I know its not a direct bolt in kit, but what all is involved and how much of a PITA is it? My 69 is a stock smallblock 4speed car, i assume i will be cutting the cross member out and doing alot of cutting to get the shifter location figured out? Is it that bad? Thanks. Herb

 

Not bad at all. The crossmember needs to be moved back about 4 inches, and the hole for the shifter about 1 inch. thats all. robert

 

...not 4" back. I did have to cut it out and fabricate remounting. The hole in the tunnel only required slight trimming.

 

I didn't need to change the location, just needed to be able to unbolt it. The rear poly trans mount most people use is too tall. I fabricated a shorter one. The shifter bolts dirctly to the trans. I did make a larger hole in the trans tunnel. I was proud of the aluminum patch I riveted into place after I realized I didn't need such a big hole now that I made the cross member removeable. (The first installation was without the removeable cross member and was a royal PITA)

The ROD 6 speed was without question the best modification I made to the car! You will love it. I would also suggest using the smaller diameter L88 flywheel and appropriate pressure plate assembly. The lighter flywheel made for lighting fast shifts without working the synchros. The engine takes much longer to spool down to the rpm the next higher gear wants with the heavy stock flywheel. You won't need a heavy flywheel to leave a stop light with a 3.27:1 first gear.

Chuck

 

I installed a ROD in my 81 which was previously a automatic so there was more work involved than what you will encounter. My swap was pretty much like Carboni's but I used my stock crossmember. It took longer and a lot of head scratching but my installation pretty much looks stock. Everything lined up perfect. Here's a site that may help you....http://ncarboni.home.att.net/NC82.html

 

Thanks for the help..lots of good information. Chuck, I like the idea of a removable crossmember, but really didn't want to go through that cutting. I kinda wanted to keep my 11" Centerforce and Hays billet flywheel, and on Carboni's site, it looks like he did the same. Thanks for the help guys.

 

How much do these tranny's cost?
Thanks

 

$2900

 

Thanks Redshark! Not cheap, but better than I was expecting.

 

Note that Carboni's website illustrated and discussed that he had to bend the shifter (i.e. torch??) a little bit to get it to fit into the C3 console.

His result really looked nice. I think just about any C3 owner would be happy with this transmission (with the possible exception that the Richmonds have a stiff shift reputation.)

PS. His install was the 6 speed Richmond. The 6 speed Richmond is identical to the 5 speed Richmond (with the exception of the overdrive tailpiece). With the 5 speed Richmond, the gear shift lever is a straight install. I think you can buy a Richmond 5 speed for less than $1900. They are very strong transmissions. They're a little harder to shift than the stock transmissions. (Acutally when they are new, they are uncomfortably stiff.) I have one. (Actually its my second one.) I think they are difficult to shift when new, because they are designed to throughput a lot of horsepower. The transmission helical gear angles are cut less than normal transmissions. (This is what someone told me. The lesser helical gear angles makes the gears stronger) The result is that these transmissions are much noiser than stock. My first transmission had a siren like sound in third gear. This was a early version....don't know how noisy the current ones are.

When you look at the stock Muncie 4 speed and then look at the Richmond 5 speed (the 6 speed looks almost the same), the Muncie looks very frail as compared to the massive Richmond 5/6 speed.

The Richmond 5 speed will fit into a C3/C2 with almost no modifications. IT IS A VERY TIGHT FIT. ...The only modification is that the transmission to crossmember mounting bracket needs to be cut and re-welded to a shorter configuration. If you buy a Richmond, they give you a little drawing showing how to modify the bracket. (If you have a removeable transmission crossmember, the Richmond instal becomes a lot easier.)

With the Richmond, you have to buy a Hurst 5 speed shifter. (Don't know about the six speed shifter.) The Hurst shifter can be bought with a stock C3 gear shift lever, so no one who looks at your gear shift console will know you have a 5 speed, instead of a 4 speed. Neat!!!!

 

Richmond 5 speeds are nice, my neighbor has one in his 55 chevy, but 5th gear is 1:1...yea, he cruises fine, but I wanted the true overdrive, so it will either be a Richmond 6, or a Keisler 5speed.

 

I just love my keisler TKO 5 speed. with a 0.68 OD. First gear is 3.27 and in the rear 308's. I launch like I had a 400 rear end.

 

awesome..that sounds like the route i need to go with, that way i can keep my stock 3.08...because i was contemplating on going with 3.73s right now..my car is kinda sluggish under 2000rpm, but my cam doesn't kick in until 2300, and with 3.08s and a M20, its just not cuttin it. glad to hear you liked it

 

....at least you could when I bought my Richmond 6 speed.
I'm attaching some pics to my corvette pictures.
<--
I just used a piece of angle iron, with 2 nuts welded on & 2 holes drilled thru it, to make my tranny mount.

 

Hi

Why going with a Richmond 6 speed if this nice GM-T56 Viper tranny is available for 2500 USD ?
Have 3.70 or numerical higher gear in the back and the car should be fine.
6th gear is 1:0.5 .
Tranny is rated to 600 FT/LBS and 650 HP, so much higher as the TKO500 5 speed.




Günther

 

do they make a T56 with a 10spline input shaft? I can get that in a Richmond 6 speed, and keep my new clutch and flywheel together.