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So....going to Fort Benning to see a friends son graduate from Airborne School. Running about 80 down the highway. All of a sudden it pops out of gear and makes some awful sounds. Go to put it back in gear (it jumps out of 6th once in a while already) and no 6th....and no 5th. I have 1-4 and reverse. Made it to the ceremony and made it back home. Going 55 was no fun for 2.5 hours! It made some awful noises here and there but did fine. Anyways....decision time. Rebuild it myself. I figure cost around $1100 or so. Send it to Tick or similar shop for rebuild with a warranty. I see that costing around $2500. I also am not sure what the innards will look like and I may need more parts than a standard rebuild requires. I see speedwaymotors.com and others have T-56 Magnums in stock for $2995. They do not mention needing a core at all either. Has anyone installed a magnum here? Any issues with fitment, shifter, etc.? And what irritates me is it only has 68,000 miles on it.....
The speedway setup is priced right but from what I can tell it isn't application specific and is more of a generic transmission for doing swaps and such. The one pictured isn't bolting up but you could probably buy it and swap all of the necessary parts over. That would include the tailshaft which may already be toast in yours so you may not be saving much by doing that.
I don't know about your skill level but if money is an issue or crating the transmission up and sending it off is too much of a pain to deal with, build it yourself. Crating and shipping this thing would be a pain in the *** IMHO. Will Tick ship you a crate to pack it in?
The warranty is comforting but if it isn't covering the R&R of the transmission, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to me. Say you had a problem with a warrantied transmission, it might take as long to repack and ship the transmission back to the builder as it would to just throw it up on the bench and tear it down yourself.
Where do you buy parts for this thing? Would a Caddy dealer have a complete breakdown of this transmission?
I can't remember if it's which place it is, but it was suggested to ship it in a Rubbermaid container. Probably ain't too bad without the bell housing, packed full of styrofoam
R&R is easy. Probably put a new clutch in while I'm there and do the motor mounts. Also a speed bleeder for future use. Actually they all recommend a sterlite box from Walsmart, pack tightly with cardboard, etc., zip tie the top and drop off at UPS. Time and money are immaterial. I don't DD it so I can take my time. I just want a fair deal on a good tranny that will withstand future Maggie abuse.....uh, I mean use. Anyone know if the T-56 Magnum XL for LS's ever came to fruition???
A V2 driveshaft on ebay is around $400 shipped. Fabbing some things is no biggie here. What did runfromdacops mean when he said the shifter was close to the one in the V1 but then said the remote shifter was a pita so he sold it? If this route is do-able at a reasonable cost and the car benefits from it I'll do it.
Sounds like to me he wasn't working with a V series transmission and that would be a bitch. Modifying something that is close would be a lot easier than starting from scratch.
The shift rail improvements and the driveshaft upgrade makes this swap worth considering. Wish I had time to do it.
Found 6060 out of a 2011 Camaro SS that is local to me for $1750 on ebay.....
The Camaro trans has the same driveshaft bolt pattern and flange setup but the driveshaft will need to be shortened.
The shifter might be a direct swap...not sure.
Killernoodle did one of these and it went in with no big challenges IIRC. It was a tight fit on the exhaust but it went in there. I think one of the biggest challenges he had was that the earlier Camaro 6060s had internal issues and his was one of them.
Driveshaft shortening is no biggie. I'll find someone local to do it.If the shifter is close then modding it to fit the rest of the way shouldn't be that big of a deal. Right now I have Pissnuoffs modded one sitting on a shelf and recently installed Creative Steel's shifter. Love it and would like to continue using it. I have Kooks 1 7/8 LT's, high flow cats, x pipe, etc. so clearance might be an issue here and there. I have a JD Squared tube bender so those issues can be dealt with as they arise. I guess I need to figure out the little stuff also like the slave. What will work with it? I already install Philistines awesome MC set up. Made a big difference. Electrical connectors are easy to change/rework....
The Camaro transmission shouldn't be too hard a swap. The clutch master and clutch assembly will all work no problems. Get a Camaro flex disc if you do this.
I already have a Revshift flex disc sitting here. I wonder if it will work....
I'm going to start searching for parts....unless I hear otherwise from someone who knows better I think I'm going this route. No rush so I can take my time. I appreciate your input! Please throw any and all ideas my way.
I already have a Revshift flex disc sitting here. I wonder if it will work....
I'm going to start searching for parts....unless I hear otherwise from someone who knows better I think I'm going this route. No rush so I can take my time. I appreciate your input! Please throw any and all ideas my way.
The problem with the Revshift flex disc AFAIK is that it doesn't want to flex. Unless your driveshaft is perfectly aligned, its going to be a problem and based on that, I haven't heard of any successful installs of this part yet.
Well, after stewing on it and researching options and searching for other trannys I think I'm pulling it and rebuilding it myself. Save me some money and hassle. Not my first manual rebuild but my first T56. I have a friend that has one apart right now and he is pretty adept at rebuilding T56's so I have him as a resource if needed. If I get time this weekend I'll pull it and see what the innards look like.
Plus this will save me some cash in case I need a new/better clutch while I'm in there.....or anything else for that matter...
Well, the most significant thing that stands out is the remnants of the reverse gear syncho retainer.....the wave washer, which goes between the reverse gear and the synchro is also gone. I'm cracking the main case off tomorrow and going from there.
Another thing I noticed is the trans fluid was not red at all. Not even a hint of red. It was dark brown to black. Smells more like oil than ATF to me also. Hmmmmmmm.....
Well, I got it tore down completely. Main shaft is bad as well as the 5th/6th gear cluster. The splines on the main shaft picture are supposed to be all one spline. Obviously they are not any longer. This is a result of romping on it when you are in 5th or 6th gear. Definitely not designed for that kind of use AT ALL. You can also see the inside splines of the 5/6 gear. They are rounded off badly. Those splines mesh with the splines on the main shaft. So, in addition to upgraded parts (bronze pads, billet keys, etc.) I need another $400 in parts. All in all about $1300 when I'm done. Ordering parts tomorrow and hope to be driving it by next Friday!
When the 5/6 gear cluster came off by hand I knew it was toast. I really cannot believe that these small splines are all that transmit the power for 5/6 gear. No wonder this happens. This damage existed before I bought the car. I never romp on it in 5th or 6th. 3rd and 4th are where it's at for me. The rest of the internals look very good. Ordering parts and cleaning it up while I wait for the brown truck. Might pull the starter since it's in the air and I can access it easily at the moment. Just want to check the connector, etc. Will probably wrap some lines in heat barrier material (DEI) to further protect what I can. I think the clutch is going to stay for now. It shifts fine.
Well, I got all the parts off of the main shaft. I'm actually in better shape than expected. Someone has been into the tranny before. It has billet 1/2 synchro keys. This isn't factory. I'm listing all the parts I'm ordering just so folks might have a ballpark idea of what is involved in doing this (obviously I need some "hard" parts as well). All the synchros, blocker rings, shift forks (we already have a steel 3/4 fork), gears (except the 5/6 cluster obviously), bearings, etc. look good. This tranny already comes with 3 piece blocker rings with kevlar/carbon material already and they are in great shape still. As I compared it to Camaro versions of this tranny ours is a little better. After the rebuild it generally will be close to a "level 2" build from most builders. At least better than stock.
Been examining/inspecting internals a little closer today as I clean things up awaiting parts. I looked at the main shaft a little closer and there is a fair amount of damage to the journal where the first gear needle bearings ride. If you look at the pic you can see the scoring on the journal to the left of the ganked up splines from the 5/6th gear cluster. I'm ordering new needle bearing for all gears. Adds around $70 to the total but new shaft, new bearings is just good operating practice.
5/6 syncro springs $8.99
Rev sychro spring $8.99
Shift guide bolts (2x) $4.00
3/4 gear billet keys with springs $55
bronze shift fork pads for all gears $97
shim kit $34
snap ring kit $19.50
front seal $14.99
rear seal $19.99
mainshaft $275
5/6 gear cluster $206
mainshaft bearing $19.99
rev thrust washer $4.99
rev wave washer $4.99
bronze shifter iso cup $21.99
rev syncro retainer $3.99
1st gear needle bearing $9.99
2nd gear needle bearing $9.95
3rd gear needle bearing $9.99
5th gear needle bearing $6.99
6th gear needle bearing $9.99
Grand total: $902.31 before shipping from two different vendors. This amount doesn't include cleaners, rtv, new fluid, etc.
It seems that failure is pretty common. Same thing happened to me. Still had 5-6, but no reverse. Reverse gear bearing failed at 80mph. Destroyed the mainshaft, reverse gear, wave washer, retainer, pretty much everything associated with reverse and 5-6 gear. Mainshaft splines were also messed up from the due to fretting of the 5-6 driven gear. Somewhat common due to it not being fully splined from what I understand. 800.00 later in parts, I had a upgraded T56 assembled in my garage.
Definitely take the chance to replace all the bearings while it's apart. It kinda sucks, but better to do it right, than do it twice!
Finally got everything buttoned up except the exhaust. I'll get that back on after work today. Had everything back together Sunday and while bleeding the clutch determined there was a big leak from somewhere. So, I had to remove everything and slide the trans back enough for me to see inside and find the leak. I had installed a remote bleeder from Hinson Motorsports. Turns out it was not tight where the line connects to the fitting that goes into the slave. I mistakenly assumed it was tight already. Never assume....Anyways, started it up last night on the jackstands still, with no exhaust, and it shifted fine through all the gears. There were some peculiarities about our trans that I will bring up in a few days after I gather my thoughts. My grandfather just passed away this morning so I'll be making a trip to Michigan in the next few days.
07-25-2015, 07:22 AM
Trans fragg'd 5th and 6th 
