Eric,

You are going to have to pull the transmission out of the car, remove the quill from it and shorten it on a lathe. You will also have to grind on the midplate of the T56 so that the clutch fork can move rearwards enough. This will also require a very short clutch fork stud.

When a twin disc clutch is used, the overall distance from the crankshaft out to the pressure plate fingers is much larger. The T56 was not designed for this, so these things need to be modified to work with that.

Do not start the engine or you will trash the clutch.

The link below has most of the information that you will need.

Tremec Magnum Swap - Project Smog-Legal Killer

 

I clearanced the front cover of the transmission before I installed it to where the clutch fork can almost touch the front cover bolts so there is allot of space there.

I'm not sure about the quill your talking about but the bearing retainer has almost 1/2 inch of clearance before it contacts the first disk.

The pivot ball that came with my T56 magnum is extremely short now like to the point of when I installed the clutch fork the prongs rubbed the bottom nut part.

I will review the article you have posted.

Thank you,
Eric

 

Eric,

The quill is what you are calling the bearing retainer. This is the tube that goes around the input shaft and that the throwout bearing rides on. The car in the article that I linked originally had a T5 in it with the RAM dual disc clutch. The tip of the quill was barely clear of the hub of the rear friction disc. When the clutch pedal was depressed to shift the car, this allowed the rear friction disc to move backwards and rub on the front of the quill. This made the car shift really badly. When the T56 was installed, the bellhousing to engine block bolts could not be tightened all the way as the interference was so bad with the T56.

It is entirely possible that the stackup height of the RST clutch is shorter so that there is no problem in your situation. But I would triple check as this can ruin the synchros in the transmission.

 

Yes I had read about the stack height issues and when I removed the front cover of my magnum to clearance it for the shift fork I checked the depth of the retainer with the clutch and flywheel and everything cleared but I think the McLeod twins are thinner in that aspect.

What I am thinking will solve my problem is getting a quadrant that retains more of a stock size as far as placement of the clutch cable hook.