Greetings... I know there is a ton of great info here about swapping a T-5 into a Maverick but I have seen or found anything specific to my potential project. I have a 72 Grabber with a 302 that I converted to a Toploader back in 1974 using the proper pedals and Z-Bar from a standard Maverick (lot easier to get then) and a transmission & bellhousing from a donor 65 Mustang. Anyway the point here is that it all works great and has for a long time... but I am considering going to a T-5. My question is... if I want to retain my existing, working mechanical clutch, bellhousing, etc., can I simply use the adapter (to compensate for longer input shaft) between my existing bellhousing and the T-5 and shorten my driveshaft and not make any other modifications? If so, would the T-5 shifter location match the Toploader shifter location and come up in the same place? Also, it seems I will ahve to modify my crossmember or fabricate a new one... correct? Any recommendations. Many thanks... if I missed a thread that discusses this pls point me in the right direction.
I will start the answers by saying I have never performed the swap... But You should be able to use an adapter between the T5 and your bellhousing. The likelyhood of the shifter coming up in the same place as the one on the Toploader is directly proportional to choosing the right car for the donor transmission. You may have to modify your existing transmission mount and you may have to shorten your driveline. If you get a T5, you can make some measurements and answer the questions yourself. On that note, make sure your donor T5 is up to handling the torque and HP that your engine produces. There are many T5s being sold that are from four and six cylinder engines that are not up to the task. I wish you well on your andventure.
I cant find the thread that discusses a lot of this but from experience I can tell you what I found. I've seen some people say its a bolt in swap. In my case I had to modify the trans tunnel. The T5 hit the forward part of the tunnel just ahead of the cross brace. You can see the mods I made in this thread. http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=36382 Go down to post 79. I am using the adapter plate so I can retain the stock linkage. The shifter came up in about the same location but I had to cut a bigger hole. I used the stock transmission mount but had to elongate the holes and notch the front to get it to slide forward enough to work. I have not delt with the drive shaft yet but I would think it needs to be shortened. As a side note, before any mods to the tunnel, the transmission only lacked less than 1/2" from going in. So it you could conceivably take a hammer to the tunnel and massage it, or if you fabricate your own mount, just keep it lower. This will change the drive train angle. Enough to make a difference? I dont know, I'm no engineer but I suspect thats what a lot of people do. Also I am using 93 vintage T5 if it makes a difference. As
Finally installed the T5... Well it’s taken a lot longer than intended but I’ve finally stuck a T5 in my 72 Grabber. Belated thanks to those that responded to my initial enquiries. As I mentioned I wanted to retain my existing mechanical clutch setup so I went the adapter route. I used a new Ford Motorsport T5z and adapter from Modern Driveline. Since my car makes a bit more horsepower than stock, I didn’t want to worry about what it came out of and what condition it was in. For the crossmember I modified a stock replacement crossmember I bought from AutoKrafters, moving the mounting position about 1 ½ inches rearward. I had the stock driveshaft shortened 1 inch and rebalanced. For reference, I have a 9 inch rear end out of a 57 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon. After installing the adapter and bolting up the transmission I jacked up the transmission to see how close I could get it to the same angle as the toploader I removed. As expected from the postings in the forum it hit the tunnel before I could get the proper angle. I lowered the transmission back down and laid a couple of foam core board on top of the entire trans and jacked it up against the tunnel. I then lowered it and removed the foam core to see from the compressed foam where it hit the tunnel. I found it hit the tunnel brace just forward of the shifter and also hit about a foot further forward where the domed cover is at the front of the T5. I was able get everything to clear by notching the tunnel brace slightly and cutting about a 6 inch square out of the forward tunnel. I made a domed sheetmetal cover and pop riveted it in place. It allowed the T5 to sit at the same angle as the toploader had previously. My Grabber was originally a floor shift automatic so there was already plenty of room for the shifter to clear there without modification. Also, as another point of reference, I decided to check the trans, rear end pinion, and driveline angles while I had the car on stands. I found that the trans was angled down in the rear about 3 degrees which is not too bad but the rearend pinion angled down in the front about 2 degrees… for a combined angle of 5 degrees. Ideally you want the two to be on the same plane within 1-3 degrees. I bought a set of steel shims that was made to order and installed between the leaf spring and spring perch that raised the front of the pinion 4 degrees, putting it on the same plane as the transmission within 1 degree. It also puts the relationship of the driveshaft to the trans and rearend pinion within a couple degrees as well. I won’t go into details as there is plenty on info on the Web on this subject, posted by smarter people than me… but I think this is one of the more overlooked checks when making changes to the driveline especially if you elect to let the trans hang down further instead of modifying the tunnel. I am posting a couple pics… hope they help make sense of what I said above. The transmission works well. I had installed a set of 2.75 gears in the car about a year ago and left them in until I tested the T5. The 2.75 gears make 5th gear almost unusable below about 75 mph. I have a set of 3.70 going in soon... should be a good match. Thanks again...
Thanks... hope the info is useful. Gonna hang on to the Toploader... just went thru it about a year ago. I wanna see if the I like the T5 and whether it will hold up... plus I have a 62 smallblock Falcon with a Toploader that is getting tired. It will most likely go into the Falcon. I may then eventully do something with the Toploader in the Falcon... but no immediate plans.
I'm going to be getting to the tranny part of my restoration next year so I've been trying to decide whether to go Toploader or T-5. That's why all of this info on the site has been very informative for me. On the one hand the T-5s are more plentiful and cheaper initially to buy, but on the other hand the TopLoaders have that history of being almost indestructible. So I'd be very interested to hear what experience you have going from one to the other in terms of drivability and longevity over the long term. I would like to have something that will hold up to the occasional strip pass but will still be something I can cruise in. I probably won't be doing any long hauls just the occasional toot around town. That's the plan anyway, only some body reconstruction and a the build of a new driveline standing in my way. Keep us posted with your experinces of T5 vs. TopLoader.
The forum has a wealth of great info... best I've found specific to Mavericks and Comets. No argument that the Toploader is the stronger of the two... I think most people would say considerably stronger. I've had the 72 Grabber since new and raced it in the mid-70s. I installed the Toploader in about 74 after destroying three C4s. Its been in the car since and survived some brutal miles. As you probably know, the advantage of the T5 is the ability to run a lower gear and still be able to get out on the highway. I ran 4.86s for many years with the toploader before going to a 2.75 about a year ago. I think the toploader with up to a 3.25 or maybe a 3.50 is a good combination, even on the highway. I run a 3.25 in my 62 Falcon and short runs down the highway are ok. With the T5 you could go 3.50 to 3.70 or even 3.90 or 4.10 but with the 2.95 first gear you start getting a little low for 1st gear. My opinion. Anyway, food for thought. I'll let you know how I like the T5 a few months down the road... should be more fun after I install a lower gear.
Looks like you found the same clearance issues that I did. Great info and thanks for the update. Cant wait to get mine going.
Thanks... Your input and pics were very helpful... gave me an idea what to expect. I went to a lot of effort to reduce the amount of cutting I had to do but I think it paid off in the end. I think it also helped that my Grabber was a floor shift automatic to start with... gave me a big hole around the shifter to work with, especially with the tunnel adapter for the automatic shifter removed (shown in place in pics)
I have a question First, great thead, lots of good info! I thought the pinion had to be set a -angle? I thought this was to stop binding due to axle wrap? I'm not critic I just want to know if I'm missinformed. Thanks and good luck with the T-5.
I'll take a stab at it... Thanks... This is without a doubt one of the more controversial and widely debated subjects. The following is my best understand (i.e. opinion) of what I interpret from the endless articles on the web. One thing that seems MOST consistent from MOST write ups for MOST situations is that U-joints work best at an angle between 1 and 3 degrees… Some articles (mostly 4x4 web sites) indicate that you can have up to 7 deg between the pinion and driveshaft but the other thing that seem consistent with a drive shaft with a U-joint one each end of the driveshaft (non-CV) is "ideally, the angles between the transmission output shaft and driveshaft, and between the driveshaft and the pinion will be equal and opposite." Below is one of many sites that address this. http://www.carcraft.com/howto/91758/index.html Another interesting bit of trivia is that you should never have the tranny, driveshaft and pinion in perfect alignment. I've had more than one source tell me that it will wear out the U-joints prematurely. I've tried to draw my before and after setup to explain a little better... hope it helps.
Transsmission problem 1Good day to evarybody happy new year 11 . I have a cuestion y interest in chanche my c-4 trans for a t-5 manual trans for mustang 1986 gt,i need helph for a what cluth pedal use ,crossmember,cable clutch i live in Puerto Rico,somebody helph me thamks,ELIUD,my car is 1971 Comet
