Wow...…....The T5 "answers" given in this thread are all over the board. That being said, JSeery shows some VERY good identification info on the basic T5. What I USUALLY try to remember when discussing T5s is that we're trying to
HOOK IT UP TO A FLATHEAD FORD. Seery likes the 'Ford' renditions of T5s in a WC (World Class) flavor. The Ford version is a little harder to hook-up to a flathead....MY opinion!
I guess that what MOST folks still don't realize is that the BASIC T5 design needs to be thought of as a front half, and a rear half. The front half (the main case with gears for 1st gear thru 4th gear) can easily accommodate the REAR half (tail shaft HOUSING and MAIN shaft) from another configuration, like the infamous S-10.....it all bolts right up! What most guys are really looking for is the FORWARD shifter location that the S-10 trans offers. What MOST guys don't realize is that a complete transmission from an S-10 is probably going to have a 4.03 or 3.76 1st gear ratio. A Camaro T5 is going to have a 2.95 1st gear. That ratio is extremely close to the stock 1st gear ratio of 2.82 found in most old Ford transmissions. That 4.03 1st gear in an S-10 is going to be like installing a "DOUBLE GRANNY" gear for 1st. So, swap an S-10 TAIL SHAFT HOUSING and even the S-10 MAIN shaft from an earlier NWC S-10 application onto the REAR of your '83 thru '87 Camaro V8 T5. Best of all worlds, and it all bolts-up.
The whole idea here (especially in the case of the original poster in this thread) is to SLOW-DOWN the RPMs of the flathead engine at any given highway speed. The OVERDRIVE ratio of the above-mentioned Camaro T5 (with S-10 REAR parts bolted-on) is going to be ".63". This means that when you put your M-H into overdrive at some ridiculously-slow top speed in 4th gear, the engine RPM will decrease to 63% of whatever the RPM was when you shifted. As the 1st gear ratio NUMBER increases in value (2.95 vs 4.03), the torque rating of the transmission DECREASES, because of the torque-multiplication imposed on the aluminum gear case.
One more note.....there's not a thing wrong with the NWC T5s. They're just as strong (gear-wise) as a WC (World Class) T5. The main differences between WC and NWC is the bearing types used, and the friction material used on the synchronizers. The only rule one must remember.....DO NOT mix WC parts with NWC parts. The NWC Camaro FRONT half that I promote here can easily accept the NWC S-10 MAIN shaft that will match the MECHANICAL speedometer gear location on the S-10 TAIL SHAFT housing.
And yes, how about that Jeep T5 that bolts-up to the Dana 300 x-fer case? We know about that oddball, too. That is the basic REAR half of a T5 that we bolted-up to a NWC Camaro FRONT half to end-up with the MUCH-shortened T5 that HEARD and I engineered to put in his '35 pick-up....BOLTED TO the original, shortened torque tube. The Jeep trans (rear half) is strange in that it is only 6" front to rear, and the main shaft has a really oddball 23-spline output. Click on the "
T5 W/TORQUE TUBE " at the bottom left of this post for the WHOLE story on that trip. DD
Below, our little short T5....Camaro front half, Jeep rear half!
Below, a standard T5 front half, with S-10 tail shaft housing and Main shaft (REAR half). A Camaro V8 input shaft would have 26-splines.
