Metro Transmission swap advice

[California98Civic]

I'm gonna help a friend swap his geo metro transmission for one with taller gearing. He has never done a swap. I have only ever done the one on my Civic. Advice on known difficulties? He is applying penetrant to bolts, hoping to loosen them. Thoughts?

[oldtamiyaphile]

I have no advice, but I'm contemplating the same swap, which boxes have the taller gearing? I'm going auto to manual. I have a 4cyl though.

[elhigh]

I've seen this discussed elsewhere on these pages. I think it was the 4-cyl Metros that had the tallest gearing, let me look...

[edit]
I'm back, and I brought gifts.

MetroMPG wrote in his blog about "nerd gear," and described, among other things, the various final drive ratios the went under the Metro's hood: Project 'nerd gear': taller tranny transplant nets +5.2% MPG - MetroMPG.com

This is just me but I have my doubts that your car will have the muscle to swing the 3.52 final. It's pretty darned tall. If you do serious aeromodding and weight reduction then you could maybe swing it. This thread points out that at least one swapper making the change found the new driving envelope intolerable.

I've also seen another thread that talked about a new fifth gear and leaving the rest of the box alone. I'll look for that and post it when I have some more free time, if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

[California98Civic]

Here's Metro talking about a fifth gear swap for his car, though he might not have done it: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...eady-9918.html

I saw some others for an Escort and a Saturn who seemed to be relatively satisfied with a 5th gear swap. Reported FE gains anyway.

[California98Civic]

Damn thing is tiny!

[MetroMPG]

Ack! Just saw this thread.

Damn thing is tiny!

Yeah, around 65 lbs, if I recall.

I did indeed to the final drive swap of the tallest available 3.52 option (from the 1.3L drivetrain) into my 1.0L Metro/Firefly. Wouldn't have it any other way! Most days I still want a taller top gear.

But note my typical usage is on relatively flat roads, at relatively moderate speeds (typically below 100 km/h / 60 mph).

Acceleration suffers, predictably (guessing it's now 15-16 sec. to 60 mph). As does taking off in 1st gear on a hill ("new" 1st is now roughly halfway between the "old" 1st and 2nd).

Did you do the job already?

[California98Civic]

Haha! We pulled the old tranny, clutch, and flywheel is all. He's balking at the taller gearing in the hills of Riverside County. The car is not a DD, so he can take his time. Clutch was worn pretty significantly at 200,000 miles. Anyway he has time, since it's a project car. I tried to tell him he could just downshift when he wants more power, like I do. But I think he wants to use the existing tranny ($$). Apparently he just wants to replace the shifter linkage seal and the throwout bearing. That all starts to get close to buying a rebuilt though, no? Got advice on rebuilt 3.52 tranny sellers?

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

Haha! We pulled the old tranny, clutch, and flywheel is all. He's balking at the taller gearing in the hills of Riverside County. The car is not a DD, so he can take his time. Clutch was worn pretty significantly at 200,000 miles. Anyway he has time, since it's a project car. I tried to tell him he could just downshift when he wants more power, like I do. But I think he wants to use the existing tranny ($$). Apparently he just wants to replace the shifter linkage seal and the throwout bearing. That all starts to get close to buying a rebuilt though, no? Got advice on rebuilt 3.52 tranny sellers?

Riverside? Where do you stay at, you two gotta be pretty close to me, Riverside is only like 60 miles tops. Also, is that the original clutch with 200k miles? If so holy Crap lol.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

He's balking at the taller gearing in the hills of Riverside County

I think that's a legitimate concern... is it too much work to just stick in the existing trans and try it out? If you have to swap back, it'll be much faster the next time.

Got advice on rebuilt 3.52 tranny sellers?

Nope, sorry!

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

Riverside? Where do you stay at, you two gotta be pretty close to me, Riverside is only like 60 miles tops. Also, is that the original clutch with 200k miles? If so holy Crap lol.

He's in the the City of Riverside, near Arlington. Don't know if it was the original clutch. He is maybe the fourth owner or something. I am still on original clutch, and even though it has 220,000 miles now, I kept the clutch when I did the switch because I have owned the car since 27,000 miles. I bought it three years old under drivetrain warranty from a dealer. I'm the second owner. I know that clutch has been babied. And i know how it is driven now, so no worries. 1.5 years after the swap... still going strong. Wanna drive the clutch to 300,000 or more if I can.