Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello All, I am new to the Minor world having just purchased a 1960 Traveller, and new to this list. I will be using it a fair amount on the highway so one plan is going to a 1275/ribcase/3.9 as is being discussed.

One option I've found is the Spridget Rivergate 5-speed for the 1275 engine, http://www.rivergate5speed.com/about_kit.html.

Has anyone done this combo on their Minor?

Thanks,
Wil Stevenson
Stanwood, WA USA<br><br>

Your link doesn't work as posted - but this does

http://www.rivergate5speed.com

then follow the site. Datsun 120 transmission, sounds great - but no price mentioned!

Ah-ha! Missed that - 'gulp' at the price, and I see that's set up for hydraulic clutch (to suit Spridget) - presume it will work ok with mechanical linkage - and you need 'speedometer adapter kit ' too, and of course - the actual gearbox is not included! Now - when did I last see a Datsun ????????? In fact - it was just last sunday, but that was a 240 Z and I doubt it used this gearbox!

this 5 speed can be found in the datsun b210, and is a beautifully designed and engineered transmission. My dad did the conversion on his 1275 bugeye and it truly makes the car. Compared to my morris which used to have a 1275 and a 4 speed, its a night and day difference.

He did the conversion himself, which made it a lot cheaper than the kit. Even here the transmission itself is very expensive- about 500-600 dollars on ebay. But if your lucky you can find them here at the junkyard for around 90 dollars.

As far as the clutch is concerned, it would be very easy to fabricate mechanical clutch linkage. The fork comes out of the right side of the gearbox, perfect for England, not so good for Americans.

Hmmm, interesting. The B210 is called the '120' over this side of the pond. I seem to recall from information on this very board some time ago that Datsun used an engine that was a derivative of the A-Series that they developed themselves. It might follow therefore that the gearbox would be proportionally the same too?

I belieive Datsun even called it the A Series engine too ?

with the datsun box its easier to do a cable linkage than a mechanical one. heres the linkage that i made:

The gearbox you want is off the last of the RWD Sunny's. They fit A Series quite easy with DIY type modifications so no special kit required
Good luck as I hunting for years, without success, for such a gearbox to fit my A35.
I even committed myself to buying a compelte car "sight unseen" just to get the gearbox only to find it was a FWD model and seller didn't realise the difference
Any Datsun with a suitable gearbox is it's self now going to be a classic so you are probably going to coem across the same struggle as finding a Marina for the disc brakes.
That's not saying there aren't any Datson 5 speed gearboxes around but rather be prepared to search hard to find one.

Paul Humphries

Downsey said:

My dad did the conversion on his 1275 bugeye and it truly makes the car. Compared to my morris which used to have a 1275 and a 4 speed, its a night and day difference.

Thanks for the info, I had heard that it makes a big difference.

Morrisman1 said:

with the datsun box its easier to do a cable linkage than a mechanical one. heres the linkage that i made:

So, you have installed a Datsun 5-speed in your Morris? How easy/hard was it? Did you run into any tough problems? Is it bolted up to a 1275?

Thanks,
Wil

The gearbox you want is off the last of the RWD Sunny's

Thanks for the info Paul. I've been calling around my neck of the woods and have been getting consistently laughed at. The salvage yards used to have lots of these cars but scrapped them out long ago.

Wil

WillST wrote: I've been calling around my neck of the woods and have been getting consistently laughed at. The salvage yards used to have lots of these cars but scrapped them out long ago.

Wil

This what I found nearly 10 years ago.
It's the pre '82 models you'd want and I reckon there aren't many still about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Sunny

Paul Humphries

paulhumphries wrote:It's the pre '82 models you'd want and I reckon there aren't many still about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Sunny
Paul Humphries

Thanks Paul, that was interesting reading.

Wil

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-n ... enameZWDVW

If your able to convince this guy to ship to uk, it would probably be a good idea, especially because the dollar sucks right now. This 5 speed has already been converted to work with A-series.