[How-To] The Whatever Project, is it appropriate for here?

[Dave G in upstate New York]

Made progress on the garage, and have done a little bit on the Whatever project. There's a couple of transmissions that are in the overhaul stage. 1, an early 60s Borg Warner T10, needs to be put back togetherwith a new output shaft. It led a previous life in a dragster that didn't need reverse so it was shortened down by eliminating the tailhousing. The 2 replacement tailhousings will need new bushings fitted here and there. One needs some tlc as the original bore for the bushing needs to be opened up a bit, and a sleeve made to fit, then bored to fit the new bushing and rear seal. And I have a lathe now! I can do it! Well, we'll see...

 

[Dave G in upstate New York]

Finally got the T10 transmission apart. The gears are in good shape, the bearings are reusable, and the gears with syncros are not damaged. However, the input shaft has been modified. It turns out that not only the output side of the transmission was modified for use in a dragster. It was also made into a poor man's dog ring transmission system. Someone machined a very nicely done ring kind of thing to replace the high gear synchro ring, and welded it to the input shaft. It's lined up with the teeth that are typically on a gear that line up with the synchro ring when the slider is moved to that gear.

So this ring has rather large lugs machined on the od, approximately 1/3rd as many as a synchro ring would have. So this would require a heavy hand when shifting into high gear. The driver probably didn't use the clutch for that shift. Just hit the rev limiter and bang the shift lever. HARD! Now I'm looking to replace the high gear synchro ring and input shaft. But there's good news in the old garage today.

Another project that is coming into focus, to use up more of my old race car parts, including an old CAE in/out box assembly that was a direct drive unit. The same casting was used to make a clutch drive box. And the input shaft was made by Warner Gear. Coincidence? Anyway, now that I have a good working lathe, with a little bit of effort I can make the 2 come together to have a clutch drive box. So I have some practicing to do in the garage, and machining, and welding, and finish machining.

 

[Dave G in upstate New York]

You know that free parts aren't cheap? Yeah, that T10 transmission has hd some serious drag race modifications. No synchro rings, and 2nd, 3rd and the input shaft were modified to be a poor man's dog ring transmission system. I imagine that the driver just ran up to the rev limiter and then banged the next gear. And seeing that starting out in 1st from a standing start doesn't require a synchro, that one was left out just because. So I have some parts to procure. Still less than a new one, by a factor of 5! I'm showing the Scots side of the family...

I'll have to get some pictures of the stuff and post them. You won't believe how nice the work is.

 

[Dave G in upstate New York]

Pictures! I got a couple today. The work on the parts is really good. But it won't work on the street. So I'm ordering new in the next couple of days. So here's the pictures:

They definitely saw some usage on the dragstrip.

 

[Dave G in upstate New York]

Took 2 T5 transmissions apart part way, to swap tailhousings. There's a difference in the location of the shifter on 2 general types of these transmissions. Ones that came out of Camaro or Firebird V-8 equipt cars have the shifter located at the very rear of the tailhousings. Those from S10 pickup trucks, either 4 or 6 cylinder versions, have the shifter located at the front of the tailhousings. This puts the shifter in a much better position for lots of hotrod applications. Including the Whatever project.

I have one of each, however there are some differences between them. And model year differences as well. None of the differences make the swap impossible, only requiring some creativity in one case, and knowing what transmission for gear ratios and replacement parts for it might be required. For instance, there are non-world class (NWC) transmissions, and world class (WC) transmissions. The differences are in bearings and synchro rings. And between the two types of applications, the input shaft can be a different length. Oh, and the transmission mount on V-8 Camaro/Firebird transmissions is angled.

So I took the parts off to swap out and inspect the insides of the 2 transmissions. They both look clean and in good condition inside, which given the age, 1988 and 1993, is amazing. I have an idea that the V-8 T5 was rebuilt, as there's no swarf in the residue of gear oil in it. And the syncros look too good. No rounding of the teeth on the brass rings.

Likewise the S10 T5 is clean inside and it's synchro rings are also in good shape. This transmission is a WC T5 and has composite synchro rings. And uses ATF for lubricant. So here's a few pictures of the of them:


The 1st one is the S10 T5 and the 2nd one is the Camaro V-8 T5. Visible in the pictures are the syncros. They are dark in the 1st one and brass color in the 2nd. And while the outside of the transmissions are dirty, inside of both look clean and in good condition as I said before.


And one more issue to deal with is the speedometer dri, visible here as the, I think, blue gear near the right side of the last picture (I'm blue end of the spectrum color blind...).

The 2 transmissions have different types and locations for how the speedometer gets driven. Electronic on the S10, and traditional gear driven mechanical on the V-8 T5. I've got an idea for an adapter for converting one to the other. It must be serendipitous that I just happened to get the Atlas lathe! But more on that if it works...