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MG MGA - Toyota 5 speed gearbox

I have come across a Toyota 5 speed gearbox in a MGA. It may be a Toyota Corolla gearbox. Does anyone have any knowledge on how this would have fitted, ie modifications needed etc
H BUCKELDEE

There is a company in New Zealand that makes conversion kits to fit a Toyota Corolla gearbox to a MGA.
The Corolla gearbox is a T50.

http://www.conversioncomp.co.nz

Select "Installation" from the menu to see a list of Toyota gearboxes.

In the box "Select a product" select MGA.
On the MGA information page, go to "More Info"

Mick

Mick Anderson

H, shoot me an email.

And take pictures, if you can.

If I'm not mistaken, the Corolla would use a T50 tranny.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/AE86-GTS-SR5-TOYOTA-5-SPEED-TRANSMISSION-T50_W0QQitemZ290018227252QQcmdZViewItem

http://website.lineone.net/~classicconversions/web/t50.htm



Derek Nicholson

Hi Derek, the website Mike mentions contains a lot of useful info. The box is a T50. The New Zealand company markets a conversion kit for the mga; there is no mention of any special crossmember needed unlike the TD conversion.
I do not know any more details about the car I mentioned, other than it is a US car now back in the UK. Unsure where the conversion took place.
Henry

Hi Henry.

Any chance you could find out how they did the speedometer hookup? Does it look like a custom bellhousing or the original Toyota piece. Shifter in or near the original location? Anything would help.

TTFN

Derek Nicholson

When you do the currency conversion and include the shipping to North America the price comes close to Moss' price for a conversion using a rebuilt Sierra box.
If there were any problems return shipping to NZ would be prohibitive.

Rich
Rich McKIe

The transmission was rear wheel drive Corolla. 83-87 they were a dime a dozen. The wrecking yard I just talked to threw out a bunch of them 2 years ago. He found lots on line for under $300. The conversion kit is $1350 US including air freight. Add a local used trans and it would be much cheaper than the Sierra box. The Sierra is not near as common in the US. Sounds to me like a better set up and lower cost.
More of these transmissions were sent to recyclers than were ever resold used because they rarely ever break.
R J Brown

OK, here's what I know. And do a search of the Archives (probably the 'B General or 'B Technical) and you'll see I've looked for info on this before. With no results, unfortunately!

From a fellow who used to run an LBC garage in Montreal I learned that back in the '70's and '80s they used to use the Corolla T-50 in their racing 'Bs. Being an Englishman, he said "it's a piece of cake"! And he would know, as they used to build the Quebec Championship winning 'Bs in those days.

What I managed to pick from his brain is/are the following:-

1. Drill the 'B backplate to match the bolt holes on the T-50 bellhousing.

2. Machine an adapter to connect the 'B crank to the T-50 input shaft. The T-50 shaft doesn't protrude past the bellhousing mounting surface, unlike the 'B. To quote, "Just pound it on"! I think a nice heat/interference fit would be better, myself.

3. Use the pressure plate from the 'B. Its mounting holes will match the 'B flywheel.

4. Use the disc from the Toyota. Its splines will mate with the T-50 'box.

5. Drill new holes in the 'B back plate so that the Corolla starter motor lines up. I also seem to remember him saying that they machined down the 'B flywheel to accept a Corolla ring-gear.

Things then got a bit fuzzy. I'm not sure what they did for clutch actuation. I don't know if the standard Corolla slave cylinder will work. And since it was on their racer, they weren't worried about hooking up a speedo. We never discussed transmission mounts, that I recall. The driveshaft, I assume was just a question of mating corolla and 'B shafts.

I also remember him specifically saying to get a box from the 1.8 Corolla. I think there was also a 1.6 available in North America. Probably smaller sizes elsewhere.

Some years ago, while wandering around a scrappie, I happen across such a car and I bought the gearbox and took everything associated with it. Flywheel, clutch assembly, slave cylinder, driveshaft, gearbox mount and crossmember. I think it cost me around $100. It was only when I got it home (well, the garage, actually), that I noticed that the bulge in the bellhousing was on the wrong side, compared to a 'B. I did a bit of research and it seems that some cars came that way while others had the starter on the same side as the 'B. I'm not 100% sure on this point.

Anyway, one of these days, I'll drag all the bits out and try to make them work together. I figure I can work around the started bulge by cutting the bulge from one side and TIG welding in in the proper location and make a blanking plate for where the bulge originally was.

I did send an email inquiry a couple of days ago to http://www.conversioncomp.co.nz/, asking if they sold just the speedo cable to mate to an 'A or 'B speedo. So far, no reply, but that would solve 1 part of the puzzle.

Fore what it's worth, the t-50 was supposedly very tough, and since the case is split longitudinally so that you just lift the whole side off and all the gears are right there, ready to work on.

The only other tidbit that comes to mind is that on the racing TR6 they also prepared, they used the Toyota Celica 'box.

And finally, not at all related to this topic, I'd like to suggest that everyone install the Mozilla Firefox browser. Why? Well, just as I was finishing writing all this, my computer froze. Couldn't do anything. Alt,Control,Delete had no effect, the cursor wouldn't move. Nothing. The only way out was to unplug it from the wall. I was debating rewriting all this, but when you shut down with Firefox running, when you restart it asks if you want to resume where you were or start a new session. Well, I chose to resume, expecting this comment box to be blank, but my God, everything I'd typed was still there!!!!! Also very useful (should be mandatory) is an automatic spell checker, much like MS Word though not as powerful. And you can add words to the dictionary, just like Word. No grammar check.

TTFN






Derek Nicholson

Found these links by Googling "T-50transmission".

http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/phil.bradshaw/transmission.htm#T-50%20Gearbox

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Pit/9975/dataBySubject/Gearbox_T50.html

Also, I'm unclear it the Borg Warner T-50 is related to the T-50 used in the Corolla.

Derek Nicholson

Just got a reply from http://www.conversioncomp.co.nz and they say that, yes they can supply the speedo cable. Of course in a way it's my own fault because I didn't specifically ask, but they didn't say what they sell them for. I would have thought it obvious that I'd want that info without asking, but apparently not!

Anyway, no-one has commented on what I tried to describe. Does it make sense? See any serious flaws? And I looked on www.car-part.com and there are T-50 'boxes available for $69.95 and up.

Derek Nicholson

This thread was discussed between 25/11/2006 and 30/11/2006

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