Gearboxes

[revingtosh]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me what spec an MG Metro gearbox should be? Final drives etc? How are they for reliability when used on a mildly tuned MG1300 engine? Im thinking Weber / BVH / 286 Cam etc.

Are they any better or worse than a standard 1275 GT Mini item?

Mike

[guru_1071]

no real differance, bar the final drive. (though some 1275gts (maybe all had the cr kit, mg metros never did, bar the turbos and gtas, which had the strange double groove a plus kits)

1275gt's can be either a or a plus, which just relates to bearing sizes, shaft sizes and tooth forms on gears (you can mix and match guts and cases, but thats another, more technical answer!)

any box you have will benefit from a strip and rebuild, with the addition of a centre pick up pipe and a cross pin diff (or a uprated diff pin).

be aware that the main bearing is currently nla, so either very very expensive or good secondhand (which is a bit of an oxymoron - its very rare that a used bearing is anygood).

to recon a box correctly will be circa 250 quid in bits and about 24 hours work - anything cheaper will suggest cut corners and a lack of knowledge or attention to detail. ive seen some real horror 150 quid specials where the main lumps are stripped out, the whole lot jet washed and then just rebuilt. rubbish.

id say you would be very lucky to find a gearbox that didnt need some sort of stripping and spending on it now a days.

hope this makes sense

Edited by guru_1071 on Tuesday 30th December 17:08