overdrive?

Author
Discussion

Stu(big man)

Original Poster:

15 posts

218 months

Sunday 4th November 2007
quotequote all
Hi can anybody tell me, how to know if my 4 speed box has overdrive or not just by looking at, as its not in the car?

Also can you buy wider rear wheel arches for a se5a?

thanks Stu

ol' dirty

9,074 posts

222 months

Sunday 4th November 2007
quotequote all
Im looking for the same answer! took the lump out of my 5a (its so bloody heavy!)

Robscim

815 posts

263 months

Sunday 4th November 2007
quotequote all
Stu,

You should easily be able to tell an overdrive from non overdrive. An overdrive gearbox has, well, an overdrive gearbox on the back of the gearbox and you can see a distinctly seperate unit. The two units are bolted together. An overdrive also has a solenoid on it, along with places to connect the wires to.

Non-overdrive boxes were not that common, although do come along from time to time.

Regarding the wheel arch extensions, I've not seen them for sale, but Turbo Pete has them on his 5a and they do look great. If you ask on scimweb.com, you may get a better answer.

Send me a PM if you want any further help. I have a copy of the manual around somewhere which I can look at if it helps.

Cheers

Rob

CNHSS1

942 posts

224 months

Sunday 4th November 2007
quotequote all
as for wider wheel arches, Turbster may well have some from his mighty orange Se5 hillclimber. hes on here sometimes or post on scimitarweb.com for him.

Nick_F

10,299 posts

253 months

Monday 5th November 2007
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SE Scimitars have two factory gearboxes, one of which could be had without overdrive and looks like this:



With o/d this box went into the V6 Coupe, SE5 and early SE5a cars; the prop pushes onto splines rather than bolting on in both cases, but the o/d is much bulkier than the plain tailhousing on the box in the picture. With o/d the gear selection linkage is by a series of rods on the outside top of the box, rather than an internal extension.

The other, later, box has a bolt-on prop and gear selection by externat rods and links on the side, rather than the top.

Non-overdrive cars are very few and far between and have, in theory, 3.07:1 axles.

Thirty years plus down the line there are also plenty of cars which have been fitted with the 'Type 9' five-speed gearbox - this looks very different and is generally used in combination with a cable clutch conversion.

I'd speak to Ian Daniels about wide arches, but with the right offset wheels you can fit 225/50-15 tyres under the standard bodywork.

227angrydonkeys

30 posts

216 months

Monday 5th November 2007
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mine has the front arches from a mk1 escort, the forest arches i believe. but theyre on the back on the scimitar. theyre quite wide.
i have a set of 10.5 by 15 shelby cal500 wheels wqith kelly supercharger tyres here going if anyone wants to add some huge boots to their scim too.

Stu(big man)

Original Poster:

15 posts

218 months

Tuesday 6th November 2007
quotequote all
thanks for the replies Guys i will have a look at the gearbox when i pop down the workshop this week,

i what to put 225's tyres on the back of the scim with a 1' spacer, because its a quite narrow car i think it would look better with the wider arches.

Next is the choice of wheel I've got wolfes on at the moment and would prefer a larger wheel pos superlights, i think 16s might be a good size?

any ideas?

Just bought some adjustable spaz's all around so a can play with the ride height and with the damn air on the front it should sit quite nicely.