Club 80-90 Forums

I need a new gearbox for '83 2L petrol van and have a garage who will fit it for me if I can get one. So - how do I know which gearbox will fit and how can I tell if a 2nd hand gearbox is any good?

hi m8
bit of advice for you.
introduce yourself and tell folk what van/engine etc. you have and you may get a better response to any questions you have.
this club is really friendly and we like to know who we're talking to. so many folks just appear, ask questions then dissappear again that until you introduce yourself any response is likely to be limited.
cheers
rozzo

ideally, you need to look underneath the box and find out what the code letters are as these relate to what the final drive ratio is, and your replacement box needs to be the same as what it's replacing, that said quite a few different code letter boxes have the same final drive ratio, eg... an ABD, ABE, ACW, all have a 4:83 ratio, worth looking into before putting an unsuitable gearbox in!
look on the syncro part of the website for some good info, technical pages, transaxle specs.

Get your gearbox code and speak to Aidan Talbot (link in the sottom of this post...)
It also shows on his website where to find the code..

I have a feeling he isnt rebuilding the Aircooled boxes yet, but he might have a good secondhand box for sale..

thanks chaps, that's starting to make sense. I've now got to figure out what's a realistic price to pay, I've noticed a range of prices from £50 to £200 and is it going to be a bit of a gamble or is there any way I can tell if a box is any good?
Rozzo - sorry to appear abrupt by just appearing with a question. I had been posting on kamperchat for while before discovering this site and I spose I just didn't think about how that would go down. My van is a complete shed on wheels, bought in haste after looking at loads on t'interweb and travelling hundreds of miles to see piles of rust that looked nothing like the photo. Anyhoo, I figured I'd buy this rust bucket as it was cheap and had a year's MOT but I've become quite attached to it. It's '83 2L Aircooled Autohomes Kamper but I took the defunct solid sided pop top of and have bodged (and I mean really bodged -think hacksaw and rivet gun) a westy pop top on and am trying to sort problems as they occur. and I'm in Gloucestestershireshire.

nice one m8,,, another Aircooled to the collection. gearboxes do pop up from time to time,, there was one in the for sale section recently, dunno if you saw it.
fleabay has a few from time to time too but i think the best thing to do is buy off someone in here cos you deffo won't get ripped off.
cheers
julian

Engine and box here:-

http://archive.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=24556

unfortunately rainman, when buying a second hand box, until it's fitted you cant really tell for sure if it is going to jump out of any of the gears, rumble, grind and be a pig to change gear, etc, etc, you can only go on what the seller tells you, usually '' it came out of a good runner mate..''
i got stung with a 300quid 'rebuilt' box from a supposed specialist at wymeswold, turned out to be a pile of cr*p, got the money back but lots of time and effort wasted fitting it, best using a known and trusted source like Aidan mentioned above.

Thanks for all the advice, I'll give Aiden a call as it doesn't seem worth spending time and money on something that may be no better.

rainman,

Juts put your location and few details in your profile please, makes it all a bit less formal and more interesting to know who you are and roughly where you come from, partic. if someone a round the corner can help (you never know!)

£50~ £200 sounds a bit on the cheap side, but its not impossible to get a reasonable or even good box for that if you're lucky, but these days there are less to go around...

You'll need to clean it up quite a bit to find the codes, and they are not always in the same place on different types of boxes (4 & 5-speed). Wire wool or a Spontex scouring pad and WD40 (and a pair of vinyl gloves) should get you started under there...

For starters a 5-speed box might be here, n/s of vehicle...

[img:600:450]http://www.club80-90syncro.co.uk/Syncro ... small).JPG[/img]

i got one chap. it dont jump or crunch but is a bit whiny in third and fourth
yours as a stop gap for £50
im in s wales just at the end of the m50 and headsof the valleys

I got a couple of DK air cooled boxes in the garage - Chatham, Kent!

One has an intermittant problem "crunching" into second, the other one I only drove a few miles (was going to be a spare, but then my van became "uneconomical" to repair!) but seemed to pull well in all forward gears, and reverse selected and drove fine too. But that is all I know about it.

pm me if you are interested.

ps - I won't tell you its rebuilt, or charge you £300!

Emma