my uncle wants a t56 for his vette. we are doing a of body restoration right now. i found him an lt1 for it that he wanted. he also wants a six speed. how close with t56 line up on the hole for the shifter inside the car? maybe does anyone know the distance from where the bellhousing meets the motor to the shifter on this tranny?

 

I think the hole for the shifter will need to be moved about four inches back in order to fit the new tranny.

 

is there a linkage available for this tranny so we dont need a custom console?

 

There is no "linkage"...... the shifter drops into a rectangular hole on the top of the tailshaft housing and engages the internal shifter rails, right above where is says "reverse lockout in this pic:

LT1 T56

There are at least two different design T56's in the 4th Gen F-Body.... the LT1 uses a "pullback" clutch design, with the slave cylinder mounted on the bellhousing, and the fork mounted on the front of the tranny. The LS1 design uses a conventional "pusher" with the slave cylinder concentric to the input shaft, mounted to the front plate of the tranny, and no fork.

A more intersting swap would be the complete T56 transaxle package out of the 97 and newer Corvettes. That unit obviously sits in the rear, and uses a tubular shift linkage to the front-mounted shifter. That shifter would be adjustable for location......

 

I believe that the Viper version of the tranmission locates the shifter in the case, instead of in the tailshaft housing.

However, why not just use the Richmond 6sp? It fits with minor crossmember mods, uses the stock shifter type and location, and uses a stock linkage-type clutch.

 

I know a couple of guys who have done this swap on 63-7 Vettes (which are pretty much the same chassis-wise) The T56 is wider than the standard Munice that came with the 72 Vette. As a result this job gets pretty big... both guys I have talked to had to cut and widen their trans tunnel. This isn't as big of a deal as it would be on a passenger car, being that the vette is Fiberglass, but its not a slam dunk conversion either.

 

This may help a bit. FWIW I have also read on another website of Tremec's that there is 3 possible shifter positions for the T56. This site is not the normal one that I reference to occasionally. I think it may be down now so you are stuck with the spanish one.

 

The LT1 style transmission would be the easiest to do because of the fact that it bolts right up to the early style blocks including the LT1. This is a common swap done and usually only require fabrication in where to put the hypraulics. Just be aware that the LS1 style t-56 has a shorter bellhousing and different style imput shaft so you would have to get a custom bellhousing made to get it to fit. Other than that, its really just shortening the driveshaft and fabricating a crossmember.