6 cyl SROD to T5 bellhousing conversion...PIC's

[RacinNdrummin]

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.

[ncontt]

awesome, of course having the right machines and know-how at your disposal doesn't hurt either!!! Two thumbs up!!

[LOWCOP]

great job

[RacinNdrummin]

Thanks guys, I can wait to see what it does behind this 6.

[GrnTrunk]

wow nice work.

my fairmont was quite odd. it was factory inline six, 3 speed MANUAL, manual brakes, manual steering. true stripper.

[RacinNdrummin]

Thats just like the one I got the stuff out of, except it was an SROD, not a 3.03 like yours was. I was tempted to pull the master cylinder/plate and steering rack, but after having manual steering on my 91, I decided against it, I like my power steering.

[Turbo-Box]

wow nice work.

my fairmont was quite odd. it was factory inline six, 3 speed MANUAL, manual brakes, manual steering. true stripper.

That's what my parts car is too. Until I bought it, I didn't think they even built a 6 cyl/manual trans car

[rab]

iirc i saw a 79 capri with a 6 and a stick at the j/y about 30 min from me.

[RacinNdrummin]

That bell is worth some money if it is a 4 speed, If I were you, Id pull it and toss it up on ebay.

[rab]

That bell is worth some money if it is a 4 speed, If I were you, Id pull it and toss it up on ebay.

how many 6's with sticks were made for the 4 eyed foxbodys (78-86)?

[RacinNdrummin]

Not many, most were in fairmonts, but even those are rare. Its very hard to find a Stang/Capri with a 6 and every one that I have seen was an auto.

[rab]

do all srod bells have this? ie v8 82-84 toploaders?

[RacinNdrummin]

As far as I know, All SROD bellhousings have both patterns cast into the face.

[Dean_T]

Aw, you make it look easy! LOL Good job! Must be nice to be a skilled machinist.

Funny thing, I've found more 200I6 manual trans Mustangs down here in Southern Cal than Fairmonts. I don't recall ever seeing a manual trans Fairmont but have found non-power steering FZ's and non-power brake FZ's.

These bells are rare due to the fact that the '79 Mustangs had V6s, the '83 Mustang went to V6 (but not the FZ or the first part of the '83 model year Fox LTD production run - they retained the 200I6), there weren't too many 'Fox Granadas, Cougars, and T-birds.

Regarding the I6 bell housing, did you know the '81 Mustang had an optional non-overdrive 4spd whose bolt pattern is the same as the T-5's? Yes, it's a direct bolt on with no muss or fuss (p/n starts with E1Z vice D9Z for the others). The down side they're really rare. When your bored, pop in non-overdrive 4spd '81 Mustang bell housing in carparts.com and see if any show up. Occasionally, one does...

Dean T

[rab]

.

These bells are rare due to the fact that the '79 Mustangs had V6s, the '83 Mustang went to V6 (but not the FZ or the first part of the '83 model year Fox LTD production run - they retained the 200I6), there weren't too many 'Fox Granadas, Cougars, and T-birds.

Regarding the I6 bell housing, did you know the '81 Mustang had an optional non-overdrive 4spd whose bolt pattern is the same as the T-5's? Yes, it's a direct bolt on with no muss or fuss (p/n starts with E1Z vice D9Z for the others). The down side they're really rare. When your bored, pop in non-overdrive 4spd '81 Mustang bell housing in carparts.com and see if any show up. Occasionally, one does...

Dean T

i little off topic, but earlyer this year i was looking for a manual tranz for a buddy of mine and searched car-parts.com and noticed for the 79-86 stangz there were alot of different tranzmissions offer than i thought, even thou some of this transmissions were offered for 4 bangers or 4 banger turbos, i wonder what ones would fit behind a v8 bell and work with a v8. we ended up finding a 5.0 5 speed for him, but i still wonder and wanted to know more info about all of these diff. tranzes offer in the early 79-86's, iirc there were like 6 or 7 diff. kinds offered from 79-86 ranging for 4cyl-v8 and everthing inbetween. if you know any info post it up, here is a link.
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?t=75953

[super4ord]

This 1st pic is an E1ZR 1981 Mustang T-4 bell for a 200 6 cyl.



This is the D9 1979 Mustang SROD bell for 200 6 cyl.



This pic is side by side, with the T-4 on the left & SROD on the right.

Darrell

[RacinNdrummin]

Good to see I got the hole positioning right, lol....

[Neighbors]

Nice work, and great information! My '80 wagon has a 200/4-speed (but power everything else, save for windows), and I've always thought it was an odd combo...

...can't wait to get on it after a lot of years of fiddling about!

Chris

[rab]

well i might be keepin the stright 6 instead of swaping in a f.i. v8, i would be boosting the six just for the hell of it, seeing it has such low miles and runs great.
(i still have to read more about modding the carb for boost and seeing what all i need for the fuel set-up, if i can do it cheap enough i will go for it) it would be a low boost set-up 8-10psi with a smaller turbo.

if the straight 6 capri with a stick is there in the spring, i might go get all of it if the price is right. if not i will just get the bell.

if i do get the bell, could i sent it to you and have you mod it for a t5?
if not i have a buddy with a small machine shop that could do the machining for me.
thanks

[RacinNdrummin]

well i might be keepin the stright 6 instead of swaping in a f.i. v8, i would be boosting the six just for the hell of it, seeing it has such low miles and runs great.
(i still have to read more about modding the carb for boost and seeing what all i need for the fuel set-up, if i can do it cheap enough i will go for it) it would be a low boost set-up 8-10psi with a smaller turbo.

if the straight 6 capri with a stick is there in the spring, i might go get all of it if the price is right. if not i will just get the bell.

if i do get the bell, could i sent it to you and have you mod it for a t5?
if not i have a buddy with a small machine shop that could do the machining for me.
thanks

I could do it no problem, but the shipping might be prohibitive.

Check with your buddy first, and if he doesnt want to do it, than I can.

[rab]

I could do it no problem, but the shipping might be prohibitive.

Check with your buddy first, and if he doesnt want to do it, than I can.

cool, i will see come spring.

[rab]

bringing back a old post, are the 6 and 8 srod transmision the same(79-83 fox srods), or was the srod on the 6 weaker or geared differently?

[RacinNdrummin]

I think they are all the same strengthwise, they just have two sets of ratios.

[Dean_T]

To answer an earlier question, I don't recall which 4 spds could be bolted to the V8 bell for sure but I would guess the I6 SROD could physically be bolted to a SROD V8 bell. Whether it would live or not behind a modified V8 is another question. I'm not familiar with the 4 cylinder 4spds at all but the 4 cylinder T-5 can be bolted up to a V8 bell but a Ranger pilot bearing will need to be used since the tip of the T-5 input shaft is smaller diameter for a 4 cyl versus the V8 version.

Dean T

[rab]

i just go done parting out/stripping a 85 lx 4 banger 4 speed, picked it up cheap and grabed a bunch of misc.trim and interior parts,ect,ect.

i grabbed the 4 speed tranz from it also,, IIRC its a ET trans and not a SROD, can the ET tranz work, or made to work on a cheap behind a I6?