The Rebirth

BigMike · January 07, 2011, 11:40:10 PM

That is our Banana Drop Light

The wheel bearing made it to San Jose without any trouble. It even enjoyed doing 100 MPH for a few seconds

BigMike · January 30, 2011, 09:11:23 PM

My car is now equipped with 6 speeds

I need to post a huge write up on the conversion and also take some more videos!

It is WAAAAY quiet on the freeway and the close ratio is REALLY FUN to quickly shift through all gears while boosting!

Sirdeuce · January 31, 2011, 08:13:39 AM

At loooooonngg last! Are your concerns of the shifting roughness for naught? How do you think the performance has improved?

BigMike · January 31, 2011, 09:23:12 AM

Man I LOVE this trans! This morning was the first time I really opened it up and ran full throttle with it. The RPM drop is much less between gears so I'm staying in my power band without having to shift at redline.

Also, on the freeway onramp at north-bound Fowler Ave to west-bound HWY180, it is much easier to break the rear end loose now that the RPMs are a bit higher in 3rd gear. It is PERFECT and the power shift to 4th gear at the end of the on ramp is waaaaaaay better! I need more seat time but I'm 90% convinced the car pulls harder now (theoretically it will pull harder but for a shorter time interval).

I took my TomTom with me to verify the speedometer (because the gear on the carrier changed and is designed for a car with larger tires -- but I am using the MR2 sender) and before my speedo was about 3 MPH too fast and now it is about 1 MPH too fast. So the conversion also helped correct my speedo :)

But the speedo correction makes my gear-to-speed comparison pictures not look as good. For instance, with the C56, at 70 MPH in 5th gear was 4,100 RPM (remember my tach reads 10% too high!!) and now with the C60, 70 MPH in 6th gear is now 3,800 RPM. So it seems to only be about a 300 RPM difference but really what I thought was 70 MPH with the 5spd was really more like 66 or 67 MPH. So my guess is that 6th gear is about 500 RPM lower.

BigMike · January 31, 2011, 07:22:39 PM

I got reverse working today -- I had to modify the side-to-side select lever at the transaxle to reduce the throw of the shifter.

Then on my way home I went out to Jensen Ave near Temperance and really opened her up. WOW this car is SO VIOLENT! It pulls MUCH harder than the 5 speed, and I am NOT imagining things. Bill, your motor mounts are in for a real beating! (I've got news to discuss regarding the mounts BTW) The shine of my headlights rise up so much when each gear is engaged, it is CRAZY. Also I have NO CLUE how to drive this thing! hahaha it's like I'm learning how to use a stick shift all over. The RPM drop between each gear is so small that I am not getting the clutch disengaged in time while going WOT and end up jerking the car on each gear shift LOL

Also it is difficult to speed shift it, combination of sharp reconditioned syncros that need to break in and also I'm using generic 75-90 mineral oil to flush it out for a thousand miles or so. Then I'll throw my Amsoil in there and then I have no doubt it will shift better.

I LOVE THIS TRANSAXLE! WHY OR WHY Didn't Toyota equip the MR2 with a 6spd TO BEGIN WITH is waaaaay BEYOND ME!!!!!

Sirdeuce · January 31, 2011, 07:39:34 PM

Mounts?

?

BigMike · February 01, 2011, 08:59:27 AM

I am in NO WAY COMPLAINING! I love these mounts and am VERY impressed with them! Especially the front (exhaust-side) mount. But it looks like the rear (intake-side) mount can't handle the brutal torque of the World's Greatest Supercharged Engine

Pics 1-4 are of the rear mount

Pic 5 is the front mount. It is doing well but it looks like you added a 2nd layer to make it thicker and that layer has detached.

BigMike

Sirdeuce · February 01, 2011, 09:41:03 AM

Maybe the combination of the soft stock rubber and the hard rubber. I'll try to make one without the stock rubber in place. When do you think you would want it? And I'll try to do a front mout too. Do you think the mounts would be adequate for a stock to mild setup? Or would it be necessary to remove the rubber for that also? Maybe go to urethane instead of a hard rubber?

BigMike · February 01, 2011, 09:56:09 AM

Quote from: BigMike on February 01, 2011, 08:59:27 AM
I am in NO WAY COMPLAINING! I love these mounts and am VERY impressed with them!

The mounts are great, honestly, I can tell you paid attention to detail with them. My clutch is super grabby and it chatters when you try to slip it -- like when you saw my tire rocking when I left your house -- and I know that engine must be rocking. So I'm sure if I had the rear mount fixed it would be much better.

I like how you used a softer compound (softer than shore 90) but then added a lot more material. I think that is the proper way to do it!

Sirdeuce · February 01, 2011, 11:37:34 AM

I just think they can be improved upon. Looking at the failure in the pic, I see the bottom went out. If I'm seeing the rotation right, th torque pushes down on the rear mount. I'm thinking that cutting the rubber out of the bottom and pouring in the area solid will help it stay together better. Maybe cast in a piece of metal to better distribute the force? Not too difficult to do.

Sirdeuce · February 25, 2011, 07:37:34 PM

Ever install that guage cluster Mike?

BigMike · February 25, 2011, 09:00:36 PM

Negative. I haven't done jack squat. I even bought some Denso IK22 Iridium plugs and they have been making a great desk piece for the past two week!

If I can't even install spark plugs...........

BigMike · June 25, 2011, 06:11:15 PM

Got some free time today (I KNOW IT'S CRAZY HUH?!?!?!) so I thought I'd get this thread up to speed

Dec 19, 2010 - Building the C60 6-speed

The 6-speed conversion was a bit of a bear to perform, mostly because I lost a few parts and also messed up the order of components. I probably put the thing together 3 or 4 times -- complete with silicone and all, each time having to tear it back apart to fix things. I took 94 pictures during the build so we've got lots to use for future builds.

This conversion should NEVER have been as hard as it was for me. It was just a steeper than normal learning curve for me. Now that I've done it, for sure we can get more going without much less effort.

I won't be able to remember all the details (it's been 6 months), so I'll just start posting some pics and see where this post goes

Pic 1: Here is the 6 speed ready to get raped
2: Here is 5th and 6th gear. This gear was a complete PITA to remove!! I broke the teeth of our puller even! So we had to heat it up after which it came right off.
3: Splitting down...
4: This is my C56 housing with a massive magnet JB Welded in place. This is a trick that we do to our Marlin Crawler transmissions to keep metal out of the gear oil. I installed this magnet, another one in the tail housing, and then added a 3rd magnet by using a magnetic fill plug.

BigMike · June 25, 2011, 06:16:57 PM

Once everything was torn down it was time to figure out how this is gonna work in the MK1.

First issue: Shift Rail. My dad and I created a hybrid C52/C60 shift rail ............... and then I found out that the stock shift rail in the Celica will work without any modifications!

But at least I didn't have to buy anything and I got it working.

Basically, what we did was use the 6spd internal section with the 5spd external shift arm/lever section.

Pic 1: The top rail is the C60, the lower is the C52 rail. You can see the 6spd rail has additional splines and has different cotter pin provisions.

2: Cutting a c-clip groove

3: Looking good!

4: This is the FWD 6spd external shift arm/lever that won't be used anymore.

5: DONE!

6: Here is the new rail assembled with the 6spd parts. The C52 end cap shown would later NOT be used (it's not compatible with the new reverse gear position).

BigMike · June 25, 2011, 06:23:23 PM

There were also a few parts like this that needed to be changed in the 5 speed housing. The 6 spd uses the larger inner diameter bearing (the one with more rollers).

Everything starting to come together... The 6spd final drive is used of course, and is NOT compatible with 5spd variants. This is because the 6spd carrier is MASSIVELY HUGE compared to the 5spd components. The bolt pattern diameter of the 6spd ring gear is much larger.

It was extremely important to keep parts in order. I had so many clips from tearing down both trans it was confusing. Next time I will keep better track of it all.

We also noticed that the 5th-6th gear hub had a crack in it. YIKES!

It should be okay though since it's transfer torque straight to the shift hub (no lateral loads), but it won't last forever. We checked what this costs from the dealer and it's about $100!! THAT'S OUR PRICE EVEN!! Retail is probably like $300 or something

Got 5th and 6th gears installed....

....and it's done!!