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Re: Transmission gear swapping

To: datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Transmission gear swapping
From: Gordon Glasgow <glasgow@serv.net>
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 17:45:23 -0700
At one time Nissan Comp sold a special bellhousing to mount a  U20 5-speed in a 
Z. But as was
mentioned, the Z 5-speeds came with an integral bellhousing. Of course, a true 
hard-core hot-rodder
wouldn't let a little thing like that stop him if he had access to a welder who 
was good enough to
cut the bellhousing off a Z and weld on a roadster one. But it would really 
have to be done
precisely or else the input shaft would probably bind up in the back of the 
crankshaft.

Kyle Hagemann wrote:

> > The Roadster tranny is unique onto the R and U engines. So I know
> > that a 510 tranny isn't a bolt-up swap because of the bellhousing and
> > who knows what else (length? starter location? Whatever). BUT..
> > are the internal designs similar? Can I pull the internals from a 510
> > box and put them into a Roadster box? The 510 has two different ratios,
> > one that matches our Roadsters and another, lower ratio. I haven't
> > compared part numbers on the fiche yet; that'll probably tell me, but
> > has anyone out there successfully done such tinkering?
> >
> > -- John
> >      John F Sandhoff   sandhoff@csus.edu   Sacramento, CA
>
> Hi John-
>
> I've wondered this too, especially as the Z units seem to be more
> common (read=inexpensive) than the roadster trannies.
>
> Way-back-in-tha-day, before the 5speed 280Z's came along, it was
> not unheard of to put a roadster trans in a 240Z.  Building theory
> on hearsay (heresy?;-) it stands to reason that the L bellhousing
> can be swapped with the U/R bellhousing... (I can hear someone out
> there thinking, "U/R silly!")
>
> I have it first hand from a local Z dude that the servo-type roadster
> five speeds appear nearly identical to the BW-type Z units.  'Course,
> things can look a lot alike and still be incompatible.
>
> So I dunno!  But it seems that you could put a Z/ZX/510/PU/200sx/etc
> trans into a roadster with a bellhousing swap.  But it's likely more
> complicated... bearing bores and shift rod holes have been mentioned
> as a stumbling block when converting a CA tranny to L-series duty; I
> wouldn't be surprised to hear that similar shenanigans are required
> for a L->U/R swap.
>
> Anyone have some of ye olde Z-carre hop up manuals from the mid/late
> 70's hanging about, and/or have first-hand knowledge of what it takes
> to get a roadster unit in a  Z?  That tech oughtta be backwards-
> compatible with a Z->roadster swap.
>
> 'Course, I've just shelled out the bucks to fix my Roadster 5spd, so
> there better not be an easy L-tranny swap;-D
>
> HTH
> Kyle
> still broken

--
Gordon Glasgow
http://www.gordon-glasgow.org



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