will a trany out of an 87 gtu work in my 82gsl?

 

Will it "work" yes.. but will it just drop in and bolt into place with no effort... no.

People swap 2nd gen transmissions in fairly often around here, the first thread in the archive right now has information on how to modify the spot where the shifter goes to make it fit.

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-gen-archive-71/transmission-tii-tranny-fb-notching-tunnel-668449/

It will bolt directly to your engine, but you'll need to fabricate a mount, you might need to get a custom driveshaft made, and do the mod in the above thread in order to get it fully in place and functioning.

If you don't want to notch the hole to make it fit, you can also swap the tailshaft housing from your current transmission. I don't know how easy or hard that is, or what's involved but I heard mention that it's possible. Might even be simpler, and would probably remove the need for a custom driveshaft, too.

Anyone else wanna chime in on this?

Jon

 

As vipernicus42 said. It is possible. You will need:

87Gtu:
Clutch
Pressure Plate
Slave cylinder

82GSL:
Flywheel

Tranny Mount:

You will have to make a mount but that is relatively easy. You could modify the 12a or the 13b mount, depending which is easiest. Ducktape did a nice mount using box tubing. The mount is basically just a spacer that bolts between the tranny and the crossmember underneath it.

Driveshaft:

You will need to modify the drive shaft. It would be smarter to use the larger driveshaft, and just modify the flange that bolts to the rearend. A local shop should do it for you no problem, if you provide the measurements (driveshaft legnth) and flange from the 12a shaft to rearend. My friends cost $100 to cut, weld and balance.

Shifter:

This too isn't hard. You can go about it 2 ways. The easy way,https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=668449. Basically you just modify the body of the car. The 13b trannies place the shifters farther back then the factory 12a. This is the easiest, and Ducktape confirmed, it has no adverse effects.
The second way is to use the shifter housing from you 12a tranny and mate it to the 13b tranny. This will place the shifter in the same location as it was before. There is more work involved with this method. You will need to shorten the shifter rod and redrill a hole. It's pretty straightforward when you have it apart and look at it.

Ultimately, it depends on the use of the car and power output. You can always "overbuild" any part of the car for an added peace of mind. Here are some aproximate numbers.

100-140hp = Stock tranny

140-180hp = 2nd Gen NA tranny

180hp+ = 2nd Gen TII tranny


Hope this helps.