A
Anonymous
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All bugs seem to have been evicted from the wagon and overall performance is great.
Thought i'd share a few observations on a 4Cyl T-5 in a round body.
1--a T-5 does NOT fit in a round body tranny tunnel and allow proper pinion alignment. But tunnel is easily cut out a replacement fabbed and installed. Rear end could be shimmed also.
2--4 cyl T-5 gear ratios while very functional with a 3.50-1 rear end would work much better with a ratio in the 2.87---3.00 range. My 200 has enough tourgue that i can skip 1st gear under most situations although i seldom do. 5th gear will pull fine at as low as 1500RPMs on level ground and for other than interstate it is great but would benefit greatly from a high rear end there--Bottom line here is that a higher speed 8" 4 lug Maverick rear end is the next logical step anyways so going that route, it seems that this is an excellant tranny selection for that swap.
3-- Pinion to tranny shaft alignment is CRITICAL--I ended up making my crossmember adjustable and got everything correct (thanks Rickwrench for your insights on this area).A $7 angle finder from Home depot for up and down and a plump bob and chalk line on garage floor for side to side took 15 minutes and all vibration dissapeared.
4--If pinion angle is off and you're trying to find vibration fix--keep a real close eye on things like u-joint and lug nuts (we'll not dwell on this but suffice it to say REAL CLOSE EYE).
5--Tranny tunnel material seems to grow wild around these parts on the back roads -usually with some realtors name on it--very heavy and maleable aluminum.(easily cut also)
6-- without this site's available info I never would have had the time to find the nesseccary ingrediants to to the 5 speed.
Final analisis is that it is a fairly expaensive and not for faint of heart job or for the mechanically impaired. I have more tools than many professional mechanics and have been mixing and matching stuff like this since the late 60's when i went through a couple schools of mechanicing and even before then doing daily around the dairy farm repairs and fabbing-where the motto was "if you can't fix it, you don't need to own it")
The T-5 is an absolute joy to drive behind a hopped up small 6
Thought i'd share a few observations on a 4Cyl T-5 in a round body.
1--a T-5 does NOT fit in a round body tranny tunnel and allow proper pinion alignment. But tunnel is easily cut out a replacement fabbed and installed. Rear end could be shimmed also.
2--4 cyl T-5 gear ratios while very functional with a 3.50-1 rear end would work much better with a ratio in the 2.87---3.00 range. My 200 has enough tourgue that i can skip 1st gear under most situations although i seldom do. 5th gear will pull fine at as low as 1500RPMs on level ground and for other than interstate it is great but would benefit greatly from a high rear end there--Bottom line here is that a higher speed 8" 4 lug Maverick rear end is the next logical step anyways so going that route, it seems that this is an excellant tranny selection for that swap.
3-- Pinion to tranny shaft alignment is CRITICAL--I ended up making my crossmember adjustable and got everything correct (thanks Rickwrench for your insights on this area).A $7 angle finder from Home depot for up and down and a plump bob and chalk line on garage floor for side to side took 15 minutes and all vibration dissapeared.
4--If pinion angle is off and you're trying to find vibration fix--keep a real close eye on things like u-joint and lug nuts (we'll not dwell on this but suffice it to say REAL CLOSE EYE).
5--Tranny tunnel material seems to grow wild around these parts on the back roads -usually with some realtors name on it--very heavy and maleable aluminum.(easily cut also)
6-- without this site's available info I never would have had the time to find the nesseccary ingrediants to to the 5 speed.
Final analisis is that it is a fairly expaensive and not for faint of heart job or for the mechanically impaired. I have more tools than many professional mechanics and have been mixing and matching stuff like this since the late 60's when i went through a couple schools of mechanicing and even before then doing daily around the dairy farm repairs and fabbing-where the motto was "if you can't fix it, you don't need to own it")
The T-5 is an absolute joy to drive behind a hopped up small 6
