2nd gear went, followed by 5, followed by reverse all in the same trip

i am screwed because this is my only current form of transportation. The other car is off the road with the engine out of it GREAT TIMING ON MY PART!

i will have use of my parents vehicles for about 1 week.

If anyone has a manual tranny that will fit an L engine please PM me or call 716-445-0883, Rob

i live in the buffalo NY area, about 10minute drive from lake Erie hamburg beach.

Also if anyone can answer this, are the transmission pieces interchangeable? the clutch fork, clutch plate, pressure plate and throwout bearing? or do i need to buy new ones

It all depends....you can get yor tranny rebuild. Nissan sells the many of the parts. It is a pretty basic 5sp, I watched my friend do one in a 1/2 hour, he replaced all the snycros...that is what most likely went out.

Somebody has to have a four speed sitting in the garage, left over after the typical five speed swap. I know I do, but I'm in Oregon. They usually go for cheap, I just saw one on the Portland CL for $25.

You should be able to keep your pressure plate, throwout collar, and fork combination and be good to go. Just swap the transmission. The other critical dimension would be the distance of the fork pivot ball from the slave cylinder, which you should be able to verify before installation, but I'm not sure if it changes after they started using the F4W71B case. The distance was the same on my 76 4 speed, 78 5 speed and 83 5 speed. From my reading it seems that all of the trans swap problems come from finding the right combination of pressure plate height and throwout bearing collar. If your combo works, keep using it.

You might need to change the speedometer gear if the the donor car had a different rear gear ratio. The speedo gear needs to match the differential.

Edited September 18, 201113 yr by Zed Head

I got a trans out of an 83 280zx, this close ration trans is amazing compared to the 77 wide ratio. Thanks for the help

Good news. By amazing, you mean the tighter, more evenly space 1 - 4 gears? Are you still using the 3.54 differential the 1976s come with?

I have an 83 5 speed that I'll be putting in soon, but mainly because the 78 5 speed I'm using is making some bearing noise. Still debating on 3.54 or 3.9 rear gears, I have each. My gut says I should find a 3.7 though.

I've got a 4.11 coming, there is a bit of a difference in acceleration from a dead stop, and 6000rpm launches its noticeably slower.. not REALLY slow, but you can definitely feel the difference

However, once you get moving its nice, the evenly spaced gears make a huge difference my car no longer bogs down at 6500rpm going from 2nd to 3rd

edit:

is your 3.9 clsd? i might be interested

It's a 3.9 open. Came from the same ZX as the 5 speed.

I'll be spending more time in the low RPM range. I don't think that I've had my engine up to 6000 RPM, let alone 6500. With my stock 76 280Z setup, it's time to shift at about 5500 if you're really pushing it. I do feel the bog from 2 to 3 though with the 78 transmission.

I would stay with the 3.545 then, its a smoother ride all around, or you could put a 3.3 rear end in it and get 40mpg on the highway

i need to buy new ones