I found a guy on the internet in New Zealand that sells a conversion
package. It consist of a new bell housing, clutch, pressure plate, flywheel,
mount and shifter adapter. The price is about $1600 NZ$ if he includes the
Toyota gear box. He does not even mention driveshaft or cross member. No
telling what the shipping would be.
Tom Hill and I have been investigating this conversion as well as some other
possibilities. Tom is tracking a lead on using a Fiat 5 speed. It is
supposedly a "bolt in". We'll have to see.
Yesterday we spent a few hours in a very organized salvage yard. We found
that the Toyota transmission was probably chosen because it is one of the
only ones that has the modular bell housing as opposed to the integral one.
The Corolla version of the bell housing is smaller than the Celica and in
fact is almost exactly the same size as the Alpine. The clutch fork and
starter are even on the correct sides. My biggest concern is the depth of
the input shaft. I have to find a Corolla engine to see if the flywheel is
recessed into the block. If so then we would only have to get an adapter
flange made. If not then we have to have the bell housing converted. I am
doing some checking on having the block flange of the Toyota bell housing
machined off and a new Alpine flange heli arced on.
The other concern is the size of the tail shaft housing. I think it is going
to be a cross your fingers fit inside the tunnel. Not knowing at this point
if the Toyota unit will be forward of the frame cross brace it is hard to
tell if it is going to clear.
Clutch, pressure plate, clutch fork, slave and cross member should not be a
problem. The last part of the conversion will be the drive shaft and I think
every major town in the US has a drive shaft shop so no problem.
Will keep you posted on the progress. Anyone have an early eighties Corolla
engine sitting on their shop floor that they can make some measurements for
me?
Searching for 5th gear,
Bill Gullatt
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