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MG MGA - Moss 5 Speed Tranny

I have started driving my A to work, 40 miles each way on the interstate. I am considering a Moss 5 speed gear box. Anybody intalled one of these? Happy with results? Issues I should be aware of?
Thanks,
Steve
Steven B

Briiliant!
Gary Lock

Go for it Steve. You won't be sorry. It really improves the drivability of the car. The one suggestion I would make is that you get a right angle speedo cale adapter from Speedograh-Richfield rather than using the custom speedo cable that comes with the kit. If you order the correct adapter, you won't need to recalibrate your speedometer. Lots of information about both the conversion kit and the speedo cable adapter in the archives.
Andy Bounsall

It changes the way the car drives..you can put the HP/torque where you want....and no crashing the 1st gear, no more straining in top gear. I have had mine about 2 years and love it... I got it straight from the UK supplier..check whether he is cheaper when you add import taxes.. I shipped it to Australia and it came well packaged., see site below. He also is great to consult,follow up with etc ..if you have queries, installation problems ( called 'challenges' in pos-speak ).
http://hi-gearengineering.co.uk/content/view/14/29/
Neil Ferguson

As the others have said, it is an excellent product. I have been running mine for over 12 years now. Mine was one of the very early ones and it has improved a lot during the subsequent years to include the short throw gear lever and the right angle drive (a must in my view). Mine came from Hi-Gear as mentioned by Neil above. It's a family run business (Peter and his wife) and I have to take my hat off to them for the after-sales service and advice they have given me when I have needed it. On the downside, I think that Peter prefers telephone calls and faxes rather than emails and this can be a bit limiting for you guys the other side of world with the associated time differences and communications costs.

I have not dealt with Moss on after sales support on any of my purchases so my view is obviously a bit biased towards Peter on the subject.

At the end of the day it may all come down to cost and, at the moment, the UK pound is strengthening against both the US dollar (£1 - $1.62) and the Aussie dollar ($1.57). A month ago when I was in Australia it was $1.47, whilst the US dollar was $1.57. It can make a significant difference to your budget on something like the 5-speed.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Remaining on topic, can I ask a question that has been on my mind for quite some time? Are the Moss and other supplier kits identical to Hi-Gears'? I was under the impression (right or wrong) that Hi-Gear developed the 5-speed modification and may well have some patents on it. Do they supply the likes of Moss and the MG Owners Club etc?

Steve
Steve Gyles

I looked at the moss unit before I bought mine and recollect it came from the uk..plus the same kit and the box support looked identical as Hi- Gear unit.....I am 99.99% sure it is one of peters.
Neil Ferguson

Thanks for the great feedback!
Did a little road trip this weekend and "Scarlet" purred along at 4,750 RPM for a few hours without incident - other than one hot cockpit!
Steven B

Peter Gamble does supply Moss. It's considerably cheaper to go to him directly, and his support is great

Hi-Gear Price 775 GBP
Moss UK 1091 GBP

Both without the gearbox!
dominic clancy

I'd need the gearbox, too. That plus shipping to this side of the pond could make things even. I'll check and see.
Steve
Steven B

If you pay with VISA or MC they are likely to charge you currency exchange rate. By the time you're done, it might actually be cheaper from Moss as you're in CA. You might check pricing with John Esposito <www.quantumechanics.com>, as well.
David Werblow

I wish I would have known your interest as I drove right by you on my way to the MG Meet "North meets South" in Pismo Beach, I have the 5 speed from Hi Gear and I was one of the first people to get one in the US as he had no suppliers here yet. I had it air freighted in by Fed EX for about $325 plus custom in 2001. I had to watch my speed as I was doing 90mph and it did not feel like it. My tack was at about 3200rpm at 80mph. I also have a 3.9 rear end. It is a great kit and easy to install. It is a pleasure to drive the car. Peter Gamble also have all parts needed to do the conversion including converting to a B clutch. Call him if you have any questions
JEFF BECKER

Steven.....a small extra point ..the sierra box has a port which can operate a switch for a reverse light. it is on the right hand side of the box hard up against the tunnel and needs to be done before the box is installed ..see below

http://www.mgaguru.com/mgtech/gearbox/gt403.htm
Neil Ferguson

I recently fitted the Hi Gear 5-speed kit to my 1600 and am very happy with the kit and the result. (Drove it last month to Paris and back from my home in southern England to give it a good test.)

Some points:-

1. To determine the correct ratio for the Speedograph-Richfield speedometer right angle drive, I gave the output shaft of the original box 100 rotations and counted the number of rotations of the speedometer drive shaft on the box. I then did the same with the Ford box. A simple sum determined that I needed a 1.4:1 step up in the right angle drive. No alteration of the speedometer. (This 1.4 figure applied to my Ford 9 box, but there are different Ford 9 speedometer drives depending on the source car, so a check is needed.)

2. The speedometer cable length required on my car (right hand driving position) was 67 inches or 170cm, and I ordered this from the same source.

3. In Peter Gamble's installation instructions he mentions that the Ford shift mechanism may foul the removable cover on the MGA transmission tunnel. Some people alter this cover and fit an MGB gaiter and bezel assembly. I did not want to cut up that cover, and also wanted my car to look as unaltered as possible. I found that by spacing the removable cover about 7mm higher the original gaiter can be used, and all gears selected OK. I used adhesive rubber strip as spacer and to maintain a seal. Longer 2BA screws to refix the cover, plus some large diameter washers, allow this to be done with no drilling or altering of the original tunnel and cover. Despite this cover being slightly higher, my carpets fitted back OK, covering all.

Mike
M D Card

Hi Mike

It was certainly true that the early Hi-Gear kit that I bought in 2000 required the gear stick access hole to be cut ovalish because of the long throw stick that was provided. I was under the impression (wrongly it would seem) that the current short throw stick allows the entire tunnel arrangement to remain standard without any fouling. I now have the short throw stick and suffer no fouling, but of course the hole is still the larger oval.

With that long throw stick I was unable to retain the original gear stick boot as it tended to pull the stick into neutral whenever I took my foot off the throttle. I got round that problem by making an MGB style boot on a sewing machine and I used a redundant Boot lid MG octagon as a finisher.

With the right angle drive I found I was able to use the original length MGA RHD speedo cable. Earlier I had the Hi-Gear adapted Ford-to-MGA cable routed across the right hand compartment. What a pain that was. The inner cable in those days was too small for the outer (I believe Peter has now sorted it), resulting in the cable 'winding' up and giving erratic speedo readings. The right angle drive neatens it all up and gives a steady reading on the speedo as you will have no doubt noticed.

Enjoy your touring.

Steve
Steve Gyles

On both the cars where I have installed the higear kit, there was no need to alter the cover for the gear stick to operate correctly.

I did however make a removable cover for the right angle drive on both cars, as on my original installation I could not get enoug space to fit the drive. Then I discovered that by fitting the drive and cable with the gearbox on the bench, simply using ziplock cable binders to hold he cable in the required position as I slid the box over the tube crossmember made the job really easy. I then cut and removed the ziplocks afterwards

dominic clancy

Steve, Dominic
Despite having Peter's latest shifter on my Ford 9 box, the cover on my car would only fit as described above, but by doing this I could retain the original gearstick gaiter, gear-knob, carpets, and thus the original cockpit appearance.

Steve,
You are correct - no more speedo wander. My speedo with original box and (corectly lubricated and routed) original cable wandered a lot. With the new set-up and right angle drive it is very steady.

Dominic,
Wise advice to fit the speedometer right-angle drive and cable before inserting the Ford gearbox into the car. I fitted these after installing the gearbox and engine. It required a LOT of patience. However as you know the right-angle drive is not very robust where it is held by a circlip into the Ford box, so it would need to be carefully watched when loading the Ford box, with right-angle drive attached, into the car.

Mike
M D Card

Hello All,
Newbee here. I am just starting a frame off resto on my 1960 which has an 18GA engine in it and would be very interested in putting in a 5 speed. Would I just get the MGB converstion kit? Would the kit need to be modified in some way to fit on an MGA chassis? Also where can one get a good (remanufactured?)gearbox these days? I'd be leary about pulling a 30 yr old box from a junkyard.
Joe Holtslag

You need to order the a kit but state which bell housing you need, and which clutch you are using. Peter can then put you a custom kit together at the standard kit price. I suspect that Moss carries only standard kits. You can get a recon box, but not all the t9 boxes are the same so do a google first so you know what you need to look out for. The instructions for the kit are on my site.
dominic clancy

If you are sourcing your own gearbox as I was back in 1999, this is what Peter sent me. I guess nothing much has changed.

Incidentally, I have not touched the box in the last 12 years. Still running great. I believe it had done 48,000 miles when I got it from a crashed Sierra at a junk yard. Cost me £50. All I did was change the oil. Do I need to somehow change the oil in the near future? I installed mine way before you innovative guys came up with process for installing a drain plug!

Steve

Steve Gyles

This page is also well worth a read if you are looking for a used Type 9 gearbox.

http://www.the-wizardsden.com/html/type_9_secrets.html

Paddy
P Reardon

This thread was discussed between 03/05/2012 and 14/05/2012

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