The V8 Owners Forum -

hey guys after advice on which gearbox to use on my mk3 capri v8 conversion. going to be either a 3.5 or a 3.9 if i can find a good 1. which is the best gearbox to get an sd1 lt77 or r380. can u disconnect a treansfer box of a 4wd gbox and use it a 2wd. sorry i have no knowledge of these gearboxes hence i would like some advice on best gearbox to get. i see alot of sd1 boxes on flebay but been reading on hear and they do not seem to be very strong. just want something reliable max budget would be around £250 mark. Thanks

Dont even bother with the 4wd box, as you will need a 2wd box for spares to convert it to 2wd. Look for a 2wd LT77, R380s in 2wd cost a fortune, The other option is the T5, as used by TVRs but I think the gearbox remote is a little too far forward, so you are probably looking for a Cossy T5 and a TVR bellhousing

About 8 months ago i purchased a rover v8 bellhousing with an adaptor plate to allow the fitment of a capri2.8 gearbox. will find out how well it works soon.

hello,

I'm similiarily looking at my transmission options. I'm running a mgb with a rover 3.5 engine. Am trying to avoid the LT77 cause i want something thats going to last a while. The R380 i know a bit about and like the idea of but seem a bit expensive.
Saying that i dont mind going round the scrapyards trying to find one, so does anyone know what cars they might be found in?
Know its in the RV8 though i doubt i'll find one of those. I hear it may be in late XJ6's as well. Is this true?

Also i dont know too much about the T5 although i know a lot of MGB's that are using it. it presumably must be better though as the TVR used to use the rover boxes.
If anyone had any information about it it''d, and where/ in what cars i might be able to find one. would be realy helpful.

if not from a scrapyard i dont mind spending around £300 or so. if anyone knows of any for sale (R380/T5 depending on info).
thanks.

There are thousands of LT77's still working perfectly well out there- unless your 3.5 is putting out some serious horses I wouldn't have thought it would be an issue!

TC

I have put 300hp thru a LT77 without it complaining, and beleive me when I say it was SERIOUSLY abused!!
Yes there were Rover 5 speeds fitted to XJs but they were vittesse spec LT77s and not R380s

I know they should be able to handle the power. My only problem with them is that i'm trying to do this on a budget, (i.e by going round scrapyards.) and i've heard that after around 70,000 miles the box will need a rebuild. As im not likely to find one with much less mileage than that i was looking at my other options.
Having said that i have had varied findings when investigating what the cost of a rebuild would be. Would anyone know roughly? Recommend anywhere?

Jim,

Where are you based? Any LT77 or R380 for that matter is going to have done some miles and need a light rebuild at least, my police spec LT77 only needed new synchros.

There is a LT77 and bell housing for sale on the forum in the for sale section ( Tony V8Kid) but this has the sherpa 1st and 2nd gear cluster which give slightly lower 1st and 2nd gears.

kevin.

jimmy8 wrote:Having said that i have had varied findings when investigating what the cost of a rebuild would be. Would anyone know roughly? Recommend anywhere?

I know someone that does them, and he charges a labour price, plus the cost of any parts. He doesn't inflate the parts price by adding things that don't need doing, so often they only require gaskets and seals, baulk rings and bearings.

I can't remember the labour cost exactly at the moment, but as I'm seeing him on Saturday Ill ask, even if only for my own benefit.