What is the difference between series 6,7,8 manual transmissions if there even is any and if there is how do you tell the difference??

 

Nothing much, syncros had a minor change apparently. Export boxes had taller overdriven 5ths while the native market had a couple of shorter options.

A late box will be missing a switch on the right side compared to early ones. If the speed sensor is pulled on an import box, a purple gear should indicate .763, white, .806 on fifth.....providing someone hasn't done a diff swap and been conscientious to correct the speedo.

Haven't had a large enough sample size to confirm, 1-4 casing should have a circular stamp cast on the rhs, which could be a date stamp - as it seems to conform with other dating methods on the car....year /month.

 

Thanks for the input

 

On further though it is the tire size and rear differential ratio (4.1 or 4.3) that determines the required Speedo gear. So the “purple gear should indicate .763”, “white, .806”needs to be used with a grain of salt in relation to the standard gears and tire size used on those models not the 5th gear actually used. The speedo is trying to correlate drive shaft speed to ground speed; this is after all trans gears 1 thru 5 otherwise the speedo would have to compensate for which gear you are in.

 

All the models that came standard with 17" wheels ended up with the 4.3 rear end and the alternate 5th - excepting a local derivative.

If I was to make an uneducated guess why they'd bother, marketing division, probably wouldn't want their cheaper, 16" shod standard editions having a theoretically higher top speed than their flagship sports models.....however irrelevant it may be....especially in Japan.

 

Is there any real truth to the series 7 and up transmissions having better sincros and a better "sprung" shift linkage so as not to go from 2nd to 5th as easy??

 

Better syncros Yes. change in shift linkage No.

 

The change in shift springs is probably a reference to the change in 5th blocking plunger. I think that happened in 95.

The S7 have single-cone synchros, but I'm not necessarily sure they're better than the double-cone synchros found on the S6's. If you have more details I'm interested.

 

As mentioned the S8 box is missing the 1-2 sensor on the driver's side of boss near the shifter housing, and the drain plug has a much taller magnet on it (see my build thread for a picture).

I'm told it also has a shorter 5th gear for better acceleration..... my snugglebuddy John Bruce from Gorilla RE tells me with the 4.3 rear end 5th gear pulls like 4th.

 

That must feel sick. These will be my next mods