The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop T5 shifter

I've heard that a T5 shifter in a Camaro has a shorter shift throw than one in a S10. If this is true, could I use a Camaro shifter on my S10 tranny and not have to modify the truck shifter? I'd like to shorten the shift and use a longer shifter handle.

Maybe, if you have bucket seats. The Camaro tailshaft has the shifter at the back, while the S-10 tailshaft has the shifter at the front, closer to the normal location for a pick-up. From what I've seen, the S-10 shift throw is fairly short anyway. Extending the handle shouldn't be a problem.

Fortynine5 -

I've been working on this myself. The Camero T-5 shifter will not work on the S-10 T-5. You can achieve a shorter throw with the stock shifter by reworking the shifter to have a longer distance between the ball at the bottom of the shifter and the pin location. To do so, you will have to build up the base of the shifter. Tom Langdon has more information on doing this.

The other option is to buy a B & M or Hurst short throw shifter. They are on Ebay on a very regular basis. The B & M shifter handle is long enough to work nicely.

Joe

Just a thought....the S10 shifter has the heavy bent shaft with the rubber vibration isolator in the S10 stick. I wanted to use the sm420 stick so I salvaged a shift unit out of a Ford application which has the isolator at the base. It doesn't shorten the shift throw but I put it into the S10 base, bolted it back on and bolted my modified sm stick back on and you have an isolated stick, no vibration and not having to guess or R&R the whole unit to get the stick at the correct angle. Check pix in gallery.

The BorgWarner Ford units are about $10. at most salvage yards.

I used a Hurst short throw t-5 shifter unit I picked up used on E-bay. The Hurst unit, unlike the stock unit and B&M units, just has a flat piece of steel with two threaded holes in it that you bolt a shifter handle to.

I cut off the bottom of my stock 4 speed shifter, welded a piece of 3/8" stock to the bottom of the rod and once the boot is in place over the shifter, it looks stock, except for the fact that it is closer to the seat.

Originally I had an s-10 tranny with a firebird shifter. I don't think the firebird/camaro shifters are any shorter throw than the stock s-10, but they could be. The reason I wanted the camaro/firebird shifter is that it sticks straight up from the shift box while the s-10 has an angle. The firebird shifter mounted right up to the s-10 box, no problem.

The stock s-10, camaro/firebird and aftermarket b&M short throw shifter all have threaded rods coming out of them. When I was going to use one of those and my original shifter rod I planned on welding a threaded nut to the bottom of the original shifter, like the one welded to the bottom of the stock shifter. I found them at Lowe's and NAPA in thier bolt bins.