Tremec input shaft

[ERA 626]

I have been reading on the kirkham assembly manual here on Club Cobra. It talks about replacing the input shaft from a long one to a short one. When we purchase a tremic from ERA is this done at ERA or is it necessary on the ERA cars? Just the kirkham cars? what about the CSX cars. As I am building a CSX car now as well as my ERA may get a new Tremec replacing my Richmond. I have not decided on the richmond yet but I guess my question is, does ERA do this or is it needed?

[patrickt]

To get everything to line up properly with an FE, ERA prefers to use the spacer between the Tremec transmission and the bell housing. Remember, if you move the transmission 3/4's of an inch forward with the short shaft, it's going to put everything attaching to, and behind the transmission, that far off as well. I have the spacer on mine, and it's something you really never even think about.


The Big Danger -- if you use the longer input shaft, and you don't use the spacer, and you just jam it all together and tighten it down in blissful ignorance, then the input shaft will bottom out on your crankshaft, push it forward, and you will toast your thrust bearing in short order. That will be a sad day for your FE.

[Grubby]

I think you can get a deep bellhousing that allows you to run the long input shaft without the spacer. That is certainly cleaner than running the spacer and puts the shifter in roughly the "correct" position.

6056 Quicktime for long (standard TKO) input shaft and 6057 for the shortened input.

John

[ERA 626]

the 6056 is the answer!! Thank you... I will get one. building a CSX car

[fintubi]

+1 to sticking with standard-length input shaft.

This is a consideration on small-block cars as well, since it's possible to use a standard-length shaft with some bellhousings (e.g. QuickTime 6060) and a shortened shaft with others (e.g. QuickTime 6063). Going with the short shaft and shallow bellhousing allows you to use a slightly longer driveshaft; but of course with an IRS you're not worried about the angular deflections of a short driveshaft like you would be with a solid axle.

I called ERA and talked to Doug when I was considering this, and he recommended standard length on the principle of least surprise - viz. don't put a nonstandard part in your car that may complicate future repair or replacement if the standard part works as well.

Bill