Tom, et al,

I think you took my post the wrong way. If it was perceived as a jab, my apologies. It was never meant to be a jab.

When I was young and dumb, I had a 1954 Packard Caribbean Conv't. The senior model Packards had a 359 cu.in, straight 8. The head was aluminum which was most likely toast if original. They only made 400 of these cars in 1954. The senior models were more numerous, but Packard went out of business in 1956-7 -- they merged with Studabaker in 1954. What I was getting at is that the head is cast aluminum, has all kinds of stuff going on inside even though it is about 3-4" (from memory). Back in the day, you could buy one new for under $500. Taking into consideration inflation, et cet., the costs should not be horrible for a newly casted one. But as others correctly pointed out, finding a "donor" whatever make transmission and making a bell housing is easier said than done. And the others who correctly pointed out that finding one of these bad boys is not so simple as just buying one, thanks because I was ready to get a scolding for wondering where I could buy one.

I think step one may be: Can one of the transmission guru's ID which transmission would be the BEST candidate for a 5 speed with a modified bell housing or newly casted bell housing ?

Universal Supply & Demand question and answer - done, great job knowing that it is pure luck and not just "buying one"

I wouldn't say a jab, but need to know the source. Comapring from the past to prices today are very different. Somethings went down in price (electronics), other up. So, the main cost is getting the modls made to make the cope and drag. Also, the cores. My experiences are with some local foundries about 2 to 6 years ago. I do remeber the cost as I stated before. I haven't done any head work at that level. See what a head or set of V-8 heads cost. I thnk the aluminum one for the Jeep 4.0L is like $1,600.
Tom

Hey,

Couple of questions

1. I know nada, zip about Toyota transmissions. How are they? plentiful ? robust? issues, problems, ? No vacuum I assume needed like the auto MB's ?

2. Cost for one at the junkyards ? An easy find, or just replacing one almost impossible to find part for one that is getting there ?

3. Overly complicated solution or does this make life simpler ?

Just some questions that come to mind since I think most folks -- or at least me -- like it simple and things that can be built like a kit.

Thanks for the info !!!

LutTD--

I am very interested !!! And, if this appears to be seriously viable, I will pony up the $500-$600.

Would you be making the plate OR the bell housing ?

What else would be needed, and my questions still apply to the donor transmission.

with the getrag 265 you would need:

getrag 265 and shifter from a BMW, about $200 at PNP
new custom cast bell
hydraulic throwout bearing
modify MB shifter rod and bracket if needed
clutch is sized by trans spline and diameter
use mb pressure plate and flywheel
3 ear adapter on BMW is different, I think the spline will accept the MB part but I stopped before I verified this, if not it will take some sort of adapter
adjust front DS length

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

do you have any pics of the 265?

There were 4-5 in my local junkyard up until about a month ago.

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there are a lot of BMW, but not all have the 265, look for the bolt on bell housing, most BMWs are one piece cast body and bell

look here for a picture

http://www.metricmechanic.com/catalog/bmw-6-cylinder-transmissions-and-gear-charts.php

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

Interesting read....still have pages to go. so they could have the Toyota flywheel redrilled to the Benz pattern and have no holes overlapping. That solves the clutch disk problem on swaps.

As far as parts sources......I'd look at the JDM market from engine importers.....lot of used stuff from Japanese market cars make it over here for a fraction of what the US Market stuff goes for...and with far less miles. Cars get scrapped at low miles because of a tax that increases the older a car gets. As well as Vehicle inspections, even worse than the MOT in the UK that makes California codes and inspectors look like amateurs.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

my friend who has the Toyota truck had her transmission go out about 2 years ago and I swapped it in 3 hours. I swapped a W45 4 speed to a W55 5 speed. Made her day, because the replacement transmissions were the same price. She paid 300 for the transmission from a dismantler with a 6mo warranty. I'm sure a W58 will fetch more money because it came in newer cars. I've heard they are stronger then the W55.

I've seen these transmissions go behind chevy small blocks so I don't think there would be an issue with the 617 snapping anything.

As for life with the transmission after installation. with that 4x4 labs kit you would be using the clutch, and clutch kit. When I changed the my friends transmission I changed the clutch and pressure plate with a kit from NAPA... $100 out the door. When I installed the 4 speed in the SD I spent $300 on the same parts. and had to wait for shipping from the internet.

The only thing plugging into the Toyota trans is the reverse light wire. thats easy to mod. The speedo cable will be an issue as I'm not sure if the from the Toyota cable would screw on to a MB gauge, and I don't know who makes a custom cable. but I'm sure there is someone out there.

The Toyota trans uses a hydraulic clutch, I'm not sure of the piston size on the slave cyl but if similar size to the MB slave you would only have to adapt the line.

The main issue is.... will the damn thing fit in the car?

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ditto. looks like its not too big around, but it doesn't taper all that fast, and of course theres the whole mating it to the driveshaft. how did it work on your friends truck, did she have a pretty standard slip yoke? I can't tell from the cup in the pics

I suppose it would not be too hard to rig up a drive shaft with a slip yoke on one end, and a flex disc on the other for the benz diff.

What about the pedal setup? Is the hydraulic master inside or outside?

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Don't quote me on this, this is just some arm chair mechanicing lol. But I would think you could used the master cyl for a 123 and route the line to the slave cyl for the Toyota trans as long as the slave cylinders are the same diameter. as long as the volume of fluid being pumped form the 123 master is what the Toyota slave wants then we're ok. and we can check that by calculating the volume of the 2 slave cylinders. I have a 123 slave on my shelf and I can get a Toyota slave from the junk yard this weekend.

I've been thinking about the drive shaft. it is a slip yoke. you could modify the yoke to have the 3 fingered flange for the flex disk... the only think i see is that then you would have 2 slip joints. one on the newly built yoke and one where the drive shaft couples at the center bearing... maybe the solution to that is just to tack weld one of them... or maybe is not an issue at all. I don't know.

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Tom, et al,

There is an on-line tool on custompartnet.com or custompart.net which, if you know the lingo of the casting business, it will let you enter the number of units wanted, specs, and it will give you a quote. I will try to figure out how it works, but maybe better if you gave it a crack. Thanks again, Mark

Hey,

I posted on a mold / casting forum. Hope to get some hits. I could not find any hard numbers, but saw some stuff indicating that the mold may be as low as $2,000. Assuming that is true, then that is not too bad. Spread those costs over 50 units, then thats $40.00 a piece plus units. Let's see if I get any hits. Thanks Mark

I was just poking around the 4x4 labs site, and it seems their in Grass Valley. about an hour from my house... I may have to go up there in a week or so and take a look at their products and talk to them.

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4x4labs is where I got my adapter kit for my chevy transmission. Its a nice kit, they do a nice job. Spoke to the owner a couple times on the phone, very nice guy. Came complete with hardware, adapter plate, custom flywheel, and pilot bearing bushing in order to mate the 617 to a NV-3500/T5 tranny.

here are some pics of it-

The plate bolted to an OM616 (for this to work on the OM616, you need a remote oil filter, its designed for the OM617



all the parts-



custom flywheel and spacer. Drilled for the MB crank, and will take two different size chevy clutch options, as well as replaceable friction surface-



And the T5 variant bell attached-

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