| I'm thinking this may be my next development project, so I'm mainly just posting to see what the interest level is to help me determine if it's worthwhile. Since developing the TH400 adapter for the Z32, I've had many people ask me to look into doing a 6-speed manual tranmission. I've done some research and it seems that the T56 is the first (almost only) transmission that gets mentioned whenever the topic is 6-speeds. The main caveat with the T56 though is that its 1st gear ratio is fairly high, and with TWO overdrives (5th and 6th gear) 6th gear is practically useless in the Z32 unless you have 4.10:1 gears in the differential or really like driving 200 mph. Here are the Z32's 5-speed gear ratios:
1) 3.21:1
2) 1.93:1
3) 1.30:1
4) 1.00:1
5) 0.75:1 Check out the gear ratios on the Richmond R.O.D. 6-speed below. Compared to the stock Z32 5-speed this looks like a much better match than a T56. These are just the standard ratios, custom ratios are also available. Richmond R.O.D.
1) 3.28:1
2) 2.13:1
3) 1.57:1
4) 1.24:1
5) 1.00:1
6) 0.76:1 Richmond also offers a 5-speed that basically uses the same case dimensions, this blows the doors wide open because the 5-speed version has been heavily developed over the years by Liberty Gear and G-Force into a beast that can handle ridiculous HP for drag racing. For the road-race guys, there's the fully synchronized 5-speed from Richmond and as mentioned above the 6-speed R.O.D. I plan to adapt this using the same technique I used to do the TH400. There are already some hydraulic throw-out bearings that will work on it and about the only things that would need to change in the car would be the crank pilot bushing, clutch disk (to match the different input splines), crossmember and driveshaft. As a rough estimate, I think the entire swap could be completed for around $4500 (drag race versions would cost more depending upon options etc.). Fire away with comments, questions, flames... what have you.
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03:31:40 04/25/06
