T5 in XR4Ti

Any trick to putting a T5 in an XR4Ti? I'm assuming the T5 and T9 don't use the same bellhousing, and I'll need to procure a T5 2.3 bellhousing, correct?

How much fun is this to do on the ground? I'm guessing lots...

Alex, get a T5 from a later Mustang 4 cylinder. Get everything including the clutch pedal extension cable (a small dual knob ended cable that attatches to the throw out pivot arm) Find an alloy Mustang, Aerostar or Crown Vic driveshaft as well as the David Godfrey driveshaft adapter (it really is best and worth the price of admission) and have the shaft shortened if necessary (pretty cheap usually)

There are two bolts that attatch the suspension cross bar to the body, they will need to be removed... you will need the car WAY up in the air, please do this safely. the transmission does not like coming out of the car at all.

Good luck!

You will also need to get the adapter crossmember, as well as a special speedo cable (or have one made locally). The hole in the tunnel for the shifter may need to be tweaked at the rear, mine didn't but other people mentioned this. The interior trim won't fit over the shifter properly. I cut mine apart and plastic-welded it together and painted the whole mess, but there are other ways to do it.

Speaking of the T-5, get a V8 one with the 2.XX 1st gear if you can. I had the lower 1st gear out of a 2.3l mustang and 1st gear was worthless even with the automatic rear diff I had.

There are probably a bunch of other things I'm forgetting.

Oh yeah, get the manual clutch adjuster conversion...

After my T-5 conversion my clutch cable attachment was rubbing badly against the Rapido sway bar. Probably not a problem with a stock sway bar. Have fun. If you are not having fun working on your Merkur, you should not be out there.

We chose a TurboCoupe T5 for easy direct bolt up in our XR4 and good shifter position, it's not the 5.0 T5 rated at 300 ft/lbs, instead it's like 265 ft/lb but if you get the 5.0 the input shaft has to be turned down or a bushing adapter must be used. Any way you go you will indeed need to alter the trans mount, You can reuse the existing one with modification, go over to merkur forum or turboford for links to pics and descriptions on how to do it. Also, a 1 piece DS is a must with the correct spline count, I can't remember off the top of my head, again those forums, or merkur encyclopedia will help you alot. Also you will need an adapter for the driveshaft to the diff. 460 machine makes a premade aluminum w/bolts but it's pricey at $140 or so, If you have metal working tools you can make one yourself out of whatever. Otherwise you can have a 1 piece modified by welding on an end that mates up to the diff, but that's not cheap either. The clutch cable needs some minor alteration, as well as the speedo cable if you are reusing a stock speedo (we put in an electronic Autometer so no cables here). The big thing is the shifter location, depending on the year/make of vehicle the T5 comes out of the shifter will be forward or back enough to actually require 'trimming' the opening to the tunnel.

Like I said we chose our route even though it wasn't the 'strongest' because we wanted the most bolt up adaptable, which it was (we got the 460 machine adapter) that being said the whole swap cost $450 including the extra hardware to mod the clutch cable and trans mount. Not bad for what you get, trust me the T5 shifter alone makes the swap worth it. The 1-piece DS is an added bonus...