Gearbox: repair 151F or buy 150F

My gearbox still works, but its just unusable for normal racing. the syncrhos are bad, without throttle blips and double clutching its terrible. for dragracing i lose 1-2sec between 1st and 2nd gear because it shifts only when the RPMs go down to 5k or so..

these are my options. repair my own 151F gearbox (syncros and probably lots of seals and other stuff. it will take time, lots of time. and car downtime.

buy 150F from 1990 JDM GtFour.
(the JDM st185a has 150F-734 trans/axle. it has 2pot front calipers. it has electric steering wheel alignment motor!)

the 150F box is for about 200$ which is maybe a bit more than collecting synchros and parts and repairing for the 151F. maybe!

looking at the ratio tables on different online sites, seems that 150F box is faster acceleration? but celica gearbox codes is a mistery so probably i should forget about those advantages. i have no info on mileage. the owner said the box was fine but he`s not sure if perfectly fine, since he drove it for maybe 1 hour (he bought it for parting out).

maybe i should get the 150F and leave the 151F for repairs in the future?

i voted to repair the 151f but really i think you should get the 150 so you have less down time with the car while you repair the 151. just my thoughts.

I vote to repair the E151F

The E150F will be so much worse (less syncros, and they are likely just as worn out)

The E151F has a higher top speed, and with shorter 1st and 2nd, wouldn't it have faster acceleration? Just more gear changes.

My 3rd gear synchro is pretty bad and I have been thinking of doing something similar. Buy a tranny, swap it in, then rebuild my stock one putting it back in eventually. That way down time is minimal (Its a Daily Driver) and WHEN there is something I didn't plan for wrong with the tranny I can deal with it without adding to my downtime.

how about a st205 box?
I remember when I fixed my 150F box a couple of years back, it cost a lot of money as I changed out all the syncros and replaced a cracked syncro hub.

Then 3 months later I picked up a ST205 box for the 10th of the price lol.

Rebuild kits with bearings and sycros are about $1,000usd for either trans. It's obviously cheaper to buy a used tranny but I would rather have mine rebuilt.

well thats what I did with my 150F, shame it has been sitting on the floor of the garage for a month lol.

My gearbox's synchros are horrible on 2nd and 4th gears. I have come accross thoughts like this too. The best option, in my opinion is to rebuild yours, because then, you can be sure that it will be in perfect shape, when it's back on the road. You don't want to install a bad tranny and have to remove it from the car again (that is a long job) :shoots:

st205 trannies are rare. i just missed one sale, it was around 500$. now there is box in uk on ebay for 400$ but the shipping to my place is astronomical.
maybe i`ll just wait :/

Hmm...swapping one used box for another? Doesn't really make sense. I say repair the thing.....the 150F even if you get a splendid one, won't hold out to any abuse....especially if whoever drove it before drives like you!

:lol:

gt4tified":103nchbp said:

Hmm...swapping one used box for another? Doesn't really make sense. I say repair the thing.....the 150F even if you get a splendid one, won't hold out to any abuse....especially if whoever drove it before drives like you!

:lol:

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the owner said that the gearbox should be rebuilt at least once, since the engine has 250k+ mileage but the gearbox feels fine. could it mean it has newer syncrhos?