Morris Minor Owners Club

Considering putting a 5-speed into my 67 1098. Questions....

What will work best / easiest / cheapest?

How much is the noise difference?

Any inprovement in mpg?

Regards,

grahamt7 wrote:Considering putting a 5-speed into my 67 1098. Questions....

What will work best / easiest / cheapest?

Buy a conversion kit from Birmingham Minor centre (or eBay if you can get one). Then get a 5-speed gearbox from a scrapyard 1.6 Sierra.

Bolt it all together...

How much is the noise difference?

Less whine.

Any inprovement in mpg?

Yes, but only on long journeys. The amount I could not say as I fitted a bigger engine at the same time as mine so I have no reference.

Yes - as Cam says, the 'easiest' way is to go for a Ford type 9 5 speed box as conversion kits are available.
however there was a feature in Minor Matters in the last year showing a Toyota 5 speed gearbox. If you have the engineering ability to draw up and get parts made then the possibilities are a lot bigger (and often cheaper).

MPG around town will be no different but if you're like me, a higher top ratio will be a blessing on the motorway.

Only if the engine is powerful enough to pull a higher gear ! The standard 1098 struggles to hold a genuine 70 on anything except a dead flat road with the standard gearbox. With a 5 speed you will be constantly up and down the box. I suggest this conversion is only worth doing if you also fit a more powerful engine - ie the 1275 version of the A series - or maybe a whole lot easier to just fit a complete engine and 5 speed box straight out of another car.

I'd say that would be a fair bit harder than the 1275/Type 9, myself.

Dunno - I suppose it depends if you can drop a complete unit in there and make up some mounts, and a prop shaft conversion. Defeats the point of having a Minor I would say - the whole 'charm' of the thing is the A series engine and the rattly old gearbox!

Just seems a fair bit more work to be making up engine mounts, new exhaust system, changing the wiring, altering the heater etc etc when you could just be installing a new g'box X member, that's all.

Only if the engine is powerful enough to pull a higher gear ! The standard 1098 struggles to hold a genuine 70 on anything except a dead flat road with the standard gearbox.

Mine all pull to 80 with no problems, although I've not been running on pure unleaded without additive. I expect they would hold normal cruising speed (65) with a higher ratio and make a journey much more pleasant.
I've discussed this with 2 people who ran a higher ratio diff on a 1098 before choosing to do the same myself (rather than make an uninformed guess) and although very few people have tried a higher ratio on a standard 1098 it seemed to give very good results. Unfortunately I only managed to get a 3.7 diff at the time rather than the 3.9 I wanted so didn't get round to it.
(3.7 has since been re-sold, and so has the car I in which I was going to change the diff Time marches by ;-) )