Snoopysvet

I found a Borg Warner tranny at the swap meet for 5.00.
Turned out to be a T-50

Some B/W T-50 were close ratio installed in V-8 Monzas, which may be OK for a stock low HP 1978 L-48 Corvette

With the right bell housing it might install pretty easily

But most were wide ratio used in 4-Cylinder cars

Four questions

1. How do I tell if it a close ratio T-50
2. How would it hold up with a 1978 L -48
3. How much would a shop charge to rebuild it?
4. Or should I just scrap it and take the 5.00 loss! LOL

mysixtynine

Friend of mine had one in his 68 behind a 396 with 373 gears.

Now..... vega should tell you the whole story. If your a *****-foot then the trans will work and wont blow up. We did several pretty good burnouts with it and it didn't break.

Its got a god awful shift pattern... first is down and to the left second is up and to the right. Reverse is where first should be and the damn shifter ball kept falling off the t50 only shift lever. Not to mention the throw is real short.

Its the smallest damn 5spd you will ever see and can put it in place with one hand.

It will bolt right up to your stock bellhousing and their are no modifications to the crossmmeber and I think it will bolt right to the original trans mount location (i don't recall if it had a simple piece of flat steel with some new holes drilled in to make up any offset between the tail shaft mount and the isolator or not).

You will have cut up your floor to fit the shifter through the floor.

If you could do it yourself then maybe it would be a fun change that you could reverse yourself after you break it. But I would NOT pay someone to put it in.

Snoopysvet

How can I tell if it a close ratio or wide ratio?

tfi racing

Sell it on CL or the like for $50,take your profit and buy beer with it.if you need the practice of swapping transmissions and enjoy it,go ahead and put it in your vette...

72LS1Vette

Take whatever numbers you can find on it and do a Google search. That's probably the easiest way.



Rick B.

pawpaws toy

Put the trans. in 1st. gear and see how many turns of the input shaft it takes to turn the output shaft 1 turn. If just slightly over 3 it is a close ratio. If nearly 3 1/2 it is a wide ratio. Also,the close box came in V-8 Monzas. Hope this helps.

KenSny

My advice.
Sell it for more than you paid for it.
Get a tranny that will stand up to the 350 like the M21 Option close ratio 4-speed Super T-10 (S-code) (1st=2.43 2nd=1.61 3rd=1.23 4th=1.00 rev=2.35) that was an option for my 75 L82. You won't have to cut up the floor and it will bolt right in. Even if you get a T-10 wide ratio, it's pretty straight forward to convert it to an close ratio. I see these at swap meets all the time.