The donor vehicle, a 1987 Chevy Astro van, came equipped with a T5 manual transmission, hydraulic clutch slave, 168 tooth
flywheel, and 10.5" clutch.
I would have used it as-is but it doesn't quite fit. The bellhousing has a long bracket built which would put the slave
under the gas pedal. I had to cut the bellhousing bracket and remove the fork for a hydraulic release bearing to make
as much room for the exhaust pipe ( I didn't want to run the exhaust around the suspension like the Monster Miatas). Unfortunately,
the hydraulic release bearing(photo below) was tough to get at, required machining of the T5 bearing retainer, and the
hose had to lay in the just the right position due to a 90 degree end on the master cylinder end before tightening the HRB
end. I removed it and converted to a pull slave with a modified fork.
The shortened fork causes pedal effort to increase while decreasing the pedal throw. If pedal effort is excessive,
the master cylinder can be swapped for one with a larger bore.
The fork accepts a 5/16 female rod end which fits the pull slave. The other end of the pull slave bolts to a bracket
bolted to an unused flange protruding from the main case. The bracket is ground to fit perfectly flat on to the flange and
is secured with a nylock nut.
The tail housing places the shifter too far forward so I used a camaro v6 T5 tailhousing. I have since figured out how
to make a remote shifter but I've already solved the issue. If I had it to do again, I'd make a remote shifter instead. The
camaro trans mount is rotated 18 degrees from vertical so the crossmember mount is rotated too.
The camaro tailhousing places the speedometer drive in a different position. I shimmed the gear and fitted it in the
new position to drive the speed sensor (VSS). I could have swapped mainshafts or machined my old shaft. Again, a remote shifter
would not have created this problem.
The shifter is still too far forward, so I cut the arm very short and welded 1/2" steel rod 90 degrees to the arm, then
heated the arm to curve it upward in the stock shifter position. I then welded the threaded end of the cut off shifter arm
to the rod for the shift knob to fit on to it. Again, I should have made a remote shifter.
