Gearboxes and Bellhousings

[StrawberryCheesecake]

Hi all - looking for a bit of help please.

I've got a pile of bits that came with the car, and I'm trying to sort them out into what's useful and what's probably not. I've got a complete 4 speed box, which I suspect is a 336 but I'm guessing, a couple of other incomplete boxes, and a couple of bell housings.

The bell housings have renault part numbers on them, so I assume they're either from a donor renault, or were taken from an S1 or S2.

I've looked in the parts catalogues, but can't find a part number that matches the ones on the casting. I'm hoping that the numbers cast into the bell housings are the finished part number, rather than the 'rough' number of the casting pre-machining.


Anyway.... here are some pics. Hopefully folks can help to identify them by sight.

Bell no. 1 - 7700597217



offered up to what I think is a 336 box.

Bell no. 2 - 7700519277









336(?) Box







Part gearbox of unknown type The same extension case seems to fit this and the other partial gearbox








Extension case that fits it.







Any guidance would be great. Thanks in advance.

[jbcollier]

Not quite sure which box is which but the complete box in photos 6 & 7 is a five speed as is the open box in photos 11 & 12.

[StrawberryCheesecake]

Oh Right.... thanks for the info so far. How can you tell between a 4 and a 5?


I guess I should take photos of each box separately and post up for identification in an individual post.... To be honest when I went back to look at the pics I was confused between the two part boxes myself...

[jbcollier]

In a four speed, all the gears are contained within the main casing and the rear cover is quite shallow.  In a five speed, the fifth's gear-set is in the rear cover area and the rear cover is much deeper.

[StrawberryCheesecake]

OK, so if I pop the extension case off I should see a pair of gears in there (5th).

Were the original 5 speed box types the 352 and 365, or something like that? I'll do some more online research and see what I can find.

[jbcollier]

The original 5 speed gearbox was the 365.  It had rear shifter connection.  One of your five speeds has a side shifter and may be a 395 or a NG series.

[StrawberryCheesecake]

 Was the 365 a Lotus 5th gear mod to the Renault 4 speed  box? Think I may have read that somewhere.

[EuropaTC]

Was the 365 a Lotus 5th gear mod to the Renault 4 speed  box? Think I may have read that somewhere.

I thought it was a standard Renault box, but not fitted to that many cars. Renault 17 ? Alpine ? 

Brian

[jbcollier]

No, they modified Renault 365 five speed boxes by replacing the Renault 5th gear set with one from Hewland.

[EuropaTC]

No, they modified Renault 365 five speed boxes by replacing the Renault 5th gear set with one from Hewland.

Never knew that ! 

[4129R]

Didn't they have to reverse the diff gears to make it go forwards in 5 gears and back in 1, presumably because the Lotus and Renault engines rotate in different directions.

[jbcollier]

The Renault 16 had the transaxle in front of the engine so Renault made up a new diff gear set for Lotus (also a different ratio).  The Renault 17 had the transaxle behind the engine so a special diff for Lotus was no longer required.

[StrawberryCheesecake]

No, they modified Renault 365 five speed boxes by replacing the Renault 5th gear set with one from Hewland.

Every day's a school day

[jbcollier]

Later Renault adopted the 0.86 5th ratio themselves in the later 395 and Ng series boxes.

[Lotus 47]

Attached are two gearboxes split apart. The top one is a 336 4-speed from a Europa. The bottom is a type 395 5-speed that i fitted to my Europa. it came from an R18.

Things to note
- the 5-speed has extra shaft length poking out the back where the end cover sits. the 5th gear pair sit out there in the wind
- the crown wheel is much bigger in the 5-speed, so the bellhousing has two scallops in it to clear the crown wheel - yes they planned for both directions of travel i.e mounted in a R12/15/17/18 with the engine ahead of the box, or mounted in an Alpine with the engine behind the box.
- this 4-speed bellhousing is notable because it doesn't have any scallops, due to the smaller crown wheel.
- the clutch fork on a Europa is to the LEFT when looking INTO the bellhousing (rearwards).
- the R16TX and R5 used a Type 386 5-speed box, which has a small crownwheel. I've built the internals of an R16TX into an R10 (type 330) box to create a 5 speed Alpine box
- a Type 352 is a 4-speed and has a large diameter crownwheel. That is why it was fitted to the twincam engined Europas.