Hi guys I'm new to the forums and I saw a Datsun B210 for sale but it has an automatic transmission in it. I find automatics boring to drive so I wanted to do the 5 speed swap but I have a few questions.

Specs that I know of on the car:
Year: 1975
Engine: A13
Body Style: Two Door Sedan

I was looking for a transmission to swap and I think I found one. The guy said it came off of a Z car and it's a 5 speed. He also told me that it should bolt up to the A13 without a problem as long as I put the bell housing from the automatic onto the 5 speed tranny.

If it really does bolt right up with just the bell housings switched what else do I need for the swap?

This is what I think I need,
Flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, fork, pedals, shifter, shifter boot, shifter knob, drive shaft (What size?).

Am I going to need to fabricate something to hold the new transmission or will it fit?
Will the starter need to be changed?
What kind of flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate will I be getting?

I was just thinking, will the automatic bell housing have a spot for the fork that is used for the throw out bearing?

Thanks

It won't fit 'as is' . Depending on the specific Z car, I 'think' it could be a 71a or 71b box (probably the latter). These were fitted (with a different front/bellhousing. behind various L series 6cyl engines, L series 4 cylinder engines and CA engines (the turbo ca engine iirc is the 71c box.

none of them will bolt up to an A series engine. you can swap front sections to alter which engine it would bolt up to (there are other differences between early and late boxes, so an early front section might not go straight onto a late model box without some mods (and I think there's a page somewhere out there by a guy who did these things to fit a later 5 speed to a 240z .

Next, the auto bellhousing won't just bolt on there. The problem is that a lot of gearboxes out there (the toyota celica t series boxes and toyota supra w series boxes for example) you can unbolt the bellhousing and bolt on any other one, and the gearbox is 'sealed' behind the bellhousing so any custom made bellhousing could bolt up to it too. But on the nissan boxes, the bellhousing is not detachable, it's a bit single unit, that houses or seals in the front bearings etc. As such there's nowhere to bolt up a different bellhousing to, and if you removed it, you'd need a custom bellhousing that had an extended tail just like the nissan boxes have, and nobody makes them afaik.

having said that, you 'can' actually use the auto bellhousing, What you can do is make an adapter plate then cut away the front of the existing bellhousing, and bolt/attach it to the remains . OR you could get an a series box that is broken internally, and then cut a few inches off the front of the 71 box's bellhousing, and cut a piece off the 'donor' a series gearbox, and weld them together. Be well aware that you need to join them perfectly in alignment, or it will chew out bearings literally in minutes potentially. To do that you need to strip an engine block, then remove 'some' of the gearbox internals. you then get a big piece of solid round steel bar (someone please let me know if that's not the correct terminology!) and machine it down in a lathe, so it will 'sit' in the bare block's main bearing tunnel on one end (and you then attach/tension the main caps) and at other end it is machined so that you can just barely slip the gearbox/bellhousing casing (with internals removed) onto it, through the bearing 'holes'. And once it is setup in full alignment. Then you ABSOLUTELY need to pre-heat the whole lot for a fairly long time and then and only then tig weld it.

On top of that, you then need to take the input shaft and machine down the finger at the front (the spigot, that goes into the back of the crank). The 71 box spigot is so big in diameter that it wont fit into the a series crank tail, even with no spigot bush in it!. So it gets machined down to suit the a series spigot diamter.

Then you have to decide about clutch actuation. AFAIK all the 71b boxes are hydraulic clutch (but I'm not positive on this at all) whereas the a series boxes were cable). You could mofify the bell housing section to enable use of a cable clutch. Or alternatively, people generally prefer to simply mod the existing pedal etc and have it acting on a clutch master cylinder instead of a cable, then run/adapt the hydraulic setup.

Clutchwise, there are 3 different diameter clutch and pressure plates for the larger nissan boxes. The smallest of them will fit an a series fltywheel as is. The largest is too big for it. THe middle one is the same outer diameter as the flywheel, so if you wanted to, you can get an a series flywheel drilled and tapped and dowelled to suit the wider bolt spacing of this larger pressure plate, and then the surface of the flywheel can be machined so that the contact area of the clutch plate itself is wide enough on the flywheel.

You are in luck on one front - the auto trans tunnel is bigger (compared to b110 manual tunnels, and I have to admit I don't know if the b210 had 2 different tunnels or just ran the 'auto' tunnel on all. But the point is it is bigger, so you can clear a 71b box (stumpy ones at least). A 71c box requires a custom and larger still tunnel section to be cut/welded in there.

moving rearward, you'll need to fabricate a bracket to reach from the factory gearbox crossmber bolt loction on the tunnel, back to the 71 series gearbox bush/mount. You'll need a custom tailshaft to suit the output/yoke of the gearbox and to suit the diff flange (whichever diff you have in there).

There's a couple of threads on here about various conversions. I'm slowly making progress toward welded/adapted bellhousings to fit a 71b box, but at this rate it's unlikely to see completion before the end of the year.

Thanks for the reply but to be honest I don't have the tools to do all that custom work to swap this tranny.

Is there a 5 speed tranny that can be bolted onto an A series engine or are they all 4 speed?

Sure, there are 3 different types of 5-speeds for Datsun A-series engines.

B110 5-speed (Datsun 1200)
B210 5-speed
B310 5-speed (Datsun 210)

They are all different sizes, but all will work in a B210.

By the way only 1974 B210 came with A13 engine, although someone may have replace the 1975 A14 with an A13.

All of these 5 speeds are expensive now since they are being used in the MG's right?

The engine might have been an A14 since the guy told me A14 then A13.

Here is the car: b210 and I think I can get it for $1,300.00 Is it worth it to try to swap transmissions? It has a rebuilt carb, restored fuel tank, new battery, fuel pump, and master cylinder.

Could someone give me a rough estimate on the amount of money that it would cost to swap. Lets say I go with a 4 speed to save a little money though.

If you stick to a 4 speed the easiest and cheapest way to go would be to buy a whole MANUAL B210 wreck and salvage the pedals, clutch master + tubing, 4 speed box, release lever, bearing carrier, stick and rear mount. And you will end up with a pile of spares like starter motor ,alternator, lights etc. Cant imagine a rusted out dented wreck costing more than 3-400. Advertise locally and see what happens.

I certainly agree there's a lot of work (and specialist tooling) required to fit the 71 series boxes onto an a-series. I wanted to make clear just what is involved and why, incase the seller tried to make out 'nah that's bs, it bolts straight up' in order to make the sale. People here and elsewhere certainly have done it. it isn't impossible, but it is more than a quick few hours work over the weekend sort of thing.

The 5 speeds (the ones that fit) seem to be advertised a little cheaper in the US than Australia. Here, you'd be lucky to get one under about $900. It's just a matter of patience. It's a little bit like sourcing an a15 engine - sometimes you can look for months and not see one for sale (or none for sale at a reasonable price) then 2 or 3 will pop up in the space of a single week all for sale.

I'll be very general and say the 3 types of 5 speed are (if I'm not getting mixed up) basically 2 variants of the 60 series (one with regular 1st gear in the upper left position, 2nd below it, and other with R in the upper left corner, and 1st down below it - i.e. the dogleg first) and then there is the 63 series box. Most of them were made for L series engines, but a few out there were made/delivered with the bellhousing/front section to fit an A series engine. They are the stronger of the two boxes certainly. But it really depends what you are doing with it. If it's more of a cruiser, or non turbo performance then the 60 series box will hold up pretty well (especially if it is driven considerately - i.e. nothing wrong with using the accelerator enthusiastically, but just avoid jumping off the clutch at high rpms to take off in first, and avoid upshifting too violently. Either of these will shock load the drivetrain and will break it. Whereas with more deliberate clutch slippage on launch from a standstill (nothing ridiculous, just let it take up firmly and smoothly as you feed in more accelerator pedal on launch, and don't jam it through the gears and jump off the clutch after each upshift) etc, the box will take a fair bit of torque (smoothly applied) without any trouble.

B210 5-speeds are NOT used in MGs - they are too big. Hence they are still reasonably priced.

But just put a 4-speed in it. The only difference is at freeway speeds, where the 4-speed goes just as fast. The only advantage is that 5-speed gets better fuel economy.

keep the Auto and run a 3.545 Ring and pinion from the eco model late 70s Sunny
If you want more grunt the A13 is a great engine for some better carburettion,
ex pipes, electronic ignition and camshaft.

Or for more grunt, keep the automatic and the stock 3.889 ratio.

3.545 ratio: max fuel economy, slow accleration
3.889 ratio: middling fuel economy, quicker acceleration
4.111 ratio: worst fuel economy, max acceleration

Either will achieve 80 mph on the freeway. The 4.111 was a Nismo item, so hard to find but sometimes shows up on eBay. The 3.545 came in certain B310 models.