Anybody want a 5 speed?
 

drooling...

Just how rare are 5 speeds?

hen's teeth rare

no US model W123s had them, so they come off of a limited batch of euro models

Looks like you'll need quite a bit of other stuff to put that into a w123, if you can find it all. The flywheel for starters.

I thought the only difference was the 5 speed had an over drive. why would it use a different flywheel?

I understand the shifter and maybe the shift rods being different.

Charlie

That's not a Getrag but, the much older 5-speed that's based on an iron case 4-speed. I'm guessing that the shifter arms from any iron case 4-speed will work on this unit and, I've heard that the 4-speed's shifter can be modified to work too. Shift rods from an iron 4-speed would need to be modified and you'll have to fab a driveshaft and rear engine mount but, you'd have to do all that anyway.

The flywheel from a manual-equipped 616 should work just fine.

If you have any info on how to mod a 4spd to a 5spd shifter please post a link. from what I can see on EPS the part numbers and arms are all completely different

Thank you for your posts. They reminded me that no matter how much I wanted a 5 speed 240D, I just don't have the time or energy to finish the job. I knew that I could cobble together the parts. (I have a 240 auto driveshaft). But somehow I would probably never get around to installing it in the near future. Oh yeah, it's cast iron heavy alright!:o

The only reference I could find in the tranny manual about 5 spds was a note about a bushing where the shift lever plugs into the shifter "note that in the 4-spd gearshift only the black plastic bushing (4) is installed. If the white plastic bushing (5 speed) is installed, reverse speed cannot be shifted" Could the only difference be this bushing??

I seem to remember a big difference in shifters when I did the swap but that could have been the difference in the early (2 piece) and the one piece tranny shifter. I didn't think there was a difference in the shifters. Dont know if this helps but it may be a start.

Randy

Do you know if theres a difference in the "early' (2 piece) tranny shifter and the later, Getrag shifter because that might have been the difference in shifters that I saw, not the fact that it was a special "5 spd shifter" (it was an easily modified, normal 4 speed shifter maybe)

thanx, I will pull the shifter part lists on EPS. It seemed to me they were significantly different when I looked at it before but I do not have a spare 4 speed shifter to look at. If this pans out I will post the conversion in another thread. As far as the w201 5 speed shifter. The legs are different lengths than the w123 5 speed shifter, but they are long so to convert it looks like a cut and remove 1/2 from one leg and reweld and a cut and flip over and reweld on another leg. Looks like maybe a good hours worth of work. once that is done it is simply a matter of 2 mount holes drilled in the trans tunnel to mount it

It would stand too reason they are different, the arms on the trannys are different. I could pull up the boot on one of my 5 spds and I also have a 4 spd "81" but no "early" 4 spds around, there is a neighbor down the street with one tho. (that I sold him:D)

Nearly everyone does this, but the results are not nearly as good as finding the flywheel designed for a 617.

I wonder if a machine shop could add seven pounds to make a 616 f/w match the weight of a 617 f/w, sounds kinda goofy but who knows?