Hi guys I'm new to the forums but the only thing I could find related to the Colorado Ar5 trans was "do not buy the tail housing and main shafts are different but everything in the middle is the same". I've had an Aisin Ar5 out of a 06 Colorado and I want to keep the gear ratio out of the Colorado and was hoping theoretically is it possible to swap out the tail housings and shafts? Is it compatible? And if so is there anyone who still manufactures those parts? I don't care how long it takes or how much money it's going to steal from me, I'm an experienced fabricator and technician just looking for anyone who knows anything about the ar5's internals and compatibility. If I can make this work I'mma cry.
PaleSpaceToad
Man so I haven’t done an Colorado AR5 into an IS300 swap, so full disclosure there. I’ve got the Solstice AR5 version. Anyway I have seen some solutions to using the truck transmission, and they may alleviate the need to change out the tail shaft. Check out this site. The guy used to post on the fb JZ groups, so it may be worth an email to see if he has any stock coming up.
Here is another offering:
core-shifters.com
I bought one of their shifters, with suitable pivot ratio, for my T56 magnum. The IS300 requires the gear lever to be ~2.5" further rearward, so I cut off the top of their lever stump (where it's flattened so you can bolt on your gear lever), and fabricated an extension to move it back the required 2.5", while keeping it as short (in height) as possible. My extension attaches to the "stump" via a 3/4" shaft collar welded to a piece of 1" wide, 1/4" thick flat-stock. I did have to make the hole in my transmission tunnel slightly bigger to accomodate the "tower" of the shifter base itself. I used a body saw to open it up the ~3/8" required and all was good.
I might add, the Core Shifter product is inexpensive and appears kinda "cheap". However, I had it all disassembled to modify for my purposes - and it is legit where it counts.
The product that Kris OK showed, which includes a linkage, is much better when the gear lever needs to move back in the car a long ways - say, more than 3-4+ inches, but if it only needs to move an inch or two, the extension method I used works just fine.
Shifter base for AR5 swap from 2004-2012 Chevy Colorado
*** ONLY SOLD "BY APPOINTMENT" - EMAIL TO DISCUSS YOUR NEEDS. For OE replacement in vehicles listed see the complete kits instead - nothing else fits *** Shortcut to fulcrum chart Shifter base for custom conversions using Aisin AR5 5 speed manual transmissions sourced from: 2004-2012 Chevrolet...
core-shifters.com
I bought one of their shifters, with suitable pivot ratio, for my T56 magnum. The IS300 requires the gear lever to be ~2.5" further rearward, so I cut off the top of their lever stump (where it's flattened so you can bolt on your gear lever), and fabricated an extension to move it back the required 2.5", while keeping it as short (in height) as possible. My extension attaches to the "stump" via a 3/4" shaft collar welded to a piece of 1" wide, 1/4" thick flat-stock. I did have to make the hole in my transmission tunnel slightly bigger to accomodate the "tower" of the shifter base itself. I used a body saw to open it up the ~3/8" required and all was good.
I might add, the Core Shifter product is inexpensive and appears kinda "cheap". However, I had it all disassembled to modify for my purposes - and it is legit where it counts.
The product that Kris OK showed, which includes a linkage, is much better when the gear lever needs to move back in the car a long ways - say, more than 3-4+ inches, but if it only needs to move an inch or two, the extension method I used works just fine.
Per this site, the diameter and spline is 1.125” x 26 same as Solstice/Slingshot AR5 and T56. Don’t know about input length, don’t know about output specs either. The cpr site I linked in my first reply has a bellhouse and hydraulic TOB kit with a spacer that’s supposed to set it correctly. I imagine the output could be sourced and put on a custom slip joint driveshaft.
The ''output shaft'' is the mainshaft of the trans; it has the gear hubs for 4 of the 5 forward speeds on it.
If you were to swap it to get a different slipyoke spline, you would need to consider if the new one had identical gearing to the old one.
If not, it wouldnt be directly compatible with the countershaft gearing. You would also need to consider if new gear hub for 4th gear was compatible with the engagement dogs on the input shaft.
If gearing isn't identical between old/new output shafts, it might be possible to pull all the gear hubs off the old one and install on new one, but that depends on:
Kind of a lot to swapping around parts in transmissions...
All this said, if the slipyoke spine of the Colorado trans isn't compatible with standard R154/AR5 driveshaft - it would be much easier to get a custom driveshaft with suitable slipyoke for your trans.
If you were to swap it to get a different slipyoke spline, you would need to consider if the new one had identical gearing to the old one.
If not, it wouldnt be directly compatible with the countershaft gearing. You would also need to consider if new gear hub for 4th gear was compatible with the engagement dogs on the input shaft.
If gearing isn't identical between old/new output shafts, it might be possible to pull all the gear hubs off the old one and install on new one, but that depends on:
- if the splines for gear hubs 1-4 are same between old and new
- if the needle bearing journal diameters are same
- if the 5th gear ratio is same between old/new - else you'd have to see if the donor 5th gear hub can be used on the Colorado countershaft
Kind of a lot to swapping around parts in transmissions...
All this said, if the slipyoke spine of the Colorado trans isn't compatible with standard R154/AR5 driveshaft - it would be much easier to get a custom driveshaft with suitable slipyoke for your trans.
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