The V8 Owners Forum -

Hi all, just looking for some help identifying an R380 gearbox, it is a 2WD box (short input shaft out front and remote mount on rear) and has a 73A prefix (L suffix).
Does anyone know what car (or van) this would have originally been used on?

Is there an identification table published anywhere on Internet, I've searched but maybe not being imaginative enough on my search terms, I've seen some identifications but no 73A, although I have seen confirmation that this is a legitimate ID.

Out of interest can anybody tell me what vehicles the 2WD 'box was used for? Obviously Sherpa but what about Morgan/TVR/MG? Any other possibilities?

Thanks in advance

I would fit one to my Rover P6 if I had one.

The 73A[L] was one of the last boxes produced. It was used on some TVR, some kits, Morgan and of course the MG RV8

In the Sherpa, they called it the R150. I don't know if it was the same or not.

Chris.

ChrisJC wrote:In the Sherpa, they called it the R150. I don't know if it was the same or not.

Chris.

The Sherpa V8 van I drove seemed to have very widely spaced ratios. Not something I'd like in a car.

Thanks guys, I suspected 73A was quite late, the manual I found in the Internet didn't even mention this prefix. Would be nice to know what vehicle though, don't want a van one as has too low first gear. Will check input/output rev's

If you don't want it, stick it in a box and post it off to me for proper disposal.

unstable load wrote:If you don't want it, stick it in a box and post it off to me for proper disposal.

That's not going to be happening I'm afraid.
The best I can tell is the 2WD variant of the R380 was used in some TVRs, Morgans as well as Sherpa vans and black cabs.
I'm hoping mine is from one of the first two, particularly as the Sherpa box had lower 1st and wider ratios to make up for that.

I'm replacing an LT77 and have a few modifications to make, as my car is already built I'm going to have to shorten the remote (or make some other changes) and I'm hoping the rear of the box doesn't foul my chassis or there's going to be some 'surgery' involved.

If anybody has done a similar mod', did you notice that the remote input shaft has the cross hole (which the remote picks up on) at an angle when in the mid, 3-4 gear, position?

Contact member "sowen" on here, he has fitted one to a Rover P6, if I recall, but is knowledgeable on the box and it's various permutations.

unstable load wrote:Contact member "sowen" on here, he has fitted one to a Rover P6, if I recall, but is knowledgeable on the box and it's various permutations.

Thanks "unstable", will do.

Can you pop it into first and count the input/output turns ratio to determine which box you have?

In fact it doesn't really matter where your box was from as long as the ratio's work for your application - so I would just count them, and using your rear diff ratio and tyre sizes you can work out your various speeds vs revs.

Tom.