The 'E' Type Forum

My 3.8 has a T5 5-speed box, installed with the original 10" coil spring clutch but (not a good idea) using a 9.5" friction plate.

I failed to find in the UK a 10" plate which would fit the T5 input shaft (I could have had a custom one supplied from 5speeds.com in the US but this was expensive). So I decided to change to the 9.5" diaphragm clutch.

Some useful learning which I thought worth sharing;
a) my T5 is derived from the 2WD Sierra Cosworth gearbox (shorter output shaft and rear extension case, box internals identical). This has the UK Ford 23-spline 1" diameter input shaft - and I imagine most other UK-sourced T5 boxes will be the same.

b) the friction plate required for the 9.5" clutch is the same as that fitted to the following cars;
Jaguar XJ6 5-speed manual models (70s to mid 80s including early XJ40)
Fords with the Essex/Cologne V6 engines; Capri, Granada, Cortina etc
TVRs and Reliants with the same Ford V6 engine
Rover V8 engined cars with the SD1 5-speed gearbox - 3500 SD1, MGB V8, TR8 (but not V8 Land Rovers or Range Rovers which use a larger plate size)
National plate part number NHB3381 is a suitable fitment.

c) It is very irritating that buying a clutch cover and release bearing individually is considerably more expensive than buying a complete 3-piece kit including friction plate. Hence I am currently disposing of a 9.5" E-type friction plate......but happily I sourced the new friction plate on eBay and my surplus plate is already bid to more than I paid for that.

As an aside, AP Driveline went into adminstration recently and were one of the main sources of e-type clutches to our usual specialists so there are some availability problems at the moment. I was lucky to find a complete AP 3-piece 9.5" kit on eBay for substantially less than the off-the-shelf price.

Your wrote:
(I could have had a custom one supplied from 5speeds.com in the US but this was expensive)



Just a correction..... its not custom. I have them stock on the shelf. So its not like I was doing it special for you. The Derek Watson / Elite box which is a knock off of my casting used the 1" 23 spline input typically from the Sierra and TVR T5 Boxes found in the UK. It is quite the opposite here in the states with T5's because the 1" diameter input is kind of small for V8 power and the were never issued in US cars. It is basically and English Ford spec.

You are correct about the 9.5" size because a 10" clutch was designed for more power so it would be odd that the factory would ever couple a 1" diameter input ( made for lower power) which a higher clamping 10" clutch.

The 1 x23 spline input is fine for Jag use. What I usually say is Americans suffer from AM-CM (American Muscle Car Mentality). They feel the need to side step clutches at horrific RPM levels and do burn outs. This tends to twist things a little....

Thanks for the clarification, Paul.