loss of the 4th~5th gear gap I am now able to cruise at 55 mph with no need to choose between 2600 rpm 4th or 1600 rpm 5th With the new T-56, she now runs at 2200 rpm in 5th so have some power for those all those little hills in Marin Co. I always hated having to drive a little faster than I would like JUST to retain some semblance of HP in 5th gear.

This is a spectacular upgrade and recommend it to anyone with the means to do so

Jazzer

mylongvictor

whats 80mph like in 6th?

Jazzer The Cat

I have not yet done 80 MPH with new trans and probably only done it a couple times in my old one. For me, it is not about the quarter, but the quarner

The T-3650 was .68 in 5th
The T-56 is now .62 in 6th

I cannot even tell the difference between the two in RPM's or power. Technically I will gain some better MPG, but will NEVER even notice. I suppose if I traveled across the country in each in exactly the same route and speed, I may save $5.87

The Jaz

Stevecooper

Sorry to ask an unrelated question, but did you go from the stock front suspension to the SLA? I am really leaning towards the swap but I wanted some feed back.

To add something to the thread, the Viper spec T-56 has a .50 6th gear and does lower the cursing RPM quite a bit.

Jazzer The Cat

Initally, Griggs wanted to build me a "true" viper spec. T-56 #1806 with all the goodies. Alum. fly, twin-disc 10" clutch, 26 spline input shaft, heavy duty this 'n that with a .74/.50 5th & 6th gear, respectively. I have no need for all the heavy duty stuff, as I am only running very modest HP/T #'s and don't "drive the train" very hard. The MAJOR reason I wanted swap the T-56 #1260, is to eliminate the huge gaps between a couple of gears - Specifically 1st~2nd & 4th~5th:

T-3650
3:38
2.00
1:32
1:1
.68

T-56 #1260
2:97
2:07
1:43
1:1
.8
.62

T-56 #1806
2:66
1:78
1:3
1:1
.74
.50

The problem I have going Viper spec. is two-fold and begins with 1st gear and ends with the same issue I had with my T-3650. I feel first gear would be too tall running my HP/T and imagine running with an alum. fly and 10" clutch! Prior to deciding on which T-56 to run, I tried to start my car in 2nd gear from a stop. No way I could have run that tall a gear (I realize that #1806 1st was not as tall as my T-3650 2nd, but I just didn't see it working for me ) I would've had to get 4:10's out back to even attempt it as a DD. The second issue was the gap between 5th & 6th that would have been almost as bad as my T-3650 and was my biggest problem (no gears out back could have corrected that!). I HATED the 1K RPM drop between them, as mentioned in previous posts, and was the whole reason I wanted to swap it out


I will PM you.

Jazzer

bigmike83

great sticky, good work

SVTeeshirt

do you know if this is the same procedure for a 4v and the t-45?