mkII 5 speed gearbox

[madmark]

i think there is difrent ratio,s depending on engine size! you must be lucky with the gearboxes as most seconhand ones are not very good attal ,they are normaly notchy into second gear etc ! mind you i must admit i never had a bad one from you know who! also type 9 box is prop slide in not bolted on the end!

[FredTransit]

Which one's the type 9? Is that the cast iron one? All ours are bolt up.

[Luke]

easy way
type 9 has reverse next to 1st
mt75 has reverse next to fifth

[FredTransit]

Right, so the type 9 is the early cast iron type! Easier to fit, but likely to go bang without warning! I prefer the MT75........

[bortaf]

When i fitted the 5speed (type9) in me Mk2 i just swapped it straight in no floor or prop mods, but i had to notch the G/B Xmember to move the rubber mount backwards and use 2 bits of 4X4 timber to space the Xmember down and use longer bolts with nylocks after the bolts on the Xmember drop plate ( the thing that the Xmember bolts to and then bolts to the floor) cos i couldn't find a 5 SP Xmember.
Been through 4 MOT's this way

[madmark]

thanks mate i thourt it was a easy swap as long as you have the crossmember! good boxes are hard to find thou!

[Luke]

Thinking about it the mk2 4 speed might be the same length as the type9 but the mk1 4 speed (the one that bolts on to the body with 1 bolt through the top) might be shorter
Ill measure some to see!!!
I definatly remember doing this and finding the prop needed modding!!!

[madmark]

luke if you have the box with the hole in on the the top they do look shorter! i think the ones after that type f and g are the same size all the way to the mk3! ,i have done so many swaps over the years i wish i had of wrote them down never thourt in time it would come in handy to find out what fits what! ,i am still convinced that if you get a type 9 and a granada v6 bell it will fit ,then a 2.8 etc can be fitted!

[Luke]

Yep mate i'd say yor right but without the adapter plate and transit bellhousing you cant have the bigger transit flywheel!!!

also a type9 fitted to a di i took out was an ex sierra box!!! they are different input shaft but they just fit!!!

This is quite a complecated topic

[Gunslinger]

ok heres a couple of things in relation to this (having just done 4speed to mt75 conversion)

Some mt 75 gearbox codes are

c8...ratio close box 3.89 or
e8 ratio close box 3.61 or
w8 wide ratio box 4.17

.......a lot of folks think the mt 75 boxes are all the same, but they are not

As already said your best bet is to find a whole donor vehicle to donate the parts you need .... these will be...

1) Gearbox !!
2) Rear Crossmember/Support
3) Transmition tunnel
4) part of the bulkhead
5) access to the chassis mounted bolts or adaptors as the front bolts on the crossmember wont fit.
6) Propshaft (one that bolts at both ends)
7) Rear diff ratios that are close to what you need, this will vary depending on your requirements

ok ... a quick guide (pls add extra bits too it as needed)

1) cut the transmition tunnel from your donor vehicle, going from the floor support between the seats underneath and all the way up the bulkhead as far as is practical, and extending half way across the floor (you can always trim it back later)
2) strip out your old engine/box/prop, then empty the interior
3) markup where your going to cut your floor and transmission tunnel, this will take some fiddling around, i cut mine i think somewhere around the heater box oval hole on the drivers side, use these kind of things to line it up and use your original floor line to give you the vertical position.
4) once tacked in refit your engine roughly to make sure it all lines up. then remove engine and seam weld the whole lot
5) Crossmember - a couple of options for this, you will need the correct one for the mt75 box though, after that the rear fixings will fit straight in, the front ones will not line up, so you can either just weld it straight to the chassis (not recommended) make an adaptor of some sort or modify the hanger arms, or do as i did and mark up new holes, drill them, and then cut the floor inside away above thse holes so you can fit new plates into the chassis and weld nuts to these plates fit them and then weld the plates inside the chassis. This can be done for the outside however, just make "c" plates with the nuts welded inside and then cut a bigger hole from underneath and slot the "c" section over the chassis leg, thus creating the captive nut you need to fastten it all up tightly
6) Propsaft, make sure you have one suitable for the job, dont try and use a petrol one on a diesel engine !, there are soooo many different types available we could be here all day with this, but a good guide is that a mk3 2.5di flatbed/tipper should fit a mkII long wheel base, also a mk3 minibus should fit ok too, dont worry about the length to the centre bearing when measuring, its not important, you can always move it !! the overall length is the important bit.
7) Rear Diff will be your choice in relation to what you want to do, just remember (as i forgot/found out) that the mkII axle is about 2 inches wider than the mk3 .... so a straight swap wont look too good. the diffs are interswappable, as for the rest i am not sure as brakes/bearings seem to be listed for upto 85 and 86 onwards

ancillary fittings i dont know enough about yet to post, such as speedo fitting clutch cable assy as i have not connected that lot yet and i will pprobably just produce stuff as i need it or source odd parts as and when

hope this was of some help to someone

[FredTransit]

It's a bit of a brief version, but I think we just got a second 'how to' article!!
Nice one Gunslinger

[Gunslinger]

yeah .... it was just intended as an info guide ... this swap is not for the faint hearted ... as you will be able to climb in and out of your vehicle via the engine bay at one point ..... and its not meant as a guide to follow step by step to do it as there will be little differences between projects ... such as extent of rust in the chassis area determining how much floor you need to replace.

mine for example was a bit of a pain/botch fix .... my replacement tunnel was about 8mm shorter than i wanted so i had to construct a filler strip for the back (i actually used a piece of 3-4mm spring steel ... welded lovely too .... and the floor on either side was shot, but i needed it for positioning purposes, so i removed what i had too, mainly from over the chassis as previous patches had not been welded through to the chassis, then plated the whole thing .... transmission tunnel to wheelarch/step with a panel made out of 4mm tread plate ... putting this over the top of the remaining floor areas and welding it through to the chassis and from underneath where the original floor was missing ..... not too difficult but a real pain to bend that stuff

[bortaf]

I take it you only need to change the floor on a Mk2? i changed me Mk3 recovery from type 9 to MT75 and just cut a new hole for the gear stick (comes out the other side of the box).

Luke
when you say it was an ex sierra box where did the gearstick come through the floor? surely the gearstick would be right back next to the hand brake with a car box?
Madmark
the infut shft is longer on the V6 type9 box an OHC box will fit with a V6 bellhousing but the input shaft won't reach the crank and will knock out the input bearing quite quickly
Later ambulances came with the 2.9 V6 (same engine different heads) so you need a box (MT75) from one of those i beleive.

[Luke]

Luke
when you say it was an ex sierra box where did the gearstick come through the floor? surely the gearstick would be right back next to the hand brake with a car box?

It had the transit gear change bolted on the top - and the sierra stick was just taken off left blank!!
The input shaft only just makes it into the clutch not all the way through bit of a bodge (i didnt put it in - bought it like that) but it didnt let me down in 5 years!!!

i think there are 4 different type 9 input shafts
1.6 sierra
2.0 sierra
2.8 sierra
transit

unless 2.8 sierra and transit are the same

[bortaf]

the 1.6 and 2.0 are the same input shaft size (in a car) the have the same splines size as well but different output (propshaft) spline sizes, 2.8 is deffo longer thatn the 4 pot inputshafts.
I assume the tranny input spline would be longer cos of the thickness of the spacer plate?
You could be onto something with the V6 and transit input shaft lenght, the sierra diesel box is the same as V6, input shaft wise.