> Gary
> Seems to me that all this talk about 240Z and Roadster tranny swaps is off
> the point. As parts get less and less available, the solution is not to find
> a 30 year old part to replace a 38 year old part, but to find something much
> newer and more readily and cheaply available, say figuring out how to use a
> 1990 Miata 5 speed in a Roadster, or dropping an entire Miata drive train into
> the Roadster, or using a Ford steering box to replace the NLA boxes for our
> cars.
>
> Someone with more skill and time than I could probably make a minor career out
> of swaps like that, and help keep our old cars running for another 20 years,
> by which time our kids will be lusting after "antiques" like the current
> 350Zs!
The only early (as in the early '70s) 5-spd alternative for both Z-Cars and
510s was to swap in a roadster tranny using the early Z bell housing as
described, along with a different tranny mount and shorter driveshaft. Both
of these bits were, and still may be, available from both BRE and Datsun
Comp (now MotorSports).
Later options, at least for L-motored 510s, include the 5-spd truck trannies
and the "dogleg" 5-spd from the 200sx and the late "pseudo" (HL)510. This
box is the same length as the OEM 4-spd and (IIRC) bolts right in, but isn't
as strong as the truck and Z boxes plus it has 1st down and to the left with
reverse above it, ala some Porsches. Just before we moved from San Antonio
to Riverside, CA, (BTW, where we happen to be right now, visiting friends)
we bought a '78 510 2-dr, which has this 5-spd. We also still had our
original '71 (real) 510 4-dr, which had an early 510 wagon 4-spd which had
the "standard 4-spd pattern with 1st left and up. Needless to say switching
between the two cars, I often ground quite a few gear edges on the HL510
trying to slip it into what I expected to be 1st but was actually reverse.
;>)
Lots of ratio options between the late Z, ZX and truck 5-spds. Somewhere, I
think on Dave Lum's Datsuns.com or Jason Gray's site, is an Excel SS that
lists all of the ratio sets, and (again, I think) a calculator that gives
the overall ratios for the various tranny/rear gear ratios. Some of the
trannies have pretty tight ratio sets, some (particularly the truck boxes)
are more open, and some of the ZX trannies have .75/1 5th gears rather than
.85/1, so there's a wide variety of options depending on availability of the
different trannies. I'll dig around and post the site.
Dave Carroll, in Washington, was fabricating some nice tubular tranny mounts
for both the dogleg and long 5-spds that allowed running the exhaust pipe
tight in the driveshaft tunnel. Again IIRC, someone on the 510 list has
taken that over since Dave has had health problems.
FWIW,
Ron
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