T56 swap into foxbody ????

[Davey]

T56 swap into a Fox body ????
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I want to a T56 into my 93 GT. D&D's kit is super expensive $3,000, and they are not informative at all. They act like it's a top secret conversion. I know they don't have the casting plant to make the bellhousing.

I've heard that you can use a 94-97 LT1 T56 if you get the bellhousing and crossmember or modify yours, and shorten your driveshaft w/ the right yoke.

1. Is this true in any way?
2. Has anyone done this?
3. How does the speedo work?
4. What clutch do you use (tko)?
5. How does it line up in shifter hole and does the console require modification
Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Davey

 

[6SpeedLX]

i bought the kit from D&D and it came with a longer speedo cable, crossmember relocation brackets and an aluminum driveshaft. its also has the 10 spline input shaft so you can reuse the stock clutch....finding the right bellhousing might be tough because its not like everyone bolts T56's up to their 302.

personally tho, i dont think it was worth it because its only an extra overdrive..its not like your getting a true 6 speed where 5th would be 1:1 ratio and just 6th is overdrive...unless you buy the richmond tranny.


but if you really want it, ill sell ya mine for $2500 w/ the B&M short throw and 03 cobra knob....its all got less than a mile on it, i put it in the car but it hasnt been registered yet

 

[caseywan]

Yes, it is possible, I am in the process of doing it right now. I got a killer deal, $400 for a low mileage T56 out of a 1994 Camaro LT1. Yeah, I've tried to get info from D&D, but they don't ever want to help you with anything, they just want to push a sale.

To make an LT1 T56 work you have to do the following:

1. Swap the LT1 input shaft with a LS1 input shaft becuase the LS1 has the right length needed. You will make out better on this too - I got a brand new LS1 input shaft for $125 and sold my LT1 input shaft for $300 because the LT1 input shafts are not made anymore so the prices on them have skyrocketed.

2. Mcleod sells an adapter plate that bolts to the front of the tranny and allows you to bolt your stock T5 bellhousing to the tranny.

3. Get a extended pilot bushing from Mcleod

4. Shorten the driveshaft and have the correct yoke put on it.

5. The shifter will be about 4.5 inches further back, so you have to buy or make a custom offset shifter that comes forward about 4.5 inches. Mcleod can make the offset shifter you need with a short throw platform, but it will cost about $300, so I am just making my own out of Pro 5.0

6. The speedo on the LT1 T56 is electronic so obviously it won't work with a Fox's mechanical speedometer. There's a company called Abbit out of Alabama that sells what the call an X-converter box or something like that, which converts an electric speedometer signal to mechanical cable, but that converter is $300. So for that price, I decided to go ahead and invest that $300 in a custom dash plate from MC Machine and I am getting an electric Autometer speedometer along with all other Autometer guages.

7. For the clutch, I bought a 10.4" Centerforce DF with a 26 spline disc.

8. As for the crossmember, I have not completely figured that out yet. I guess I will just fab my old tranny mounts and crossmember to work with the T56.

All in all, when I am done I will have about $1000 total in the whole project. But YMMV, because I did a crap load of searching the internet and got lots of killer deals.

Hope this helps you out some, Dan

 

[vristang]

personally tho, i dont think it was worth it because its only an extra overdrive..its not like your getting a true 6 speed where 5th would be 1:1 ratio and just 6th is overdrive...unless you buy the richmond tranny.

Just curious,
does D&D offer any gear change kits for the t56?

 

[caseywan]

No, D&D doesn't offer jack squat for T56's... All they offer is the whole freaking kit for $2500!! They won't sell anything individually or give part numbers, I guess they don't like making money or something.

However, Liberty does offer a few differnt combinations of gear change kits for the T56.

 

[dragnazz5.0]

i dont know if its any different but we just put one in a 94 gt and we had to cut the old crossmember brackets out to get the new brackets in. it was a pita, but we found a guy with a grinder and a welder to do it for free. IMHO its really not worth it unless you are going for the cool effect. id just stick a tk600 in there and be done with it

 

[tunedin302]

The only posts from Caseywan and Davey are on the T-56 conversion and both bad mouth D&D.

I have had nothing but good experiences with D&D. Also this is a hobby where you got to pay to play so if you want the best expect to pay for it.