Hi all: I've had so many inquiries about the status of my 5 speed
conversion project I thought I'd give you a bit of information. I'm
working on an article for Ian and his Sunbeam page, so more detail will
follow. Anyway - the tranny is installed and is working very well.
I've driven nearly 1000 miles since I completed the project and am well
satisfied with the results. All things considered - working by myself,
no hoist, limited amount of time to work on it - it went quite well.
The conversion kit is well designed and complete with everything needed
for the Alpine installation. The gear ratios, excluding the 5th gear
overdrive, are quite similar to the all synchro Alpine box. The 5th
gear allows easy cruising with many fewer rpms, and at 60-65 mph, seems
to put the 1725 engine right in the middle of it best torque range. I
recently completed a one day, 500 mile round trip over to my dad's, and
was pleased with the performance and the mileage - about 35 mpg at 65-70
mph bucking a significant northwest wind for the first 250 miles.
If you want to view some digital pics, end me an email and I'll send you
a couple of them that I took prior to the installation. They show in
pretty
good detail the manner in which the bell housing is attached to the 5
speed.
from sunny South Dakota
Paul #14649 5 speed Toyota tranny, Pertronix ignition, GM alternator,
American Racing wheels
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