Build a gearbox..
Turbo Mini Forums

ok, reading other threads and i now feel that buying a 2nd sccr box could be a false economy... So, i have an existing metro turbo box in good shape - what will i NEED to buy to rebuild it with a sccr gear set? Bear-in-mind i'm after something that will happily cruise at 60/70 without screaming as its a daily driver on dual carriageways.

What to buy... where to buy it...

what size wheels do you use

Team Racing

13" ERA's :)

Obviously a SCCR gear kit
Worth uprating the diff to a cross-pin type, plenty of discussion on another thread on this including a good write up from Dave re: offset pins and gear tooth contact.
All new bearings and seals. Most important is the double-row roller brg, you want one that is all steel, as the ones with a fibre 'spacer' to align the balls can sometimes break up. Also a new layshaft, make sure you buy a good one, the cheap ones can be poor quality.
Also diff bearings, again use all steel type over the fibre/plastic spacer type.
Also you will need some shims to reset the endfloat of the laygear, the haynes manual has a good detailed write up on how to rebuild a g/box.
Last but not least baulk rings, again do a search but I will only use genuine rover ones personally.(oh and you'll need a gasket set obviously)
Also don't forget drop gears, I think for most people s/c drop gears are a must due to the torque delivery of the turbo engine. Use new idler gear bearings and make sure the primary gear and idler gear endfloats are set correctly.
Thats all I can think of off the top of my head, I am sure everyone else will point out any glaring omissions?!

nice info tom.. could i use a kit like this to rebuild it?

http://www.minispares.com/Product.aspx?pid=37736#

Edited by Mike on 15th Mar, 2005.

yes thats the kit, make sure the parts in it are of a decent quality

Yes exactly as SumpNut says.

I can't see diff bearings in that kit either?

And make sure the baulk rings are genuine?

As a crude guide, dismantle the gearbox completely. Throw every bearing in the bin. Throw all the gears apart from the diff gears in the bin. Keep the mainshaft and the diff output gears/shafts. Throw the layshaft in the bin. Keep the speedo drive and gear selector mechanism. Steam clean the gearbox casing out. Dry it thoroughly and inspect for any cracks that should not be there. Check the gear selectors for wear, if in doubt change them for new to make a nice shift when done.

Then you can start to rebuild, see the Haynes manual.

Edited by Tom Fenton on 15th Mar, 2005.

cool, i recently rebuilt the diff with the steel caged bearings so will keep those. Are there any differences between the A+ and the metro turbo boxes?

Essentially no. The only difference is that the bearing on the nose of the input shaft it larger on the turbo gearboxes than the NA gearboxes. This appears to be the only change that Leyland made. I have used or have known to be used the smaller (non turbo) type bearing on plenty of fast road and race engines and I have never had or heard of any problem. But all the same if you have a gen turbo box then rebuild it using the bigger brg. It is fairly readily available a good mini specialists will be able to sort you out with one.

lol y i took as the bin being the eBay 'outbox' :)

Every metro turbo gearbox I have ever dismantled has contained parts fit only for the bin......due to the nature of the cars most were driven hard and most have done highish miles, hence the reason I have always lobbed the remains. But I suppose people will buy all sorts of cr@p off ebay so you never know your luck.

Personally when going to the hassle of rebuilding a gearbox I don't like to use second hand any of the wearing parts, just my opinion.

y i've changed my opinion - i would of jumped at the chance of grabbing a ?200 sccr box off of ebay but what about when it goes bang a few weeks later and takes the rest of your hard work with it - i'll be buying new from now..

Edited by Mike on 16th Mar, 2005.

there is only one problem with steel caged bearings, yes they are srtonger but when the cage breaks up it makes one hell of a mess in the gearbox as well as ones oil pump, i only use the plastic caged bearings now but only for that purpose,

larger turbo nose bearings are bloody expensive last quote i had was ?50 over ?11 for the standard one.

the only trouble with second hand sccr gear sets is take a gook look at the syncro engaging teeth to make sure thay aint chewed plus also the tapers seam to wear quicker on sccr over the standard gears so baulk ring life is always shorter.

its the taper when the are new is slightly smaller if found so far which doesnt help matters much.

always looking for them bigger bunches of bannanas

Bloody hell, ?50 for that bearing?! Shop around my friend, it is only a std roller bearing at the end of the day! I bought one from a Bearing Supplier for ?8, took him the numbers off the old one, he identified it and had one for me the next day, job done.

hope you kept the reference tom

A new gearbox is my next step, but i really dont trust myself to make one i dont think i have enough experience to be meddling with them, would you make me one for cash tom?

Previous Engine: 1040cc Morespeed engine, 1275 turbo head T2 Turbo Mirage Manifolds Megajolt
Previous engine: STD metro turbo, megajolt
Drives: 399bananahp (flywheel) Honda Civic Vtec b18c4 T28 Turbo 1968 Mini

Megajolt maps to download: http://www.jamesfawcett.co.uk/cms/index.ph...&gid=3&Itemid=3

hey feebs - i've never built a box either but we gotta learn, cant be that hard surely. Follow the manual and you can go that wrong.

/edit - Why do i get the feeling those words will come back and haunt me? :)

Edited by Mike on 17th Mar, 2005.

what was the name for the bearing supplier as the 2 round i went to said it would still cost me ?50 for it, and the main about ?28, thats why i only use dsn for all my bearings.
the 2 suppliers just keep saying they were automotive bearing and they would have to source them in from some one else, the puzzling point to me was all there bearings were the same manufacture as what dsn and others supply which i thought was a bit odd to say the least.

but yes once you have built your first box then it is quiet plain sailing after that.

but make sure you puchase plenty of syncro springs and balls because for you first couple of rebuilds the 3/4th syncro will shedds loads of these untill you get the nack of it. it you will spend hours trying to find them.

always looking for them bigger bunches of bannanas

I used Central Bearings and Transmissions ( aka CBT) in Redditch, Worcs.