• Welcome to the new SAOCA website. Already a member? Simply click Log In/Sign Up up and to the right and use your same username and password from the old site. If you've forgotten your password, please send an email to membership@sunbeamalpine.org for assistance.

    If you're new here, click Log In/Sign Up and enter your information. We'll approve your account as quickly as possible, typically in about 24 hours. If it takes longer, you were probably caught in our spam/scam filter.

    Enjoy.

Late model 5 spd. to Alpine V anyone?

Mark Dupre

Donation Time
Just wondering if anyone has successfully adapted a late model 5 speed transmission to a series V alpine? I love my car, enjoy the sound and don't want to cut it up with a V/6 setup.

Thanks
Mark
 

Barry

Diamond Level Sponsor
Mark,

Not sure why you think it is necessary to "cut it up" to do a V6 conversion, but to each his own.

The forum search function is a PITA, but it will work if you keep at it long enough. Search for Dellows or Toyota transmission.

Barry
 

Mark Dupre

Donation Time
Barry,
Cutting it up was not the right choice of words, just want another gear, not more power thats all. Will search the forum, thanks.

Mark
 

norville

Donation Time
There are a few. Search "overdrive" in the modified section. But there is a kit to do a toyota box with little to no cutting. Depending on which box. and the T5 has been done using an adapter and modifying the alpine bell. T50 or w50 or w58 are the boxes.

I was originally planning this but I had to drop my tranny down to do seals. that would have been the time to do it , but I'm currently trying to decide if I should keep the pine or not and then to dark side or not????


I have a ford TK5 here the first gear is a bit lower than the original alpine 3.35 vs 3.96. It looks like if I can mate it to the alpine bellhousing it will be within an inch or two of the factory position.

I figured I could do this conversion for $800-$1500

Spare bell $40
Tranny of choice $150-250
driveshaft mod $150-200
Clutch, TO bearing, slave $200-300
adapters/mill work, $250-450
other stuff $50-100

Sell old trans $150-350???

I guess my hesitation was if I'd still be happy with the original rootes engine. Or worse having it spit out a bearing and wrecking the block.... I guess you could recover most of your money if that happened by selling the "product" to someone who wants it. I would definitely consider it more myself if I had a spare block laying around to help with mock up. I get a bit nervous under the 'pine, proven when I pulled that tranny a few months ago.

bob
 

Paul A

Alpine Registry Curator
Platinum Level Sponsor
I used the Conversion Components kit about 8 years ago. It was an easy conversion to do. I wrote an article about the conversion that you can read by visiting www.paulalmjeld.org.

I used the W58 Toyota tranny with the .78 overdrive.
 

Barry

Diamond Level Sponsor
It sure would be nice if there was an indexed technical section of the forums where articles such as the one by Paul Almjeld could be accessed.

ARE THE POWERS THAT BE LISTENING???

Barry
 

George Coleman

Gold Level Sponsor
I did the 5 speed converstion and used the T50,2T box from a Toyota and cut nothing!! and the car runs great. If you use the other setups you will have to mod the trans. hump.:eek:
 

Chazbeam

Silver Level Sponsor
Did the toyota w58 trans swap myself

Hi

Well after a year and a lot of planing designing and building i did the swap.
I could not be happier

I used the w58 from a Toyota supra because i liked the gear ratios better.
I replaced the rear end with a 65 that had the higher ratio's mostly because the old rear had a bad barring and after receiving the wrong ones twice (seems i had a rapier rear end) i went with the 65 and rebuilt it.

I purchased an alpine bell housing and cut it down on a vintage drill press by spinning it around with a metal cutting wheel (perfect) and had a 3/4 piece of aluminum alloy welded to it by Hollywood welding for 100 bucks. then back to the drill press and after careful measurements drilled out for the w58.

I had a custom drive shaft made for another hundred bucks.
found a place in LA that had 100 left over clutch disks from a costume job they did years ago. perfect!
i got two!
Relocated the shifter to the right place in the tunnel by cutting and welding the shift parts and cover backwards. I found an old alpine shifter and Toyota and cut and welded these carefully together to maintain the look inside the car. Perfect again!
I did have to widen the tunnel a bit in a few spots. this was emotionally painful. i do like to stay as original as possible and i wanted to resort back if needed.

like i said it drives beautifully. i am ecstatic i can cruse the highways at any speed. the alpine 4 cylinder has plenty of power in front of this setup.

all in all i recommend the conversion kits out there. this was not an easy thing to do and it cost close to the same in time and labor and bruises and cuts on my hands ha ha..

good luck and you will like the results!

Thanks Paul Amjad for your advice and inspiring article on the swap!
 

Paul A

Alpine Registry Curator
Platinum Level Sponsor
Hi all:

After nearly 9 years of use with the Toyota 5 speed I had to replace my pressure plate. It likely would have lasted longer except for an oversight on my part. I did not ensure that the throwout fork travel was limited and ended up with a plate that would not disengage.

So - for any of you out there who have installed a Toyota tranny, be sure to measure the amount of slave cylinder push rod travel. It should not exceed 3/4 inch from the point of engagement to the end of travel. Anything between 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch will work just fine and will put less stress on the pressure plate. There are a couple of ways to prohibit excess travel - a block under the clutch pedal being the easiest. George Farrell devised a limiter that installs on the slave cylinder. Contact him for details. It's easy to install, bullet proof and makes good mechanical sense.
 

Chazbeam

Silver Level Sponsor
hay Paul thanks for that info! i have the Toyota throwout and fork!
and i am hoping i wont run into this trouble!
It seems to be ok! any symptoms i should look for!

I just drove it out to phoenix from LA and i did around 70 to 80 MPH and got about 31 MPG! she ran great!

Chaz
 

64beam

Donation Time
Hi,

If you choose to go for the Celica 5 speed (not sure about the Supra box), note that there were a few different types. These had different gear lever positions, but if you get the correct gearbox (same measurement as the original Rootes box), no cutting of the transmission tunnel is required.

Regards, Robin.
 

Chazbeam

Silver Level Sponsor
Many years, toyota swap still perfect

Hi Rootes'rs

So a little update on the life span of the Toyota w58 trans swap for those of you concerned with the wear and tear on the rootes/simca engine..

So far after at least 6 years of every day use on my Alpine i have not had ONE issue with the swap except maybe needing to replace the rear seal...
Other then the drive shaft balancing it needed (seems it was poorly done originally and I had a new one made) it has worked perfectly..
Even after taking the engine out for a rebuild a year ago the clutch had little wear on it...(this i was actually shocked by)

The only reason the engine needed a rebuild was a dropped valve seat that really was my own neglect in dealing with it sooner as I new there was a problem...

The engine otherwise performed great with this setup and after inspecting all the bearings little to no wear was noted there either that was not out of keeping with the millage... Matter of fact i was pleasantly surprised with the even wear i saw there and nothing to indicate excessive stresses placed on the engine from the use of the Toyota W58 transmission.....And i was not such a baby in driving it hard at times... I took many a road trip at 80mph across the desert and around California... So i put some miles on it as well..

So i would recommend it if you have the time and money... And rest assured the engine is a lot stronger then one might imagine.... after all it was designed by Georges Martin (V12 Matra Sports engine designer)
I happen to love its elegance of design even with its quarks and problems....

Cheers
Chaz
 
Last edited:

Paul A

Alpine Registry Curator
Platinum Level Sponsor
Hi Chaz

I ran the W58 tranny behind the four cylinder Alpine engine for 12 years and many thousands of miles. I had no issues with the tranny - it was bullet proof.
I am now running the very same tranny behind a V6 in the car and it continues to be a great transmission. Out here in sunny SD where speed limits are high and distances between anything/anywhere are significant the W58 continues to be a great tranny choice.


Hi Rootes'rs

So a little update on the life span of the Toyota w58 trans swap for those of you concerned with the wear and tear on the rootes/simca engine..

So far after at least 6 years of every day use on my Alpine i have not had ONE issue with the swap except maybe needing to replace the rear seal...
Other then the drive shaft balancing it needed (seems it was poorly done originally and I had a new one made) it has worked perfectly..
Even after taking the engine out for a rebuild a year ago the clutch had little wear on it...(this i was actually shocked by)

The only reason the engine needed a rebuild was a dropped valve seat that really was my own neglect in dealing with it sooner as I new there was a problem...

The engine otherwise performed great with this setup and after inspecting all the bearings little to no wear was noted there either that was not out of keeping with the millage... Matter of fact i was pleasantly surprised with the even wear i saw there and nothing to indicate excessive stresses placed on the engine from the use of the Toyota W58 transmission.....And i was not such a baby in driving it hard at times... I took many a road trip at 80mph across the desert and around California... So i put some miles on it as well..

So i would recommend it if you have the time and money... And rest assured the engine is a lot stronger then one might imagine.... after all it was designed by Georges Martin (V12 Matra Sports engine designer)
I happen to love its elegance of design even with its quarks and problems....

Cheers
Chaz
 

RHFG

Donation Time
Toyota g/box

I live in NZ and know the guy who runs Conversion Components. He did the bell housing cut and weld to adapt a W55 to a Ford Toploader bell for my Tiger. These trans will take 300hp no problem and are overkill for a 4cyl Alpine, here we use the T50 for this. There are still a few W55-58's around, mostly in the US.

The older W50 steel case box is ok too, not as strong but the bolt pattern to attach to the bell housing is easier to work with, I put a W50 into my last Tiger in 1981 and the car is still running just fine. The biggest issue to overcome on a Tiger is where the shifter is, most being too far back. Colin at CC makes new shifter housings and bits to bring the shifter out further forward. On my W50 conversion I used the Toyota housing and cut a section out of it and welded it and shortened the the connection rod that takes the ball end of the shifter.

All worked out to be the cheapest 5spd conversion I ever did. I used the same box on a 1965 Humber Sceptre and that was just fab to drive.
 
Last edited:

PROCRAFT

Donation Time
5 Speed

Paul,

The simplest way to reduce the travel is to weld a nut to the clutch pedal and use a carriage bolt to stop against the firewall.

Joel
 

Chazbeam

Silver Level Sponsor
Confirmed toyota swap

Thanks for that confirmation Paul A..and RHFG
I realy love mine.
The high 5th gear ratio is great on the highway.
And it seems this engine can take it...
I did the conversion myself (had a plate welded on to the old sunbeam bell) then cut and driled for the w58.
I recomend the kit even though mine works great it was a lot of work just to reiterrate.
Yeah PROCRAFT..i may fab something like that as i have to do a rebuild on tbe master cylinder anyway..thanks for the sugestion..


I have to correct my assumption on who built the engine.
I started anouther thread on that and think my statement about it was wrong.... Some of the giys chimed in and gave great info...

Although i found the word BILCHROME on the side of the engine...hmm?

Anyway thanks gents good to know.....
 
Last edited:
Top