T5 input question and Camaro gears

[Jesse <j2sax@xxxxxxxxx>]

Man!  Am I glad the list is back up!  

Most people change out the Mustang T5 gears because
first is so deep whereas the Camaro's are spread more
evenly on the bottom end.  (Many Stangs came with 3.0X
or higher rear ratios; first is so low that if you run
with 3.54's or .73's or lower first gear is useless
unless your gunning 6K!)  

I could not understand what you were saying concerning
the input of the Stang T5.  The inpput shaft should be
the right length as it is.  You have to modify the
bearing retainer (the little aluminun cone that the
input shaft goes through and holds the front bearing
to the tranny face with 5 or 6 bolts) or get one from
an AMC T4, 5, or I think even an SR4.  

If you use the Stang retainer, have a machine shop (or
Randy Guynn, who did mine) machine it down to match
your bellhousing hole.  Some people enlarge the
bellhousing to fit the Stang retainer, however, in my
estimation that is much more likely to mess up the
concentricity of the b-hing to tranny to crank center
relationship.  And you can always switch back to an
AMC trans in the short term if your T5 needs a
rebuild. 

The other mod is to shorten the bearing retainer to
reaveal more of the input shaft splines. If you put
the AMC and the Stang T5 retainer side by side, you
will see that the AMC retainer is shorter.  You can
have the machine shop do that or just use a hacksaw
(with the retainer off the trans, of course!).  

THough the input shaft may go deeper into the pilot
bushing, as long as it is not bottoming out  in the
crank tail you should be OK.  

BTW, you know a really great way to get out the pilot
bushing without the mess of grease or the expense of a
"claw" is to use bar soap.  Go out and buy a cheap bar
of soap and stuff the old bushing you're removing from
the crank tail with soap shards.  Use a wooden dowel
that barely fits the pilot bushing and start pounding
and stuffing more soap into the hole.  The pressure
from behind will force out the bushing and cleanup is
easy.  Some folks use grease but that is NASTY
especially if the dowel let's some by... high powered
SQUIRT!

My .98!  

Have a great week, 

Jesse 

Once the Stang retainer is 

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