So today while riding in the truck the wife asked why I only shifted twice. That led to the whole discussion on transmissions again. So she made the comment about just getting it done this winter. Not one to argue.....
I'd been planning on a TKO 5-spd for the truck. It'll bolt to my bell housing and the factory crossmember just slides back to the rear holes and it's in. I know there is a bit more but it's not rocket surgery. Then I found this :Ford 3550 Now as I understand it I need to change the input shaft with one of these 26 spline And I'd have a gm tremec for $1500 instead of $2500.
What am I missing?
Is the bearing retainer diameter right?
Wish i knew, summit had the whole gm tko 5 speed conversion kit for sub $1600 on clearance a few trips ago.
I used the ford 3550 in my duster. Spec can make a clutch for the chevy size and ford spline. They did it for my mopar.
In reply to Dusterbd13:
What bell housing did you use? I was under the impression the ford shaft is longer than the GM
A mopar lakewood bell that i redrilled and welded nuts into. Im not sure about shaft length though.
Just checked. The ford shaft is half an inch longer than the gm shaft. But a besring retainer and input shaft are only $200. That makes a trans swapnfro $1600 with a new clutch compared to $2500 for a trans alone.
was the 3550 ever installed in anything from the factory or has it always been an aftermarket piece?
I was thinking the 3550 was basically the TKO.
They put the 3550 in a bunch of vehicles IIRC. I worked at tremec in Mexico for my senior project. Our project was to eliminate vibrations caused by the trans in certain situations while behind V6s. I remember one of our test vehicles was a V6 dodge pickup.
It was a pretty cool project!
EDIT:
I just did some googling.
Certain Mustangs got the 3550 in the US. All other uses of this trans appear to be in other countries.
Here's some additional info about the T-3550.
wvumtnbkr wrote:
I worked at tremec in Mexico for my senior project. Our project was to eliminate vibrations caused by the trans in certain situations while behind V6s. I remember one of our test vehicles was a V6 dodge pickup.
It was a pretty cool project!
Sorry to threadjack, but do you have a summary you can share? Not that I have a vibey V6 trans issue, just seems like the sort of thing that could be illuminating across a variety of areas.
Some gear with a tooth count divisible evenly by six turning at engine speed? 
