I'd be interested, yes !

The $5000-$6000 price is too much for me as well. One of these days I'm might snap up a car that has already been converted and sorted, though, as it would surely be much less costly.

No doubt the appeal of (any) "kit" is that all the research and development has been done, all the required pieces gathered up in one box, the product well tested to ensure good results, etc. No measuring, engineering, fabricating, machining, welding, and so forth. You're not just paying for parts. You're paying for the convenience.

Unfortunately, near as I can tell after many years of reading reports from buyers, these 5-speed conversion kits cover some of those bases but (as often as not) *still* require the buyer to sort out the details. Not convenient at all.

Cheers
DD

 

Doug, I agree, I had to sort out some DM kit details. The clutch master cyl was to small, 5/8 instead of 3/4, driveshaft had to be shortened, ECU reworked, maybe a few other small details. In the end I probably would go the same route. I wanted all new stuff. The TKO 600 close ratio was $2,500 (7 yrs ago), Aluminum flywheel, Zoom clutch, hyg TO bearing, ABS pedal box and more. Buying & shipping cost used parts from all over the world can be a VERY COSTLY disaster in it self . I though selling my TH400 would help the cost...Scraped it.

 

This is what's worrying me. The shop that will be doing my conversion has done plenty of conversions before -- on old hot rods and other examples of American Steel. The owner of the shop owns multiple hot rods himself and does great work. But I think he's expecting me to walk in with a box of parts and a pictorial and tell him, "copy that." Anything that takes custom machining is going to be a chore.

What I most want to avoid is paying $5,000 for a DM kit, then having to throw away $1,000 in DM parts and replace them with self-sourced parts because the DM parts didn't fit.

Oh, and one thing I'm especially curious about, after reading everyone's conversion story: Exactly what's going on with needing a new bell housing? I thought that would be part of the transmission kit itself, with some kind of adapter bracket needed to mate it up to the back of the V12 motor. I wasn't aware bell housings could be purchased on their own.

Jess

 

First of all this is no old Chevy or Ford conversion (I've done many), it's a Jaguar XJ-S !! The concept is the same but not the work involved. Granted some people might be able to knock this out in a day, surely not me.. I can only tell my experience with DM. I got all the parts in the kit including the cast aluminum adapter bellhousing. I didn't have to use nothing from the crank back from auto trans. I had no pilot bearing issues.
Six thousand dollars sounds low considering NEW parts & labor. A new Tremec TKO or a Richman 5 speeds with a Long Shifter run $3 to $3,500.
As was mentioned trans & diff gear ratio's, flywheel, shifter (in some cases need) to be thought out .
I'm not a DM fan or backer, he just sold what I wanted.

 

Hey Carl, yes., I will be keeping the lucas fuel injection or going with a stand alone system although 6 webers are very sexy.

OK I will create a separate thread in a few weeks when I have more put together.

 

I don't think I'm going to get this done for $6k parts and labor; I've been planning for $7,500 on the low side. I guess I just have the opinion that if DM is going to sell a kit they say does the job, the whole kit needs to work as advertised or they just need to say, "here's 90% of what you need for $4500 and you'll need to find the remaining 10% on your own, and at additional cost." At least then I'd know exactly what to expect from a sourcing standpoint.

Jess

 

Most manual transmissions have seperate bellhousings. That way the same basic transmission can be used on a number of different engines. The Borg Warner T5 is a prime example, used in Fords, GM, Jeeps etc. engines varied form 4 cylinder to V8. All that was needed was a different bellhousing to mate them up.

Some automatics are like that too, the ZF used in the X300 is a great example, it was used in BMW's and Land Rovers, just make a new bellhousing and bolt it to whatever engine you want. Makes it cheap and easy to use the same transmission in many cars.

Where you typically see one piece cases is when the auto maker makes their own transmission, such as GM (TH400) and Chrysler (727) did.

 

Anyone have the flywheel bolt specs for use with the fidanza FW?

 

Only thing is, Jaguar used an adapter plate on the AJ16 to install the 4HP22 No different bellhousing. Seemed cheaper for Jaguar to make an adapter than it was to ask ZF to make a different bellhousing

 

Call Lou Fidanza in Perry Ohio, they should know the specs . The only thing about going with the aluminum flywheel besides cost is the car stalls easier when starting out. I believe a steel FW comes with the kit, aluminum one is optional. I would also consider a "high torque starter"while everything is apart .