Creighton Trull's

700R4 to Borg Warner T-56 six speed transmission swap

The following article is intended to serve as an aid when replacing a 700R4 automatic transmission with a T56 manual transmission.

The first procedure you should complete is properly supporting the car in the air using jackstands. This process is fairly simple and requires a floor jack and two sets (four total) of jackstands, or one set of jackstands and one set of tire ramps. With the car supported in the air using the floor jack, place two jackstands underneath the engine cradle or the A arms in the front of the vehicle. Place the remaining two jackstands underneath the rear axle or the rear frame rails. If you choose to use tire ramps, place the ramps under the front two tires after lifting the car in the air with the jack. Place the jackstands under the frame rails or the axle in the rear of the car. Now you are ready to begin.

Begin by disassembling the interior of the car. You will need to remove the upper console, which is held in place by two bolts in the glove box/center console and two screws underneath the console shifter plate. To remove your console shifter plate, remove the six torx head screws holding the plate in place. To properly remove the plate, you need to remove the shift knob. This is a simple process, which involves using a screwdriver to pry out the metal clip on the front of the shift knob. A flat head screwdriver is the best tool to use. Once the shift knob is removed, pull the console plate over the shifter stick. Next remove the radio and air conditioning trim plate which is held in place with four torx screws. Now you can reach all of the screws to unbolt the upper console. After removing the screws from the upper console, disconnect the electrical connectors to the power window switches and the electric hatch release. If your car does not have these features, skip this step. There should be one connector attached to each power window switch and two connectors attached to the power hatch release. With the upper console removed, you can begin to unbolt the automatic shifter. There should be two screws holding the shifter onto brackets connected to the console pan. Remove these two screws as well as the park/neutral safety switch connector on the passenger side of the shifter. Lay the connector to the side, as it will be used later when reinstalling the manual transmission. Next, unhook the throttle velocity cable from the shifter, which is near the front of the shifter and runs through the console pan. Continue unhooking the gear selector switch on the driver’s side of the shifter. Now the shifter should be free to come out of the car. With the shifter out of the car, you are ready to begin removing the old transmission. Now you can remove your driver’s side seat to allow for more room when removing and installing the pedal assembly. First, move the seat as far forward as possible, then remove the plastic kick panels, covering the two rear seat bolts. The covers should be held in place by one phillips head screw in its’ center. After removing these pieces, unscrew the two nuts sticking up through the floor pan. To remove the front portion of the seat, push the seat as far back as possible. Remove the plastic kick panels covering the front two nuts and unscrew the two nuts sticking up through the floor pan in the front of the car. Unplug the connector located in the center of the seat on the bottom of the seat cushion if your vehicle is equipped with power seat. Now you can remove your automatic two pedal assembly. The stock gas pedal can still be used all you will need is the new brake and clutch pedals. Remove the brake pedal by unclipping the connector holding the brake lever arm onto the side of the brake pedal (be sure to save the connector holding the assembly together because it will be reused on the new pedal assembly). The lever arm will be sticking through the firewall. Unplug the two sensors, which are pushed into the brake pedal bracket (these are your cruise control shutoff and brake light sensors so you will want to keep these sensors). Unbolt the brake pedal from the pedal bracket and remove the pedal along with the bracket. You are now ready to begin disassembling the underside of the car.

Start by removing the torque arm and driveshaft from the car. To remove the torque arm, unbolt the two bolts at the rear of the torque arm and loosen the rubber bracket on the driver’s side of the transmission case, which holds the torque arm in place. To remove the bolts in the rear of the torque arm, hold a box end wrench on the head of one of the bolts while turning the nut on the end of the same bolt with a ratchet and socket. You can loosen the bracket by loosening the two top screws of the bracket. With the rear torque arm bolts removed, wiggle the torque arm until the front of the arm is free from the bracket. Next, remove the driveshaft. Be sure to mark the universal joint position at the rear of the car so you can reinstall the driveshaft in the same position it is removed. To remove the driveshaft, unbolt the two bolts holding the metal straps across the universal joints. There should be two straps (four individual bolts) to remove. Once the metal straps are removed, drop the end of the driveshaft down away from the rear end. Gently slid the front yoke of the driveshaft out of the rear tailshaft of the transmission.

Drain the transmission of any fluid before attempting to remove the transmission from the vehicle. The easiest way to achieve this is by removing the transmission pan. The transmission pan is the large square pan directly underneath the position of the automatic shifter location. Remove all the bolts along the perimeter of the pan and drop the pan from the transmission. Once the transmission is drained, reinstall the pan. By reinstalling the pan, you will have a place to position a floor jack when removing the automatic transmission from the car later. Now disconnect the reverse light connector on the driver side of the transmission housing. It should be a white four-pin connector. If you have an 87 or newer Firebird or a 90 or newer Camaro, unplug the speedometer sensor plugged into the vehicle speed sensor on the driver’s side of the transmission case. It should be a two-pin connector just behind the reverse light connector. If your Firebird is later than an 87, unscrew the speedometer cable which is the black cable running into the driver’s side of the transmission housing. This procedure is also the same if your Camaro is later than a 90. With all the connectors and cables disconnected on the driver’s side of the transmission, disconnect the transmission fluid lines on the passenger side of the transmission. There should be two lines running from the radiator, in the front of the car, to the side of the transmission case. Unscrew the lines at the housing of the transmission and at the radiator. They are connected to the radiator just below the fill cap on the passenger side. You can now remove the old transmission lines from the vehicle. You will need to find two screws or caps to plug the holes from the lines you removed from the radiator since your manual transmission will not use transmission fluid lines. I believe you will need ½" plugs to fill the holes. With everything disconnected, you are ready to remove the transmission housing from the car.

Remove the plastic inspection cover, which is located between the bottom of the engine block and the bottom of the bellhousing of the transmission. After you remove the inspection cover, you can unbolt the three torque converter bolts. You can spin the torque converter if needed to aid in removing these bolts. With the torque converter bolts removed, remove the eight, bellhousing to engine block bolts. Some of these bolts will be tricky to reach with a normal ratchet and socket so you will need to build some pretty long extensions to help reach the top bolts. One trick to try and reach the top driver side bellhousing bolt is to try it from under the hood. Most of the bellhousing bolts however will have to be reached from the underside of the car. With the bellhousing bolts removed, place a floor jack underneath the automatic transmission pan. This is the same pan that was removed to drain the fluid out of the transmission. With the transmission supported buy the floor jack, unbolt the cross member running horizontally across the transmission tailshaft. The transmission mount can be remove if you wish to reuse it with the manual transmission later. The transmission should no longer be attached to the car and should only be supported by the floor jack. You can lower the transmission slowly using the floor jack. The last thing you need to remove is the flexplate bolted to the engine block. Now you are ready to begin installing the new manual transmission in your vehicle.

The following list contains the parts needed from your old automatic transmission or the new T56 transmission:

1. T56 Transmission. I purchased my transmission from Billy Graham’s Camaro/Firebird Salvage. It included the title of the car it was taken out of as well as the mileage on the car it was removed from.
2. Clutch assembly (pressure plate with bolts, flywheel with bolts, and clutch disc). The stock clutch can be reused but a high performance aftermarket clutch is the best bet. Some high quality clutches include; McLeod 7500 RPM performance clutch, and Centerforces’ Dual Friction clutch. The McLeod can be ordered from Thunder Racing for about $375. The Dual Friction clutch is available from Jeg’s for around $515.
3. T56 Bellhousing (I do not believe the automatic bellhousing bolts are long enough to reuse but you might try to reuse them. Make sure you get the transmission to bellhousing bolts as well). T56 flywheel (be sure to grab this because the cheapest aftermarket flywheel I have seen is about $400).
4. Shifter (shift plate, shifter stick, shift knob). The stock T56 shifter can be used but most prefer an aftermarket shifter such as the B&M Ripper or Hurst Billet/Plus. These shifters can be ordered from Summit or Jeg’s for around $160.
5. Vehicle speed sensor (leave about five inches of loose wire on the end of the sensor plug-in so you can splice your speedometer wire into the speed senor wire). Try to grab the sensor plug-in off of the donor car otherwise the dealer is the best place to locate one. They tend to run about $52 for the actual sensor and $19 for the plug-in.
6. Electronic Speedometer (87 and newer Firebirds or 90 and newer Camaros already have electronic speedometers. You will need a recalibration box for the new vehicle speed sensor though). I decided to use the Autometer 5" electronic speedometer. You can order this part from Summit or Jeg’s but it runs about $210 and will have to be ordered in advance. Carparts.com also carries the same speedometer for $170. A gauge cluster from a 90 or newer Camaro or 87 or newer Firebird will also work if you don’t want to purchase the Autometer product.
7. T56 pedal assembly.
8. The same pedals used for a fourth generation Camaro or Firebird will fit directly in the third generation Camaro and Firebird cars. A T5 pedal assembly will work as well.
9. T56 master/slave cylinder assembly.
10. Keep the locking c-clip off of the brake pedal lever arm on the automatic pedal assembly because it will be reused on the new manual pedal assembly.
11. Four quarts of automatic transmission fluid. Most transmissions have the recommended blend on the side of the case but I used Dexron III just to be safe. Also, I did not use synthetic because the syncros are designed to work on friction.
12. Lower Console rubber shift boot. This should come with seven or eight screws to attach it to the console pan later.
13. Custom fabricated crossmember to fit T56 transmission. You can attempt to create your own crossmember once you have the transmission in place under the car if you like. I used one built by Skulte Performance Design which was $160.
14. Energy Suspension Polyurethane Transmission Mount. This type is suggested but the original or the T56 mount will work. Polyurethane mounts have a protective covering over the outside to strengthen and protect the mount. Summit and Jeg’s carry this mount which is around $21.

Having the flywheel from the T56 clutch assembly resurfaced is a must before starting the project. Most machine shops can do this in about an hour for about $30. First, replace your old pilot bearing with a roller pilot bearing (this is definitely worth the extra five dollars). These bearings usually run $15 from Summit or Jeg’s. A slide hammer may be the tool of choice to remove the old one. The old pilot bearing is located in the rear of the engine block around the center of the crankshaft. Next, replace your old rear main seal with a new one. The old seal is located around the circumference of the crank. Most local parts stores should have this gasket in stock for around $20. After installing the new bearing with a rubber mallet, and the rear main seal, place the flywheel against the block. Install the flywheel using the same bolts that were used on the donor car to hold the flywheel to the block. Next, place the clutch disc against the pressure plate and slide this assembly onto the flywheel. Use a 26 spline clutch alignment arbor to properly seat the clutch disc and pressure plate system onto the flywheel. The clutch disc should sit flush with the flywheel, however you will not be able to see where the two meet. Once the pressure plate, clutch disc, and flywheel are all properly placed, torque the pressure plate bolts to spec. Now bolt the bellhousing to the block (be sure to clean the inside of the bellhousing using brake cleaner or similar degreaser). Use the same bellhousing bolts that came out of the donor car. Now you are ready to take your measurements for your console hole. Measure the length from the front of the transmission to the back of the shifter plate. Now measure the same length underneath the car starting at the back of the bellhousing. This is the maximum distance you need to cut for the shifter hole in the console pan.

Use a punch or screwdriver to punch a hole through the body into the interior of the car. Now measure how long the shifter plate is from the front to the back. This is the minimum distance you will need to cut your console. Measure this same distance underneath the car from your first measurement for the shifter hole and punch another hole the same way as the first. From the interior of the car you should have two holes punched through the console/floor pan. Measure the width of the shifter plate. This is how wide the hole should be cut in the interior. Now you are ready to cut your new shifter hole in the console. I recommend using a cutting wheel connected to a drill or to an air compressor if the compressor is powerful enough. A Dremel tool or large file can be used to clean up any rough surfaces left from the cutting wheel.

Once the shifter hole is cut you are now ready to continue on to the hydraulic assembly. Before you attempt to install the master/slave cylinder assembly you must bleed the system. Place the reservoir tank above the master cylinder. Next, pump the rod on the master cylinder to remove excess air from the system (this is the rod with the small cap/ball on the end of the rod). You will need to keep the reservoir fluid fresh by removing any discolored fluid out of the reservoir tank. Refill the reservoir with brake fluid when dumping out contaminated fluid so air does not reenter the system. Once the system is bled, you are ready to install it on the car.

Find a spot on the engine side of the firewall to mount your hydraulic master/slave cylinder reservoir. I mounted mine near the brake booster. Once you have found a spot, mark the firewall where the two side holes are on the reservoir and drill them through. Now find the hole where the master/slave cylinder would mount if you had a manual equipped car from the factory. This hole is about one inch long and is in the shape of an oval on the interior side of the firewall next to the brake pedal (you might have to pull your carpet back behind your pedals to see it). Once you have located the hole, drill a few large holes around the edges and the center of the oval. Now use some kind of grinding bit to finish removing the metal. A sawzaw and other tools may work but this is the best way I found to get a smooth finish. There should also be two small circular patterns on each side of the oval shaped hole, which are not drilled out of the firewall yet. You can use an ordinary drill to drill these two holes. These will be used a few steps later to bolt the master cylinder to the firewall. Install the slave cylinder by pushing the clutch pedal lever arm through the firewall to the clutch pedal (this lever arm has a hole on the end of the rod). You will need to have someone push the lever arm through the oval hole you just drilled until you can grab the arm from the inside of the car. Once you have the arm, pull the bolt studs through the two holes you drilled on the sides of the oval (you will need to use a locking c-clip to fasten the clutch lever arm to the clutch pedal once the pedal assembly is installed).

Install the new pedal assembly. I reused the fourth gen pedals that came with my T56 transmission however T5 pedals out of a third gen will work as well. Remove the brake light and cruise control sensors from the old pedals. Insert each of the sensors into the holes on the new brake pedal (be sure to pull the brake pedal lever arm back through the hole it came out of on the original pedal assembly and fasten it to the new brake pedal with the original clip). The bolt studs, which are attached to the slave cylinder that you installed earlier, go through the two holes to the left of the brake pedal. Now you can tighten all the bolts on the pedals and slave cylinder. Mount the reservoir tank for the master/slave cylinder on the firewall.

Installing the transmission is the next step. This is a three person project if everything is to go smoothly. A transmission jack helps a lot but it can be done with a regular floor jack without too much hassle. I installed mine without a transmission jack. I suggest draining the transmission of any fluid, which may be in the case, before beginning to bolt it in the car. Remove the shifter stick so just the shifter plate is on the top of the transmission. Once you have drained the transmission and removed the shifter stick, place the transmission on a floor jack under the car. Slowly jack the transmission to the desired height and then position it up to the bellhousing. The easiest way to do this job is to align the input shaft of the transmission before trying to force the transmission onto the bellhousing. With the input shaft properly aligned in the transmission (there is no procedure for this just wrestle with it until it feels it is properly seated), try to push the transmission up against the bellhousing as far as you can. Once you have it positioned where you want it, start to thread the transmission to bellhousing bolts (there is a vent tube running along the top of the transmission which needs to be free and out of the way of any binds). The transmission might not sit flush against the bellhousing right now but when you tighten down the bolts it will be pulled flush.

Now you can bolt up the new crossmember and the transmission mount to hold the transmission in place. The mount goes on the transmission side of the crossmember. It should be bolted onto the tailshaft of the transmission before bolting the crossmember onto the transmission and frame. I ordered my crossmember from Andris Skulte who custom fabricates these pieces to fit third generation Camaro and Firebird cars, equipped with T56 transmissions. My crossmember was $160 and came with a black powder coated finish to protect against oxidation. The website for information about the crossmember is http://www.skulte.com/. With the transmission stable, remove the floor jack and slowly tighten the bellhousing bolts on each side in order then torque them to spec. Don’t forget to tighten up your crossmember bolts. Now you can install your master cylinder to the clutch fork. There is a pattern notched out of the bellhousing on the driver side for the cylinder to fit into.

The next step is the wiring. If you have an 87 or newer model Firebird or a 90 or newer Camaro, you can reattach your speedometer cable through a recalibration box made by Cyberdyne. This part can be purchased from Jeg’s for about $85. If you have a later model car you will have to convert your mechanical driven speedometer to an electronic speedometer. I had to do this since my car is an 89 IROC-Z. Plug in the original speedometer connector to the vehicle speed sensor switch on the drivers’ side of the transmission (this is the procedure if you already have an electronic speedometer). You will have to splice your new speedometer wire into the wire extended from the sensor plugin for the vehicle speed sensor (if you have to buy an aftermarket speedometer). Next, wire up the reverse lights. I wired mine to the shifter so they only come on when the shifter is in the reverse position. You will not have to worry about a skip-shift eliminator because you will not have anything plugged into the sensor. Inside the car the only wiring that you need to do is plug the automatic shifter park/neutral safety switch connector back together. This connector is located on the passenger side of the console. It was originally mounted to the passenger side of the automatic shifter.

You are now ready to re-install the interior of the car. First put the shifter stick back on the shifter. Now, install the lower rubber boot over the shifter stick. There should be seven or eight screws to tighten this boot to the console pan. Next, install the lower console, followed by the upper console. Remember to plug everything back in the way you unplugged it when taking the upper console apart. You should have a connector to each power window switch and two connectors to the rear hatch release. You will need to make a new console piece for the manual equipped car or buy a T5 console for a Camaro/Firebird. Year One Restoration Parts sells the reproduction T5 console, which is what I used. Now you can reconnect the driveline. First bolt the driveshaft back in place. You do not need to worry about driveshaft length, it is the same for all Camaro/Firebird cars from 82-99. After the driveshaft is installed, install the torque arm. This is another misconception you do not have to worry about. You do not need to fabricate your torque arm at all. Be sure you install it before you start the car though because if you put the car in gear without the torque arm installed you will twist your axle. Finally, bolt your seat back in place remembering to reconnect your power seat connector if equipped. Some people believe a custom burned computer chip is necessary for the car to run properly while others believe the car runs fine with the original chip. I had a slight problem with my idle so I decided to have a custom chip made for my car. Ed Wright created the chip for my car, which ran $300. I think cars switching from T5’s or other manual transmissions, should be fine running the original computer, but those switching from automatics to manuals may encounter problems similar to mine.

Rough estimate price list for the conversion
Transmission $2135
Shifter $160
Clutch $375
Spedometer $170
transmission Mount $21
Cross Member $160
4 ATF fluid $1.75
Resurfacing $30
Pilot Bearing $15
Drill Bit $5
Cutting Wheel $5
Caulking $3
Final Price $3086


Numbers and addresses of manufacturers
Jeg’s order line 800-345-4545
Summit order line 800-230-3030
Carparts.com 877-38-PARTS
Skulte Performance Design 914-623-4389
Graham’s Camaro/Firebird Salvage 800-824-3897
Thunder Racing 877-516-RACE
Performance SS (orders only) (specialize in aftermarket performance parts) 877-8LT-1LS1
Additional information on replacing you 700R4 transmission to a T-56 Borg Warner