The basics again. 1980 TR7 coupe; 1997 Camaro donor 3800 engine, 5 speed trans,
Wiring and controls; one marginally intelligent engineer working in his garage
in his spare time.
Having done a dry run engine fitment last week, I needed to check how close the
Transmission was going to fit to determine how far fore or aft the engine would
need to sit.
So I set the Triumph's 5 speed next to the Camaro's 5 speed, and started
measuring and sketching. The good news is that the two are almost twins in all
of their important measurements. The overall length, the bell housing width,
the distance from the cross member mounting to the bell housing mounting, and
most importantly the shifter location relative to the bell housing. From one
transmission to the other, all those distances measure within 1" each other.
There are a couple differences though. These are pretty significant, so if you
were hoping that this is a drop in replacement, sorry, there is no free lunch.
The Camaro, Borg Warner transmission output shaft is a good 5 inches further
out than the Triumph's output flange. I knew that I would have to have a
custom driveshaft fabbed up, so this is not a major headache.
The Camaro transmission body is shaped differently than the Triumph's, such
that when I tried to mount the Triumph's original cross member to the triumph
body, the front side of the cross member would not clear the sloping Camaro
transmission body. So despite the measurements of the mounting points being
VERY similar, the original cross member could not clear the body of the
transmission. So, as expected, I will have to make my own cross member. But
it will use the stock triumph mounting points.
The shifter slips right into the stock Triumph location, though it does have a
lean angle towards the driver, as the Camaro also does. The Camaro shifter rod
is a little larger in diameter than the original, so a slight enlargening of
the inner dust boot hole was needed.
With the shifter in the right location, the bell housing mounting face extends
forward of the firewall about 1-2 inches. Which is really close to where the
engine fit the best. All is progressing well.
Richard S.
80 TR7 V6
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