Celica 5 Speed - transmission tunnel

[JayJay]

G'day Everyone,

I recently bought an FC Special Sedan which already had a Celica 5 speed transmission behind a red motor installed.

Would it be correct that the tunnel had to be modified somewhat to accommodate this?

Also, if I wanted to swap out the Celica 5 speed for an auto, would a trimatic fit without any additional modification to the tunnel?

If not, is there another auto which would fit in that space without further mods to the tunnel.

Thanks for your help!

[RET]

Hi JayJay,

It's beyond doubt that the tunnel has been modified to allow that gearbox to fit. The only non-grey gearbox I am aware of that you fit in the stock tunnel is a 4-speed from a Datsun 1600. (There is also possibly an MG 4 speed that fits, not 100% sure of this.)

The EK auto had a much bigger hump than the manual FE-EK to accommodate a Hydramatic, and this was always the go-to floor alteration back in the day. But EK auto floors aren't easy to come by any more, so fabricating your own seems to be the route most people have to take these days.

All of which is to say yes, your floor must have been modified. Will it fit a Trimatic? Probably, the Celica box is a fair size. If your car has an EK floor, a Trimatic will definitely fit.

If you can post a photo of the floor someone can probably tell you whether it looks like it was an EK hump. But if it was fabricated from scratch, you might have to get under it with a tape measure.

Hope that's some help.

cheers
RET