Allan You did a nice job on that crossmember fab. You guys will really like the T5. It's smooth, strong enough, and doesn't steal as much power as many other stick trans options.

 

Output shaft is about 3 degrees . Matches the pinion angle pretty close.

 

Nicly done. eventualy I'd like to clean up the mess that the PO of my truck did to the motor, and transmission crossmembers. Thanks, yours shows me what is possible. When it comes to fabrication, Im terrible.

 

Here is another T5 crossmember in a 48 F1.







________________________________________
48 Ford F1 - Darkside
46 Ford Tudor - Street Rod

"Happiness - 3 pedals and a 5 speed"

 

When I made my crossmember, I was boxing the frame also. I welded some 3/16 flat stock, 4" wide to the bottom of the frame, then set the crossmember on top of that. I used 1 1/2 square tubing for the crossmember. I did some angle cuts to get the height correct, but your design is certainly simpler.

 

Then there's this, by FinnFlat... (Not appropriate for an F-3) but lovely to behold

 

I concur Ross it's very well executed . Good fab skills.

 

I got my Cornhusker kit in last week, I am not very good at fabrication. Is there a manufacture that builds a crossmember that works well? 51 F-1 btw

 

I thought about trying my F2 crossmember from Bob, but I think I'll try modifying the extra F1 crossmember I have. I'll use the bulk of it, and drop it down in the middle and add a piece to it that reaches backward to mount the T5. Anyone know exactly how much further back from the stock location the S10 T5 mounting holes are?

It would be a modified version of something like this:

 

Havi, the problem is the T5's 5th gear housing requires you to cut right down to the lower flange of the cross member, or even completely thru it. There's nothing left. I would make a piece to tie the remaining pieces of the original crossmember together, but just for strength.

 

Havi, the problem with using the F-1 x member is the T5 is a much longer and taller trans. The T5 mount is about 10" farther back IIRC. It is also much lower...about even with the bottom of the frame. The F2 X member may be a better bet, because you end up gutting the F-1 X member......then you have to brace it up again. I cut the center out of mine, but had little choice because the truck was all together.
I put a lot of work into the new mount to make it strong enough to keep the frame from flexing......

Edit: Ross and I were typing at the same time...

Some pics.....You can see the remains of the old X member ahead of the new one....

 

Ok, understood it drops a lot. That pic I showed was a poor choice. My intent was to cut out the center entirely, and make a modified piece to go across the bottom to tie the two ends together, and then added material will go backwards to mount the T5 at it's mounting location, like the pic, only further down and further back. There will be two support braces from that going back to the frame at an angle.... kinda like a modified early Ford X-member. The point of using the F1 crossmember instead of the F2, is to retain the stock size MC mounting holes, and to keep the F2 intact for another project. The extra f1 crossmember I have is not used for anything, so it's expendable. Main objectives are to keep the original crossmember location sturdy across, so the frame doesn't flex. Material I have at work is plenty strong, and shouldn't be a problem to get made to hold everything together. I have the bare frame on the rotisserie, so trial and error shouldn't be too hard. I'll start with 10"

EDIT: I've got a broken F2 crossmember I'll try first, since the center has to be cut out anyway.
EDIT #2: rivet holes are different between F1's and F2's, so just wanted to throw that out there.

 

Good plan, that should work fine. Having a bare frame will make it much easier. If you can mock it up with the engine/trans together, you are home free! Wish I could have done it that way.
The 10" back figure is not exact either....Just trying to remember.....
I can't get under the truck to measure because of where it is parked (storage).

 

No problem, Scott. A ballpark number is a good start, I can figure how much metal I need to have there. The holes can get drilled later on. I'm stuck until the snow melts away, too. But am gathering up everything I can for a plan. I've been delaying this build for a long time, waiting on two things: the V8 from my uncle's F6, that I got home last Fall, and an S10 T5, which I got last month. Things are finally starting to take shape.

Sorry if this seems like a thread hijack. I'll move on, now.

Would be nice if everyone with T5's could post a pic of their mount in this thread, though. Take out the misc. banter, and this could be a sticky.

 

I think if I were to do this over I would cut a section right out of the stock cross member and make a reinforcement out of channel that would bolt on below.