[fermenter]

I've been putting off looking at this astro......due to the Brewwife being out of work and stuff...but for my son to get something less rusty for college.

Prolly sold but I think I'm going to try to go look this week if not.
An 1988 4.3 liter 5 speed Astro. I've heard these were not the best manuals. What should I look for to avoid trouble?

Thanks!

 

[DanoT]

I have a 1989 4.3 5 speed Astro with 216k no major problems also I think it is fun to drive.

 

[jeff's93astro]

do yall have any inside pics of the van with the 5 speed trans i want to see what one looks like never seen one

 

[doyoulikeithere]

Sold yet? lol.

 

[Outlaw50]

do yall have any inside pics of the van with the 5 speed trans i want to see what one looks like never seen one

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[doyoulikeithere]

sort of one in my gallery...
gallery2.php?g2_itemId=281&g2_page=4

 

[KeepinItSimple]

Weren't the 5 speed vans very limited production? I read something that said only 1500 were produced, or was that just for a certain model year? I'd love to find a 5 speed van, I think it would be the ultimate driving machine. (No reference to BMW intended)

 

[doyoulikeithere]

All the pre 90 vans have a place to just hang a clutch pedal.

Not sure of the numbers but the 5 speed is kinda rare i guess. I've known of at least a half a dozen on my island.

I love my 5 speed van, and I'm a bit torn up about turning it from a 2wd into a 4wd 5 speed van.

 

[Gary]

You are right about the 5 speeds being weak when it comes to a v8 swap.The old board had a member spend big money to mod one that was behind a sbc 383.Should be fine with the stock 4.3.I had two Aerostars with the same tranny and liked it.The clutch gave up the ghost on the last one only after I over wt towed with it and that had over 200,000 miles on it.Totally my fault.

 

[KeepinItSimple]

I saw an astro van on craigslist that had a v8 and 5 speed trans from a chevy truck. Is this a straight forward swap? If the pre-90 vans had a place to hang the clutch pedal, and a trans out of a v8 truck worked, that would be a cool swap.

I'm not trying to hijack the thread, it just seems like a truck trans would be more reliable because it would be built to handle the torque of a v8.

 

[doyoulikeithere]

Ya, I hummed and hawed a lot about the strength of the Borg Warner T5 that they put into astros camaros jeeps and mustangs. Theres a wide variety of models of T5, and thats a pretty impressive list of names who have used the T5 in their autos. So, Because I'm sticking with the economical 4.3, and I'm not gonna be a bushwhacker, I just wanna go fishin and stuff, I'm gonna go with the T5, but I read up abit about what makes them weak and what the different models are. I decided to use an original "Astro" T5 tranny. I just changed the output shaft and tailhousing from an S10 4x4 onto it. The S10 T5 had a lower gear ratio than the astro, but that in turn makes them even weaker. So I stuck with the Astro Gears.
If I wanted to put a 5 speed-V8 in a 2wd Van, I would defiantly look for an 89-92 or so Camaro with a TPI-v8-5speed. That trans shifter position is way to far aft, but will fit an astrovan perfectly, if you can swap a tailhousing from an "Original" astro T5.
Oh hey, and I have one left over from my swap to 4wd. Guess what my next project will be...

For a tuffer V8 4x4 astro van, A chevy truck Trans like an NV3500 or NV4500 or even a granny low T-18 4 speed could work.
I didnt look into it a lot to see what kind of clutch linkage is used etc on those tuffer boxes, but you wouldnt be thinking about it if you werent gonna have to Make it fit right?

Good luck whatever you decide to use, and have fun !