Late model T-5 to 250 six questions

I have a 76 comet with a 250 six and it already has a 3 speed manual tranny. I have access to a T-5 out of a 93 mustang or one out of a 99 cobra does any one know what would would be involved in swapping one of these into my 76. Output shaft lengths? would my clutch work? what about shifter position? bell housings? I am building a 302 to drop in later i would like to be able to use this tranny with. Thanks

 

Would probably be best to ask this question over at fordsix.com. The T5 out of the '93 will be the only one you can use, the '99 Cobra has a T45.

 

Any transmission that bolts to a 302 will also bolt to the 250 six.
If you use an adapter plate and your old bell housing you can use your clutch linkage.

 

Yes it will work. PGARFDS just put a T5 in a '74 with a 250 and setup a cable clutch. I don't have the details though.

 

Thanks,Randy.What year t-5? Did it bolt up to the stock bell housing ,clutch,ect.I am concerned with shifter location as it seems they vary on different t-5,s.And the driveshaft should be easy.

 

T-5's have a longer input shaft. That's why PaulS said to use an adapter between the trans and your bellhousing to eat up the difference and change bolt pattern so the T-5 will fit. You don't want to cut the floor pan brace for the shifter...it's part of the unibody construction. Drill out the spot welds and move the brace. You still might need to modify the brace or floor pan some to make it fit in its new location.

 

Thanks jeff ,I did not know about the floor brace.Would an older T-5 with shorter out shaft be prefferable to not need the spacer?

 

You'll have to ask Steve. The shifter was location was good. I don't know what year it was from. I don't think he cut the floor brace either. I'll see if I can get him to login. He doesn't get on here that much.

 

As far as I know all T-5's have a long input shaft. You will need the spacer to center the front bearing retainer. Google "t5 adapter plate".

You could also replace your bellhousing (and everything inside) and buy a cable setup. The adapter will be the best and cheap way to do this swap.

 

Thanks again,this is my 14 Y.O. Sons first car.Hope to have the tranny in and driving good by end of summer and then motor swap in a couple years.We will try and get project pics up soon.

 

We did the T-5 swap on a 74 automatic column shift 250 car. We used the T-5 5.0 bellhousing and modified a mav pedal set to accept the cable clutch.

Considering you are going to use your existing clutch setup, pedals and equalizer bar, your mod will be easier in those areas. However you will have to use that spacer plate because of the length of the T5 input shaft. OR, I think that you can buy a shorter input shaft for the T-5 and then redrill your bellhousing to match the t-5's bolt pattern. This option doesn't seem worth the effort to me.

Our car was a column shift, so the floor had no hole. To cut the hole, we removed the shifter from the T-5, installed the transmission and marked the tunnel from the bottom. We then removed the trans, drilled holes in the corners and cut out the hole in the floor large enough to be able to remove the shifter from inside the car. This was just in case we ever wanted to change to a different(short throw) shifter. We used the removed piece of floor to screw over part of that hole to create sort of an access panel.

There is a body seem that crosses the front area of the trans tunnel. We had to beat that upward slightly to make the T-5 fit.

We reused our C-4 transmission mount and modified our mav crossmember slightly. The T5 mount is too high to reuse in your crossmember.

Our driveshaft happened to be short enough to reuse. However, just because your driveshaft will fit does not mean that it is short enough. It is critical to check the geometry of the rearend/driveshaft. You do not want this to bind up when the rear axle travels to it's extremes.

I'm not sure what you are having to cut out for the shifter. Ours had no seem or cross brace or anything in the area of the shifter, just sheetmetal. If you have the extra removable shifter hump, just remove it, then cut the floor for your shifter. You can then decide whether you will need to cut the extra shifter hump to match or just leave it out.

Hope this helps.

 

Any 5.0 T-5 1993 or older will work. The 94 and newer have an even longer input shaft and seems like the speedo cable hole is missing or something like that.

 

It already has a foor shifter so I will check that area and see how it was done.Thanks for the info.The thing I havent heard anyone address is speedo?Are the T-5 all still cable operated or is that something to look for when purchsing tranny?Thanks again.

 

All 93 and older T-5's still have the same size speedo cable provision. It seems like we had to trim off some of the small end of the plastic driven gear to make our C-4 cable and driven gear work. Also I'm not sure whether your top loader 3 spd gear runs the same direction. I know that top loader 4 speed gears run the opposite direction.

If I understand correctly the 94 and newer systems use a digital signal for the speedo and have no cable provision.

Sounds like you are thinking it all through very well. Maybe before you get there I can post some pics of points of interest to you.