The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline T5 installation using closed driveshaft?

Good Afternoon, I have a '46 Burb that I want to put a T5 trans into. Can the closed driveshaft be mated to it or does it have to be converted to an open driveshaft. If so how does the driveshaft then get connected to the rearend?
Thank you in advance, Richard

Adapting a torque tube rear axle to a T-5 would require some very creative machining- - - -definitely not a bolt-in swap. You would need to swap the whole rear end, not just the driveshaft. Try to find an axle with approximately the same wheel track width as your original axle, and fabricate spring pads and a driveshaft to couple everything up. There are a few Japanese pickup rear ends (and their American badged clones) such as Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Toyota that run the same 6 bolt wheel lug pattern, and would be about the right width for the 46 chassis.
Jerry.

Are there any build videos for this. I am new to this, but it seems to me that there must be others that have installed T5 trans.

Oops, by the way. Thank you for your reply.

One of our members (Lugnutz), is the resident T5 expert on the installation. He has a website the goes thru what is needed. Here is a link.

I have installed one in my 1952 half-ton pickup. If you can find a GM 12 bolt rear with a gear ratio that works correctly with the ratio chain in your T5 the swap is really nice. Those rear ends are still very serviceable, by the way. If you get the wrong ratios it can vary between not so good to irritating. The first gear overall ratio is crucially important especially if you (a) will be hauling anything and/or (b) if you're doing a good bit of start/stop driving. An overall ratio of high 11 to 12 in first gear is very good for a pickup (what GM used for years). The fifth gear overall ratio is also important...particularly if you are using a 235 or other inline six. If you get as close as possible to the same final overall ratio you would have had with a common 3 speed with overdrive (2.60 or up to 2.73) you'll do fine in fifth gear. If you get much below 2.60 fifth gear won't work quite as well for you. You can adjust this somewhat by choosing different tire diameter, but please watch out for tire width. Wide is worse with a stock front end as it messes with your geometry and such. Lugnutz can tell you more. Good luck!

Richard - There a lots of folks that have done what you are planning on. As mentioned above by others, you'll have to convert to an open drive rear axle to go with the T5. There are a ton of threads on the T5 topic,with many also specific to the Art Deco (1941-46) era trucks.

Here's just one example of a T5 Art Deco topic thread. The thread itself is not full of a lot of details, but fellow Bolter "Cavebull" has a reply in there that leads to links to a couple of his picture galleries. One gallery is specific to his T-5 Swap, which includes important info on the unique need for remounting the 1941-46 bell housing/transmission mounted brake and clutch pedal assembly.

He also has another gallery on what he did for his Rear End Swap which may be of interest in choosing your axle swap choice.

Others will come along and offer more info as they can, but please be aware that the Art Deco trucks hve some different requirements and obstacles to overcome compared to Ad truck T5 swaps.

Is your 46 Burb a 1/2 ton? Plan B for axle swap. Keep your original axle and diff housing. Replace the 'pumpkin' with a 54-62 open drive shaft pumpkin. Set axle pinion shaft angle and weld axle mounts. Your good to go.

I did my '50 3100 this way. It has a 3.90 rear, and my rear tires are 28.66" tall (according to the tire page on Discount Tire's website). My T5 has a 0.76 fifth gear, so I run 2,300 rpm at 66 mph. I'm running a 216, so it's very happy operating at that rpm cruising easily at highway speed. With the 3 speed and 4.11, it liked to go 58 mph at 2,800 rpm- just kinda settled in there. With the T5, 2,800 rpm is 80 mph, and it will do it. I don't think it will do much more, but it has held 80 for a 10 minute stretch.

First gear goes away pretty quick. It doesn't like launching from a stop in second gear, but in stop and go traffic or coming up on a light that's just turned green, if it's still rolling even the slightest bit it's fine taking off in second.

My pumpkin was from a 55-59. Solid spring perches came from Classic Parts, pivoting perches were cut off and the new ones welded on. USA Standard Gear rear overhaul kit "ZK GM55CHEVY" came from Amazon, I think. Price shop it- lots of folks sell it. Once the rear was in and it was back on the ground, we measured for the driveshaft length and I had a local shop fab one. Used a stick from an SM420 four speed welded to the T5 shifter mechanism, topped with a custom shift knob.

I can't remember what T5 mine is- it's from an S10 and had the electronic speedometer output. I used a tail housing for a mechanical speedometer off an earlier T5 with a broken case. I had it rebuilt and the shop put a 10-spline Jeep input shaft in it. I use a stock 1950 3100 clutch package, and took less than 1/2" off the pilot tip of the input shaft. I did not use a crossmember under the rear of the T5.

The Art Deco trucks have a different trans-to-bellhousing bolt pattern than the Advance Design and later, and there is not a T5 that will bolt directly to that bellhousing without an adapter. That opens up the possibility of using later S10 T5s that have the Ford-style bolt pattern since you need an adapter anyway. I do not know first hand how the adapter thickness will affect the input shaft length (whether any should be cut off or not), but since I took so little off mine, I wonder if the Jeep input shaft can be used or not. Maybe Jay (Lugnutz) has some input (no pun intended) on that.

EchoBravoSierra,
What diameter tires are you running?
I went from stock height 28" tires to 30.5" radials on my '50 3100. This change made 1st gear very useful. Before that change. 1st gear was pretty much granny gear. The taller tires also allowed me to reach higher speeds in overdrive before the engine screamed for mercy.

52Carl,
28.66"
235/75/15

Though I feel that first gear is useful enough. It doesn't last long, but it's not what I would consider a problem. The other gears, cruising speed, rpms- I think are great and I would not change anything in my setup.

Echo,
I had no choice with my truck. It has a 4.64 rear gear ratio, making first gear granny as all get out.
30.5" tires fixed that.

Carl - remind me which year your XTerra rear end came from?

2001. Last year for rear drum brakes. Later models had disk brakes and the gear ratio in the low 3s. Not ideal for a T5.