T-5 Installation troubles.

vcallaway · Post by **vcallaway** » Sat May 21, 2005 10:52 pm

George is finishing up the engine and T-5 install on my car and ran into a snag.

I bought an adapter to use my T9 clutch cable with the T5 from Richard Thompson. My cable is about 4" too short for this to work.

George made up an adapter but it wont clear the Rapido sway bar.

Here are a couple of pictures:

http://www.totalsense.com/files/trans1.jpg
http://www.totalsense.com/files/trans2.jpg

Anyone have any suggestions?

mangostick · Post by **mangostick** » Sat May 21, 2005 11:05 pm

can you shave enough material from the bottom of the adapter to clear the bar?...if so then that might be an option..

Post by **wilky** » Sat May 21, 2005 11:08 pm

Let your clutch self adjuster right off and I think the T9 cable will be long enough. I had the same problem (and made the same long adapter that you have) but found that after letting off the clutch quadrant the short adaptor would fit OK with the T9 cable (with some careful grinding of the blob on the end of the cable).

Also, your sway bar looks awful close to your tranny. Mine was actually rubbing and I had to put some spacers in the transmission mount to lift it up a bit.

Good luck mate

Wilky

jaredaseltzer · Post by **jaredaseltzer** » Sat May 21, 2005 11:27 pm

The T9 cable will be long enough, just What Wilky said...

but if you shave the blob on the end of the cable, I cannot emphasize it enough...be VERY careful. Mine came off, so now I am using a second piece of cable, some clamps and some JB-weld to keep the clamp nuts from backing off. It works but it is a mess.

vcallaway · Post by **vcallaway** » Sat May 21, 2005 11:44 pm

I'm concerned about the stress on the quadrant with it backed off that far.

How long have you guys been running with yours this way?

jaredaseltzer · Post by **jaredaseltzer** » Sat May 21, 2005 11:49 pm

I did my T5 conv a year ago and it has worked great...

Um...by quadrant are you talking about the quarter circle looking self adjuster attached to the clutch pedal?

vcallaway · Post by **vcallaway** » Sun May 22, 2005 12:22 am

Yup. For future reference that is the quadrant and the little thing with teeth and a spring is called a paw.

The further the cable wraps around the less stress there is on those teeth. I have already replaced one once because an aftermarket clutch cable was too short.

I will be at Georges first thing tomorrow morning to see what I can do. It is a three hour drive so just running over there is not something I do often. I have an extra clutch cable so I get one screw up with the grinder

I think I can shave off another 1/2" from the firewall mount as well.

Post by **wilky** » Sun May 22, 2005 8:09 am

vcallaway wrote:I'm concerned about the stress on the quadrant with it backed off that far.

How long have you guys been running with yours this way?

The quadrant is equally weak no matter where the paw is! I've been running mine for over a year.

Wilky

xrpat · Post by **xrpat** » Sun May 22, 2005 8:18 am

I didn't feel comfortable mangling the end of the clutch cable so I quickly made a new "U" bracket to suit it. The only difference was the U had a larger radius at the end to accomodate the larger ball as well as a hallow on the end to properly seat the ball. Probably sounds like a pain in the ass but I think it only took me an hour to make while at work and it is a VERY sturdy piece, has worked fine for about a year now. BTW isnt it pawl not paw.?

vcallaway · Post by **vcallaway** » Sun May 22, 2005 9:17 am

I could have swarn I hit that darn L key. Here's a couple extra for next time lllllllll

Post by **wilky** » Sun May 22, 2005 12:36 pm

Me too - heres some more spares: LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Wilky

vcallaway · Post by **vcallaway** » Mon May 23, 2005 12:36 am

Well, we got it together.

We picked up a new tranny mount. The old one was a little bit soft. George put some spacers between the mount and the tranny which got the cable adapter up enough to clear the sway bar.

The only real issue now is the spring in the quadrant does not pull the cable tight enough. It needs to be about 2 clicks tighter than what it does.

Tomorrow I am going to order a manual adjuster and just eliminate the problem.

xrian · Post by **xrian** » Mon May 23, 2005 7:38 am

Two words (again).....David Godfrey!
Get his manual adjuster and never look back.

Colin · Post by **Colin** » Mon May 23, 2005 10:25 am

You guys know that you're supposed to prop up the clutch pedal with a 2x4, right? Just cut one down to 8" or so and jam it under the pedal... that disengages the self-adjuster and lets you pull the cable out far enough to hook into the T5 shackle thing.

Today's assigned reading: Transmission Removal and Installation in your shop manuals.

Colin

vcallaway · Post by **vcallaway** » Mon May 23, 2005 5:14 pm

That was not the issue.

I held rolled the quadrant back while George connected it to the transmission.

The problem was with the thicker sway bar, the adjuster I recevied from Richard would hit it. If I had a stock or even cosworth sway bar we would not have had the problem. The shape and size of the Rapido bar was the issue.

When I do the suspension on the 88 I will use a cosworth set.