Part 2: It's in the hole! (Aisin AR5 swap into an LS Thirdgen F-Body)

Just a couple of old GM cars with LS engines
and AR5 5-speed manual transmissions.

The transmission is in.  One part of the install I thought might turn out difficult had a fairly simple fix.  Another problem crept up that I didn't even think about, and sheet metal had to be cut.

After acquiring the FABbot AR5 bundle and (the most important piece) an 11,000-mile five-speed transmission from a 2008 Chevy Colorado, the ace mechanic from my work, Chris, went to work.

As mentioned before, Chris has done several LS swaps including some thirdgen F-Bodies.  In fact, he basically did the same thing -- an LS 6.0 engine with an AR5 -- in one of our owner's project cars, a 1970 Chevelle.  This kind of gave me the idea of doing the same thing on my car.

Anyway, Chris coaxed and prodded and finally got the transmission in yesterday, but the the shifter base wouldn't fit through the opening in the transmission tunnel, so a slight modification had to be made.

The hole in the transmission tunnel
had to be, um, tweaked to accomodate
the shifter.  

This probably makes an AR5 swap a no-go for most thirdgen F-Body owners.  If the car still has a full interior, the center console plastic above the transmission tunnel would have to be hacked or removed.  But since my car is essentially a racecar with nothing left of the interior except the dashboard and gauges, it's not an issue for me.  It's still kind of an eyesore but I have some ideas to make it look better, or at least presentable.

As I mentioned in Part 1, the length of the transmission assembly (trans/bell/adapter) was a little longer than what came out of the car (four-speed T10 + big-block Chevy bellhousing).  The front of the torque arm is mounted on a plate with a spherical bearing, and I was worried that it might interfere with the 5-speed's tailshaft.

Earlier in the year, Chris built the exhaust off the long-tube headers and fabricated a new brace for the T10 because of clearance issues for the piping.  With the new transmission, he ditched that brace and actually welded on a small piece on the torque arm brace to support the rear of the AR5.

The rear of the trans was supported using the
torque arm brace, which is a basterdized piece
that was already part of the car.

Really nice how that worked out.

One thing that went exactly as predicted, the driveshaft had to be shortened.  The driveshaft has been delivered to a local shop to go under the knife, but it probably won't be ready until after Thanksgiving.

Stay tuned for Part 3!  Hopefully it's just a simple test drive with everything all buttoned up.