Posting this here as well as a couple of other forums for reference.
A couple of months ago I found an ALL manual fairmont out at the JY. Knowing the rarity of a manual transmission 6 cylinder Fairmont, I pulled the tranny and everything related so that I could do a manual swap into my car. The SROD that was in it only had one problem (Beside the fact that its an SROD ), the shifter-to-rail bushing was toast and anybody that has tried parts for an SROD knows those parts are just about obsolete. I had originally planned on turning up a new bushing out of bronze on my lathe and to install the SROD in my Fairmont. Well after a little browsing, I found out that the SROD bell also has the T5/T4 BW pattern cast into the face (I had known about the V8 bells being the same way, but didnt put 2 and 2 together til I read it here). Being that I had my 2.3T T5 transmission clean and sitting in my shop, I did the wise thing, and scrapped the SROD.
Next step was to convert the Bellhousing over to the T5 pattern:
First I made some plugs for a couple of the existig holes on the SROD pattern
Tig welded the 2 plugs I made into the holes (they interfere with the T5 pattern)-
Then I mounted the bellhousing up on my mill and machined the welded areas flat-
Then I bored out the retainer pilot hole to 4.91" from 4.85" to accept the larger bearing retainer from the T5-
After removing the bell from the milling machine, I mounted the T5 in the bellhousing and marked the holes. (I was going to use a transfer punch, but they were too long and the webbing on the transmission interfered, so I just used a sharpie). I then proceded to mount my bellhousing back onto the milling machine, and drill out th 4 holes of the T5 pattern-
Then I Tapped the holes, 7/16-14 thread-
And DONE!
After this, it should be a bolt in affair with the exception of a small adapter plate I have to make up for the crossmember. The T5 and SROD are both the same length, so my driveshaft should work just fine.
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