why not an nv 3500 5 spd?

I asked this over at corvette forum and this is a duplicate of that. thought you guys would want to chime in

I have searched and can't find anything on this so I will ask it here. Why not use a nv 3500 5 spd in a corvette? Size seems to be right, first gear is a little steep (4.09 or 3.49 for 6 cylinder) overdrive is .73. They were used in trucks from 80 something to 96, i think. They are plentiful in junkyards and cheap. bolt up to any chevrolet small block, large u joints. what's not to love? I also saw that they were rated for 350 pt lbs of torque. Most who are building a cruiser will never put more than that on it anyhow. I looked at one today and the only potential problem i see is the shifter, don't know if one is made for a car or not, but one is easily fabricated. Opinions, Observations? snakeater

Don't know much about them but it looks like a better option than a T5 and the 4.3L S10 donor should be easy to find. Probably pretty reasonable cost wise.

the one I saw today was at a friends transmission shop. I was there to ask him about a 6 spd to go in my project c-3. He didn't have one but pointed the 3500 out and asked if I thought that would work. After doing a little research I think it just might. I see no reason that it shouldn't work anyways.
these are dime a dozen in any salvage yard, v-8 nv 3500's have a fixed bellhousing where the 4.3 version has a removable. Talked to a guy at our pick a part yard and he said there was about 5 on the lot.

Looks like the S10 4.3L has a 3:49 1st gear so with a 3:08 diff you would be at 10.74:1. Not bad. And with the removable bellhousing and the 4.3 using V8 parts, sounds even better.

......................1st ...2nd ...3rd ...4th ...5th
MG5 NV3500 ..4.016 2.318 1.401 1.000 0.729
M50 NV3500 ..3.490 2.160 1.400 1.000 0.780
M51 NV3550 ..3.490 2.160 1.400 1.000 0.780

I was about to post that chart. With a good dual friction clutch, I think this would be a good low buck choice. Now if you are going to build a 600hp monster then maybe not, but for most it would be a very resonable way to get a 5 spd in their c-3. Uses an 11" clutch that is carried by all the major manufacturers. sound like a win win to me.

Check out the shifter location dimensions. It looks like it may be fairly far forward.

anyone have a dimension for a tko from the front of the bellhousing to center of the shifter? I will compare it to the nv3500.

A TKO is 19.51 from center of shifter to front of transmission. The bellhousing depth is 6.31 so were looking at 25.82 inches.

there is the rub right there. The 3500 measures 19 something inches. It will be way to close to the dash by my measurements. Oh well, live and learn. I was wondering why I hadn't seen anyone using this trans. Snakeater