For me, forums are for two principle reasons. To help others learn when and where I can, and to learn myself.
Years ago, me and a handful of other guys were some of the first, if not THE first to be putting T56s in big heavy fullsize trucks. If anyone else was doing it, we certainly were not aware of it. So we were plowing new ground. There was a swap thread first on FSC where I was one of these first few guys to do this T56 swap. Others that come to mind are Alocious, MrPlow,Project88. I think that post is long gone but Alocious reposted it on his website here. Some of the pics are mine:
http://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articles/t56.html
Buying a car with a 6 speed already in it is easy. But to take a bunch of disparate parts and figure out how to make it work, and more importantly how to make it last (in a big heavy truck) is a whole nother level of challenges.
Hard data and numbers are great when available. But sometimes a person's expertise and experience is the better guiding factor. An analogy could be you think you're trying to hit stoich for idle, you know that according to theory, data, and numbers you want to hit 14.7 AFR. However, for whatever reason you might find that a different AFR gives better results. So you end up deviating from what pure raw data and numbers might tell you to do. A hypothetical assumption perhaps?
I figured out that this trans is probably more like 24 years old, not that it matters much between 23 and 24. But the shifter offset lever and the skipshift lever are seperate pieces on this unit which I believe dates this box to ~94. They became one piece around 95 sometime AFAIK.
These are the facts:
A T56 was in service for 24 years before a broken slider key brought it down.
There was no catastrophic failure or any indication that one was imminent, rather, a high mileage unit that could easily be brought back to new by addressing the typical T56 problem areas AND, the things that need dealt with in such a high mileage box like I mentioned.
I am almost done putting together it's replacement, a T56 hybrid I'm building which is utilizing a 50,000 mile Corvette T56 donor for internals, an F body front plate, SSR 32 spline mainshaft and a fluid pump etc. etc.
I will be finished with this newest T56 I'm building soon, and I can't wait to get back to rowing gears, hearing that BOV open up every time I shift, spinning all the way through 4th on demand, and having a blast doing some more stoplight and freeway boost trolling.
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