Lude Generation

How difficult is a gearbox swap? I mean from a manual to manual? Not a conversion.

I've seen a cheap VTI that needs a new box.

with the auto i found it easier to remove the engine and box together and build it all back up on a pallet, this made it easy to align everything up.

Ive had a quick look and personally, between me and my cousin we could have it done with in 10 hours max i reacon (this is a guy thats never done one before mind)

They weigh 40kg so pretty heavy. I always drop them out the bottom of the bay and its a tight fit, I've always use some kind of engine lifting bar to take the strain out of lifting it.

It's always the rear engine mount I find the most annoying.

I remove front subframe and d/s radius arm, support the engine on a jack and ease it down. removing the subframe and radius arm is extra work but it does make it easier to remove the gearbox.

Its not a hard job on these but that depends on the person.

My buddy did mine on his own in 4 hours, start to finish, including removal of replacement 'box from my donor car - and that was his first 'Lude gearbox swap - it can be done on axle stands, just takes a bit of wiggling to get the 'boxes out/in..

bb1boy wrote:My buddy did mine on his own in 4 hours, start to finish, including removal of replacement 'box from my donor car - and that was his first 'Lude gearbox swap - it can be done on axle stands, just takes a bit of wiggling to get the 'boxes out/in..

this^^^^^

It looks like a tidy 5th gen vti for £300, I'm waiting for more pics/info about the gearbox fault from the seller.