<VV> Corvair 5-speeds.

Kent Sullivan kentsu at corvairkid.com
Sun Oct 25 03:01:47 EDT 2015


James and group,

I do not own what was the American Boxer 5-speed project. Ken Holm in Maine
does. He bought all remaining parts, designs, drawings, and manufacturing
rights directly from Linn Richardson.

My involvement with these units recently has been to work collaboratively
with owners of the ones Linn made to document known issues and develop
fixes. We are nearing the end of that project; some of the units have
received fixes and have been returned to their owners, with others being
rebuilt now. I own one of the units so that's why I was motivated to get
involved.

Linn manufactured 18 of the transmission conversions. They use a Borg-Warner
T5. There were many configurations of this transmission and Linn offered
three first-gear ratios: 3.76, 3.50, and 2.95. Several 5th gear choices are
possible. James mentioned the S-10 -- each of the units Linn created does
indeed use a T5 part specific to the S-10 -- the tailshaft housing where the
shifter mounts. The shifter on the S-10 housing is much further forward than
on other T5 applications so was a good choice for the modified part that
Linn created. If you do some web image searches you'll the different shifter
positions among the various housings.

--Kent
-----Original Message-----
From: VirtualVairs [mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of
James P. Rice via VirtualVairs
Sent: Saturday, October 24, 2015 1:52 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Corvair 5-speeds.

All:  I've been out of town for a few day, so forgive this tardy response.
I've also read the e-mails awaiting me and know there hasn't been an answer
to the question about 5-speeds in Corvairs.  Not a big surprise there.  Most
of us would like one, but none of us can get there from here.   

 I remember the effort to use a S-10(?) 5-speed transmission bolted to a LM
Corvair diff.  It was a topic at the 1999 CORSA Convention in Reno.
Discussion was somewhat muted as inventor had his conversion puke coming
over the mountains on his way to the convention.  Seems like there was a
write up in the Communiques about it about that time, as the late Herb
Berkman and I talked about it at the convention.  I understand Kent Sullivan
now owns the project.  

Also, there was a guy several years ago at the Performance Corvair Gp who
tried to discussed it there, but was apparently terrified at public
speaking.  Seth, who was that guy?  He told, if you could hear him, what the
errors were and what the fixes were.  Note past tense.  So far as I know, no
one has done anything further.  

I well recognize all tech questions like this are answered with: "Given time
and money..."  If you have enough money, you can find someone with the skill
sets and the time to solve the "problem."  How much time?  Racers answer:
"Speed cost money, how fast do you want to go?"  

That said, an off the wall question.  It seems to me the '66-69 Corvair
transmission is way large for the 200 or so HP anybody can normally get out
a Corvair engine with any semblance of reliably.  

With the scores of 5-speeds in small, generally FWD cars, has anyone looked
into any of them as suitable to stuff in a huge case the Corvairs come with?
I know there are power routing issues and probably gear cluster shaft center
to center distances and probably a myriad of other things I don't know
about, but has anybody poked around in those corners?  There was a vendor at
the Ventura convention about 7 years ago who seem to know a lot about
transmissions.  Anybody know who it was ?  Anybody care to ask him? 

I've seen the gear clusters from many racecars,  the one in a '84 Dodge
Shelby Charger I once had, and the gear clusters from a Corv8 set up.  And
then there are the close-ration gearboxes the 'Vair racers make.  Evidence
of a lot of talent and room for possibilities.  

I'll go away now, and let you tech people mull this over...!  Youall have
fun!!!

Historically Yours,
    		James Rice 




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