Gearbox query 5 or 4 speed?

[Aidan]

Not offended, DX is a 5.43 final drive 5 speed with the early 'long' overdrive fifth gear so almost identical in 5th to petrol 4.83 final drive 4 speed in top gear and 4th is similar to the 4 speed 3rd; my main reason to suggest staying away from diesel boxes is most that I see are more case corroded, less well maintained and less mechanically sympathetically driven and generally lugged on the torque. DX is a pretty rare old box, most 5 speeds for diesel have the 0.82 fifth so a bit slow by comparison.
But it's all a compromise anyway 

[Stesaw]

Thats fair enough. Thanks for the reasoning behind it, I guess a lot of diesels especially panel vans woulda been battered around for various trades so that makes sense.

[maxstu]

Thanks to both for the information

[maxstu]

grab a 4 speed, remove the tophat from under the spring under the reverse switch housing and it can be driven with the 5 speed stick

Is it really that simple? Reverse switch housing out. Remove tophat from under spring? Would you ellaborate please? This isnt internal surgery we are talking about?
This means first in normal forward left place instead of reverse? Where is reverse on a four speeder.

Regards
Stuart

[Aidan]

yes it is that simple; 3 x 11mm head M7 machine screws hold the reverse switch housing, be aware the spring will try and send it across the garage when you undo them all, the spring will stay attached to the housing and you will see this little top hat sat on the selector shaft, just remove it and put the cover back on



4 speed 1st is where 5 speed 2nd is, 2nd is 3rd, 3rd is 4th and 4th is 5th 
reverse is in the same place

difference between the boxes is the top hat under the spring pushes the 4 speed box when in neutral into the 3rd 4th plane (4th 5th plane on the 5 speed) and you would have to fight against that to find the middle plane where 1st and 2nd are, the 5 speeds don't have the top hat so the spring only pushes out to the middle position and driver manually pulls the stick across to access the top 2 gears, so coming down the box you move to the point where you feel the spring stop and go back for 2nd or if you have stopped push forward for 1st

reverse is the same in both boxes and the stick won't come back into the 5 speed 1st position (cos there is no gear there in the box) so you can't get confused by it

get a 4 speed gear knob  161 711 141 A 01C

[maxstu]

Cheers Aidan. That is brilliant. I appreciate your reply.

Regards
Stuart

[maxstu]

Another question please.

The owners' have found on Facebook a 3H 5 speed gearbox for sale in Stratford upon Avon. However, it was mated to an AAZ TD from a Seat and in an air cooled T2? Go figure!
Anyway. Is it compatible with a petrol DG1.9? And apart from changing input shaft, what else needs changing? Is the Bell housing suitable? Starter motor issues?

Regards
Stuart

[Stesaw]

As I understand it, the bellhousing would have to be swapped from Diesel to Petrol as well as the starter.

[maxstu]

So all these items can be swapped from current gearbox and use petrol bellhousing and starter. Refresh the linkage (needs doing) and off they go?

[Aidan]

3H is exactly the same inside as ABN which is the 1.9DG box, you need to swap the input shaft and bell housing and clutch slave bracket support strut from a petrol box and use the petrol 5 speed mount and rear gear linkage

[maxstu]

3H is exactly the same inside as ABN which is the 1.9DG box, you need to swap the input shaft and bell housing and clutch slave bracket support strut from a petrol box and use the petrol 5 speed mount and rear gear linkage

Thank you. All good then.

Kind regards
Stuart