Identifying W series Gearboxes

[Twolitre]

Is there any way of differentiating between a W55, W56, W57, W58 besides pulling apart and checking ratios? I'm just curious as to whether or not my car actually has a W55 in it like what the firewall says.

[Silent Knight]

Steel sandwich plate only came out on W58s and they are the later model out of the MK3 Supras.

Alloy W58s only came out in the MK2 Supras.

All other W series boxes as far as I know are Alloy. Shouldn't the gearbox itself have a buildplate on the side of it that says what series the box is?

[vvega]

sorry mate turns ffrom input to tails shaft is the only way to check the ratios withou pulling it apart
could prolly do this in car even with the rear wheels jaacked

v

[Dangerous_Driver]

vegga is right there plus u can tell a 56 from the rest as its a 4wd box!!

[KinLoud]

Best guide... If it's still in the car
- put gearbox in 1st gear
- get some twink (white typo correction fluid stuff)
- make a mark on the drive shaft and a matching mark on the tailhousing of the gearbox.
- make another pair of marks on the timing pulley etc.
- turn crankshaft and count how many turns
- assistant under car yells when driveshaft has done exactly one rotation.
- about 3.3 turns = W57 or W58 (might be able to tell W57 from W58 by comparing 5th gear ratios W57 0.85, W58 0.78 )
- about 3.6 turns = W55
- about 3.9 turns = W56 or W59, they differ in 3rd gear ratio only (might be 4wd sometimes but I have seen several rwd ones behind diesels)
Out of the car - similar technique but easy to do on your own.
All W gearboxes look the same from the outside except for gearlever position. No way to tell what ratio unless you do the above.

Ken
Hamilton
021 408 863

[Gx71man]

Steel sandwich plate only came out on W58s and they are the later model out of the MK3 Supras.

Alloy W58s only came out in the MK2 Supras.

All other W series boxes as far as I know are Alloy. Shouldn't the gearbox itself have a buildplate on the side of it that says what series the box is?

my w55 has a steel bit inbetween the alloy bits, alloy w58s come out of the jza80 2jzge 5speed as well.

[Silent Knight]

Yea but they are remote shift.
He won't have a 58 out of an MKIV in his car wich is why I left those out

[Gx71man]

Yea but they are remote shift.
He won't have a 58 out of an MKIV in his car wich is why I left those out

oh (damn) Thats quite buzzy.

[TygerTung]

To make it easier to turn over the engine, take out the sparkplugs.