I am in the process of the T-5 conversion on my 96' sport and it is a good deal of work. I know that there are a few out there that have already gone through this job, so here is my question. On the bottom the stock bell housing there are two holes where the bolts go into the oil pan to give for more stability. The ranger bell housing that i am going to use does not have these two holes and i can't really drill two holes. Everything else lines up fine. Now is this a big problem and did anyone else run into this problem?

Thanks,

Drew

Drew, I have no idea. My first thought is that those bolts are there to help seal the oil pan, since there is no reason to make anything down there more stable. I would be very worried about leaving them out and developing a leak later.

I would recomend calling Advance Adapters and asking if they have a bellhousing that fits what your doing yet. Ask how important those bolts are while your talking to them.

Also, try the ranger site. They have some good info on tranny swaps too.

Good Luck.

Drew,

Did you ever figure out the answer to this Probem you had? I am very interested how this Turns out. Mainly this is mod I have plans to do my self. Did you have to relocate your Shifter 4" back?

I did not figure out my problem yet, but I am not that worried. Six bolts and a few stabilizing pins should be enough. Work is really slow though. My uncle, my father, and I are all working together on this project and it is hard to find time to get together. So far the transmission and transfer case are on the floor of the garage. I really can't wait until this whole thing is finished. We are also putting better shocks and sway bars on at the same time and I would also like to get headers on at this time because with bell housing/transmission (it is all one assemblage) out it will be much easier to work with. It really does not seem like we will have to relate the shifter or anything of that nature. Of course this job might be a little different when compared to others that have done this conversion. I say this because we got the T-5 out of an 89' Turbo Thunderbird coupe. The gearing ratio for first gear is going to be different when compared to stock Mazda first gear, around 4:1 instead of the stock 3.4:1.

Later on,

Drew

P.S.- I would still like to know if anyone ran into the before mentioned problem.

I don't know if you ever saw this but hopefully it will help:

http://www.suspensionconcepts.com/rangerproducts.html
Let me know because I may do this in the future...