Pastor James, just below this sentence you'll see a copy/paste from the info on the hotlink in my last post above. Also, highly recommend you spend time on Lugnuts site
here.First of all, a huge thanks to lugnutz for his "How To" postings.
My install was pretty much text book easy. I shortened the input shaft on my 1352-146 tranny (from a 1985 S10 with v6) .5 inch. I made the input shaft bearing retainer the same length as the stock one on the SM420 tranny, had to shorten it I believe 1.5 inches (going from memory if wrong I'll let you know).
I used a RockAuto, 11" clutch disk for a 1988 Astro van, (less than $50.) . It was necessary to lengthen the splines on the input shaft (Dewalt angle grinder and cutting wheel) by about .5".
Used original low mileage pressure plate. I cleaned the fly wheel and pressure plate with 80 grit sandpaper.
Drilled out tanny case mounting holes to .5", used stock bolts in top holes and two new bottom bolts 2" long.
Welded a Model T shifter (picked up at the Petit Jean Swap Meet last fall) to the S10 shifter. I didn't want to destroy the original shifter.
Did away with the original two piece driveshaft and had a new 3.5" driveshaft made, 1350 series u-joint on rear, stock S10 3R on front along with the stock S10 front yoke.
Built a transmission crossmember from 2"x.25" flat stock bent at 45's and boxed with 3/16th" X .75" flat stock. Used stock S10 mount. (note the torque multiplication devise that helped drill the mounting bolt holes in the frame).
That's about it,,,no big issues on the install.
The above is from 6 years ago. As mentioned above I'd do things a bit different today; At the time I felt I needed a crossmember under the T5, I've since removed it with no problems cropping up.
I also took a different approach to the input shaft by doing a bit of redneck machine work. If I ever do another conversion, I'll use the Jeep input shaft Lugnuts has on his site, no reason not to and it's a very simple, smart solution to what some see as a complicated challenge.
Good Luck Sir
RonR
