The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop T5 Shifter

Hi all,
I'm going the Camaro T5/S10 tailshaft route with my '40 with bench seat. What kind of shifter & handle combinations work well? I'm new to T5's. I'm guessing I would need a short throw setup since the length of the handle will be much longer.

Here's another part to the swap... Anybody know what I should use to re-drill the hole to locate the fastener to hold the speedo gear? This shaft is some real hard stuff! I can't drill it with my drills.

You won't be able to drill it, it is hardened. Most of the time speedo gears are press or friction fit. If it needs a hole, it will have to be milled with a diamond burr.

Yep, I was thinking about milling. I don't want to pull the thing apart to give to a machinist so what I'm thinking was to buy a milling whatchamacallit and have a wack at it. The way this speed is held in place is that the gear is held in place by a spring clip and it is held in place by hooking a tab into the hole. The hole is something like 3/16 x 3/16 deep. Probably have to wait until Tuesday to find a place open.

Save yer time and energy DennisM , since you call it a whatchamacallit , and say you might have a wack at it ,, it is a dead give away that you dont have either the milling machine or the required knowledge to operate it.
If in fact the part can actually be modified , and if it is hardened then it is doubtful , then a shop with the required machinery and skills is the only option open to you ,, yep that means $$ to do a nice job .
So here is an off the wall suggestion , how about just butchering the thing by welding the part in place ?? ??

Hey, Dennis,

You can go low-tech on this job. Go take a look at the Tech Tips about the T5 on the Inliner page. Basicly, you can epoxy a shim in the correct position, and press-fit the gear on that.

Hope this helps, Kinky6.

I did read the inliner article. Maybe I'm wrong, but I assumed he epoxied the shim stock to take up the slack but still used the spring tension clip to hold it in place. Can someone clarify?

You can use the t-5 shift extension from a Chevy mini van to move the shifter all over

I wrote that article on the Inliners site and yes, the spring clip is needed to locate the gear - the dimple had to be drilled by a machine shop. No way a normal drill can touch that hardened surface.

The Astro Van T5 shifter has about the same geometry as the $170 Hurst shifter from Summit. Of course I didn't discover this until I had already sprung for the Hurst :mad: .

Thanks for the replys. Dusty, the gear is plastic. I thought about just epoxying it to the shaft but that wouldn't allow for any misalignment. The holding clip allows a bit of slop for the gears to find their alignment. I already have all the parts needed so I'm proceeding. I have the stock Camaro shifter so can make it work for a while. I will probably go with the Hurst but I have seen other shifters too. I'll let you know how this works out.

Profit, Sixpack or anyone else, what year Astro van would I be looking for to get the shifter from? Profit, is that what your running?

Dennis

Change in plan. Plan, what plan? I found that a roll of copper plumbers tape is just about the correct thickness. I epoxied that on leaving about 1/4 space between the ends. I ground the little tab off the spring steel fastener that normally would hook into the small hole in the tranny shaft.I epoxied it into place with safety wire through the loop in the fastener. I epoxied the safety wire too. I did have to file/emery cloth the plumbers tape a bit before epoxying the fastener into place. Seems OK.

Finally got everything sorted out and took the 1st freeway test this morning. Eggselent!

Thanks to all for your help and advice.
Dennis