Project C4, 85 Corvette

[Steve85]

Lots of progress lately, starting with fitting the transmission. I got a stock C5 clutch for $80 delivered, a hydraulic TO bearing/slave for $90, and pulled the big block bellhousing out of my parts pile.

The LS clutch/flywheel is bigger than the old SBC clutches so a big block bellhousing is used. Thank you GM for using the same pattern on the rear of your blocks since.... forever...new all metric block still has english threads for trans mounting 8) . The hydraulic TO bearing comes with spacers that allow me to make up the difference in fw / clutch thicknesses. I measured from the back of the block to the clutch fingers, then from the BH face to the front of the TOB and it was 1/4" off. Using the spacers behind the TOB to push it towards the clutch I got this fitment:

TOB:






Notice the stud in the lower right corner of the third pic - it's usually a bolt that is one four for the front bearing retainer. The slave cylinder comes with a stud that would replace the bolt and keep the slave from spinning. Richmond uses a metric stud and nut arrangement, so had to order an M8 coupling nut and M8 threaded stud.

The next part of this is mating the existing lines to the new clutch slave. I could not find a hard tube adapter that had a -4AN fitting on the other end so I went to a local NAPA truck center that has a sign "we make hydraulic hoses". A few minutes later I had a hose with a right sized compression fitting on one end and a 4AN on the other. This hose in this application will never break, it's some industrial 6,000 PSI rubber/braided/rubber hose.

Original (after cut of course)


New line:


So driveline fitment is nearly done, I will likely have to enlarge some holes on the "C" beam that connects the trans to the diff since I'm betting fitment won't be exact.

Next up was fuel lines...