Art & Inspiration A Borg-Warner T-5 (in 1/3 scale)

I had mentioned in my 302 V-8 thread about the 2 other major components that I had built for the full driveline of the eventual '32 hot rod, one the 9" rear end and this one the B-W T-5 trans.
This project was completed 2 years ago after I saw a spare World Class sitting in the corner of my son's garage. H'm, that might make an interesting project.

I started by getting some online information about this particular transmission as it had been years since I worked on Muncies and old top loaders. For those that have worked on these trannys they are quite easy to disassemble and work on.

I pulled the whole thing apart and took dimensions from every part so I could make a complete set of drawings. This took about 120 hours. Part of that time was re-engineering certain parts so that they would work in this small scale. The major redesign was the gears. Helical gears can be cut in the home shop but the amount of work in making them would almost surpass this entire project so instead I opted for straight cut gears which took quite a bit of work to get proper gear ratios while still maintaining the shaft spacings.

As with most of my miniatures I started with some blocks of aluminum, one for the main case, one for the tailshaft housing and one for the top cover.
The first machining operations were the shaft and mounting holes followed by whittling out all the internal cavities. By finishing the insides first it allows you to still have square shapes on the outside to clamp and hold onto.

 

With endless hours of layout followed by stepping of radii and adjacent shapes the main cases started to take form. I have an AutoCad program on my computer which allows me to make step-off charts for all the various radii on the parts. Some of the bigger circular features were done on a rotary table on the mill.
gbritnell

 

The top cover was quite a job in itself as it has to hold the shifting shaft and selector and lockout pieces. When your reduce the scale to 1/3rd the tolerances become that much more critical.
gbritnell

 

Eventually the pieces were machined as close as possible. This was followed by many hours of burring and grinding with a small flex shaft. After the small milling steps were flattened out then came filing with small files (riffler and jewelers) followed by hand sanding and polishing.
gbritnell

 

The top cover and input shaft cover were machined and finished in a similar way.
gbritnell

 

Next up was the gearing. As I had mentioned at the start the gears would be spur gears. In trying to maintain somewhat similar ratios between the full sized box and this one meant that gear pitches would have to change for the different sizes to still maintain the proper spacing between the main and countershafts.

I ended up making my own modified gear hobs to cut 3 different pitch diameter gear sets. These were cut with a dividing head on my mill.
gbritnell

 

The countershaft presented it's own problems. Not knowing how to cut the 2 gears that were right next to each other I contacted one of the transmission builders to see if I could get the question answered. I wasn't expecting a reply so was quite surprised when I got one. Actually they broach this gear rather than cut it. I really didn't need another tooling project as broaching requires machinery that I don't have. To solve the problem I made the countershaft in 2 pieces then Loctited, pressed and pinned them together.
gbritnell

 

Simply outstanding, Wow!!!!!

 

This transmission has the normal reversing gear set but also has the overdrive gears in the tailshaft housing. Both gearsets are operated by the same shifting shaft through a lever that pivots on the inside of the main case.
The main gear sets slide on splines and don't have synchros as such. (too small and fragile) The gears have spline centers with tapered edge teeth over which the sliding shift collar rides. This helps the engagement.
gbritnell

 

One of the trickiest pieces to make was the shifting gate plate that sits in the bottom of the shift box. It must allow the shifter to move through each position with close accuracy so that the shift shaft will rotate to pick up the correct shifting fork.
I had a Hurst sitting on the shelf so using that as a model I made up the shifter. With all the parts machined, fitted and massaged I ended up with a working T-5 that bolts on behind the 302.
gbritnell

 

All I can say is "Wow"!

 

Holy cow


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Here's a couple of video clips of the trans going through the gears and the movement of the reverse and overdrive set.
gbritnell
http://youtu.be/dcLtBLC5yqo
http://youtu.be/OryloXGQ3gA

 

That's incredible

 

Your are quite the machinist,Wow.

 

WOW! That is amazing! Very talented, nice job.

 

Amazing...if I had that skill I would try to make an all aluminum flathead block..lol I love the 302!!!

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I'm so impressed !!!
I really don't know what to say but I do have a question ...
What does one do with a 1/3 scale fully functioning t 5 transmission ?

 

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Machinist and artist...impressed.

 

I am a journeyman tool and die maker and seeing this made me smile. Outstanding
work indeed!

 

Wow amazing , just wondering why ?

 

To go behind this, obviously. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=856372

 

Outstanding craftsmanship.I know a lot of folks that would love to have that gentleman for a neighbor.ME included.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

wowie-zowie !!!

 

Incredible work!! Can't wait to see the scaled 9".

 

Hanging around this place can be a blow to my ego sometimes.

 

Almost daily for this 70 year old. Glad I never reached the point where I thought I knew it all.

Frank

 

Hey I just want to thank everyone for their gracious comments. Although I thoroughly enjoy designing and building these things the bigger enjoyment is sharing it with others of a like mind. You know, just like when people come around and look at your car and ask what kind of engine, what kind of suspension etc.
gbritnell