Something for the '41 - '46 1/2-ton Stovebolt

      First thing -- I don't claim to know a whole lot about other applications. I wrote this 'cause just about everything that I've read on this subject was for AD trucks and a '41-46 truck is a DIFFERENT animal.

      I have found alot of very useful infomation in the tech pages on The Stovebolt Page and The Inliners site . There is also a whole wealth of info on both bulletin board archives of the Stovebolt and Inliners. This tip is what worked for me and my '45 Chevy 1/2-ton pickup with 216, original bellhousing, original flywheel (with a 10 3/4 clutch/pressure plate) .

      After aquiring my T-5 transmission from an '85 Chevy S-10, I took a look at the bolt pattern and could see that the bolt pattern wasn't even close to bolting up to my original bellhousing and the base of the bearing retainer is larger in diameter. Also, the input shaft is longer. That part is a plus. With a longer input shaft, you can have an adapter plate made to take up the difference and not cut the length of the input shaft like others have done for their AD trucks. I could tell from the looks of this, I was going to have to get an adapter plate made.

      The adapter plate that my son made me spaces the T-5 transmission back 3/4". That puts the T-5's pilot right in good position into the original pilot bushing in the original flywheel. The only modification that I made to my T-5 is that I removed 1/4" off of the end of the tube on the bearing retainer. You need to remove the bearing retainer to do this.

      After I aquired my transmission adapter plate (3/4" thick) and clutch disc (clutch disc # RCF-4212 from Kragen), the first thing I did was to verify the the position of the pilot. Measure the distance from the front face of the T-5 transmission to where the pilot begins. Install the transmission adapter plate onto the bellhousing and measure the depth from the face of the adapter plate to the face of the pilot bushing. That should give you an idea on how the pilot of the input shaft is in relation to the pilot bushing.

      Here is a veiw of the adapter plate from the transmission side. And here it is INSTALLED -- shiney, too!

      Now it's time to dry-fit the T-5 transmission. Install the new clutch disc into the input shaft of the T-5 transmission. Now install your T-5 transmission with clutch disc onto the bellhousing (with adapter plate on it). Don't install the pressure plate or throw out bearing yet -- this is only a dry-fit. If you crawl all the way under with a flash light, you can see that there ought to be approximaely 5/16" of back and forth movement of the clutch disc, away from the face of the flywheel. That is your last sanity check before you know that everything is good to go. Now you can take the transmission back out (FUN!).

      Go ahead and install the clutch disc/pressure plate onto the flywheel. I used the original throw out bearing on the transmission and I used the original clutch fork. Also, the original pilot bushing is left intact.

      There are other things to consider on this swap that I didn't cover such as: driveshaft, e-brake hookup, driverside pedal braket, bending the shifter (had to bend it straight up), longer speedo cable, cutting another hole in the floorboard, the list goes on and on.

      I took ALOT of pictures of the whole process so you can invent your own solutions or you can look at my pictures and see what worked for me.

      Here's a larger image of the tranny in place.

      The main thing is once you have the transmission installed with sufficent movement of the clutch disc, everything else will come together -- if your resourceful.

Good luck.

John

John Sandoval
"steppenwood"
Bolter # 2104
Rancho Cordova, California

       Take a look at John's pictures ... he's got some really good details on his website and I'm sure he'd also be glad to answer any questions you have about them.

   And be sure to check out our extensive Forums discussions -- from General Truck talk, Electrical Bay, Big Bolts, Panels and Burbs, Engine and Driveline, Paint and Body, Interiors, Tool Chest -- The Stovebolt Collective can help in your quest and walk you through the mire and magic of working with old iron. ~~ Editor.         

v. April 2006