J.R. said:
Willis_98GT said:
theirs a dude that has one local that came out of a 97 cobra. and says it'll work with my car, would i be good or would i have to change the bell or something?
or should i just go in and change the forks. you said that you can get them from the ford dealership for cheap. you just take the top off the transmission or something rather right?
The Cobra uses a different tailhousing and mount.
The labor is so high, because of the integral bellhousing. It's a front loader trans, so everything comes out the front. You'd be better off to swap your tail onto the Cobra unit, and start saving your pennies for something better. There's a reason I refuse to touch a T45.
Oh, and stronger shift forks are available in the 99 unit's, you can get them from Hanlon motorsports.
yup, the tailshafts are different. you have 3 choices with this tho, and ive done them all except #1:
1) like JR said, you can just swap out the tailshaft between the GT and the cobra transmission. its a rather simple process, all thats involved is removing the shifter, using a punch to free the shifter shaft (no idea what its really called, but its the part of the transmission thats visible when you remove the shifter....i have a picture of it somewhere, but i gotta look for it), then you just unbolt the tail housing and swap them out. kind of the easy route, since you get to re-use everything from your old t-45
2) get a little creative, and use everything the same as the GT, just go to a scrap yard and get a 1/4" thick steel plate and make an adapter for the difference in the location of the GT mount and the Cobra mount. i did that, and it worked fine for years. here is a picture of my custom made mount:
3) you go to a salvage yard that has a 96-98 Cobra, and you buy the "Transmission Crossmember Mounting Brackets". on the GT, where the cross member mounts, there are brackets that are welded onto the frame/body of the car. if you look farther down that same part of the car, you will see a pair of holes already drilled in. these are made for the cobra. on the cobra, the brackets they use for the crossmember arent welded onto the car, they are bolted onto the car. i got a used pair off a 98 cobra a few months ago just for the hell of it, and they only cost me about $50 from my local junk yard. the only problem with them was that the location of the cats (aftermarket) was now hitting the cobra crossmember. i modified the pipe a little and it fits like a charm now.
or....you could just have your transmission rebuilt by an expert. the t-45 is labor instensive, and its a little tricky to work on so make sure you take it somewhere that has had some experience in either the t-45 or the tr3650.
EDIT:
i just found a diagram a friend of mine from ford gave me awhile ago. the parts from ford are discontined now, but it shows where the crossmember mounts to the brackets that mount to the frame on the cobra are located:
