Viper T56 with mechanical clutch

[Brad4406]

Has anyone attempted this yet with their Mopar? I've looked outside of here and all I can find so far are Chevy related posts.

I'll be using a 1996 Viper T56. I'm starting the cutting out and fabbing of crossmember and trans crossmember soon; just trying to make future plans.

Please no comments on how great hydraulic clutches are and how much more clearance I'll have for my headers with hydraulic instead; I'm not interested.

 

[Brad4406]

Bump

 

[72bluNblu]

It's not even about how much room you'll have, it's that the parts don't exist. What bellhousing are you going to use that has a provision to use mechanical clutch linkage? The QuickTime Mopar to T56 bellhousings don't have any provisions or even an opening for a clutch fork.

 

[Brad4406]

It's not even about how much room you'll have, it's that the parts don't exist. What bellhousing are you going to use that has a provision to use mechanical clutch linkage? The QuickTime Mopar to T56 bellhousings don't have any provisions or even an opening for a clutch fork.

Wow, give me a second to wipe the egg off my face. Don't I feel stupid now. I never noticed that my scattershield is hydraulic only. Guess I'll be changing direction on my build now. Either press on with the installed 4-speed with a Ram Rod or do a lot more work to put in a T56. I think I've already made my decision.

Thank you 72bluNblu for pointing out the obvious that I was overlooking.

 

[Brad4406]

On second thought, time to start some fabrication.

 

[72bluNblu]

On second thought, time to start some fabrication.

What are you looking at doing?

Pretty sure all the Mopar bellhousings for a T56 use hydraulic clutches. The only ones I know about that were mechanical were the early Ford and chevy applications. I suppose you might be able to make a bell housing adapter for one of those bells? Of course the bell housing adaptor and all the linkage would probably have to be custom. Unless there's something out there I don't know about, which is possible.

 

[Brad4406]

There is always a way. For the Lakewood I had in the Duster, we had to make a custom bellcrank. I'm thinking of adapting my Lakewood to the T56; either creating an adapter plate or something around that idea. Then I'll work on a custom bellcrank again.

 

[Brad4406]

Contacted QuickTime. They were interested in making me a custom blowproof bellhousing; however, they want $450 on top of the original $750 for the hydraulic clutch bell. $1,200 is not a viable alternative for mine or most wallets.

I contacted McLeod. They wanted nothing to do with creating a one-off adapter plate, even though the only different holes would be 4 in Chrysler 4-speed pattern and 4 for a hemi front bearing retainer instead of a Muncie.

I'll meet with an engineer later this week. If that goes well, maybe we'll come up with something marketable, even if it is a small market. If not, I'll just buy a McLeod 8-207 adapter plate and modify it for what I need.

 

[Brad4406]

Been busy, traveling, and sick, so I decided to go it on my own without an engineer's input. Besides, I believe with what is already available, I should be able to modify something to create what I need.

Does anyone know, do all versions of the T56, (e.g. LS T56, LT T56, Ford T56, Viper T56), have the same bolt pattern?

 

[Brad4406]

Update: I spoke to someone at Tremec a few weeks ago that confirmed what a friend had found for me on-line; they are all the same bolt pattern on the front flange.

I sold some parts at Jeff Johnson Motorsports Ohio Mopar Expo yesterday to finance this experiment. Any further updates will be posted in my build thread.