Nick,
Well, you did the right thing by contacting Herman directly. He is a
valuable resource when it comes to the 5 speed conversion. I'll try and
answer some of your other questions from my experiences:
1. No change in shifter location. The kit has an adapter.
2. Difference in acceleration? I didn't notice it, actually I have to
remember that I'm in fifth gear when I try to accelerate and it seems
sluggish. But I might add that driving in 4th (1:1) now seems odd and
loud.
3. The gear specs are in Herman's instruction manual. I picked up a W58
gearbox - 3.285/1.894/1.275/1.000/0.783 ratios. I think the W56,
W57(.86OD) and W59(.85OD) are also candidates, but you've got to watch the
input shaft length to be sure it will fit with the HVDA bell housing.
4. I got my gearbox from a local U-Pull-It. Took about one hour for me to
pull it. If you get the chance to shop for yourself, the W58 gearbox is
usually found behind a 5M-GE, 1GGTE or 7M-GE engine in a Supra. There's a
driver's side firewall plate that shows this info.
5. You don't know if you have to shorten the driveshaft until everything's
installed, so you really can't plan ahead on that one. I got lucky with my
'72 TR6 and the whole install, no driveshaft mods, took a weekend. Two
issues I had were: I got the '73+ rear gearbox mounting but should have had
the '72 type; Herman exchanged it. And I had to buy a new clutch pressure
plate; there were clearance problems with the one I had (original Laycock,
I think) and the disk supplied with the HVDA kit.
6. I haven't calculated the RPM drop, but might mention that in the first 8
years I've owned this '6, I rarely drove over 100-125 miles from home
(mostly to go to LBC shows). Twice this summer (5 speed installed in
March) I put in about 800-1000 miles of driving over three day weekends,
and enjoyed every minute of it due to the lower RPMs.
7. My speedo was always 5-7 MPH high with the stock gearbox,rear and
205/70X15 tires, but now, for reasons unknown to me, it reads within 1-2
MPH when measured with the local PD radar gun.
Also, the customer service and technical support are outstanding.
Rick Olson 'digesting'
'72 TR6 - CC78827U/HVDA
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