Hi Kelvin,
If I was in your business I wouldn't recommend towing 'em ten feet!
Someone might mess it up and sue you. Er, I'm sure you have that in
mind tho. (G)
One of the things I did before I essayed to tow my B was to ascertain
if the 3rd motion shaft (mainshaft) assembly was partially immersed in
oil when the tranny was topped up. Not hard to do. Using the mark on
the dipstick for a reference, measure down from the surface the dipstick
seats on, mark a horizontal line on the trannsmission case. Now project
several successive points on that line thru the case. You now have a
plane surface that represents the surface of the pool of oil in the
tranny. Careful comparison of that surface to the vertical location of
the center of the mainshaft assembly will show you that the assembly is
at least half submerged in oil. Ergo, it doesn't need the layshaft
turning to get plenty of oil. That's why you can tow the car long
distances with impunity. That's why NO manual I've seen or heard of
says you must remove the driveshaft in order to tow an MGB with its
normal manual transmission installed. Let the transmission get quite
low on oil and you can get in trouble.
In the case of the Rover 5-speed, that's another case entirely,
doesn't pertain to the discussion at hand. If I used one of those
trannies, I'd refer to the manual for the vehicle it came out of.
That's just common sense. For that matter, many of the V-8 conversions
use a Nissan 5-speed (I've personally seen two that did) that's common
to 280Zs and 620 pickups. I have one of those pickups. My 620 shop
manual says the vehicle may be flat towed as long as the rear end and
tranny are "in good working order." It places no limit on towing
distance.
Kelvin, I'll take your word on the Rover trannies but the rest of your
post looks like unsupported opinion to me.
Charley Robinson
'69 B
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