The 'E' Type Forum

Hi

My Dad would like to know if anybody has fitted a xj6 gearbox with overdrive to a series 1 1967 E type and was it a good move and what did it entail to do that mod.

Cheers!

I'm also wondering if power steering and changing from lhd to rhd is worth doing and does it affect the value of the car in a negative way.

Hi.....plenty have fitted xj6 box and Compact A overdrive into a 2+2......should fit straight in with possibly slight alteration..metal bashing...to accomodate the speedo drive.....conversion from lhd to rhd will increase your sale price....power steering wont increase price in my opinion......search overdrive for plenty of info here on on what needs doing.....note you need a a different gearbox top cover than the xj6 one to get the gearlever in the correct E type position....Steve

And it’ll need to be a 2+2, no overdrive will fit the standard short wheel base E Type
A search has seen you’re referring to a 2+2, so I’ve edited this.
But, can you, please, add your name and car type to your signature area then it’ll stop unnecessary responses like this.

Geoff

sparky wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:50 pm

My Dad would like to know if anybody has fitted a xj6 gearbox with overdrive to a series 1 1967 E type

If your car is a 2 seater coupe it won't fit. As above, only a 2+2 is long enough to accept the OD box. Your only gearbox option would be to fit a modern five speed conversion.

Alternatively if you want more top speed fit a longer diff. Yours probably has a 3.54:1. You could easily go to 3.07:1 without adversely affecting the car's driveability.

I have 3 E types. Two have standard boxes and 3.07 diffs, one is a 3.54 with a JT5 5 speed box. Both are nice but if I had my time again I wouldn't have fitted the 5 speed.

sparky wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:50 pm

I'm also wondering if power steering

There are options here, both modern ones replacing the upper column, or retrofitting an original power rack.

Before tackling this though you need to think hard about what you want to achieve. The combination of correct wheel alignment, correct period 185 tyres and the original 16" steering wheel will make the steering pretty good.

I'd suggest you put some miles on the car and see how much the heavy steering at low speed still bothers you.

sparky wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:50 pm

changing from lhd to rhd is worth doing and does it affect the value of the car in a negative way.

My view on this is that it is much safer driving a RHD car on RHD roads. So in that respect I'd do it, and I have converted all the E types I have owned to RHD.

A RHD car is always going to be worth more in a RHD country, so if you keep the car in the UK then it's a plus. If you plan to drive in Europe or sell the car there or to the US that equation is going to be different.

RHD conversion is not a simple or cheap process however. Go here viewtopic.php?f=16&t=700 and scroll down to





While the cars were designed to be either, you'll need several thousand worth of parts and at minimum you need to do substantial rewiring. You can bodge this, but ideally you need to replace the whole dash loom.

You need to move the pedal box and therefore redo throttle controls and some of the brake plumbing.

In essence, by the time you've done this you're well advised to consider whether you should do a complete restoration of the car, as you're going to have to pretty much pull the whole dash and engine bay down to do it.

Hi,

Thanks for all the replies.

Probably just do the LHD to RHD conversion at the same time as changing the gearbox.

The car doesn't need any restoration at all.