Dial Indicating a T56: Pics
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Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 955
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From: Jersey Shore
Dial Indicating a T56: Pics
Having done 3 T56 swaps now, I figured I would share some pictures of a procedure that most people dont do because "it cant be done on a T56" or because "you dont have to, our tolerances are within spec"
Well, both of those statements are not true. When I initially put my GTO T56 in my vette, I used a Quicktime scattershield. I was told I didnt have to dial indicate it. So I put it in and now I am seeing all of the symptoms of an out of spec bellhousing alignment.
My father recently smoked the clutch in his LT1 style T56 in another car, so we bought a McLeod scattershield. As told by the techs at McLeod, you dont have to dial indicate it. We did anyway and sure enough, it was out .015". The tolerance is .005" for a T56.
Anyway, heres a few pics showing how we did it.
Heres what the McLeod LT1 bellhousing looks like.
The front plate of the T56 has to come off. You then bolt that to the bellhousing and use the input shaft bearing race as your measurement surface. All of the bolts should be used and torqued as if you are installing the trans. The clutch and flywheel were removed to make room for the base of the indicator.
The rest is standard bellhousing indexing process.
We used Moroso .014" offset dowel pins and came up with .002" out. And as an FYI... The slots the Moroso cuts in the dowels have no relation to which direction they are offset. This process is more oriented for aftermarket bellhousings as the factory ones seem to have pretty tight tolerances.
Well, both of those statements are not true. When I initially put my GTO T56 in my vette, I used a Quicktime scattershield. I was told I didnt have to dial indicate it. So I put it in and now I am seeing all of the symptoms of an out of spec bellhousing alignment.
My father recently smoked the clutch in his LT1 style T56 in another car, so we bought a McLeod scattershield. As told by the techs at McLeod, you dont have to dial indicate it. We did anyway and sure enough, it was out .015". The tolerance is .005" for a T56.
Anyway, heres a few pics showing how we did it.
Heres what the McLeod LT1 bellhousing looks like.
The front plate of the T56 has to come off. You then bolt that to the bellhousing and use the input shaft bearing race as your measurement surface. All of the bolts should be used and torqued as if you are installing the trans. The clutch and flywheel were removed to make room for the base of the indicator.
The rest is standard bellhousing indexing process.
We used Moroso .014" offset dowel pins and came up with .002" out. And as an FYI... The slots the Moroso cuts in the dowels have no relation to which direction they are offset. This process is more oriented for aftermarket bellhousings as the factory ones seem to have pretty tight tolerances.
