I think the hit-and-miss probably has a lot to do with how they were treated - though I've heard the motorcraft oil makes a huge difference - I put motorcraft in mine a couple times when I was having problems with the engine seal and installing/uninstalling crap. Got sick of replacing the expensive oil and put cheap stuff in it - whaddaya know, i fixed the unrelated problem as soon as I did that, I still have ---- oil in the tranny.

Do you mean the good oil made it feel crap and the cheap oil made it feel alright?

If so I mentioned on another thread about my motocross bikes having the same problem. Took years to figure out...

The "expensive" gear box oil motul do was horrendous, missed shifts, slip out of gear etc (you don't want any of that when you are approaching an 80' jump at speed).

Going to the "cheap" motul gearbox oil made it feel great....someone (here i think) said something about the oil being to slippery and the gears/syncros not engaging properly....YMMV.

If I had Fooger right...? (otherwise that weas a needless ramble :) )

Nah, I never actually got to play with it with good oil in it - unrelated problem was the rear oil pan seal - that I eventually fixed - but emptied the tranny a couple of times trying to figure out the problem, and ended up dumping all of the expensive motorcraft oil and didn't want to buy any more of it at the risk of losing it too - ---- gets expensive at $20/quart. I'd use the motorcraft stuff now if I didn't have to go out, empty the tranny, remove the shifter and associated interior parts, and refill it. Apparently the motorcraft does magic things to these 6-speeds.

I don't hold a lot of hope for my new 6 speed by the way....


The owner watched the tide come in and drown his car that hada relatively soft landing in to the dry sand but couldn't recover the car as the tow track couldn't come in to the closed road until the event had finished.

Gutted.

just gotta hope the output seal held up and the pressure relief vent was clogged... hope you had the chance to watch them drain the tranny immediately afterwards.

It' sort of coming free (ish) with the new 86 rear complete subframe/diff/brakes etc, so I might be lucky, might not...My companies mechanic and the transmission place up the road say to run it and see how it goes and I think that is just what i'll do.

Not to mention a few oil flushes along the way....

I just did a 6 speed swap and installed eBay XTD "stage 1" clutch kit and lightweight flywheel. Drivability on street did not really suffer at all. The only thing that is a little more difficult is heel/toe'ing through gears since RPM's drop faster but even that can be cured by practice.

Cool, thanks guys.

Ended up buying a set of wheels while I was at the wreckers. very poor now.

Clutch and flywheel may have to hold out a bit longer :facepalm:

Might have issues with the 6 speed as well, I can't turn the input shaft by hand even in neutral. might have to pull it apart after all.

Anyone done this before? any gotcha's?

( I have worked with Motorcycle, cassette style gearboxes before but never a car one....)

haha label EVERYTHING, and take lots and lots of pictures. I suggest you look at some transmission diagrams too.

Turn the driveshaft instead of input shaft. Also, when you are installing the 6 speed - tilt your motor by putting a jack under the crank. It will make mating engine and transmission MUCH easier if the motor is tilted back slightly.