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Stevo309

T16 Gearbox Woes

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Stevo309

Well after a year off the road i finally got the 306 t16 back on it's wheels and mot'd with a fully rebuilt gearbox after chewing up the last one. The new gearbox was left over from my 309 turbo and i had it rebuilt with new bearings and all gears shot peened.

 

Imagine my dissapointment when this new (and supposedly) stronger box obliterated after less than 100 miles. A not particulary aggressive change at speed to 6th finished it off. No drive at all in 6th and horrible noises in all other gears. I managed to limp the car home the remaining 25 miles but it's time to start again. I'm very depressed about this as i spent a lot of money to have the box prepped.

 

The questions: i think it's time to go 5 speed as the engine will benefit from longer gears in my view. Does anyone have experience of using the quaife gearkits in a be3 box and if so is it likely to tolerate 300lb/ft on mostly fast road non track use? Is the 5 speed be3 stronger than the be3/6? If i go for the quaife synchro gear kit would i also need a modified final drive ratio to maintain decent top end or use standard pinion and crown wheel? Of course i'd love a straight cut super strong gearbox or even a dog box but no way budget will allow. I'm hoping that this quaife stuff is stronger than standard, must use bigger teeth although still helical cut?

 

Finally a daft question? What prevents accidental selection of reverse on the be3 box as it has no lockout cable? This is a bonus to me as the current 6 speed setup has no lockout cable due to the turbo sitting right above where the cable would connect to the box. I have always needed to be very careful as it's possible to get reverse instead of 6th! And no, before anyone says it, that's not what happened lol :-)

 

 

 

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B1ack_Mi16

The 5 speed BE3 has reverse down to the right (below 5'th)

 

You really need to mount a ME5 or ML5/6 gearbox. The BE box is just not made to take the torque from high power engines.

 

Also consider mouting an gearbox oil-cooler and circullation pump. Even a 270bhp 405 T16 will kill a box if it's driven hard for longer periods of time. The gearbox oil gets hot and the 5'th gear doesn't really got too much of that oil sitting around it either. Usually one fills 2.5 litre on the T16 box to gain some extra oil level in the 5'th gear housing.

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