Decision....spend or sell...

[adrian]

Oh S**t! I just called A&M gearboxes in Dublin who Paul Nolan recommended. They have worked on over 60 FTO's over the years. Told him my symptions (See post "IRISH BOYS...HELP HELP!") and he said that what they do is a totaly TIP box rebuild. Box taken out, stripped, resealed, re-clutched, modified pump, new accumulatros and loads of other stuff. It would take 3 days and the cost would be....€2,000. Ouch!!
So, my problem now is: Do I spend €2,000 on a 1995 car that is only worth about €5,500 or do I sell (at a reduced price cause of the problem) and get something else? Also, I will find it tough to sell now anyway right? A manual conversion would cost way more in the UK so thats probably not the best idea in the world either.

Perhaps the problem could be something else that does not need all this work?

I could cry,

Adrian

[CJ]

Adrian, before you do anything, get the car hooked up to a MUT-II. Depending on the results, give Jap Autospares, Japco and U-save Auto a shout to get a price on a g-box, box manual and Tip. I'm not sure if the tip box in a GR\GPX is the same as a GS (doubtful) but I'm sure one of these guys could confirm. If you want my opinion, replace Tip with Tip, it would probably be more cost efferctive to go down that route. At the end of the day, Tips are more common than manuals so suffice is to say, there should be more secondhand Tip g-boxes lying around. From what I gather, Giles @ Japco is the king of gearbox swaps. I'm sure he would be more than happy to give you any advice on the subject.

Ciaran

[adrian]

Ciaran, when you day "replace Tip with Tip" do you mean REPLACE or recondtion? The option I got from A&M (as outlined above) is a whole rebuild. Would you go one step more and do the replacement?

Adrian

[CJ]

I suppose it depends on cost, if its cheaper to get the box reconditioned, then that would probably be the better route to take. That said, I havn't come across many rebuilt boxes so I'm unsure as to how they would last thereafter.

Ciaran

[adrian]

Yea, know what you mean. Bank holiday in the UK today so Jiles is not at work but I'll call him tomorrow. Still no one can tell me on the boards in the UK how much a manual conversion would be so I'll wait till tomorrow when they are all back at work.

Going to Tynan Motors after lunch to get the MUT II test done on it....we'll see what the story is after that. Strike when the iron's hot...and the car still moves!!

A

[soc]

Hey Adrian,

Sounds like you're having a tough break. The whole tip box thing scares me.

What you do regarding the car probably depends on what you're future plans are - were you planning on keeping the car long-term. What would you do if you sold it as is? You'd deffo lose the cost of the repairs so would you just pick up something for what you get for the FTO or add some cash and get something more expensive? I suppose if you repair it you'd be committing yourself to keeping it longterm - I'd say if you do repair it I'd deffo try to get the manual box (even if it costs a bit extra) - at least then there will be something different about the car after all that money

[Eamon]

Has anyone done this in Ireland (the tip to manual transplant) ?
There have got to be issues with the re-registration of the car from tip to manual and with insurance. If you go for the manual transplant, then your insurance will most likely rise.

Either way, there's a lot of money involved, so go for what you can afford to do (although I don't know too many people who have a couple of grand burning a hole in their prockets).

[soc]

(although I don't know too many people who have a couple of grand burning a hole in their prockets).

I do........ but my fiance would kill me stone dead if I spent it..... it's the wedding and house furnishing money we saved and will probably be mostly gone in the next 2 weeks

[adrian]

Hey Adrian,

What you do regarding the car probably depends on what you're future plans are - were you planning on keeping the car long-term. What would you do if you sold it as is?

I simply don't know. I love the FTO so much and love the attention it gets for the price but the price of repair that is staring me in the face is scary! Pricing the manual conversion it's £1600 with Jiles...thats after talking to him. And I reckon I could get the car shipped over and back with a contact I have for about 600 sterling....thats 2,200 Sterling (€3, 100 with todays conversion rate!!) on a car only worth €5,500! I had hoped to hold onto it for about another 2 years and then get an S2000 or something as they are going for about 15K sterling in the UK at the moment...maybe I was dreaming about that but still.

So, I am praying that changing the plug leads and speed sensors and getting the stepper motor etc cleaned might cure the problem as it has been suggested that it could just be a mis in the engine or the actual sensors that were read out in the MUT II test also.

Otherwise, I really dunno. Michael Tynan are giving me a good deal on the new L200 crew cab but I dunno if it's me or not after the FTO and, to be honest, I don't really wanna fork out nearly 20K along with the FTO...new Jeep or no new Jeep.

What would you guys do?

[soc]

What would you guys do?

First up I don't think the GS has a stepper motor - isn't that specific to the GR/GPX? I could be wrong here.

Second - I suppose you need to think practical as well - EUR3,000 probably aint a wise amount of money to spend on getting a manual conversion on a car worth EUR5,500. In this case I'd be going for the box rebuild although EUR2k is a lot of money.

I suppose at the same time you need to be thinking about lugging that jet ski around and the L200 would probably be ideal for that.

Why not get someone in the know to drive the car and get their opinion on what it might be - you could always get Paul Nolan to take it for a spin and see what he thinks.

[soc]

another thought would be to spend a quarter of what it would cost you to change to the L200 and make your FTO a minter! Get the gbox reconditioned, some adjustable shocks, big alloys, big brakes, full exhaust including manifold, rpw enlarged throttle bodies, boost valve and maybe some nice alloy bits and bobs for the inside. Reckon that EUR5k would cover all this including fitting...... you'd deffo have a unique and mint FTO then.

[adrian]

Yea, the L200 would be good for that alright...but not totally a reason I would change. I love the FTO more then the ski to be honest

Paul is looking at it next week and Pat cassidy (an auto box specialist in Dublin) has driven it yesterday and he said it seemed like a miss in the engine but could not rule box trouble out.

[adrian]

another thought would be to spend a quarter of what it would cost you to change to the L200 and make your FTO a minter! Get the gbox reconditioned, some adjustable shocks, big alloys, big brakes, full exhaust including manifold, rpw enlarged throttle bodies, boost valve and maybe some nice alloy bits and bobs for the inside. Reckon that EUR5k would cover all this including fitting...... you'd deffo have a unique and mint FTO then.

AGHH!!! That not what I wanna hear! Thats the first smile I've had about the FTO since the box started playing up. Stop...shut up...I can't go doing that...or can i

[soc]

AGHH!!! That not what I wanna hear! Thats the first smile I've had about the FTO since the box started playing up. Stop...shut up...I can't go doing that...or can i

well, I know that sometimes people use things like this as an opportunity to do what they secretly wanted to do anyway. I left my old 205 gti totally standard until the rear axle started to collapse (a common peugeot 205 and 405 problem apparently) - car wouldn't pass NCT like that so I had to get a rconditioned rear axle from the UK. It cost me 900 sterling and I only bought the 205 for 1600 irish pounds! I was so pissed off but then decided feck it, if I was gonna have to shell out like that why not take the opportunity to do what I secretly wanted - I lashed on some koni adjustable shocks, a 295mm brake converstion, full stainless exhaust + manifold, green induction kit, got the head flowed, added a cam and vernier pulley and lightened fly-wheel. Cost me 3K irish punts in total but it was worth - the car was a beast. Sold it for EUR2950 about 18 months later.

[Ivan E]

crap Adrian, sounds like your worst nightmare. Reason why I went for a manual was mainly for fear of this. So can't tell you anything of real interest.

Only one thing I can say is that I know someone who has a '98 Honda Prelude but its an auto and has a tip box. Don't know anything about it, whether Mitsu are much diff. etc but there may be the possibilty of someone who deals with Hondas being able to help.

Just a thought.