I know it's been done, I have searched for answers, I have PM'ed people. Now I'm after definitive answers. Currently I have the N/A 5 speed behind my turbo, it was there when I bought the car, was originaly an auto Turbo. It's shagged, and I can get an R33 5 speed for $1500. What I want to know is; Will this box slide straight in and everything from my N/A box bolt to it? Example: Will the Clutch assem, flywheel, crossmember, tailshaft, speedo drive, slave cyl etc all just bolt to this box? More importantly will the shifter come through in the same place? Any help would be hugely apreciated. Thanks in advance Higgo can anyone help? please? The reason I'm after these answers is because this is my daily driver, the less time off road the better

clutch assembly i believe can be adapted yes, very little modification to be done if any i believe. you *may* want to get an R33 slave cylinder in there but the hydraulic line to the slave (from the master on the firewall) is a simple screw-in job and is interchangeable. Tailshaft: use your standard tailshaft but put an R33 OR MX7 yoke on the end as they are both the same (ring Hardy Spicer, you'd be surprised how cheap the new yoke is) flywheel: use the n/a flywheel and hence, clutch. the R33 bellhousing is smaller than the MX7 and hence the MX7 flywheel will just scrape it on the inside. also this means you can use the n/a manual sandwich plate and starter no worries speedo drive: you will (i think) need an MX7 speedo drive. you can pull the electronic one out of the R33 box, and slide the MX7 mechanical one right if memory serves me right. the shifter sits a bit further to the left and may require a little bit of *massaging* of the shifter hole, but nothing major. shorten the shifter a bit so it doesn't hit your handbrake when you change to 2nd. good luck! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

legend, thanks for the info. Just recieved an e-mail from Neuby have a go at this, how easy?? Right. Ideally you need the following to have a complete bolt up procedure. (ei. no custom stuff, just fits all together) - R33 box and shifter - 9.5" flywheel. All RB series flywheels are this size except for the MX7 flywheel which is 10". - Starter motor from any RB except MX7. - Clutch to suit RB series except a MX7. All RB series gearboxes have the same input splines. - VLT MX7 crossmember and the two spacer blocks that sit between it and the body of the car to level up the gearbox with the diff. - VLT MX7 tailshaft. Even though the R33 box is 10mm longer than the MX7 there is plenty of spline on the tailshaft. - VL speedo drive. I believe N/A and MX7 drives are the same, but idealy you want an MX7 drive - MX7 right angle speedo adapter. You need some kind of angled device as the R33 box doesn't leave much room between it and the body for a cable. VDO might be able to help out in this department. Alternately you can use an electric to cable speedo box. It basically uses the electric pulse to determine the speed of the electric motor it uses to spin the speedo cable. Another way is to convert the whole speedo to electric with electric gauges. NOTES: - You can use the standard VL slave cylinder. The bolting pattern for the R33 is horizontal accross the slave whereas the VL is vertical. I've used the standard one, just with one bolt. Being course heavy thread, I just did it up tight as I could. - The gearshifter has to be turned around 180 degrees otherwise it will hit the handbrake in second gear. Its not hard to do, just remove the C-clip from the gearstick sadle and rotate it 180 and put it back in. You'll be amazed how the R33 box all lines up and fits. Putting it in is basically a reversal of pulling it out. I think I've covered everything for the N/A to R33. I'll get my arse into gear and make a technical article about my transmission adventures =P Cheers Neuby Thanks for this Neuby. When I do the conversion I'll take pics. morepsi

with a bit of die grinding, can you fit a VL Turbo flywheel / clutch in there?

i beleive so, yes. the splines on the clutch are the same as neuby said in his email above so all that is required is a bit of grinding to get the whole 10 inch assembly in there. note: if you're going auto to manual you will need to hammer a new spigot bush into the back of the crankshaft so the input shaft of the box doesn't wobble around. the part costs $14 or so from repco or wherever and is dead easy to fit. all manual boxes in the RB series (MF5, MX7, R33 box) will use the same spigot bush. that's a bloody good email there morepsi, consider doing a tech article with pictures when you get it all going in?

Quote: Originally Posted by exmotrbo with a bit of die grinding, can you fit a VL Turbo flywheel / clutch in there? MX7 flywheel fits fine. We put a R33 box in my brothers car after he blew the MX7. It was a straight bolt up job using all the existing stuff besides the sandwitch plate which we swapped for a N/A one which we had lying around to save slotting the starter motor holes. Also had to make up a bracket for the slave cylinder as the VL one bolts top and bottom instead of along the gearbox.

use the smaller flywheel,you can get better clutches for it.

Only so you can sell yours Leigh!!

haha as if hes gonna buy that! *******cough.buy my twin plate.cough********* Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

yep, when I do this conversion there will be pictures and a tech article. So far looks like I don't need a new crossmember, just need to buy the spacers from Holden, also the tailshaft may not be an issue, I can just get a new yoke for the existing tailshaft

yep! use any MANUAL tailshaft just make sure it has an MX7/R33 yoke on it.

you will hear a million theories on this conversion. i did it in my garage as above but dont put shifter on backwards, it is gay. I put it on leaning back and it just clears the handbrake button in 2nd. use your mf5 speedo sender and put it in where the elec one came out. I used my auto cable and was able to bend it in. this has proven to be reliable, just make sure the cable has some slack to twist as the engine bos does. i used a standard mx7 tailshaft. i would say best to use the r33 slave as it attaches to box easily and joins with std master cylinder line. i did not use the spacers, tailshaft was smooth as at all rpm so i left them off. I have had trouble with centre bearing spacers before so i learned to stick with what is smooth. This may not be the case for you. A matter of suck and see i guess. no massaging of bodywork is necessary. spiggot bush i had fun with and had to drill it out a bit after hitting it in, apparently there is a tool to stop it contracting as it is inserted. i used 9.5 flywheel/clutch etc and auto starter. the sandwich plate i used had rb26 written on it but the mf5 one should be fine. also sus out gearbox to engine block bolts. i had to buy some new ones as the auto ones were not long enough. the bolts have to go through over an inch of the rb25 box before they even reach the block. dont know how long the na manual ones are. i think that is all. anything else?

good stuff luke - later i'm going MF5 to R33 box so should be pretty easy from what you guys have said. this is the best thread on this i've seen, we should make it a sticky?

Awesome, bumping this up. Very helpful for me. Can it be moved though? Maybe to technical articles? Basically if I get an mf5 conversion with a very chunky mofo of a clutch, that combined with the flywheel I wanted. I'd be ready for the box alone.

well dude i have an R33 box and clutch etc etc conversion if you want it got a 4 puck brass button behind it less than 3000k old if you want it make me an offer i can give u the clutch pedal and all that staff as im gonig auto

Quote: Originally Posted by turboluke also sus out gearbox to engine block bolts. i had to buy some new ones as the auto ones were not long enough. the bolts have to go through over an inch of the rb25 box before they even reach the block. dont know how long the na manual ones are. i think that is all. anything else? correct, the bolts out of the auto box are shorter than those used in the manuals. the ones in the MF5's are a good 20mm or so longer than auto box ones from memory.

I would advise to use the spacers....They are needed on the MX7 and R33 boxes. Without them the box hits on the floorpan under hard acceleration. they also provide more clearance around the speedo drive area.

where do u get them...do u jsut go to holden and ask for mx7 spacers??

maybe, other than that 87calais has the sizes written down...