Woodsport Mk1 6 speed gearbox upgrade

[Paul Woods]

Hi chaps, as per the title, i can provide you with a plug and play Mk1 6 speed gearbox conversion for your 4a-ge.

Is your 5 speed notchy?
Jumping out of fifth?
whining diff?
Lots of play on the driveshafts?
Crunching into gear?
Leaking oil?

Thinking about spending a lot of money on a recon gearbox?

Maybe now is the time to go 6 speed and bring your Mk1 up to date with a fresh gearbox at the same time.

What you get

I use a Celica Gen7 6 speed as the base donor gearbox, strip it right down, and refit the internals/gears into a Mk1b bellhousing (gives you two starter motor locations for use with either 16v or 20v swaps)

All gear cases are high pressure steam cleaned, new diff side bearings fitted to either your choice of stock C52 open diff or Mk3 Mr2 LSD unit.

The diff preload is then checked and adjusted methodically and reshimmed to the top end of Toyota spec.

The gears are all inspected, and new Toyota input shaft and output shaft bearings are installed.

The input shaft oil seal and both diff output oil seals are renewed.

The whole transmission is sealed and painted.

So you end up with a bearing and seal overhauled 6 speed gearbox that will bolt straight onto your 4a-ge engine without any modification whatsoever, your speedo cable will plug straight in, reverse light will plug in, driveshafts will work as normal with the Mk1 stock diff, all mountings will be OEM and the shifter assembly and slave cylinder will all just bolt up without any modification, truely plug and play. It will be a simple transmission swap no different than fitting another 5 speed.

If you request the LSD option then you will need to fit Mk2 NA driveshafts, but these are again plug and play into both the diff and Mk1 hubs without any mods.
The 6 speed will be carefully packed and shipped to your door within 2 weeks of ordering.
The gear ratios will be as follows...

1st gear 3.166
2nd gear 2.050
3rd gear 1.481
4th gear 1.166
5th gear 0.916
6th gear 0.725
Final drive 4.529

Costs

There is a lot of labour involved with this product, and a lot of parts costs, but i feel i am offering something special with this.

The new Toyota bearings and seals costs come to £350
The Celica 6 speed donor cost £250
Mk1b donor gearbox cost £100
Postage/Packaging £30
My labour costs to build this gearbox £300

This comes to £1030 , now there is often some discount to be had buying donor transmissions in bulk, i have four 6 speeds on their way this week alone, so i am advertising this at a delivered to your door price of £950 all in.

There is a company in the US that builds these for $4,500 each :shock:

If you want the LSD version you will need to add £250 to the above.

This is as cheap as a 6 speed Mk1 gearbox is ever going to get.

If you wish to send me your Mk1B gearbox as the donor i can knock £100 off the cost, please remember i cannot accept a Mk1A gearbox, its casing is not suitable for use. You can send me any Mk1B gearbox and it doesn't matter about its internal gears condition, we only use the bellhousing section.

If anyone has any questions i'm more than happy to answer, thankyou Paul.

[knightrous]

For those of us across the big pond and can't afford the shipping / customs taxes for your wonderful, professional quality solution, would it be possible to get the Celica C60 gearset + crown gear, Mk3 LSD and the extended end case from the C60? :)

[Paul Woods]

Yes that will all work perfectly, the C60 internals and middle/upper cases will all fit to the Mk1b bellhousing, just make sure you use either the C60 bellhousing bearings or renew them, and if you don't reshim the diff preload it will eat itself in a few miles, other than that you're good to go.

[pilotpete]

We need this for the MK2 (especially with 2GR) !!
:fingersx:

[Torero]

We need this for the MK2 (especially with 2GR) !!
:fingersx:

+1. I wonder if Goldy can work his magic with a flappy paddle option for this.

[cdwood2010]

Very nice write up mr woods.

:)

[stenky]

Nice writeup indeed :-) but the box is even nicer

[MMaddict]

Good for marketing purposes as well.

Most people have no Idea at all how much work/ parts an overhaul like this involves.

[Torero]

That's fantastic Paul. Hat's off to you, not only a great write up but sharing your knowledge as well. :praise2:

Lots of respect to you for that, Buddy.:eusa_clap:

[stenky]

not particularly cheap this gearbox, yet still the cheapest torque for a 4AGE one can buy :)

[Phaeton]

not particularly cheap this gearbox, yet still the cheapest torque for a 4AGE one can buy :)

I was thinking exactly the opposite & wondered how it could be delivered so cheap appreciating how many new parts & work goes into it

Alan...

[stenky]

I was thinking exactly the opposite & wondered how it could be delivered so cheap appreciating how many new parts & work goes into it

Alan...depends on how you look at it. for what it does compared to toher mods (ie. fiddling with the engine) its very, very reasonable.
my gerabox is s bit more expensive though because i opted for the LSD upgrade and the shipping to slovakia is not cheap either. still it's money well spent in my opinion :)

[snowtigger]

Best upgrade per pound of any mods for a six speed plus lsd , I have seen Paul build one and its a long labour intensive process.

As Paul has said stripping 3 gearboxes to make all the parts first is hard work, then making it like having a brand new box for the price is dirt cheap.

[Phaeton]

depends on how you look at it.

I look at it this way, I have a Renault Megane there is an injector fault, specialist diesel garage want £120+vat for each injector if all 4 injectors are faulty that is just short of £600. Compare the work involved in replacing them with what Paul has to do & that's why I think it's amazing value. It's still a lot of money & I could never afford the luxury, but as a value for money product it's amazing to me.

Alan...

[Paul Woods]

I have to agree, i think it is a lot of money to lay out for a gearbox, no question, the new parts alone come to £400, i suppose the old bearings could be re-used but then i wouldn't be able to guarantee it at all, it would be a horrible situation if the customer paid for this and it wasn't right or became noisy after 500 miles.

The amount of labour this takes is crazy, it is a 3 day job, but the more of them i do the easier it gets, i find i can strip the Mk1b donor box for its bellhousing in under 4 minutes (90% of it is thrown away) , the 6 speed takes several hours to strip which has to be done properly.

I see it this way, you end up with something very special that not a lot of people have, and i know of people that have spent almost the same having a Mk1 5 speed box reconditioned by gearbox specialists. Ok they are probably replacing all of the synchros as well, but how far do you go?

Ironically if it was any dearer than it is i doubt anyone would go for it, so it's a fine trade off between value for money and what can be accomplished, certainly £300 labour is never going to make me rich for the amount of work it takes, but i really enjoy building these gearboxes.

[snowtigger]

Mate I used to work for carver brothers at one point in Manchester, big gearbox rebuilder and for the product you provide I think people are getting a bargain six speed LSD equipped mk1 gearbox.
And as a bonus the ratios for motorway driving will be better, I just wish I could get the same for the 2gr we can but hope.

[tripod23]

paul is there no way this can be done on the s54 boxes to make them 6 speed .

[Paul Woods]

I have looked at that in detail mate and there is just no way unless i have a lot of custom parts made at huge cost, the easiest way would be an adapter plate and just use the C60 straight on the V6, but that too has been tried and the gearbox lasted a week, now wether he was just unlucky we will never know.

[stenky]

How many C60 6speeds for mk1 have you alredy built Paul? I am just curious how special my car is going to be :D Since this upgrade is your invention, I doubt anyone else has done it besides you. Ok there are some C160 mods but these could be counted with the fingers on one hand.
Given that MR2 of any kind is a rare car here, with this gearbox, it's going to be super unique :D

[Paff]

Looks good Paul. keep up the good work. these guys who still have thir mk1's are lucky buggers.

hopefully in 2 more years I'll no longer be a student and be able to rejoin the fun :)

[adamh]

stirling work , nice to see bearing correctly loaded,and oem spec part. i see you have #4 murphy, best hammers known to man

[Paul Woods]

How many C60 6speeds for mk1 have you alredy built Paul? I am just curious how special my car is going to be :D Since this upgrade is your invention, I doubt anyone else has done it besides you. Ok there are some C160 mods but these could be counted with the fingers on one hand.
Given that MR2 of any kind is a rare car here, with this gearbox, it's going to be super unique :D

I've built 6 of them up to now, 4 for guys in Canada and the US, the cheapest they can get it done over there is $4500 USD. I built one which went to Norway and one for a UK customer, it's not that popular here for some reason.

[Paul Woods]

Cheers Paff/Ads, #4 Murphy? Is that the copper/leather one? Made by Thor believe it or not lol

[Paff]

lol, only adam would look at the hammer model :)

[Paul Woods]

Paff let's face it, it's the only tool these engineer types have! :)

[Paff]

I was an engineer and I never had one. I just stole other peoples :)

[snowtigger]

I was an engineer and I never had one. I just stole other peoples :)

The best engineers steal ideas from other people, then incorporate them into some thing unique just look at stephensons rocket that borrowed ideas from several other people's steam trains to make his faster as a whole.

Bit like this mod all these 3 gearboxes as separate parts go together to make a unique 6speed box, we need pics of it fitted and footage of driving, plus fuel economy in 6th.

[Paff]

True there tiggy. Its true with everything, improve on someone elses' idea.

I would never have built my v6 if I hadn't stolen Paul's info. Still want to build me LS series mk1 one day tho.

Paul, it would be good to see those pics but tbh I never thought about fuel economy myself. Perhaps thats why I'm broke, student driving a 3.8 V6 ute lol ah so thats where my money goes. rekon we can find a way to make my car more fuel efficent before I convert to a V8 :)

[Phaeton]

Shame you can't get 180BHP out of the 4a-ge by just a few add-on's otherwise coupled with this gearbox there would be no need to transplant.

Alan...

[Paff]

the best addon is to take the 4a out and bolt on a better engine to some mounts you have welded into the car. hey its bolt on isn't it :D

[Holo]

Hi

I have an 1988 AW11 unmodified at the moment, blacktop soon, and on a tight budget...

If I'm not wanting to go 6 speed just yet and if I have a good C52 and a good Torsen LSD (some people say helical?) out of a UK Roadster plus the ring gear (some people say crown wheel?) off a C60 - because the PCD on the C52 ring gear is different - then can I just get away with not replacing any bearings, synchros and seals?

I know I will have to seal the major housings with Three Bond (1281) sealant (PN: 08826–00090) or equivalent (what sealant do you use, is there a something cheaper/better?).

Also, I know I will have to check and perhaps adjust preload on the LSD as per Paul's wonderful instructions:
Shim Part Numbers:
AA 2.10mm 90564-41014
BB 2.15mm 90564-41015
CC 2.20mm 90564-41016
DD 2.25mm 90564-41017
EE 2.30mm 90564-41018
FF 2.35mm 90564-41019
GG 2.40mm 90564-41020
HH 2.45mm 90564-41021
JJ 2.50mm 90564-41022
KK 2.55mm 90564-41023
LL 2.60mm 90564-41024
MM 2.65mm 90564-41025

Woops, I nearly forgot I will need a set of mk2/SW20 n/a 91+ non-abs driveshafts for the 'new' LSD.

Anything else I need to consider?

Thanks!
Steve

[Holo]

P.S. If I purchase a s/h Roadster LSD (with crown wheel), will that crown wheel be suitable or the crown wheel must be from a C60? (what box is the Roadster??? :-) )
Thanks!

[snowtigger]

Paul can build you a six speed mk1b box to fit the mk1 a engine but you can't use the mk1a gearbox casing.

[Paul Woods]

Another one of our famous 6 speed conversion gearboxes bolted to its plinth ready for boxing, this one has our LSD mod too and is going to Australia. http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2017/07/78.jpg

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[sketchy]

What's the freight on sending on to Aussie?

[Paul Woods]

Not cheap, around £220.