Hey George -
I have finished my T-5 installation in my 37 Chevrolet 1/2 ton truck and I feel qualified to tell you a few things that you need to consider.
I know you are still running six lugs wheels, but you might want to consider going to Chevrolet car 49-54 hubs. Those hubs will slip right on you truck front spindles and you would be five lugs. With that problem solved, you can go to the Chevrolet car rear end choices and when you talk about 55-64, you are talking about a choice of 3.08, 3.36, 3.54 (Power Glide), 3.73 and 4.11 rear gears, the most common being the mid range ones. I used a 55 Chevrolet 3.54 car rear axle and with the Classic Performance Products kit advertised in Classic Trucks magazine. With that comversion kit you can easily convert that car rear axle to go under your truck. You can even make your emergency brake cable work for you. You can also use the car drive shaft with the T-5 yoke. The one problem you will have on your truck is your master cylinder. Because your master cylinder is plumbed on the transmission side, you are going to be very limited on just how you can make that master cylinder work with the T-5. It gets pretty tight between the T-5 and a master cylinder plumbed on the transmission side. I used a master cylinder plumbed on the outboard side and it was very easy. If you use a 1/2" thick adapter, your shifter will end up about 9 1/2" back from the stock location. That should work fine for you, although you will have to alter the S-10 shifter. Several of the guys who have put T-5's in their 41-46.5 trucks have had good luck with various shifters. I used a
B & M shifter in mine and altered it to work for me and my shifter ended up within four or five inches from my seat. Finally, let me say that if you don't already love your truck, you will fall in love with it after you do this conversion!
It is a great upgrade! My truck performs so much better than it did - just can't tell you the difference it has made! Let me know if you need any help. I'll be happy to do all I can to get you going on this change and you'll love it!
Joe
