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PostPosted: December 19, 2011, 10:33 pm 
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That's great. Can you take a picture directly from the side with a big ruler against it? I can put the picture into SketchUp and model it. The ruler will let me scale the picture and then I can measure it. A picture from the side and each end would be great. Sorry to ask so much...

Where did you get it? are these hard to find?

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PostPosted: December 20, 2011, 2:26 pm 
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Yup will do as soon as I pick it up. A guy on ebay sells them for $1500-2000. They have another one with a stronger first and second gear but that doesn't help me as a road racer. I do all rolling starts. So it was $1500. I hear you can get these at junk yards for $100 in good shape. I've never dealt with junk yards so I can't help there. The seller on Ebay has the same box paired to his LS1.

This box is just about identical to the Audi 5000 so the cable shift.com kit will bolt right up. Plus KEP sells a kit, the same kit that Pook just got for his V8 build he's doing now.


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PostPosted: December 20, 2011, 5:24 pm 
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Location: Claremont,Ontario,Canada
Nice Build
So the 944 box with LSD costs $1500-2000, the cable shifter $600, the adapter plate clutch and starter $1100 ? Am I about right? What about axles , uprights and brakes ?

Phil


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PostPosted: December 20, 2011, 8:01 pm 
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Hold the phone!

I just got off the phone with Renegade Hybrids and I went through every option for the LS6/944 box and he said he doesnt have any conversion kit and KEP also told me today they dont do the 944 because it has no starter provision and the clutch linkage is not correct. So i backed out of my ebay deal on the gearbox for $100 :( Looks like i'm back on the LT1 bell housing/C5 auto trans and diff! paddle shift here I come.


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PostPosted: December 21, 2011, 9:16 am 
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You don't have to use the C5 automatic. It is possible to close couple the T56 and still be able to shift. Or at least you used to be able to, I'm not sure the shifter parts are still available.

Here's what you'd need to do. You'd need a C5 or C6 T56, a front mount shifter conversion (McLeod used to make it, but I think they sold that product), and probably a F-body input shaft and front plate. You'd also need a bellhousing (F-body type if that's what input you're using). You could also use CTS-V / GTO / LT1 / Viper / Ford / SSR parts, as long as the input shaft matched up with the gearsets in the trans. You'd also need to shorten the shift shaft were it tried to come through the front plate, but the shifter conversion requires you to work on the shift shafts anyway, so you'd be in there for that already.

I'm not positive that you'd have to change input shafts, but I seem to remember reading that the vette stuff doesn't work with any of the bellhousings that are commerically available.

This does still leave you with a very long powertrain, which is why not too many people consider it. For example, it won't fit in a GT40 or Lambo replica, they just don't have room.

Oh, and you'd need to come up with a cable arangement to operate the shifter (in it's forward location). I don't know if any is readily available.

Just throwing out the idea.

Search for "Front Mount T56 Shifter" and "Slik Stix". I would also recommend talking with Rockland Standard Gear. George Kreppin was building a T56 for a 4wd application (very similar to what you're doing) and had shared some pics on one of the boards I used to frequent (SyTy.net).

JustDreamin


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PostPosted: December 21, 2011, 6:44 pm 
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Just an update...

Keisler Engineering has a T56 Front Shift kit available. Not McLeod's but one they're building in-house (according to their sales guy). In stock, price is $349. Does require significant work to install (isn't a bolt in affair).

JustDreamin


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PostPosted: December 28, 2011, 6:57 am 
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JustDreamin wrote:
Just an update...

Keisler Engineering has a T56 Front Shift kit available. Not McLeod's but one they're building in-house (according to their sales guy). In stock, price is $349. Does require significant work to install (isn't a bolt in affair).

JustDreamin



Intresting.... i'm going to look into this.


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PostPosted: December 28, 2011, 6:57 am 
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Made a adjustable/removable spindle holder. Very useful.

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PostPosted: December 30, 2011, 6:53 am 
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Got the Kirkey mounted up
Image

I've also been working on suspension geometry.... my brain hurts... I machined an upper ball joint boss with a matching taper out of solid cold finish bar stock. Only machine I had was a hand drill :BH: one down three to go!
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PostPosted: January 1, 2012, 5:12 pm 
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Front corner just about done
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PostPosted: January 3, 2012, 1:33 pm 
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Both sides
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PostPosted: January 3, 2012, 1:50 pm 
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Are you using that step-drilled part as the taper to hold on to the balljoint? Will you be reaming it out so that it is no longer stepped? If not, I hope it is just a temporary placeholder.

You do understand how tapers work, right? :)


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PostPosted: January 3, 2012, 2:39 pm 
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Tom17 wrote:

You do understand how tapers work, right? :)


I've never understood why they have tapers, must be a past law along the line somewhere?

There are certainly non tapered ball joints (straight shank) and clamped, necked ball joints and there's plenty of non-tapered bolts and nuts all over cars holding other vital components together including holding the actual ball joint on! - so I would like to know myself why they continue with tapers ... must be law me thinks.

BTW, he wouldn't be the first to use steps nor would he be the first to knowingly mix tapers, at the end of the day it's still a big nut and bolt after all.


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PostPosted: January 3, 2012, 4:33 pm 
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cheapracer wrote:
I've never understood why they have tapers, must be a past law along the line somewhere?


I'd doubt highly there is a law on the books requiring ball joint / tie rods to have a taper.

However, there are some advantages.
1.) You end up with something that doesn't easily interchange, so you don't have people tempted to put it back together with hardware that isn't up to spec. For example, you don't have some shadetree mechanic pull out a grade 8 or better bolt and replace it with a rusty grade 2 or worse bolt, and then kill somebodies 6 year old because it broke at precisely the worst possible time.

2.) It forms a really tight joint, and is pretty easy to manufacture (with the correct reamer and other hardware at your disposal). You get an oversize hole that is fairly easy to put together, and when done right, there is zero play, even if the fastener gets a little loose. With, say a bolt and a spherical bearing or a straight shank ball joint, you have to have really really good tolerances on the bolt / stud and hole to get zero play to start, and if the fastener gets loose, it's going to "egg" out the hole that the bolt passes through quickly. But, the tapers are definitely harder to take apart, though, so there is a price to that convenience.

3.) From a component standpoint, a taper type ball joint is a pretty robust thing. The stud doesn't have any big diameter changes, so there are no stress concentration factors, and therefore no locations for cracks to start from. A straight style ball joint really is going to need a shoulder to bolt up against (in the stud), and that's a location that is sensitive to cracks, and you're loading it two ways (both axial loading from being torqued up and bending because of the suspension loads trying to snap it off). This would make for a much less robust system. A bolt and spherical bearing is doing things to a bolt that it really isn't designed for (they're designed for tensile loading and shear strength, but bending is not really an approved usage, not that we don't all do it.) unless you've made provisions so that you've got your bolt in double shear. I think there was a provision in the Formula SAE rule book that said if you use a spherical bearing or rod end that it must be in double shear or at a minimum captured)

Not sure that answers your question, but there are definitely some advantages to using tapers.

And yes, it is effectively just a big nut and bolt doing a job, but it is a VERY important job in most people's view.

JustDreamin

BTW, Speedway has taper ball joint reamers available.


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PostPosted: January 3, 2012, 6:41 pm 
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Tom17 wrote:
Are you using that step-drilled part as the taper to hold on to the balljoint? Will you be reaming it out so that it is no longer stepped? If not, I hope it is just a temporary placeholder.

You do understand how tapers work, right? :)



Yup! I smoothed it out... took looooong time


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