Project 6-speed

[ViPeR_NiPPleX]

I dare ya to fit the trim and carpet in an attempt to hide the hole

looking good dude, shouldn't be hard to fab around the box now.

[Norbie]

Actually the centre console would hide pretty much everything I've done. Not sure about its structural integrity though...

[Mr Ed]

Looks good mate! What have you got planned for the tail shaft? Modifying the current one, or going for a new bigger one?

Just duct tape those pieces back in there when youve got it all mounted. Easy!

[Norbie]

Looks good mate! What have you got planned for the tail shaft? Modifying the current one, or going for a new bigger one?

The old tailshaft was never an option; the V160 has a flange mount, as opposed to the slip yoke with the W58. I've already sold the old tailshaft and I'll be getting a new one fabricated, or possibly modifying something from a later-model Toyota with a similar flange arrangement (eg Prado seems to have exactly what I need).

[Mr Ed]

Prado would be very convenient......if you find one in a quite street you dont even need to jack it up to get at the shaft!

[-==L=a=N=c=E==-]

prado tailshaft would be fairly chunky as well yes?

[Norbie]

Yes, like all Toyota commercials/4WD's it has a very substantial drivetrain, and the tailshaft is no exception. With the exception of the front flange mount it looked very similar to the Hilux 2-piece I'd been using with the W58.

[JustenGT8]

That's not a hole Norbie, the attached pic shows how it should be done actually ended up a little bigger again.....and another of the finished product complete with C-channel bracing tediously cut to shape. Amazingly all the stock trim went back in.

[JustenGT8]

oh yeah i forgot to mention that you should try and spec your replacement material so as to achieve similar flex/stiffness with what was there. I think we used 1.6mm sheet which is thicker than the stock sheet but similar strength as the stock sheet is formed.

If you go too stiff then you run the chance of tears developing along the welds as the rest of the chassis flexs a round the immoveable bit. make sense?

[Norbie]

LOL you munted it good! Methinks your project was a little more extreme than mine though.

Thanks far the advice, yes it makes perfect sense and I'll be sure to pass that on.

[rbman]

Yeah lucky you had a sheety freind... ...

Where are the pics of the gearbox jacked into the cut floor pan?, or was hte camera out of batteries by then...

[Norbie]

I don't know why I didn't get any photos of that, I probably forgot about it until it was too late. Not to worry, hopefully I'll have photos of the box actually bolted up next weekend.

[Norbie]

Hooray, the box is bolted up to the engine and in its final position - it doesn't foul anything!




(More photos here).

Next I need to bolt up the crossmember to the floorpan, which hopefully will be sorted tomorrow. The rear mounting points on the floorpan almost line up with the front bolt holes in the JZA80 alloy crossmember, so a bit of fiddling with the die grinder should have it 50% there. The other bolt holes will have to be attached with some sort of bracketry which I'll probably fabricate out of a couple of bits of flat steel bar bent to shape. The crossmember is also about 10mm below the bolt holes so I'll need to take up the slack with washers or something.

Slowly getting there!

[Draven]

news on making the shifter happen?

or is taht getting a bit ahead of ourselves?

[Norbie]

Yeah I'm not too concerned about that just yet - first to get the box in, then worry about how I'm going to shift gears.