Twin-Cam to T5 Bellhousing Anyone?

[johnc]

If you give me the distance of where the bulkhead is located from either the front or end of the S-10 tail housing, I can give you some accurate measurements.

Generally, from back of the shifter housing to the end of the tail housing the casting can be thought of as a 3" diameter cylinder with ribs attached at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock position. In addition to the ribs there are blocks protruding at 6 o'clock for the rear mount, and 8 o'clock for the speedo attachment.

[TomR]

I'll look at length from the block to the first bulkhead. The ribs taper out and I'm sure they're not less than 4" across, but can't hert to verify.

I cut the block at 6 oclock way down to get correct height.

Tom

[garyeanderson]

Tom and John
Thanks for the effort of trying to make me understand things. Here are the photos from the ebay ($153 with a couple days left) T5 tailhousing auction. I don't see a problem with milling off the ribs for a couple of one offs, I think the Transmission mount will need some work to fit through the bulkhead too, that may be the most trouble but I still think its possible. Its just a matter of how much work is involved to make it work, and is it all that much better that a 3.54 diff that will bolt right in with out any problems. Each and every step adds to the final cost of making the swap a reality for the masses of Elan owners in the U.S. I guess there arn't that many folks with Spyder's chassis all that interested in doing this so the point is probably mute anyway.

Gary

[msd1107]

Just happened to be browsing the Quaife.co.uk site. They have a cr gearkit for the T5.

http://www.quaife.co.uk/Borg-Warner-T5- ... sh-gearkit

Available through http://www.gearboxman.co.uk/infot5.html

The first 4 ratios are very similar to our beloved CR 4-speed, with an OD 5th.

David
1968 36/7988

[Tonyw]

To all,

Not sure if you have noticed but there has been 5084 views and 93 comments on this topic which is huge, not sure where this goes from here but clearly there is a good deal of genuine interest in finding a five speed for our cars, have we now exhausted this subject? has anyone out there made any further progress in trying to get a definitive fit for a T5 to a twink bell ??

I really appreciate the work that some of you have put into this subject and cannot help but think that you are almost there or is this just wishfull thinking on my behalf.

Tony

[TomR]

Tony,

I have one complete and running - what do you want to know? It wasn't cheap but it works great

I'm thinking about doing another one to have a drivetrain in spare.

Tom

[garyeanderson]

Hi Tom

Good to hear that it is up and running. Now that the weather is improoving, how about a gathering at your place to show off the fine work you have pioneered. Some weekend in May would be great, there would probably be half a dozen or possibly more folks interested in having a look see. Let me know if this is something that you would like to do.

Gary

[TomR]

Well, I should be more clear. The car was running great 2000 - 2005 with the BDA / T5 conversion. I have had it apart for more than 2 years now playing with all sorts of things. I'd be happy to show all the parts that worked together in the past, and any of the new parts - 2L BDP etc. - to anybody who wished to stop by - I'm in Vernon CT about 2 miles off I84. But the car isn't running. In fact the body is hanging from the ceiling and you couldn't strip it any further without a saw. I do have all the pieces I need to reassemble (except I'd like those Canley uprights!) but they're all on the shelves.

Tom

[garyeanderson]

Hi Tom

I thought you had made a lot of progress, sorry to hear that its not together. For me I guess that may be a better thing as it makes looking at things a lot simpler. I'll sen you a pm and see what weekend/day will work best for you.

Gary

[robcall]

There are some old threads going back to 2001 on this site about a 5 speed cluster being fitted to the 4 speed casing.The box was a bit problematic as the space is quite tight.Might this be another avenue to investigate for a 5 speed conversion?

[garyeanderson]

I think David pointed out this Kit for the T5 before but I thought the price was higher. still more than I want to pay but not the kind of money that make your jaw drop and say whaaaatttt.

http://www.gearboxman.co.uk/infot5.html

the ratios don't look to bad. maybe not enough over-drive for some but with the 3.54/3.55 diff it would be pretty nice and give (with a 165 tire)
1st---2nd---3rd---4th---5th
22.6-34.0--45.3--57.0--65.5 mph at 3000 rpm
and
26.3-39.7--52.8--66.5--76.5 mph at 3500 rpm

all for ?895.00 for the gear kit and another ?435.00 for the selector fork kit.

Gary

[johnc]

Had an idea on how to move the T5-S10 shift lever forward 1 inch. The idea is illustrated in the attached PDF file.

Referring to the illustration, the components shown are located in the S10 shifter housing. If you are unfamiliar with the T5 shifter operation goto http://www.ttcautomotive.com/English/onlineorder/product.asp#Service%20Manuals and download the T5 service manual. Item 29 (shift rod) and item 20 (offset lever) can be seen in context on page 15 of the service manual.

The T5 control lever and housing (item 3A on page 13 of the service manual) is discarded, and replace by items A and B in the illustration.

Item B is a fixed plate attached to the shifter housing and most likely would be part of the shifter housing cover. It acts as a fulcrum for item A, the shift lever, when it is moved back and forward which in turn causes the shift rod (29) to move forward and back, respectively. It also constrains the shift rod, in combination with a detent guide plate not shown in the illustration, to a vertical plane when rotated left or right. The detent guide plate is shown as item 18 on page 15 of the service manual.

Recall that relative to the front face of the transmission, the stock T5-S10 shift lever location is 1 inch rearward of the stock Elan shift lever position. Using this design the T5-S10 shift lever is moved forward 1 inch. So if one had a custom Elan Twin Cam to T5 bell housing with the same depth as the Elan bell housing, or alternately milled off the back of the Elan bell housing and welded on a T5 interface, the shifter would come out exactly where ACBC prescribed it.

One disadvantage of this design is the shift pattern is flipped-over left to right. That is 1st gear is right and forward, not the customary left and forward, etc.

I would appreciate any and all thoughts (postive or negative) on the merit of the design, and ways that it might be improved, including alternate design approaches.

John

[c.d.s.]

Hello,

looking at this thread with much interest and I have some thoughts on shifters also.


Mcleod's 'slik stik' was mentioned in the other 5-speed thread early on,

here is a link to an article on it.

http://www.streetrodderweb.com/tech/060 ... index.html

it seems that there are infinite adjustments possible to move the shifter as long as there is clearance for whatever additional height the shifter may bring.



regards


carl

[steveww]

This may have already been mentioned as I have not been following the thread but....

www.burtonpower.com do a Type 9 bell housing off the shelf.

[garyeanderson]

This may have already been mentioned as I have not been following the thread but....

www.burtonpower.com do a Type 9 bell housing off the shelf.

I think that Burtons gets it from Neil at 105Speed.com

Gary