rear mounted gearbox

[jonathan yee]

as far as i know, there arent any toyota's with front engined rear gearbox setup's, but you all seem to have a wealth of knowledge and thought some here may have ahd experience with them.

what i have is an old 69 minivan, saved it from the wreckers and is in need of a full resto.

the ol A series motor is far from good in todays terms, it's only a 3main crank and the head is siamese ports for inlet and the middle exhuast not is it crossflowed or OHC.

so i was thinking of putting a more modern power plant in. there have been many people putting in BA16's, suzi gti motors and starlet engines all with a lot of mucking around.

nobody's done a rwd as far as i know without making it look horrible-massive nose extensions due to N/S eng conf plus gearbox.

so my thughts are put the box and clutch in the back as theres a big open space under the rear floor due to no seats etc

and use a comparitvely short eng such as a rotor. there's already a tunnel down the middle for the gear selector which i wont be using as originally designed.

apart from the inherent crazy mounts and modifcations i will have to do to fit eng etc does anyone here have exp to share with me about rearmounted gear boxes.

so far i've found the porche 928,944,968, alfa gtv and an ol volvo 340/60 use them. anyothers? advice.

[w0n0matic]

alfa romeo 75 has a front engine rear gearbox config.

[RA23]

This is called a transaxle.

Do a search and you'll find things like:
http://www.toymods.net/forums/showth...ight=transaxle

[IN 05 NT]

get onto www.ausmini.com.au ........ there's alot of infor on startlet/gti/honda conversions over there......i also have a 69 mini van, and have had plenty of other minis......

rwd setup wont be easy, will need major floor/firewall/susp mods............there rerally isnt much room in a mini for a rwd engine set up...........

it can be doen, but legalities become hard to stick to......

[jonathan yee]

thanks.

typing "transaxle" into google gives me a lot more useful info instead of "rear mounted gearbox."

thanks in05nt, i have read numerous mags etc and seen all the stuff on the starlet/gti/honda. from memory dont recall any of them done without extensions or englid bulges on the fron with the round nose.

yeh if i did the whole N/S eng setup with the tranny there wouldn't be a hope in hell without cutting into firewall. thats why i was seeing if i could fit a eng that sat low either rotor or flat four and then i'd only need space for the tail shaft going thru the centre where the gear selector shaft used to be.

yeh might look into the VW boxes. apparently they fit into buggies with eng's in front of boxes and you switch the crown wheel or something to make it drive the right way.

anyhow goin to check out an alfa box on fri after work.

was hoping someone here might have ahd some exp with them in some way or another.

[wagonist]

Have you thought about east-west mounting in the rear end? Like MR2s use Corolla or Celica gear to do.
Get another mini front subframe with suspension, modify it so that the wheels can't steer & bolt an engine into that, & make up brackets to fit into the rear end.
Front & rear disc brakes then if you wish

You could also try Subaru or Audi FWD gearboxes. They have north-south engines but are driving the front wheels.

[IN 05 NT]

afla rear mounted diff/boxes are fragile......i wouldnt waste your time, fitiing the independent rear end would be a nightmare also

youd be better just running a normal inline 4 and engine mounted box and making a trans tunnel/firewall to fit, and setting up a basic live axle 4 link rear end,

you could just buy a hyabusa 1300cc motorbike kit, rear mounted motor, except there something like $15,000euro

[mullett]

I was going to mention scooby boxes, if you modified a bellhousing to go on the back of the motor so that the clutch etc was all attached, and then a straight output shaft after that to the gearbox.

-RM.

[jonathan yee]

well im not goin for big hp. the stock 12A rotor only does 130hp (this figure varies) mini vans only 650kg.

dont wanna fit an eng midmounted. thats been done before and i would loose all functionality of the rear.

mini's already have indep rear susp of sorts, but yes i think that'll be the biggest prob.

mullet thats exactly what i'm thinking.

[wagonist]

Why modify a subie box? The fwd versions have a bellhousing at the front, with a pair of driveshafts coming out the side. Where the tailshaft would come out on the AWD versions, it's blanked off. But there's a good 500mm of gearbox then behind the axle line.

Have you also thought about how this thing's going to steer? There'll be no weight over the front axle & it'll just be an understeering pig, just like the first Renault Clio V6 thing (the one with the tranverse v6 & gearbox where the back seat would be).

I'm sure that Toyota & Lotus have spent a lot of time making sure the weight distribution & suspension geometry were right on the MR2, etc

[wagonist]

Just reread Mulletts idea.

Why move the clutch?
Bolt a tailshaft type arrangement to the end of the crank (it's already got bolt holes there) & then bolt the flywheel to the gearbox end of the tailshaft.
I think you'd need solid mounting though, ie no uni joints, as the loading of the crank to the flywheel could be interesting.

Where was the clutch on the Alfa?
Also, some research then on the latest Nissan GTR may be handy, as its gearbox is under the back seat.

[jonathan yee]

?well the eng will still be at the front for wieght on the front wheels/steering duties.....?

also the reason i was thinking of keeping the flywheel and clutch ass at the engine end is becuase the bell housing wouldnt fit under the rear.

i was looking at my spare mr2 box, once you removed the bell housing then the gearbox is really small. not very tall.

other thing i wasa thinking is just using a rwd box minus bellhousing and the shortest drive shaft ever seen connecting box to diff.

also i think i would be able to mod/get ideas of the rear susp of some small rwd like a suzuki cappacino or something.

[jonathan yee]

oh yeh i wonder how much the latest gtr gearbox is goin for...?

[wagonist]

ah yes, the engine. I was still thinking along the lines of the east west rear mount

something like a 4A gearbox might be good then minus the bellhousing.

def going to need independant rear end with the uber short tailshaft (could just bolt gearbox & diff to each other)

and I was thinking the GTR to research how they transferred drive from the engine to the box. Pretty sure its a carbon fibre shaft though, & that gearbox isn't a manual either.

Suzuki vans you see running around are RWD with a SOHC Swift motor.

[mullett]

AFAIK the new GTR has the clutch assy at the rear, and then a driveshaft going BACK to the front to power the front wheels.

-RM.