Information on upgrading a gearbox
 

Does anyone know if it is possible to upgrade (with relative ease) a 1980 245, four speed gearbox with a later five speed one.

Thanks,

Angie

yes its possible but the clutch and possibly flywheel will be different . so best get everything from the flywheel to the rear axle flange from the scrapped donor car ..

make sure the 5 speed box has a drive for the speedo cable though and make sure the rear axle ratio of the donor car is the same as yous or you will have to find the correct speedo drive gear to fit the new M47 5 speed gearbox to make the speedo read correctly .. You could get the axle too i guess :-)

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that speedo cable and unit is extremely important


clarification== the old car has a mechanical speedometer pick up( wire cable)
from the gearbox

== the donar car might have an electrical speedometer pick up
with an ELECTRIC wire and picks up the signal from the
backaxle. In the backaxle there is a pulse unit which you will
not find in the older car


conclusion --- if you want to do something like that buy the 245
and a good donor car - as you will need many parts from it

and -- when you are in such a project, change the engine as well for a 2.3 engine

In order to have the speedo drive in the right place, you need a 4+overdrive box not a 5 speed. This is a very simple bolt-in conversion- all you'll need is:
gearbox w/ overdrive
propshaft- as the new gearbox is longer
wiring for overdrive
gearshift
OD relay
The wiring connects just by a single lucar connector to the fusebox, and bullet connectors to the overdrive.


I'm in the process of converting my '79 245 from automatic to overdrive manual- yours will be much easier. You can use the same clutch between a 4 speed and an overdrive- they're cheap on ebay at the moment. I got mine for £20 for a Luk kit.

If you get all of the parts, its no worse than changing the clutch.


cheers,
Brian

Oh- and 4+Overdrive gearboxes were used until about 1984/5. The way to tell is that they have a little button on top of the shift lever with a '5' or 'on' written on it.

Its called the M-46 in Volvospeak.