1997transamman

hey guys, i just thought i would explain myself alittle bit before i asked my questions....pretty well i have always loved cars since i could crawl, my dad and big brother always having awesome cars got me hooked. my brother owning a 96 black lt1 sixspeed formula when i was just a small lad, gave me a ride and i knew then and there it was the only way for me. so at the age of 11 i bought a 1983 camato z28 5.0 H.O. out of a field for 500 bucks and built it ground up. the mild 355 killed the 5speeds left and right and not having anymoney for a sixspeed swap at 16 i sold it to buy a 94 camaro z28 auto with cam and stall. it was fast but auto got boring so i traded for a 94 cobra 5-speed it just wasnt fast enough, traded again for a 97 trans am which i built and gutted (stupid of me). it was fun but i got tired of the lt1 headache and fell in love with ls1s so i traded for a built 1985 mustang gt and loved it. ford is just not for me so again i set out to find a new car. finaly i found it, my dream car an ls1 sixspeed 1998 trans am on craigslist. so i called the guy up and told him what i had. he turned me down so sadly i deleted his number and continued the search. nothing at all turned up. 2 weeks went buy and just skimming through one day i saw the car again. only this time it said "wife is mad need to get rid of asap!" so again i called him up and told him the offer was still up on my mustang. he said to come get teh car. so i called my buddy with a trailer and we headed out for the 3 hour trip to get the car. one day and afew hundred bucks later the car was in my garage. it needs some work to say the least, but i need to get it on the road soon. all it realy needs to be a running driving car is a clutch and tranny rebuild which i can do myself. but i need to know the best and cheapest way to go and what companys to use. i called tick performance which i have heard awesome things about but they wanted 650 for a rebuild kit. then the clutchs i have found are about 400 to 500 bucks. is there any other way to go? only working part time and being 18 with bills to pay its very hard to come up with that much cash plz give me some info guys i love this site!

TDP

iTrader: (23)

The T56 can be quite expensive to build. My stage 1 build starts at $540. The same with Tick's $650 price, it's just a starting price. It can go up if any "non-wear" items need to be replaced. This includes gears, synchro assemblies (hub/slider gear), or the input shaft, or mainshaft. It can easily reach $1000+ due to the high prices of parts (there's no way to get around that). Well except for maybe using used parts, which is fine as long as the engagement teeth are sharp.
At my shop, we work closely with a very specialized machine shop, and can do repairs that no one else offers (to my knowledge). This can save you a ton of money, and in some cases the part will be better than new. For example, the 5-6 gear cluster tends to wear grooves into the mainshaft. I can get it fixed to better than factory specs for $100. It will give the gear a much tighter fit, so the problem won't happen again. Most any other shop would replace the mainshaft, which is $235 new. Same with the input shaft...if the pilot bearing goes out, it can put grooves into the tip. I can get this fixed for 80bux, whereas a new input is $195. I also have some used gears which I sell for 50 cents on the dollar. Most all gears are $120 each new.
I also stock the Diamond Clutch kits, which are very affordable and durable. I always make a package deals for LS1tech members on a T56 build/clutch combo. The most popular is the Diamond Stage 2. It has the driveability of a stock clutch, but it good for 550rwhp/tq. The basic kit is $409 on the website, but I can do it much cheaper with a T56 build. The stock flywheel will work just fine with it, but it will have to be resurfaced. Most machine shops charge $30-40 to resurface a flywheel. I can also provide you with a shim to compensate for the amount taken off the flywheel for free.
Check out the website links in my sig for more info. Best of luck to you!

-Jason