Automatic Gearbox - Upgrade

[scourslane]

Hi, Quick one, truck is a 1992 j reg surf 2.4td.

at the moment i have the standard fit 3 speed with overdrive.

is it possible to put another gearbox in that as got more gears?

cheers

[Albannach]

Anything's possible. Whether-or-not it's practical is another question!

[scourslane]

Anything's possible. Whether-or-not it's practical is another question!

im after a 5 speed auto box, think thats practical. what other similar truck would i be able to get one from? and would there be needing many changes to anything for this?

[Maverick]

I'm not aware of anyone trying this before. With my (limited) understanding of our systems, I would think it would prove to be impractical. I believe that the gearboxes have their own ECU that you would need to change, let alone finding something that matches the gearbox mount of the engine and the transfer box.

It's not something I would like to try.

However if you go for it, please supply information and pictures, others may be interested.

[TonyN]

Why?

You'd screw up the ECU settings for when the box shifts, can't see it'd be worth the effort.

You have 4 speeds anyway. L, 2, D and O/D

If you want 5 gears, get a manual box...

[SoundsDigital]

I think this might have something in it. The ECU for the Surf gearbox would become redundant provided the donor gearbox did not have ecu control. There are still plenty of gearboxes around that don't have all the electronics that the Surfs have. The biggest problem is going to be getting something suitable. There aren't that many second hand automatic gearboxes around and ideally you would want to get a few along side the Surf box to see which is going to be the closest fit. It will be a lot of work to get one to fit and I doubt very much you will find one that just drops in in place of the Surf box.

Having said that I know people who have fitted a Skoda engine into an old Packard and a Sherpa van diesel engine into a Marina, so anything is possible. I would be concerned that it will prove so expensive to do that the improved fuel economy (I assume this is why you want the extra gear?) will never be recovered. Bear in mind also that if the gear box is geared any higher, you will be putting more load on the engine which means potentially giving it more throttle to hold the speed in top gear and effectively using more fuel.

[Albannach]

Any engine (and its gearbox) can be fitted into almost anything, as long as the hole it's going in is big enough.

The OP wants to change the gearbox only, which is a totally different thing. I reckon he's trolling, there's absolutely no way the Q is serious.

[MattF]

I reckon he's trolling, there's absolutely no way the Q is serious.

I don't think he is, personally. I think he just believes that having an extra gear will improve things somehow. It obviously won't, but what the hell.

[SoundsDigital]

It's not onknown for things like this to be done. I beleive they put a 5 speed gearbox in the Morris 1000 and they definately put a 5 speed box in the Reliant Scimitar. The difference is the Scimitar does have a Ford engine to marry it to. The morris is a big job and requires an adaptor plate if I recall correctly. Personally if I were going down that route I would be more inclined to fit a mated pair of engine and gearbox. I did fit half of a Triumph Dolomite Sprint gearbox with over drive into a Triumph Herald. It involved changing the input shafts as they were a different spline and the bell housings had to be changed, but essentially they were both made by BMC. I certainly wouldn't have tried fitting a Toyota box in there.

It can probably be done and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a 5 speed auto gearbox that will fit straight into the Surf but I'm buggered if I would want to go to the hastle of finding it, especially as there is a good chance such a thing doesn't even exist.