See my edit above. As an aside, the S-10 box I used in the Lotus had a mechanical Speedo output. I investigated swapping in a “car” gearset with a better 1st gear and seem to recall it wasn’t possible…something about the S10 being the metric gearbox??? It was a long time ago…
That’s awesome that you spoke to the guy at Modern Drivelines…I hope that ends up going somewhere. If he’s stayed out of the Jag business as a courtesy to Paul, maybe it’s now time for them to collaborate, or for him to jump in.
As for the S-10 trans, I know you can put a car gear set in them, as I came very close to buying one years ago…they’ve been popular for years in hotrods with bench seats.
Yes, the S10 had a mechanical speedo, but it’s in a different location than the Mustang/Camaro. The issue always came up when you swapped in the car gear set, and the Mustang/Camaro worm gear no longer lines up with the S-10 case. There are some work arounds, where people have staked the Mustang gear into a different location, but Modern Drivelines took a more “engineered” approach.
.6x seems pretty usable with a 3:54 rear. Paul actually lists it as an option on his website. There must be something else back ordered or I’d be confused why he wouldn’t just say “I can build you one but it must have this gearing”.
The gent at Modern Drivelines mentioned possible collaboration. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. If the issue for Medatronics is that one gear (I think it’s more than that), it wouldn’t make any difference. I think the long tail shaft approach is the most straight forward, but have doubts that it could be squeezed in…it would have been done already. That said, Bruce at MD said he designed that rear tail shaft casting with the idea of machining it to a shorter length…so maybeee. Or perhaps that V6 Mustang unit. I’m going to send MD a cutaway of the Jaguar gearbox, but it’s of little use without dimensions…input shaft stick out, case length, location of the transmission mount, front of case to prop shaft flange, shifter location, distance from the mount to the back of the tunnel cavity etc. I’m not in the mood for jacking that pig at the moment and my Moss transmission is buried behind the plastic paint booth liner in my garage. I was typing while you were sending, Erica).
The father of the high rpm XK engine was Lou Fidanza who raced a highly modified E Type in the 70’s or early 80’s. As I recall he used a Chevy 454 damper. He ran his engines to 8000 rpm. I used a Repco damper on my race engine and went to 7000 rpm with it, and on one occasion well over that. Repco is/was an Australian company and the damper (maybe under a different name) is available at least at XK’s and probably other places. I’ve posted photo’s of it on other threads, but while on a winter vacation in So Cal am using a computer that has defeated my attempts so far in posting photos.
I did some digging and I believe this is the Mustang V6 T5. Bruce at MD mentioned something about optional location possibilities for the shifter, but I was focused on the long tail shaft offering. Probably missing a mechanical speedo drive. I wonder if Mike Eck could convert these gawd awful speedos to electronic guts? .
Yes, I’d have to assume it’s more than one gear, if he’s turning away business, and there are other ratio options.
Interesting…I’ve NEVER seen that configuration of the T5.
While it does look CLOSER to the JT5 configuration, it may not be able to use a sliding yoke, so therefore, any extra length would be a fatal flaw, as you couldn’t access the flange bolts.
At least with sliding yoke positioned part way down the tunnel, you could get it engaged with a bit of wrestling.
Bet there’s a way with some minor surgery.
Easy enough to drop the IRS if that’s what it took to engage the sliding yoke. It’s the other dimensions that look questionable.
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Easy enough to drop the IRS if that’s what it took to engage the sliding yoke.
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That’s exactly what I was thinking. A lot of high-quality U-joints aren’t even greasable now, so the lack of access isn’t the worst thing…I had one in my V8 Cortina behind a T5, and literally never touched it for about 100,000 miles.
I’m confident it would work, and while it may not sell quite as many units as the JT5, all the development work is already done, apart from designing an aft mount.
Found this site while browsing. Looks like the gear ratio’s are different from the Quaife T5.
Jay
It appears that the rear mount on the long tail shaft unit (and the V6 unit) is about an inch or more farther to the rear than the Meditronics. So clearance to the box section cross member could be an issue. That said, the photo of the Meditronics kit show the mount position in a forward location on their transmission mount plate. The next potential issue appears to be the bottom rib in the tail shaft casting, which I suspect would interfere with the box section cross member. I had that problem when I swapped the Buick V6/S10 box into my old Lotus (solved with a grinder). The other question for me is whether the extra length of the engine/transmission combination might preclude insertion into the chassis from either the top or the bottom. I installed the stock assembly from the bottom and recall it being a very tight fit to clear the picture frame at the front and the ledge where the transmission plate attaches at the rear. Might require some creative jacking of the chassis, and or the engine/transmission unit. Maybe water pump removal… While I haven’t done any measurements as yet, these are the obvious trouble spots.
Interesting question as to whether the V6 T5 output could be modified for a slip yoke. The very short custom casting on the Meditronics unit uses a slip yoke (along with moving the rear mount very slightly forward…I think). Again, the transmission mount looks to be in the same longitudinal location as for the long tail shaft design…same potential for an interference issue with the box section in the floor. It does appear to have a port on the left side…likely for an electronic speedo pickup…wonder what’s inside. I found it interesting that Meditronics once offered an electric speedometer conversion.
A custom T5 bellhousing (from Meditronics?) would be required as insertion of an adapter spacer would add to the length issue.