Here is a question for the manual gearbox guru's. Hopefully someone has been there before and done it. Warning for those staunch Ford supporters, references to another manufacturer are contained below......

OK, I have a VN commodore T5 gearbox that I was planning on using in a re-power. I was expecting to swap the input shaft for a different length with the same tooth count (I initially thought of using an ED I6 Falcon input shaft). When I removed the VN input shaft I found that it runs a weird caged roller bearing between input and main shafts. This is not the "Cobra" tapered roller bearing like the ED I6 Falcon runs, but a parallel caged bearing. There are 10 rollers in a plastic cage. The plastic cage appears to be a simple containment mechanism rather than providing any bearing support function. I have attached a picture

The VN input shaft ID where the caged bearing runs is the same as a US input shaft. The rollers in the VN T5 caged bearing have the same OD as the 15 individual rollers.

Question. Can I upgrade the VN T5 to using the 15 individual rollers and a run a US input shaft designed to run these bearings? From the measurements above, it seems probable that I can. And the extra rollers should increase torque capacity of the T5. But always good to get some feedback from the real gearbox specialists on the forum

 

 

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Can't see why it wouldn't work - you'd think the loading on each needle would be less when you have more.
From memory, I think the WC and non WC mainshafts were the same in that area where the bearings go - the later tapered bearing just pressed on. The difference was the back of the input shafts.

I remember the preload for the needle setup was positive, while for the caged tapered rollers was negative. I take it the preload for the commo would be positive ? A plastic cage would just disintegrate

I do have an EA T5 apart, so sing out if you need measurements, bits, etc.

Thanks snap. I have various T5 input shafts here - EA I6 22 tooth, Fox & SN95 V8 mustang both 23 tooth, ED I6 23 tooth, commodore V6 23 tooth.

The commodore input looks identical to all above except the ED I6 which has a tapered roller bearing. The only slight difference I measured was the depth of the bearing recess - commodore is deeper by about 80 thou. Presumably to account for the plastic support cage

The preload is against the flat roller trust bearing (like a flat washer with rollers) which sits on a should on the input shaft, just like other non-taper bearing setups. The caged roller bearing (or the 15 individual rollers) sit in a recess below the trust bearing. They do not get exposed to any load. There is a clearance of several mm's

The ratio difference between the two are achieved by the input shafts, and the countergear.
The mainshaft gears are the same teeth count for both.