The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline T5 or Saginaw

Hi Fellas,
I have a 1962 C10 pickup with a 235 Inline, 3 on the tree. Can I swap to a T5 or even a 4 speed saganaw? Because the rear motor mounts are incorporated into the bell housing, the T5 isn't bolting to the bell housing as I thought it would.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Ed

Ed,
Your 1962 C10 bell should have a hydraulic clutch slave and fork on the PS of the bell. None of that needs to change with a T5.
THIS LINK is from my BLOG and should help (but your T5 might have 10 or 14 splines instead of 26 splines like mine.).

Depending on what your t5 came out of, it may have a Ford bolt pattern where it mounts to the bell housing. Is that the problem you're having?

These are not always a direct swap... spacer plate is required between beck housing and tranny, and sometimes you must shorten the input shaft a tiny bit.

Norcal Dave,
The need for a spacer plate can be eliminated. Simply replace the 14 spline input shaft with a Jeep T5 shaft. That swap does 3 amazing things.
1. It eliminates the need for a spacer plate
2. It allows you to continue using a factory 10 spline clutch kit
3. The Jeep shaft is stronger than the S10 shaft

The spacer plates cost about $160. The cost of a Jeep shaft is around $80.
Here is a LINK from my website showing the details of the Jeep shaft swap.

I had no idea. Thanks for the link. I really don't like the idea of a spacer plate in there anyway- the whole assembly is long enough as it is. Great instructions you made too!

When I was mocking up a T-5 from an s10 behind my '53 235, I had a binding issue. I didn't feel like grinding longer grooves in the input shaft, nor did I want to spring for the aluminum spacer and have to wait for delivery (too lazy, cheap, and impatient).
I ended up making my own spacer out of plate steel. I used a bell housing to trace out where to cut with a cutting torch.
A spacer plate is nothing more than a simple spacer that has all of the metal which would interfere with moving parts removed. It is not rocket surgery.
Carl

52Carl,
You are correct! There are many ways to make it work. Some folks even prefer to grind out a little bit of the 14 splines in the clutch disc hub to prevent the binding you mention. That works too.
There's a vendor on eBay that sells a metal plate. I think it's less than 1/8" thick. He claims his plate does the trick and makes it work. It should. However, sourcing the CORRECT 14 spline clutch disc becomes the issue. Rockauto and Speedway Motors sell 14 spline clutch discs but which disc will work for this or that pressure plate is hard to say. It's trial and error that way because of the differences.
I vote for the Jeep shaft swap mainly because there are fewer parts to keep track of. Plus I think it's a good idea to inspect the inside of the tranny before putting a T5 into service, so you are already 90% done with the Jeep shaft swap during the inspection.

When you say "You are correct", I assume that you are referring to the "too lazy, cheap, and impatient" part.
If I ever do another T-5, I will look for a Jeep shaft.
I must say this again. Without Lugnutz, I never would have known about, nor attempted to do the awesome T-5 swap.
Thanks again!
Carl