Frans / All,

In a recent post about overdrive units, Frans posted this comment:

"If your car is fitted with a B20 engine the later type(J-type)is absolutely needed as the earlier types(D-type) are not strong enough, they can not handle the torque of a B20 engine, esp. the B20 B engines."

I have a D-type M41 with a short shifter that was mated to a B18 in a wagon that "I used for parts. I was really wanting to take that OD transmission and mate it to the B20B in my wagon that is in good shape and swap the already shortened drive shaft from the parts wagon into it. I had not heard of that ever being an issue before.

I do not have a better solution on hand besides putting a M40 into the wagon and modifying the drive shaft accordingly (i think it would need to be longer as I have a trashed BW35 in the wagon right now). I really wanted to have the overdrive as this would be my highway cruiser.

I tried searching and did not come up with much other than this from a thread from 2002:

"If the overdrive is original to the car it'll be a D. Identify as per other posts. The D will cope with a B20 no bother at all. In some respects its stronger than a J, though the J is overall bigger and beefier. Really you need an oil presure gauge to check what its doing. On a D you can up the pressure by shimming the relief valve spring. Make sure its oil is to the correct level, and has been changed in living memory."


Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Tyler