ER34 GTT - 71C to 30A Transmission Swap Parts Confirmation

[GoHashiriya]

Hi all,

I've been recently getting back on track in the 34 and figured it was time to take the plunge and upgrade the gearbox. 

I bought the car late last year, it was originally an auto, though the previous owner (or one of) swapped the gearbox with the less-than-adequate RB20det box. This month I have been accumulating parts to convert it to the 30A transmission; bought the 34 tailshaft from the UK for pretty cheap as they're going for 100,000JPY ($900-ish) here (Japan) and this week placed an order for a new 30A from Nissan.   

The good news is, a lot of the harder to source parts I already have from the previous swap. However, I'm not 100% clear on what I can keep and what needs replacing.

I know there's some funny business involved with getting the 32 mechanical speedo to work with the 34 one, but am not clear on what modifications would have been made and how to reverse them if necessary. From what I've read, the modifications take place on the sensor side. Although, I have come across information regarding calibration of the tachometer.

Will the master cylinder / lines be reusable for the new transmission?

I've put together the following list, and it would be great if someone could point out anything I'm missing.

 

Component	Part Name / Number	Unit Price	Shipping	Total
Transmission	FS5R30A 32010-AA520	¥214,000	¥15,000	¥229,000
Propeller Shaft	Nissan 37000AA500	¥39,313	¥30,000	¥69,313
Clutch	EXEDY ER34 Clutch 3-piece set 30210-AA001 30100-AA068	¥42,350	¥880	¥43,230
Flywheel	NA			¥0
Spigot Bush	NA			¥0
Shifter	Nissan 32839AA501/32839AB000	¥5,387		¥5,387
Clutch Master Cylinder	?			¥0
Clutch Slave Cylinder	Nissan 3062012U20	¥10,753		¥10,753
Clutch Master - Slave Lines	?			¥0
Pedal Assembly	NA			¥0
Transmission Oil				¥0
Clutch Fluid				¥0
Labour		¥100,000		¥100,000
Resale (old parts)				¥0
Total		¥411,803	¥45,880	¥457,683

Edited June 18, 2021 by GoHashiriya
Spelling

[GTSBoy]

You'll likely need a throwout bearing for the clutch, if it doesn't come with the clutch.

You'll likely need the correct transmission crossmember. The one that's under the RB20 box is probably the wrong one. They are stamped A, B and C. You can usually grab one of each from a wrecker/workshop and work out which one is needed then take the others back.

The clutch MC should work. It would be hard to believe that they put an R32 MC in there when the right thing to do in the first place would have been to put in a 34 one. Not that it should make much difference in how it works anyway.

Just get a new braided clutch line to replace the hardlines anyway. Easier and better than keeping and worrying about the old one.

The speedo is possibly a no brainer. The RB20 box has a mechanical drive via cable to a mechanical speedo head. If you have an electronic speedo head in the R34, then there's no mechanical drive. So it would be more likely that someone found an electronic sender to fit the 20 box. That's not a common thing to do, because no-one really does the conversion that you have. All the knowledge is around making a hybrid drive from a Navara to suit the big box in an R32 to drive the mech speedo. You need to work out what you have in the way of a speedo drive and head to work out what you need. If you have an electronic setup now, then all you're going to need is the appropriate speedo drive for the box. Of course, the calibration might not suit the speedo head, seeing as it originally used to work with whatever automatic speed sensor used be in there. The tacho has NOTHING to do with any of this.

You should do some searching on here for the thousands of words I have written on speedo setups for these cars.

 

[GoHashiriya]

On 6/18/2021 at 4:58 PM, GTSBoy said:

You'll likely need a throwout bearing for the clutch, if it doesn't come with the clutch.

You'll likely need the correct transmission crossmember. The one that's under the RB20 box is probably the wrong one. They are stamped A, B and C. You can usually grab one of each from a wrecker/workshop and work out which one is needed then take the others back.

The clutch MC should work. It would be hard to believe that they put an R32 MC in there when the right thing to do in the first place would have been to put in a 34 one. Not that it should make much difference in how it works anyway.

Just get a new braided clutch line to replace the hardlines anyway. Easier and better than keeping and worrying about the old one.

The speedo is possibly a no brainer. The RB20 box has a mechanical drive via cable to a mechanical speedo head. If you have an electronic speedo head in the R34, then there's no mechanical drive.

 

Appreciate this alot! 

From what I can see the R34 AT/MT crossmember is the same - going by part numbers. I did find some information amidst the leagues of info on this site that said the RB20 box will fit the AT R34 crossmember (potentially was an R33) but you would only be able to utilise two bolts to mount it. I'll double check this. Thanks for advising on the crossmember identifiers.

I'll expect to do some dismantling of the speedo sensor and a bit more digging when we do the swap.   

[GoHashiriya]

Hi all, the box is going in on Monday,

Can anyone confirm whether Nissan fill the gearboxes with oil when ordered from the factory? 

I've ordered some 75W90 castrol for the after break-in change but potentially will need to use it before the transmission goes in.

[BK]

On 25/08/2021 at 5:42 PM, GoHashiriya said:

Hi all, the box is going in on Monday,

Can anyone confirm whether Nissan fill the gearboxes with oil when ordered from the factory? 

I've ordered some 75W90 castrol for the after break-in change but potentially will need to use it before the transmission goes in.

Which Castrol exactly ? The Synthetic Syntrax 75w90 I presume ?

If so, from my experience I would not be using it as it's doesn't seem to play nicely with the synchros at high rpm. I mean you could use it as a break in / flush oil, but as a GL-5 diff oil it just doesn't shift properly at high rpm, which seems to be a common theme with GL-5 only oils.

In synchro GTR transmissions I myself have generally used Castrol, and found the most suitable to be the 75w-85 GL-4 oils as per original Nissan specification.

Castrol VMX-M 75w-85 or VMX 80w for a mineral or Castrol Syntrans 75w-85 for a synthetic is recommended, both are GL-4 spec.

[GoHashiriya]

On 8/25/2021 at 7:35 PM, BK said:

Which Castrol exactly ? The Synthetic Syntrax 75w90 I presume ?

If so, from my experience I would not be using it as it's doesn't seem to play nicely with the synchros at high rpm. I mean you could use it as a break in / flush oil, but as a GL-5 diff oil it just doesn't shift properly at high rpm, which seems to be a common theme with GL-5 only oils.

In synchro GTR transmissions I myself have generally used Castrol, and found the most suitable to be the 75w-85 GL-4 oils as per original Nissan specification.

Castrol VMX-M 75w-85 or VMX 80w for a mineral or Castrol Syntrans 75w-85 for a synthetic is recommended, both are GL-4 spec.

Actually it was a little difficult being in Japan as the products aren’t identical. I ended up with Castrol syntrans 75w90, whilst I was looking for syntrax. The description (translated) reads as this: 

“Castrol SYNTRANS Transaxle 75W-90 API GL-4 + Thin Trans Gear Oil Mission Oil All Synthetic Oil FF Car Transaxle Combined” 

On the can it says transaxle, manual transmission and FF.

Cheers for your input - being unable to shift properly at high RPM would be pretty inconvenient, so If it is incorrect, I’ll just use it as break-in oil.

Edited August 26, 2021 by GoHashiriya

[BK]

Aha ! Yes this is not sold in Australia anymore but used to be under the old grey bottles as TAF-X, as noted on the top of your bottle. Haven't seen this in over 10 years here, it's a good oil.

Should be no worries as its basically a 75w-90 GL-4+, which is the closest equivalent to our 75w-85 Syntrans GL-4.

It will be absolutely fine 👍

I usually break in / flush with the VMX-M and then switch to syntrans.

I guess Castrol Australia saw no point importing a synthetic GL-4 in 75w-85 and 75w-90 weights as the difference will be negligible.

Here's the spec sheet on your oil:

BPXE-9ZWGML.pdf

[GoHashiriya]

On 8/26/2021 at 9:29 AM, BK said:

Aha ! Yes this is not sold in Australia anymore but used to be under the old grey bottles as TAF-X, as noted on the top of your bottle. Haven't seen this in over 10 years here, it's a good oil.

Should be no worries as its basically a 75w-90 GL-4+, which is the closest equivalent to our 75w-85 Syntrans GL-4.

It will be absolutely fine 👍

I usually break in / flush with the VMX-M and then switch to syntrans.

I guess Castrol Australia saw no point importing a synthetic GL-4 in 75w-85 and 75w-90 weights as the difference will be negligible.

Here's the spec sheet on your oil:

BPXE-9ZWGML.pdf 34.16 kB · 1 download

I appreciate this a lot. Thanks for confirming!

I’d been using the U.K. castrol site (as I’m a U.K. citizen) for comparison but couldn’t  match anything up. 

I’m unable to find the VMX on a quick search but will check if there is a comparable over here for run in. At $100 (US) for the TAF-X it seems a bit wasteful to bin it after 1,000km. Ah well, we’ll see. 

[BK]

Yeah I know -the Castrol vmx-m 75w-85 mineral is about $50au for 4 litres vs the $40 - $50au a litre for Syntrans.

Just look in Castrol where you are for a GL-4 mineral around 80w for a suitable first run oil, as I'm sure there will be something equivalent.

[GoHashiriya]

On 8/26/2021 at 1:46 PM, BK said:

Yeah I know -the Castrol vmx-m 75w-85 mineral is about $50au for 4 litres vs the $40 - $50au a litre for Syntrans.

Just look in Castrol where you are for a GL-4 mineral around 80w for a suitable first run oil, as I'm sure there will be something equivalent.

Thanks again. As per the Castrol  JP site we have: 

- TRANSMAX MANUAL 80W-90 ($9 US p/l)

• API GL-4, GL-5
• SAE 80W-90 
• Partially synthetic oil

- TRANSMAX MANUAL 75W-90 ($15 US p/l)

• API GL-3, GL-4
• SAE 75W-90 *
• Partially synthetic oil

The first one seems applicable to the run-in case and at less than half the price seems more suitable, financially. 

 

Edited August 26, 2021 by GoHashiriya

[GTSBoy]

You don't want the GL-5 oil.

[GoHashiriya]

Just to clarify for anyone searching: the new transmisssion came part-filled with oil from Nissan. We added about a litre of Castrol TAF-X before it started leaking from the fill hole. Shifting is fine - a tad notchy to begin with as expected but I've been shifting slow during break-in anyhow. I will be changing the oil in arround another 500kms, likely this month.  

As GTSBoy mentioned, crossmember was different - it was the B-type under the RB20 box. Luckily was able to order another from Nissan quickly. 

Edited September 7, 2021 by GoHashiriya