Manual gear box conversion

[nitros13]

As some of you might know my trans has been playing up.
it has quite a large shudder in 1st gear taking off so i finally bit the bullet and took it to a auto trans specialist. they fixed all the leaks, put a modulator in amoungst other things.
the shudder is still very bad and the diagnosis is that because originally i had a pin in the vacuum modulator that was like 20 thou out which was the original cause of the shudder. Now, because it has been shuddering with the DOHC motor it has stuffed up one of the clutch packs in the motor.

the trans place advised that a rebuild would cost about 1200 - 1500 bux
an mate of mine (who i have yet to contact) had a manual conversion kit for sale for $500
im thinking i might convert over to manual and piss the slush box away for good.

any thoughts?

[9ine Deuce]

i dont know why you didnt go with the 5 speed swap in the first place, gotta take advantage of that twin cam V6...

[nitros13]

yah i think im going to try to go manual

[6929er]

yeh go for the 5 speed conversion, you would probably be the only one here in adelaide with one. shouldnt be too hard to fit a new handbrake from a 5 speed luce or another car.
if you do end up goin fot the rebuild go see the guys at rowell and searles automatics in the city. they rebuilt my trans late last year and did an excellent job.

james.

[nitros13]

yeah i think i will go the manual. i just have to wait a few weks to suss out all the parts for the kit.
thanx james for th hot tip regarding the auto

cheers, Nick

[sim_rx3]

realistically it depends on what you want out of the car and your budget.

my Luce I'm keeping it auto cause of its rarity.

putting a stage 2 kit through the box.

it basically consist of kevlar bands increase of oil pressure with all other consumables replaced.

will change gear quicker than any manual and should work real good.

but the price of that build is $2200

this also includes the cost of reworking the torpue converter to suit the torpue curve of the engine once its rebuilw with the rest of the mods.

[9ine Deuce]

a fully built auto tranny is "almost" as good as a manual...

[dmeetro]

for $1700US you can get a really nice six speed with a really nice clutch. But i see what you are saying sim an auot will be waay more consistent if built right. I'm wondering what exactly you mean by "bands" because i believe the auto in the 929's only has one band for the reverse and high clutch drum pack, its the one that sits the closest to the oilpump. Its really smart to adjust the t/c because the stock one is meant to take advantage of the original powerplant. BUt yeah 1700$us is a really cheap price for that kind of a tranny built up and will last you a loong time. Are you upgrading the tranny oil cooler as well?


BTW sim you were right about cutting spings thats a no no.... mine almost poped out b/c i cut progressive springs in my sho. But i have replaced them with cut linears and they seem to be doing fine so far. BUt eventually i'm getting lowering springs or coilovers for sure i'm not driving the car mutch till then.

[sim_rx3]

nitros13 - ok ive been doing a little research on these auto box issues.

and i might have found a simple fix if ya box is hunting etc

get yaself a aftermarket auto trans cooler and fit it to the return line to the box.

so the fluid comes out of box through original oil trans cooler in radiator.
comes out of radiator then into aftermarket auto trans cooler.

then from there back to the box.


it fixed babalouies gear hunting problem so try that first..

im doing this to my car as well


Dmeetro - i was lead to believe the rotary version auto for the 929 hc is the same as the FC rx7..and they run bands that i know of. but i could be wrong.
yeh man stay well away from cut springs.. scarey suckers







9ine Deuce - actually once the box is tricked up and the torque converter is re adjusted to the power curve output of the engine a manual wont be able to touch it!! hehe

[dmeetro]

deuce and nitros -
i'm on sim's side on this one, an auto box thats built right will outpower any manual. The reason manuals are believed to transfer power better is because in a stock car the torque handling power of atxs is down tuned by car manufacturers, it saves them money to change the shift points so the tranny wouldnt break. having said that an auto tranny will always bring in consistent results at the drag strip. Also when you are dealing with aftermarket you can change the way each shift is how fast it is and how mutch force is to be applied.


Sim - i'm having a hard time believing that bands can transfer power. The role of a band in an auto box is to slow down or almost stop a certain drum from spining which in turn results ina neutral or other gear combos. Anyways clutch packs are what transfer the power as they sit depressed in a drum and when a certain gearset needs to engage those clutch packs are pressed in by a cylinder, the pressure comes from the valvebody and engages the drum. This is where force of each shift can be adjusted, the springs that hold the clutch packs down can be swaped over with different ones of less or more force.Oh and here is a pic of a band in an HD auto box. its the brown part that sits in the front of the box.