Thread: Nissan 5 speed conversion

Hi,
does anyone have any info on the nissan cabstar 5 speed conversion into a series 88" with a holden motor.
What modifications are necessary and is there any cutting or structural changes to the chassis?
Or is it just a simple matter of bolt it all in????

In anticipation...Thankyou

Cheers, Mick

I had one with the 3.0litre diesel in a SIII.

To fit the diesel the chassis needs to be cut and modified to clear the starter, with a holden motor it should be okay.

The conversion itself is absolute rubbish. The Nissan 5 speed box has the mainshaft cut and a spud shaft made to slide over the end, then a custom housing for the 5th gear part of the box, that then mates up to the series transfer case. The landy has a light alloy box suspended between the motor and the transfercase. This conversion places a heavy steel truck box in that same predicament, and the weakest point is where the transfer case bolts onto the adaptor. The bolts are tapped into aluminium, without helicoils. When the motor torques to the side on acceleration, the transfercase hardly moves, this pulls on all the bolts and rips them out of the alloy. The box then runs on an angle in relation to the transfercase and chews up the gears. Eventually the angle opens and oil pours out.

The conversion also howls incredibly from new. I've spoken to several people with them in the past and lets say 8/10 howled and then broke and 2 didn't. This suggests that the conversion was a good idea, but wasn't properly engineered, so that things run slightly out of balance and fail.

When my replacement box failed after less than 2,000km, Marks 4WD refused to honour any warranty, saying that they didn't service it. I was interstate at the time, and they spun some story to the girl at consumer affairs that it had to be serviced by them every 500km for the warranty to stand.

Don't do it.