The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline T-5 swap into a 1950 3100

hello folks im wanting to swap in a t5 into my 50 truck it has a 1958 235 with a sag 4 speed.very low geared.and causes the 235 to run its guts out. looking for overdrive gear.i have found someone local that has a complete 94 s-10 with it all for 300 bucks.now i have heard many different ideas about the swap some says it will bolt strait up pedals will work and all some says i have to use adaptors.does anyone know or has done this.please let me know as im not sure what to do and dont want to buy this stuff and cant use it. thanks

I don't think the 94 S10 has a T 5, correct me if I'm wrong.Larry

There is a world of info on this website about this. Many of us have done it. Search the website & the Tech tips. Find out the 1352-xxx number on the trans you are considering & get the gear ratios from a chart. They have different ratios. You will want one that is 0.76 or lower numerical. 0.86 wont do you a lot of good unless you have a high gear rear end already. The 96 S-10 is the world class trans which is a little stouter then the non-world clas. It has an electronic speedo drive though so you will need to make provisions for the speedo. You dont need the adapter. It eliminates some of the modifications & is a little neater installation. Study all you can find about this & if you have any questions post them on this website & you will get plenty of help.

i think he said the trans and such was from a 94 im sure thats what he said if this right or not i dont know.my truck has a 12 bolt that i was told came from a 64 truck but yall know how that goes.i dont know the rear gear ratio and it dosent have a tag. i just want the little truck to be more relaxed instead of carring high rpm's all the time.its all country roads around here no interstate at all. i would like to be able to keep up with the traffic a run around 55 to 65 and not be pushing my 235.can i use my stock linkage and pedal set up on the t5.is 300 bucks a good price for everything i mentioned including the drive shaft.i have been doing some reading and its all starting to run together and im seeing many different combo's and tips and it gets confusing.

my foot starter has been long gone for many years.

Your clutch prdeal & linkage will work but you will need a 14 spline clutch disc. If you have the one from the S-10 it will work. The 9 in used on the s-10 is a little small but it works. I am useing one in my 56 & it works good. Make sure the lining on the disc does not lap into the center of the pressure plate. You will need the driveshaft but it will have to be modified at a drive shaft shop. $300 seems a little high but if its good & you get the clutch disc & drive shaft its worth it.

I switch my 46 1/2 ton from torque tube to open drive with a 89 t-5 with an adapter from bendtsens, he even set me up with a clutch disc that worked and i kept my foot starter too. i paid 130.00 to have a driveshaft from an 84 olds cutlass cut to fit my truck and that was with new u joints

he is letting me have the trans and shifter the clutch, pressure plate,flywheel the hydro's and the drive shaft and all the bolts my truck already has a open rear its a 12 bolt.

thats awsome i think that i will go ahead with it .what kind of adaptor are you talking about?

I think the number of machined rings on the input shaft alludes to the ratios, done know the match though. WC trans are stronger-they have bearings on the front of the cluster gear, non-WC have a bushing.

this may seem like a dumb question but what about the slave cylinder on the t5. my 4 speed has the fork set up hows this going to work?

You will use the 1950 bell housing, clutch fork, throw out bearing, flywheel and pressure plate. You will need to use a T5 clutch disk.

fordsforme,I've done two t-5 conversions and I would purchase a t5 with mechanical speedometer.I believe 1988 went to electronic speedometer.The t5's were available into the 1990's s10 trucks.The 1352-145 1985-1986 t5 is the popular choice.Here is a link showing that a jeep t5 input shaft is 10 spline and will work with your original clutch with little modification.I will go this route next time.
t5 conversion
the t5 page
several t5 links for information
Just give us a shout if you need some help!!


Tim

great thanks my old man is tripping cause im wanting to swap out something that works just fine like it is.but i think it will be nice to have the higher ratio's and overdrive.i plan to do this but it will take me some time to get it done cause i have spread my money and time over two many projects.

I've been looking for the same type of info to retro my '51.
Did you install the 12 bolt? Did you have to have it shortened?

nah it was already in the truck when i got it . it hasn't been shorten im running steel 6 lug wheels.

yesterday the guy that had all the swap parts drove here an hour and a half away frome me and brought everything but it was a full size nv3500 trans and not from a s-10 .. man this stinks .he didnt know what he had and i didnt see any pics or i could have saved us both the hassle. we were going to trade trans i have a turbo 400 i was going to swap with him for the s-10 things ahhh oh well i guess i will keep searching.

hey guy, I just did a complete swap from torque tube to open drive with a 10 bolt rear from an 89 s-10, I used a T-5 from a 88 s-10, I had to get an adapter plate for the trans. to bolt up to my 46 1/2 ton bellhousing it's pretty easy setup and I kept my foot starter and all,i just finished it last weekend and drove it around the block for the first time, and it hasnt run since 1968,
it was in a warehouse in benton harbor michigan 2 years ago,its almost done now, heres a few pics of the work i been doing on it http://s629.photobucket.com/albums/uu14/kurtdh519/

I just did an 88T5 in my 53 1/2T with the adapter plate from Hamilton Intakes. It was worth every penny of the $129.00 I spent. Just had to bob the shaft housing and it all went together. The bolts they sent me were'nt long enough, but a trip to the hardware store fixed that. 82-88 is the trans to get anything later has electronic speedo. Good luck, there out there.

same here, i took 3/4 of an in.off my input shaft housing, and got my adapter plate from bensens, and he even set me up with a clutch disc that fit the trans spline for 180.00 ......like you said "worth every penny"....the only other thing i did was I took the s-10 shifter to work and straightened it in a 20 ton press....looks professional...lol

I've heard two different comments re: an adaptor plate. Here's why...

The most ideal swap is to bolt an 88 or earlier S10 tailshaft to a V8 camaro box (commonly referred to as a "hybrid" swap). You will get a stronger gear set and a taller OD ratio. The input shaft to the tranny will have fine splines, and will NOT work with the stock clutch plate, so you will have to get a new clutch plate, but everything else for the transmission will bolt right up.

If you use a complete T5 from an S10, you WILL need an adaptor plate, because the input shaft is about 3/4" to long and the splines on the input shaft do not extend far back on the shaft enough. The T5 transmission WILL have coarse splines on the input shaft, so you should be able to use a stock clutch plate.

It's worth the time to find a tailshaft with a mecanical speedo drive, as an adaptor to make an electronic drive work with a mechanical speedo will run you about $350.

How do I know? I just completed this very same swap last week.

Caution - once you do the swap, you will want to drive the truck ALL THE TIME. It's a different truck, MUCH more pleasant to drive, and a hell of a lot more practical.

Chris

Here's a question... The WC T5 from the Camaro is good and strong, and can be modified with the tail shaft and housing from the S-10 for shifter location. My question is, can the Jeep input shaft be added to this combo as well to use the original clutch disk? I've seen a post regarding adding the Jeep shaft to an S-10 box making it a true bolt-in affair, but I don't know if it will fit in a Camaro box.

best thing to do is get a hold of tremec or how ever you spell the name of the manufacturer. There are 26 combinations of gears for a T5 and some of the S10's have the Ford bolt pattern. not only did the T5 come in S10's ,Cameros and Jeeps they also came in Ford mustang, mazda and a whole bunch more that I don't remember. If I could find my list of car/trucks the T5 came in and what the gear combination were,I would post it. There are a lot of little tricks you can do to make a T5 work, just do a search. When I put a T5 in my '38 I did a lot more research on what I wanted ten these forum. like I said get a hold of the manufacturer