Dog engagement gearboxes for road use?

Dog engagement gearboxes for road use?

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love machine

Original Poster:

7,609 posts

240 months

Friday 13th January 2006
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Just picked myself up a cheap dogbox for the mini, debating using it for my road car. How quickly do they wear out? What's the deal with gearchanges? I am aware you can clutchless change here and there but I figure they should wear quite quickly. I had a dogbox on one of my hairy Morris Minors and mastered it but sold it on quickly, never got to open it up and see how shagged it was. Used to jump out of 2nd as well.

I generally rev match my changes on downshifts but don't like the idea of double de-clutching to keep the wear down. If I don't do this, will it wear out really fast?

A plus point is that the cogs are nice and wide compared to a normal box.

Stu

MR2Mike

20,143 posts

260 months

Friday 13th January 2006
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For a quick weekend hoon machine I reckon it would be ok, but I would have to say that a dog box is not a suitable choice for a daily driver. They only really start to make sense on the track when you can bang the car into gear very quickly, without worrying about synchromesh etc. Slow changes sound like mechanical armageddon.


annodomini2

6,899 posts

256 months

Friday 13th January 2006
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A well built dog box should be much stronger that the standard box and great for a weekend b-road blaster or track car. Their generally built to withstand changing gear without disengaging the clutch (although if you plan to do this I would fit a competition clutch). Is it for your turbo/supercharged (can't remember which!) machine?

While you could use it in your everyday car, if your in city/town traffic alot it can be quite infuriating when you're up and down the box all the time as they tend to be very heavy, added to the double-declutch.

love machine

Original Poster:

7,609 posts

240 months

Saturday 14th January 2006
quotequote all
annodomini2 said:
A well built dog box should be much stronger that the standard box and great for a weekend b-road blaster or track car. Their generally built to withstand changing gear without disengaging the clutch (although if you plan to do this I would fit a competition clutch). Is it for your turbo/supercharged (can't remember which!) machine?

While you could use it in your everyday car, if your in city/town traffic alot it can be quite infuriating when you're up and down the box all the time as they tend to be very heavy, added to the double-declutch.


The supercharged engine. The one problem I have is that the very tall first gear may make my final drive choice a little limited. I'll try it and see how it goes. It will be a weekend car as it doesn't like traffic and is very hard to drive. Heavy steering, loud as hell, smelly, etc, etc.

GreenV8S

30,407 posts

289 months

Saturday 14th January 2006
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I understand they wear out relatively quickly, this probably isn't going to be an issue for a track car that only does 1000 miles a year and then gets rebuilt, but could be an issue for a road car.

The one I drove felt horrible (I guess due to the lack of balk rings?), I could never be sure whether it was definitely in gear until I let the clutch up. It was great on upshifts but very hit and miss on changes down to 2nd, sometimes it went straight in and sometimes you were left stuck in neutral and you had to go via another gear. The other gears seemed much better, but the problems with 2nd made it rather stressful to drive fast. My feeling is I'd prefer a synchro box but I'd put up with a dog bog for a few hours on track. I don't think I could put up with it for every day use though.

denisb

509 posts

260 months

Monday 16th January 2006
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I used to run a dog box on my car on the road.

It eventually worked out cheaper to buy another car than maintain the gearbox.