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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Suzuki SJ413 gearbox to A series engine

I picked up one of these locally at a good price. It looks really tiny, even compared with the midget 4 speed box. Anyone know anything about attaching it to an A series engine?

The only thing I can find on the web is the Bugzuki website but that is for a Swift engine to Suzuki gearbox which I believe is a simple bolt-on job.

Rob
Rob aka MG Moneypit

Hi Rob,



Good luck with this one. You'll prob have to have an adaptor plate made to mate this to an A-series.



Here's a link to a manual that might be useful.......



http://www.4x4.in.th/manual_sj413/





Regards Steve



SR Smith 1

Yes, I can do that. I made an alloy engine plate for a 1275 A series a couple of years ago. £20 for the aluminium plate (from eBay) and £10 for jigsaw blades. Lots of time wearing ear defenders in the garage but it broke my Bosch jigsaw in the end.

The Suzuki input shaft has a tiny diameter on the end which must run in some small needle roller bearing which will probably have to be mounted in the A series flywheel, like they do for type 9 conversions.

Apart from that no real thoughts.

Rob
Rob aka MG Moneypit

Hi Rob,


Looks like its a small roller bearing in the SJ....



http://www.4x4.in.th/manual_sj413/




SR Smith 1

If you had access to the engine it mounts to originally, it would make it easier to determine the center point of the input shaft relative to the locating pins.
Trevor Jessie

I bought one on ebay a few years back. I paid the princely sum of 99p for it.

ISTR that the bellhousing was a lot smaller than a Midget flywheel and the gearbox itself was very short, which would make mounting it difficult.

Also, the gearlever position was a long way forward, too.
Dave O'Neill 2

I think the simpler option is to do a complete engine/tranny swap and add 4 su hs1carbs and a ford edis crank trigger igntion and dump the rest
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Here is a youtube of a suzki conversion in a midget... no real info but easy enough to contact the owner for a chat

prop

http://youtu.be/XP2COmU4y1k
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Rob

You may get a bit more background info on Suzuki gearboxes for rwd use from the following:

1) Liege cars forum (replacing 850cc Reliant engines and gearboxes with fwd Suzuki Swift 3 cylinder engines being placed longitudinally mated to rwd Suzuki gearboxes, plus Suzuki Carry [Bedford Rascal] axle to replace the Reliant Fox item); see:
http://www.liegecars.co.uk/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewforum.php?6

&

2) The Locostbuilders forum where there is interest in Suzuki running gear following the recent introduction of the Caterham Seven 160 which has a Suzuki 3 cylinder engine, Suzuki gearbox and rear axle and is a Japanese Kei car. Search Suzuki and Locostbuilders.co.uk

Cheers
Mike
M Wood

No idea what I'm talking about as usual, but what about cutting off the bell housing and doing the same to an old spare A-Series casing, and making an adapter to fix it to the Suzuki box? No need then for a new A-Series backplate. It'll depend of course on dimensions, which I don't know. The faces will need to be accurately machined flat, ensuring that the input shaft is in the right place. Ideally the Suzuki box would need to be stripped for the machining, but if its bell housing really is too small this might be a solution.
L B Rose

L.B
I make my bellhousings like this. This is for a Sierra conversion.
Alan


Alan Anstead

From the details posted earlier the Suzuki gearbox looks to have an integral bellhousing so cutting that off and welding on a new one opens a whole can of worms with distortion, also a quick look on ebay show it is split horizontally so more work. Making a new adapter plate would be my choice as to the sensible route. I've done it for a Ford 4 speed to A series and that went fine, having a milling machine handy would be great especially with a DRO, I didn't which makes it hardy but doable. If the details are drawn up then asking a local laser profiler could get the bulk of the work done easily.
David Billington

We still don't know whether the Suzuki bell housing is big enough. If it is then the new backplate route is the one to go.
L B Rose

A quick look online shows the Suzuki clutch at 190mm so the same as the 1098cc 7.5" and that often used on uprated 1275cc engines. The link posted earlier giving the clutch details doesn't give dimensions but indicates the arrangement is very similar although the bottom clearance may be close. I suspect it will be OK or close but really what is required are some internal dimensions from an actual gearbox and that is likely to require asking someone that has one for dimensions.
David Billington

I don't have one anymore, as I sold it, but I remember it being very small.
Dave O'Neill 2

This thread was discussed between 07/03/2016 and 13/03/2016

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