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MG MGA - Bellhousing for transmission project?

Is there a list of bellhousings that will fit up to an 1800cc MGB engine? I'm asking because the MGA tranny (sitting in my cellar) is a one piece main housing/bell housing. I also work with Jeeps, and as a curiosity was wondering how on might fit up something like a T5 as is standard on some early '80s Jeep models. Fairly easy to find, usually inexpensive, as it is a light duty car transmission, and many offroaders switch it out for a heavier transmission. It's a 10 spline input shaft, 23 spline output. Haven't tried to dry fit it to standard MG clutch disk, 8-10-1, yet. I'm not quite sure of the similarity/difference to the Sierra 5 speed. I believe late model Mustangs also use a derivative of this tranny. Any ideas?

rpb bunch

No idea about fitting it in an MGA but you might find this thread on another forum interesting (http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?27,1392267). He is fitting a T5 gearbox to a Magnette.
Andy Bounsall

I actually have a T5 in my A. It's from an '86 Camaro with a 0.63:1 overdrive, B-3.9:1 rear. Pair all this with a aluminum 215 V8 and you get a rocket that looks completely stock. I had to flare out around the bellhousing for the first few inches of the stock tunnel. Shifter is in the same location too (with a little offset bracket under the boot).

All GM T5's had the 4speed bolt pattern used from the early 60's thru '92. Ford T5's used a more upright pattern. Jeeps and AMC's, I don't know. Either way, they are rather modular where you can bolt up different tail housings to various cases and have a huge variety of ratios.

http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Borg-Warner-T5-ID-Tags.htm
SJS Steinhauer

Thanks, Andy! this is a very cool project to follow...complex, but very cool! I thought about this, which is why I was wondering if there were bellhousings around which match the overall size of the 1500/1600/1800 MG power plants. Fabbing one out of a sliced up MG transmission is a little more than I want to take on. As the T5s with a tailshaft come from S10, Mustangs, and Camaros, I think I'll head off in the direction of collecting bellhousing diameters from these sources and assess if these are candidates to adapt with a plate to an MG block.

Anyone have a link to such a project?
rpb bunch

Speaking of splicing a T5 to an MG transmission, check out this build that Ed Sweeney is doing for his Magnette. http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?27,1392267
Mark J Michalak

This thread was discussed between 20/05/2010 and 21/05/2010

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This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.