Guys,
I am contemplating buying a freshly rebuilt A-568 with a quife (no idea what that is for). My question is, for a guy who doesn't race or beat my Daytona would a A-568 shift a lot smoother than a A-555. What are some inputs simply between the feel of the two transmissions, pros and cons of both If they feel about the same, I will skip the purchase, but if it significantly better I probably will. Please Advise.
IMO the 523/568 does shift much better. They have better shifter options too.
the 555/520 you really have to be dedicated to the shift, where a 523/568 you can just snick it into gear. Better for daily driving, though a 568 equipped with the quaiffe LSD might be overkill for a daily driver. I use a 3.50 geared 523 in my daytona and love it. The 1-4 gears are shorter than the 555/568 overall just a bit but it has the nice tall 5th for highway cruising.
I also like the A523/A568 much better in my cars, for the aforementioned reasons.
Nothing beats a heim joint rod shifted A525 as far as feel though.
I'm not that good with the transmission specs, but I do know that the gears that came with the A568 I swapped in to replace my A523 are much better for launching and seem to be closer spaced..way more fun for hard driving.
As stated, the 555 shifts are notchy. Also, reverse is next to 1st gear, not below 5th. Personally, I like it.
The 568 does shift well, however things like bad shift cable bushings or a worn-out cross over lever dowel pin hole can really mess with the feel (nothing new bushings or heim joint cables can't fix). There are a number of short throw shifters available because the Neons used the same design.
Strength wise they are very close, if not the same.
The biggest thing I think that makes the 568 better than the 555,in my opinion,is the hardened bearing race on the intermediate shaft. 555s do not have that race and the bearing rides on the shaft itself which is not hard enough. Out of about 50 or so 555s that I have had apart I would say maybe 10 of them had useable bearing races. That makes me not want to use a 555 for a daily driver because you just never know when it will destroy itself. 568 on the other hand,will not have that problem.
I like the shift feel of A555 better than A568.
A555 is more available than A568, not that A555 is easy to find in the first place. I've seen maybe 10 A555 in the junkyard in the last 10 years, and 1 90 A568, that's it. There were a lot more TII cars made than TIV, manual Turbo Minivao, and TIII combine.
With that said, the A568 with the quaife limited slip differential will be bullet proof, if you don't need that, post the seller's info because that trans will be gone in less than a day.
Keep in mind that the '91-'92 2.5 TI Daytonas and LeBarons also came with the A-568.
I think there is a problem with the race on the 568 shaft too though. They walk off under higher HP and I've read several accounts of them doing the same on high milage DD transmissions.Originally Posted by Lotashelbys
The bearing race issue can be 'fixed' with a little TIG action so it seems. That bearing and race themselves are both very expensive now but given a clean oil bath they should last a very long time. There have been some really good developments in fixing the bearing race issue with the older transmissions by a couple members here.
I have recently helped a friend install new shifter cables from push-pull.com in his '91 Spirit R/T (A568) and it helped big time over stock cables with polybushings.com shifter bushings as far as the shifter feel. Just awesome. They replaced the eyelet ends with heim joints. They can probably do nice A555 cables too though if you send them the original cables.. I was impressed.
Guys, with all the input stated here, I am really going to purchase that A-568! The guy said he would work with me on the price, thank you all for the input.
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