Fitting Sierra Gearbox

[cdraper]

Some years ago Christopher Niel offerred a five speed gearbox conversion based on the Sierra box. They no longer supply parts for this. Does anybody know what is required and is the conversion any good?

[elansprint71]

Spyder do a Sierra box conversion, I think you can buy all the bits to do it yourself from them, or they will fit it.
My impression from CN (who are just up the road from me) is that they have very much down-scaled their Elan involvement compared to a few years ago.

Cheers,

Pete

www.spydercars.com will get you to them

[Foxie]

I have been checking out the 5 speed GB for a few years now, eventually got hold of an original Lotus 5 speed.

To the best of my knowledge, CN never advertised a Sierra conversion. Although they did supply Lotus 5 -speed rebuilds.

The Spyder 5 speed requires the latest Spyder +2 chassis, it will not fit into a Lotus or early type Spyder. Spyder can convert early type Spyder chassis though.

I was in contact with a few gearbox specialists, who were developing conversions, but I never heard more from them.

Sean Murray

[types26/36]

I have also been following discussions about the pros & cons of fitting 5sp. g/boxes
i.e. Isuzu, Toyota, MT75, Lotus, Type9 (Sierra) etc. so I dont want to start a debate about which is best.
I have just bought a type9 (Sierra) and as the original question was about this lets stick to this one.
I have seen a C.Neal fitted T9 with alloy bellhousing, starter & slave cyl. in the original position AND the gear lever appered to be in the correct place. I cannot remember if it was a Lotus or Spyder chassis.
I believe the Lotus chassis has to be modified around the tunnel but by how much
does anyone know?
I have still to pick up my g/box (from a 5sp Capri 1600 I think??) how does the input shaft match the clutch/spigot bearing ? new clutch?? bearing??
I have seen on a MG forum it is possible to shorten the tail shaft to get the gear lever forward, anyone know any details?
If the original bellhousing is used will a new clutch catch inside ? can it be ground out? :huh:
Output shaft to prop. shaft, I think it will require a different front yoke, Sierra I think, I will know a little more when I collect my box but if anyone has done this conversion and can pass on tips Im sure the group would be very interested. :rolleyes:
Brian

[cdraper]

Christopher Niel certainly did offer a conversion - and claimed they were selling one a week - so there must be a few out there. Paul Matty also offerred a conversion but no longer does so! I assume to modify the chassis the body has to come off which makes life hard!! Surely somebody can tell us.
Chris Draper

[kstrutt1]

I have had a type 9 in my +2 S130 for 5 years, the standard sierra right hand drive clutch housing has the starter on the left which fouls the exhaust. I used a LHD part and modified the front bearing cover to carry a concentric slave cylinder, this works very well, the drawings are still on the Yahoo website.
At the rear I experimented with remote linkages but eventually opted to cut a new hole in the top of the chassis further back with a swage and crank the lever forward, this retains the best shift quality and the chassis seems to be fine.
you will also need to slioghtly re-form the web in the front of the chassis backbone a new propshaft, a modified transmission mount and the spedo drive is a tight fit.

Once done it transforms the vehicle for every day use.

Kevin Strutt

[riverkeeper]

I believe that someone is now selling a 5 speed conversion based on the Sierra box with their own modified tailhousing so the gearlever is in the correct place. They've been advertising in the clublotus magazine but cannot recall their name(Alan Voight rings a bell ?) except for they are based nr. Liverpool. When I spoke to them some while ago they were talking about their box costing around ?1500. Came as a kit with slave cylinder and propshaft.

Wayne.

[bvt]

I know Spyder did do a kit and included a new rear tail housing for the seirra box.. not on their website now but i have the brochure and price list somewhere...

Right just found the Zetc +2 conversion brochure...

Spyder Gear lever kit for ford MT75 gearbox ?195
New Output flange+ Propshaft bolts ?56

obviously + Vat...

the +2 box is the same as baby Elans, I looked at the conversion but as stated in other posts... this needs the later Spyder chassis or the early one modified.

If I was going to run an elan every day I'd do this.. but then I'd also swap to the Rover Metro Steering rack and the new front uprights with balljoints not trunions, then to top it i'd put a different engine in...

Then again... I would buy something else to drive every day and save the Elan for "those days"

[john-c-elan+2]

I have just found a Christopher Neil brochure called 'The CN Sprint Kit' which
mentions gearbox options including a sierra 5 speed for which a special bellhousing is required. They show a Lotus galvanised chassis (not Spyder) so it must have fitted. However in another pic of the interior the gearlever is noticebly further back - behind the tray, so at least 12-14" behind original position. I wonder how they modded the chassis to get the lever thru ? I got this brochure from them in 1998/9 ?

[worzel]

Some (by now outdated info on swapping boxes).

You can fit a type 9 box only to either a standard non-spaceframe Lotus chassis or to a spyder stressed skin item.

The bellhousing needed is a "rocket to BDA item"- there are loads of these lying around in the back rooms of rally specialists. I believe Burton do a new one now.

You need the standard pressure plate plus the special MGB item that matches the splines on the Type 9 box. Demontweeks sell them for about seventy quid.

Buy a suitable front slider and have GKN make a new propshaft.

Buy a seconhand Sierra speedo cable and match this to the head end of the Elan speedo- needs a bit of ingenuity to do this but not impossibly difficult.

You need to make up a new gearbox mounting bracket which will take the old rubber mounting. I did this after installing the engine and box and just kept the box supported on a jack until done.

Also needed- a suitable new speedo gear to match the gearing- Ford agents

The awkward bit- the gearlever. The one on mine is in the same position as the 4 speed item but I didn't modify it. However, I am assured by the person who did his own conversion over 20 years ago that it is quite feasible to modify the box at home if you are reasonably mechanically minded.

Overall gearing depends on tyres and diff ratio- I worked mine out using 155-13 tyres and a 3.54 diff as around 22.8 per 1000rpm. If you use the 2.8 capri box there is the option (if you can get the gear set) of an even higher 5th giving around 25-26 mph per 1000 revs.

Finally, if using the capri 2.8 unit the input shaft has to be modified to fit the standard spigot bearing.

Awkward features- the biggest one is the speedo cable- remove driver seat, peel back carpet and note the position of the speedo drive on the box. Cut a small (about 2 inch) round hole in the fibreglass at the appropriate point, split a suitable grommet, fit round the cable and fit cable and circlip (the awkward bit). Route the cable across the floor under the seat securing with "P" clips and into the speedo.

No body or chassis mods are needed.

One minor problem with this- reverse light no longer works.

Good Luck

John

[types26/36]

Interesting details, thanks John.
One question I have is why is a different bellhousing required? I think that the 2000E bellhousing will fit on the T9 box but it does not have a hole where the selector rod comes forward as on the T9, would it be possible to drill the 2000E bellhousing to accept the selector rod? The reason I ask is because I already have an alloy 2000E bellhousing.
Regards Brian.