Inliners International Forums General Discussion Drive Train 235 t5 setup

I read the article on the Camaro t5 setup for a 235 and the article states the Camaro setup has 24 splines. I found an 84 Camaro t5 with 14 splines. Will this work for a 57 235 on a 3/4 ton Chevy 3420 (forward control dubl-duti) points in the right direction would be welcomed. Thanks. Dan

The Camaro probably actually had a 230 engine in it and not a 235, which is in a completely different engine family than the early 235 for the 1957 truck you are asking about. The T5 will not bolt up directly to the early 235 bellhousing, so an adapter will need to be used along with the correct spline clutch to match the input shaft on the T5.

There is a T5 page in our Tech Tips to the left on this page. It has a link to another page on the Stovebolt site. The bolt pattern on a Camaro T5 and the 235 in your '57 are the same. The input shaft is 3/8" too long. It is in the pilot bushing area and can be cut off, or you can make a flat 3/8" spacer plate. Find a clutch plate that fits your pressure plate, flywheel and input shaft and you are good to go. If you have bell housing motor mounts on your pickup you can even let the trans hang off the back or build a month for it. A tail housing from an S10 will put the shifter in a better spot if you don't have bucket seats.

I don't have a Chevy and I'm not familiar with all the combos, however.. If you just space the trans away from the bell housing with a spacer plate, what will keep the trans input shaft on center with the crankshaft? Don't the centers rely on the bellhousing bore indexing with the input shaft bearing retainer?

I once had a drivetrain that was spaced this way using a 9/16"
steel plate.. The centers were off due to this method and the synro ring cracked after a while..Kinda inconvenient when you're miles from home and can't shift into high gear....

Here's a picture of the adapter plate on my 270 GMC. The T5 is from an S10 that doesn't have the standard Chevy bolt pattern. I wouldn't use one of those again but it's been in there for years and tens of thousands of hard miles. I don't remember if the alignment ring on the bearing retainer goes all the way through the spacer plate or not. It is 3/8".

How about an automatic... th350 or th400?

It's very possible that being new here, I'm just missing something. Would it be possible to post a link to the "Tech Tips" page you referred to? I can't find it. I find Tech Tips on the main page but it has one thread in it titled New Website. Maybe there's an older version out there?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I hope this works for you. We are getting a new website several years ago.

T5 Page

Thanks, that worked. Got it bookmarked now.

There is a lot of other information hidden on this site that is all but impossible to access. One thing that sometimes works is to search subjects on Google and the results can take you to threads here that don't come up in a search here. Another trick, though time consuming, is to search the posts of a member that you know is interested in the subject you are looking for. Any 4.2, EFI, turbo stuff look at efi-diy's posts. Turbo, super charger and beautiful brackets check out Hank's posts and so on. Their post will lead to old threads and old posters who are no longer here and to subjects that don't come up on our searches. Anyway, I'm glad that helped you.

Little known trick on Google is the website 'filter'. Start your search terms with site:inliners.org and then whatever keywords you are interested in. Works like a charm. I used to work for a software company and google always crawled our various sites contents better then our own company's search engine!

That is good to know. Thanks!

Dan,
I specialize in T5s for older Chevy vehicles, especially trucks.
If your bell has a standard Muncie bolt pattern for the tranny bolts, then any T5 can be made to bolt up without an adapter plate.
The 1992 and earlier V8 Camaro T5 has 26 splines on the input shaft.
The 1992 and earlier V6 Camaro T5 has 14 splines.
The 1993 and earlier S10 and Sonoma truck T5s have 14 splines.

The S10 14 spline shaft can be exchanged for a 10 spline Jeep T5 input shaft available on eBay and that way no adapter plate is needed.

The V6 Camaro has 14 splines but they are cut further along the shaft so no adapter plate is needed.

The 1992 and earlier V8 Camaro T5 bolts right up.

More later.

My BLOG on T5s http://lugnutz65chevystepside.weebly.com/t5-info-page.html

Bump of an old thread..