Sean, I went down this path last spring.
First I bought a broken TR4 gearbox just to see if I could in fact take
one of these apart using the instructions from Nelson. It was a great
experience and I finally learned in some detail how a 4 speed TR gearbox
works. I also learned that there was no way I was going to re-assemble
it myself and trust it. Ymmv.
So I removed my TR6 gearbox, took it down to John at Quantum and for
around $630 John refurbed the gearbox (including replacing two chipped
gears, new layshaft and bigger bearings, new bearings and seals and
washers etc and fitted the J-type OD that I had actually bought from him
as a complete kit (on eBay) the year before for around $1200 if I
recall.
My total cost was around $1800.00 and I ended up with a close to new
gearbox with OD including all the electrics and escutcheon. My original
gearbox seemed fine and I was surprised how poor a condition some of the
gears and bearings and shafts were in after only 65k miles.
It took 4 hours to get the original gearbox (around 60 lbs) out on my
own and around 6 hours to put the gearbox with OD (around 100 lbs) back
in with the help of my neighbor.
I could have found a refurbed tranny with OD on ebay etc for a bit less
but at least this way I knew the history of the gearbox and I trusted
John with the rebuild and the new OD.
Stan
<snip>
Dear Team.net Members,
This evening my wife and I spoke of purchasing and
installing an Overdrive transmission into our 1975
TR6. I spoke with John at Quantumechanics.com and we
are seriously considering a purchase. Now the
challenge...
Our local mechanic says it will take him 14 - 16 hours
to install the shaft (into the tranny) and install the
tranny into the car (including wire running, switch
installation etc.) At $90 per hour, that adds about
an additional $1,400 to the initial cost of ~ $1,600.
Clearly I can't justify $3,000 for an Overdrive
Transmission.
The question is how hard is it to install this myself
and is there a WEBSITE / Instruction booklet that I
could use? The Bentley Complete Official assumes that
you either have one installed or you don't. I'd love
to hear from a few of you that have already done this
to guage the complexity of the challenge. I think
that I could do it but need some encouragement.
Please help, and thanks. This list is the greatest!
</snip>
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