Well, that damn Larry Dickstein suckered me into looking at the BBS
systems in the U.K. I clued into the great debate over 14 mm offsets of
transmission mounts and the ensuing debate on the need for parallelism
in the drivetrain. Another hour of my life gone. . .
I wish I had a better memory but here is my story:
The SO proudly drives a '95 Z28 with the Borg Warner T56 six speed
transmission. If you think you need 6 forward gears it is pretty cool.
When the car was new I made a certain effort to understand its whirry
bits and technological marvels.
I later was reading some hot rod magazines and it confirmed what I had
discovered but disbelieved earlier. To wit, the Camaro and Firebird
6-speed trannys are less than desirable for the hot-rod retro-fitter set
primarily because GM specified a wedge in the case casting specifically
to offset the tranny a little closer to the driver. Why? So the shifter
would poke up into the cockpit in the desired place.
At the time I thought this must play hell with the u-Joints and, in
fact, under warranty I got them to swap out the steel driveshaft for the
aluminum (cop spec) driveshaft to get rid of a slight driveline
vibration. I have no doubt, from what I've read and what I've seen on
this car that the engine/tranny centerline does not, in fact, line up
with centerline of the differential pinion. The GM engineers with their
pocket protectors and their design computers must have decided those
items being parallel is not that big a deal.
I didn't followup this description too much at the time and am not only
preapred to admit I'm wrong but also to deny having ever contributed to
this thread.
Food for thought,
--
Bob Allen, Kansas City, '69CGT, '75TR6, '61Elva(?)
"There's nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold
dear." --Daniel Dennett
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