r154 shifting experiences

[JZA70 R]

will you include the bearings and arp bolts as options in the group buy?

[Drift Motorsport]

All of the parts will be ordered on demand. Delivery of the parts after I place the order would be approx 10 working days then the small parts will be express posted to the customers. I think the bearing kit will be able to fit into a 3kg satchel so we should be able to express post this.

Can you please let me know which R154 you have? The JZA70 box has a different output shaft bearing to that of the Remote Shifter box. The JZA70 R154 has a slightly larger bearing compared to the remote shifter R154. In the event that there is only one type, I can source the correct bearing from a shop for the cost of the bearing (about $25-65 as an estimate).

[JZA70 R]

ive got a jza70.

did you ever consider just buying and fitting a V160/1 instead of spending thousands on a R154? ...assuming you also have a JZ equipped vehicle.

[HKS_TRD]

All of the parts will be ordered on demand. Delivery of the parts after I place the order would be approx 10 working days then the small parts will be express posted to the customers. I think the bearing kit will be able to fit into a 3kg satchel so we should be able to express post this.

Can you please let me know which R154 you have? The JZA70 box has a different output shaft bearing to that of the Remote Shifter box. The JZA70 R154 has a slightly larger bearing compared to the remote shifter R154. In the event that there is only one type, I can source the correct bearing from a shop for the cost of the bearing (about $25-65 as an estimate).

Mine is an old clunker MA-70, I would assume the box is the same as a JZA-70?

How recently have you priced all the bits for the rebuild kit, as I could not get the same price locally even with trade as what you quoted for the full rebuild kit

[Disturbed1]

where are the shifter forks coming from?

u gettign them made or juts buyign from ppg?

[JZA70 R]

ppg.

do ppg do gearsets for the R154?

[xistant]

MA70 R154 and JZA70 R154 SAME!

most parts you can source from the 4WD version R151F and i think R150(AFAIK)

mudcrawler made the shizzle for the R154

Soarer R154 (rare as anyhow) is remote type hence diff bearing required.

[JZA70 R]

ppg.

do ppg do gearsets for the R154?

doesnt look like it, they do a 5 gear straight cut dog set for the W series supra box and a 6 gear helical dog set for the getrag but NOTHING for the R series

[Disturbed1]

yes they do todd - why do u think u can get the billet shifter forks

they are 8k for the gearset

[JZA70 R]

where is it on their website? only a listing for W, V & IS series boxes?

only 8 grand eh

[Disturbed1]

only a small range of applications on their site. need to phone up or go to hi-octane

[Drift Motorsport]

Unless you need custom ratios - I cannot see the benefit in going for a custom gearset for the R154 for 8k considering that I have not found an actual gear failure due to shear loading alone.

I did not want to change to a Supra V160/161 for the following reasons:
- Cost of gearbox when it breaks (3500+)
- Cost of Custom Tail Shaft
- Cost of Custom Trans tunnel and mods (need supra section to do it properly)
- Need CUSTOM Diff Ratios (3.3 instead of 3.9 or 4.1 as 5th on the 6spd is 1:1)
- I already have a new 4000lbs carbotic button Jim Berry Clutch ready to hold 450+rwkw
- R154 is a cheap and durable option for my goals and 100% BOLT on FACTORY.

The head f(*&ks associated with a custom converison such as the V160 swap does not give me any clear benefits from a cost of features perspective over the R154 with minor upgrades. At the minmum - all the R154 needs is Redline Oil and Billet THrust Washer + Bearing Retainer upgrade to be a very durable box for the street. I've decided to use my engineering knowledge and contacts to make some parts for fun and to help others who are thinking of trashing their cars on the track or street and would want parts that are known to fail on the R154. I hope to smash the gearset after I have completed all these parts under pure power loading so I can determine what it is the R154 can handle when its limited shortfalls (thrust washer) are fixed. I would suggest that going by the material, size of bearings and outright strength of the cast iron center plate and factory gearset I would probably strip 1st gear with a 500rwkw engine whilst leaving the line with full slicks on 10-17psi of boost with antilag on the motec. The slicks will kill the box before the power does due to the grip!

Shifter forks can break and we all know how to fix the thrust washer issue with the upgraded billet parts.

I can do a better price on the billet shifter forks that we can make in house and I would say that these are stronger than the PPG ones as they will be the exact copies of the stock gearset - only machined out of billet steel instead of the factory cast pourous aluminium. The PPG shifter forks appear to have a similar shape as in the picture in the prevous pages. Very slender and they look like they may bend under hard shifting as they do not have the ribs to make it stiffer.

Since the shape and stiffness of the aluminum is designed for strength, simply changing the material and increasing the material thickness around the section where they bolt on to the shaft will increase the theoretical strength to 2.5x-4x over the amount of the cast alloy. They will weigh in at around 2-3 times the amount of the alloy ones - but this will not really be felt in the shifter throw as they are all mounted on their shafts and syncrho rings.

will you include the bearings and arp bolts as options in the group buy?

Bearing Kits and ARP Bolts will be options for the group buy. The more we can get the cheaper it can be. Keep in mind that the 1JZ has a crank thread that goes all the way through so you will need to use an adequate thread sealer - just like factory, to keep the oil out of the bell housing.

I'm still nutting out the price list. I will update everything shortly in this thread so please stay posted and please post up what you would like to buy so I can get an idea of what kind of prices can be done for which amounts of volume.

I will also have a JZZ30 Manual conversion available for sale shortly with the option of having the billet upgrade parts installed as this box is getting rebuilt. The box is a JZA70 R154 with a modified shifter.

[-=DV=-]

not too long ago i picked up a jzz30 with an r154 in it..i find the thing it hates to do more than anything else in the world is go into gears...
it takes some effort, its a long way from the quick finger shift of the j160 in my bmw..while im horrified about how much of a fight my 154 puts up when going thru the gears..everybody that has driven it that has r154 experience tell me its a particularly smooth and good example....
*shruggs shoulders* im considering going with the redline oil after reading the hpi writeup on the 154


~edit. sorry for the on topic but off conversational thread reply....i just read the first couple of posts and quick replied

[Disturbed1]

yeah every r154 ive driven has been pretty shitty for gear changes - and strength when it comes to drag racing on slicks.. sounds like all these problems will b esorted with what drift motorsport has on offer.

highly recoment locktighting the syncro hubs onto the gears though!

[Drift Motorsport]

R154 is a great box, but the single syncros let it down in the 1-2 shift. Good oil and a syncrho re-fresh will get the box shifting well again.

The best box i've ever had for hard and fast shifters was in a FWD Holden Calibra..... I could not crunch it into gear no matter how fast I changed. The car was a POS but the change was lightning fast lol.

Distrubed - can you please elborate on the loctite syncro trick?