Me again,

John, Varts was an M47 before the swap, not an M45 as a mk1 would have which is where my thinking started. I've never actually seen an M45.

No it wasn't!

Toby's car is an '86' base model - from the factory with a 4 speed M45R (cast iron case). Being a student (then) Toby wanted an easy, quite life - hence 5 speeds. As you see from my thread we fitted his car with an M47R (from an '87' 1.7). To all intents a straight swap. (box and diff together).

Dai,
Happy to be proved wrong but I have to confess I've always thought that the coarse spline prop was limited to CVT cars (fitted without the clamps) but it's perfectly possible that the first manual cars used CVT type props.
Does anyone know for sure - Wouter perhaps??

Chris - if you want to talk about the "conversion" - PM me your landline number.

Mac.

A 77 MK1 is nice, but you cant put a manual transmission in it that easy. The gearstick needs a bigger hole!

I've seen quite some MK1's, and have had 3 of them. The 77 brown dash is rubbish in my opinion. It gets hard, brakes, cracks...brrr! 78 dash is better (black version of the brown dash), but the best is the 79 to 82 dash. Also the nicest one in my opinion.

76/77 are quite rare, and are a lot more rust-sensative (??) than the later models. But thats probably a known story...

pistonpen paultje wrote:The 77 brown dash is rubbish in my opinion. It gets hard, brakes, cracks...brrr! 78 dash is better (black version of the brown dash), but the best is the 79 to 82 dash. Also the nicest one in my opinion.

I had an interesting conversation once with a Dutchman who worked with John de Vries in Helmond before his retirement - he confirmed what you're saying. He said the Volvo 343 was thrown on the the market far earlier than DAF originally intended.

I won't mention the word he used to describe the quality of the original interior - not suitable for a "family forum"

Tom

Well it is, really!! That's why Im replacing my 77 dash for a 79 dash. Not original, but a big improvement...

Same for the body...Volvo bought the 76/77 models back, because they were too rusty. Not according Volvo-standards.

My 77 has been from a volvo mechanic, and it has had quite some rust treatment luckely.

mac wrote: No it wasn't!

Toby's car is an '86' base model - from the factory with a 4 speed M45R (cast iron case). Being a student (then) Toby wanted an easy, quite life - hence 5 speeds. As you see from my thread we fitted his car with an M47R (from an '87' 1.7). To all intents a straight swap. (box and diff together).

Chris - if you want to talk about the "conversion" - PM me your landline number.

Mac.

Well that's some good news! I didn't realise M45's were around that late, great stuff.

Mac, thanks for that offer too, but at the moment I think it's probably a bit premature. I think for now I'll keep the boxes, and just for completeness the bellhousing and prop (just in case )

Thanks again all

Chris_C wrote:

mac wrote: No it wasn't!

Toby's car is an '86' base model - from the factory with a 4 speed M45R (cast iron case). Being a student (then) Toby wanted an easy, quite life - hence 5 speeds. As you see from my thread we fitted his car with an M47R (from an '87' 1.7). To all intents a straight swap. (box and diff together).

Chris - if you want to talk about the "conversion" - PM me your landline number.

Mac.

Well that's some good news! I didn't realise M45's were around that late, great stuff.

Mac, thanks for that offer too, but at the moment I think it's probably a bit premature. I think for now I'll keep the boxes, and just for completeness the bellhousing and prop (just in case )

Thanks again all

Hello everyone,

rather than starting up a new thread, I thought it might be a better idea to bump this one ...

I'm currently breaking my 1988 injected 360 (B200F, M47R) and would like to keep the 5spd setup to convert my 1982 4spd 343 DLS (B19A, M45R).

What exactly do I need to keep from the scrapped car? Will the gearbox and diff be enough, or are there any other differences along the way, the linkage mechanism for example?

Ideally I'd keep the lot, but I don't have very much space. Things like the torque tube will be scrapped along with the shell, I just don't know where to put the stuff (and no-one else in Germany will be interested in it either ...)

EDIT: have just gone through mac's detailed thread here - it does look very much like a straight swap of gearbox & diff. What worries me a little is that in the 1982 model year 5spd boxes had only just been introduced (the GLS "5 speed special edition"), and that there may still be some differences in linkage etc ... I'm not worried about the gear knob still saying "4spd", it'd just be a pity to be crawling under the DLS only to say "if only I'd kept that bellhousing" ...

Cheers

Tom

Will the TT be out in the next week Tom? And has Foggy been in contact yet?

I started trying to answer your question, then worked out I knew nothing about how *LS's are done to know what you'd find :s

Transaxle and torque tube are all already out, but it's all in one piece ATM. It'll be split up by next Saturday at the latest ...

Cheers

Tom

Hi Tom.
My na na the Banna started life with a 4 speed box. When i came accross a 1991 LE 1.4
with a 5 speed that was going cheap as the chassis was rotton, i took on the job of doing
the swap. Even with a 10 year age gap between the cars, it was a streight swap.
The 5 speed fairly makes a difference.
Cheers Mark.

Perfect Mark, thank you! Did you ever swap the the gear knob over, or does it still say "4 spd" on there?

Cheers

Tom

Hi Tom.
The gear knob is still the old on just for the look
Cheers Mark.

Good idea, I think I'd have left it on too Dunno if one from a 240 would fit, there never was a 5spd gear knob in "343 Mk1 style" ...

Cheers

Tom