Five Speed Manual Transmission Installation - Shifting Gears

This shifter hump didn't come with the Keisler kit, but if you're converting an automatic car, you will need to get one due to the offset of the shifter. We got this from Year One (PN F45H), at Keisler's suggestion, and it will allow us to run a factory console. This part saves a ton of fabrication work over making something yourself.

Using the pilot hole drilled earlier, we positioned the shifter plate and traced around the edge with a pen. We then cut out that section. The hole may seem big, but this is the best way to do it and the way the factory did it.

After tack welding the hump into place, we used seam sealer on the bottom side to make sure it was watertight. You could also use silicone sealer. Just make sure it's sealed up nice and tight.

Now, it's time to install the Global West Subframe connectors. The kit (PN 902, $225) comes with the rear solid frame mounts that are required for the install. We also installed the front solid mounts, which come in a special supplemental kit (PN. 809, $79) for use with the subframe connectors.

The subframe connectors were very easy to install. We fitted them into place and welded the backs to the rear frame rails. Then we drilled a hole in the front subframe and attached it with the supplied bolts. One nice part of the design is we can easily remove the front subframe in the future. The tubular design is very strong and allows the connectors to closely follow the bottom side of the car, so ground clearance is hardly affected at all. The suspension of the car needs to be loaded (wheels supporting the weight) when the connectors are welded in place.

When we pulled the battery to install the front Global West solid subframe bushings, we noticed the lead acid battery in the Camaro was leaking. We took this opportunity to install a gel-cell Optima red-top battery. The design of the Optima means we never have to worry about battery acid again and, as a bonus, it has way more cranking power than the battery we were running.

The rubber bushings on g/28 were beat to hell and had to be hurting performance. The new solid bushings will never wear out or deform over time. The replacement aluminum bushings are the exact height of new rubber bushings. Sometimes people do the install and think the new bushings have raised their car up higher than stock, but that's only because the old rubber bushings have squished down over time.

Time to get back to the trans install--Tim Lee torques down the bolts for the billet flywheel. Keisler supplies high-grade fasteners for the flywheel and pressure plate. We installed the new pilot bearing supplied by Keisler by gently tapping it into place before installing the flywheel.

Next up is the install of the Sachs clutch. Rick used the provided clutch alignment tool to line everything up, then he torqued down the pressure plate bolts to 35 ft-lbs.

Luckily, we didn't forget to put fluid in the transmission. Keisler recommends GM Synchromesh tranny fluid (GM PN 12345349), but we prefer to run Royal Purple. It took three quarts to get the job done. Even though the transmission ships dry, it comes with a rear plug. We made sure this was installed so the fluid didn't drain out the back when the transmission was moved.

Until we get around to installing our new electric gauges, we will be using the factory mechanical speedometer. Keisler provides a selection of speedometer gears and with our 26-inch rear tire, the pink one ended up being right. The Tremec TKO transmission also has provisions for a VSS signal for an electronic speedo, so we were covered either way.

Now it's time to put the transmission in place. If you are doing mechanical linkage, you would install the bellhousing to the block first. Since we are using the hydraulic kit, we bolted the bellhousing to the transmission (torqued down to 35 ft-lbs) and installed it as a unit. We made sure to keep the transmission supported, not allowing the weight of the transmission to be held by the input shaft. This can misalign the clutch or damage the pilot bearing. This is when we attached the line from the clutch master to the slave and installed the protective inspection cover.

Here is the transmission cross-member supplied by Keisler. If you are going to have a fitment problem, this is one of the most likely areas. Getting the unit pre-made sure beats trying to modify a stock unit.

We then installed the crossmember and were happy all the holes lined up, and the supplied rubber isolator also fit perfectly. The wire seen hanging off the back of the trans is for the VSS speedometer signal we mentioned earlier. The output is the standard two-wire GM, sine wave, 17-pulses-per-revolution of the output shaft. We ended up zip-tying this out of the way until we need it later.

Our Camaro has an aftermarket high-torque starter and is shaped differently than the stocker. Because of this, we had to trim the inspection cover a bit.

One of the last parts was the driveshaft. The steel driveshaft supplied by Keisler is balanced and custom-made for each application. The length was dead-on accurate, but we had the wrong U-joint. A quick run down to the local parts store and everything was installed under the car.

Behold the fruits of our labor. We bolted up the exhaust and re-attached the e-brake cable then double-checked all of bolts. All we had to do is install the backup light wiring connectors to the brass-colored plug on the left side of the tranny and wire up the neutral safety switch so we can't accidentally start the car when it's in gear.

With the Camaro back on the ground we attached the shift handle, slid on the dust boot and screwed down the trim ring. Now it's time to bleed the clutch. We pumped the clutch pedal slowly a few times, making sure the master cylinder rod achieved full extension. It took us almost 40 pumps and we kept an eye on the reservoir level to make sure it didn't run out. Keisler also states that you should leave the reservoir uncapped overnight so that any excess air can escape the system. Lastly, we did some test drives in an empty part of town, following Keisler's testing procedures, and found everything worked smoothly. It should be noted that the reverse gear on TKO units is not synchronized and slight grinding is normal. Putting the trans into a forward gear before shifting into reverse can prevent this. We wouldn't call the installation easy, but it was straightforward and given the complexity, it was much easier than we thought it would be.