Properly swap a V160 6 speed transmission into A70 Supra.

thevork

ShoarmaTeam Member
Hi SupraClaou, An acquaintance of mine in the netherlands has done a V160 swap almost 10 years back. Everything works including speedometer and all.
He's on supraforums and his name is andre. checkout a picture and his username here to send him a PM if you would want to.
http://www.supraforums.com/forum/sh...1-Mkiii.....&p=4942413&viewfull=1#post4942413

Nice write-up with pictures and solutions. Keep up the good work! :)
 

SupraClaou

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thevork;2086716 said:
Hi SupraClaou, An acquaintance of mine in the netherlands has done a V160 swap almost 10 years back. Everything works including speedometer and all.
He's on supraforums and his name is andre. checkout a picture and his username here to send him a PM if you would want to.
http://www.supraforums.com/forum/sh...1-Mkiii.....&p=4942413&viewfull=1#post4942413

Nice write-up with pictures and solutions. Keep up the good work! :)

I already read their V160 swaps...no one made the stock speedo work.
Andre says on his thread his speedo is dead. The other too MrOizo , Wilsonsupra ,and TurboSupras.com couldn't make it either.
Also Andre got a parts car RHD mk3 JZA70 Supra with 1jz and V160 mated to it. He just swapped the parts to his car and he was ready to roll.
Only Sean 2jzmk3 took it over to the next level I would say,but still he didn't use his oem speedo gauge cluster. He used a hybrid one from JZA80 mk4 Supra.
Props for Sean for his ABS sensor that he made to work properly, I went that route also for the ABS sensor.

Anyway...no worries about the mk3 speedometer, I have an idea that I think it will make it work!
Stay tuned!
 
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SupraClaou

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Well , some words about the oem speedometer issue...
Only sean has done it work and maybe another one guy using the mk4 speedometer. I don't have any info about that and they didn't make a thread about it.
True is we can do only two things :
1) Going with the mk4 Supra speedo electronic gauge and send 3 wires to the V160 speedo sensor and wire them up.
2) Make it work mechanically

About the 1st route:
We must get a JZA80 speedo gauge cluster and use the speedo gauge and it's electronics. Good thing is that we will have a speedometer finally.
But that will not do the complete work. What I mean is, that we will not have a speed sensor signal so nothing will work on the car that uses the speed
sensor (pink wire) like Car ECU, TEMS, ABS, Cruise control, PPS, Super monitor, etc.
And we are gonna doom the car! What I mean? We will not have a trip meter and more important NO MILLAGE METER OF THE CAR, since we swapped out
the mk3 speedo gauge. Don't forget that the mk3 unit has them incorporated inside the gauge. And we will loose the handbrake light/low brake fluid warning light,
the, airbag warning light, and seat belt warning light. In Europe we have the handbrake warning, rear fog lights warning, and the hazzard warning lights.
BECAUSE the mk4 speedo sensor sends a wire with a uncorrected wave signal to the digital trip meter housing which it needs to produce the speed sensor signal
the famous pink wire. And from there to distribute the signal to the ECU, ABS, Traction control, Cruise, etc.
So if we go with this route we will need more things to get , to wire, etc. and where to install the mk4 digital trip meter ? That's not a small device, and it won't fit in the mk3 gauge cluster housing..so only option is option No.2 ,run the mechanical mk3 stock speedometer driven cable.



AND THE PROJECT HAS JUST STARTED!
- I found out that the mk3 and mk4 speedo gear housing are interchangeable, same OD. and will fit fine.
So,we will need the mk3 mechanical speedo housing to put it inside the V160 transmission so we can make the transmission's speedo sensor to work mechanically
like the mk3 Supra.
- We can not use the mk3 speedo gear though since it has different teeth pattern 33:11. This is written on the small oem white gear that goes inside the trans.
We will need to swap the V160 gear which is 31:12 that will mate perfectly with the V160 since it is it's factory part.
I did that and it has the same OD shaft size and safety lock pin position but......it is too short. The V160 shaft is shorter than the R154 by about half an inch.
We have to make an adapter to lengthen the shaft.

Here is the actual parts, you can clearly see the V160 gear shaft being much shorter than the R154.
IMAG0990.jpg

And when I put the V160 gear inside it fits just fine and spins like the R154 gear...but it is shorter.
IMAG0996.jpgIMAG0998.jpg

So, I had to make an adapter. A male one that will fit the V160 gear shaft on one side and a female one on the other side that will fit the oem
mk3 speedo cable. This is what I did. Cut the old R154 rear shaft with the female housing and weld it with a male pin from an old mk3 No.1 speedo cable
the short one. The No.2 is the long one that goes directly to the gauge cluster in the speedometer gauge of the mk3.

Male side that will go inside the V160 shaft gear.
IMAG0994.jpg

Female side that will go into the male pin of the no.2 speedo cable.
IMAG0993.jpg

And will look like that ,the small adapter length is 36mm , but I think 35mm will be closest to oem, and I will trim 1mm off.
IMAG0992.jpgIMAG1003.jpgIMAG1011.jpgIMAG1004.jpgIMAG1005.jpg

Now we have a good proper working speedo gear which works with the V160 trans and will produce mechanical movement to the mk3 oem driven
speedometer cable !
 
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SupraClaou

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I fitted the Hybrid mk3 housing/V160 gear inside the trans and looks good, oem!
But we must deal with a problem. The speedo gear in the V160 is located on the upper level of the trans,while the R154 is located on the bottom.
So, the gear inside the V160 trans spins opposite direction. And if I connect the oem mk3 driven cables, the speedometer needle on the mk3 gauge will
be hitting 0 km/h while I will be driving ahead in 1st gear., it could also brake the speedo unit or damage it.
So, next I have to make a custom speedo converter!
 

SupraClaou

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Sep 1, 2006
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The tricky part is the wheel ratio of the mk3 R154 transmission to be retained , otherwise we will have inaccurate speedo reading.
The R154 has a speedo sensor gear of 33:11 = 3.00
The V160 has a speedo sensor gear of 31:12 = 2.58

Which means that we must retain that pace of the R154. Which means that with the V160 speedo gear we are over paced 17% vs the R154 mk3 sensor. We need to bring the pace down 17%. So, 1 revolution (360' degrees turn) of the V160 speedo sensor gear will produce at the output 1.17 revolutions for the mk3 gauge. So, we must decrease the revolution with custom gears to bring it down at 0.83 revolutions at the output of the ODM and to the mk3 speedometer gauge so it can read properly.

The converter that I made , I call it ODM Opposite Direction Movement kit , looks like that:
The ODM gadget ,the custom inside and outside threaded connection hub for the no.1 oem mk3 speedo cable to mate with the ODM,and the small adapter that goes inside the speedo sensor housing which you saw earlier.
IMAG1376.jpg
And it's custom connector for the no.2 oem (short one) driven speedo cable
IMAG1375.jpg

Also, because there will be limited space where the oem no.1 driven speedo cable will be connected with the V160 we will have to use the 90' degree oem Toyota adapter pn : 83770-22120. This it can be found in the auto transmission mk3 Supras. Reason is that the auto A340 gearbox has a bigger case at the rear as the V160 has also, and to avoid excessive bending of the no.1 speedo cable we will use this as Toyota did..
IMAG1186.jpg


Here you can see the correct line-up of the speedo driven cable from the sensor inside the trans till the ODM kit. The output of the ODM goes to the speedometer cable no.2 of the mk3 Supra.
IMAG1120.jpg

IMAG1123.jpg

IMAG1122.jpg


The ODM gadget is something I was working on for weeks...
I design it and with the help of my friend and mechanic we made it happen.
We got a stewart warner speedometer adapter, that was modded for our needs. We had to find the correct part number of Stewart Warner part number when buying it since we need that extra 0.17% at the output shaft of the box. We had to purchase more than one to find the correct one...
Now, with the custom adapter (ODM) not only inverts the rotation of the input shaft but it also gives it +0.20% more turn, which we needed to reach the oem R154 speedo gear's pace. I can't wait to install it, and test it. Hopefully tomorrow or the next day...
 
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SupraClaou

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Yesterday I tried to test fit thw V160 transmission on my mk3 Supra.
And run into 3 problems.
1) The spacer's studs of the HKS triple flywheel are damn long and would not allow the bellhousing to get up there and align with the engine.
I will have to take out the flywheel studs and install them back after the transmission alignment and not complete bolt up of the bellhousing so
I can have some room there about 1'' inch, and after reinstall the flywheel studs from the service holes to finally bolt it up completely.
I think that guys using a single disc clutch would not have my issue, but multi plate clutches are PITA.
Flywheel spacers and wheel studs of a triple plate clutch should be taken out before the V160 installation on a mk3 .
IMAG0962_1.jpg



2) The end of the shifter tripod where the shifter lever will be fitted should have been cut a little more. I know it's not much left to cut...maybe 4 or max 5 millimeters,and that might not be enough since I need around 8-9 mm of clearance.So, I won't mess again with the shifter tripod , and just make some room by cutting the hole of the shifter tunnel around 1 cm. Good thing that the mk3 tunnel hole has some nerves around the hole that indicates the cutting procedure, it will look like oem when will be done. I will add some paint
also at the end after I clean any rough ages and sandpaper the cut line...As you can see in the picture is almost impossible to shorten it more than 3-4 mm and we need around 9-10mm (75mm total length) to be 100% sure for proper fitment, so we will go with the route of modding the tunnel hole a little bit...

The red line is the bound where it will be cut for the extra clearance.
Here in the picture you can see the R154 still on the car and the oem max. clearance is only 1 inch. We will need 0.5-0.6 inches more and that's what we'll do.
1_1.JPG

3) The oem (oem auto trans unit) 90' degree speedo bracket adapter need around 1.3-1.5 cm (0.5' inch) of more room to go through the transmission tunnel and fit properly.
Will slightly hit the area with a hummer and that will do and clear the 90' degree adapter which we need for the speedometer cable to work properly.
IMAG1211.jpg
 
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SupraClaou

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Finally...some progress!

I modified the tunnel shifter hole towards the back, and hit the tunnel 0.5 inches in where
the 90'' degree speedo cable adapter will be located. All looks good right now...

I took off the HKS (triple clutch) flywheel's studs before that!
IMAG1202.jpg

I just made 0.5 inch straight cuts at the shifter hole and just bend the small piece upwards just to make room for the shifter end to clear
IMAG1206.jpg

V160 is up
IMAG1203.jpgIMAG1204.jpg

Rear of the transmission
IMAG1209.jpgIMAG1210.jpg

Now that the gearbox is aligned but the bellhousing is not bolted to the engine and there is around 0.5' inch room, I installed the flywheel
studs and add some locktite at the flywheel end.
IMAG1202.jpg

The 90'' degree speedo adapter is installed
IMAG1211.jpg

The V160 brake cylinder was installed but retained the mk3 oem hard line
IMAG1213.jpg

The rear TRD gearbox mount is bolted on
IMAG1209.jpg

And last made the holes on my blanked oem MA70 R154 (slightly modded for the V160) transmission crossmember to fit properly
IMAG1214.jpgIMAG1215.jpg
 
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black89t

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daaaaam you're not wasting any time!!! nice work and thanks for posting the write up!


sorta curious are v160's that much cheaper/available there? i was under the impression all the oem parts for them are dried up along with new replacement trans. similar to whats happened to the r154.
 

SupraClaou

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black89t;2086922 said:
daaaaam you're not wasting any time!!! nice work and thanks for posting the write up!


sorta curious are v160's that much cheaper/available there? i was under the impression all the oem parts for them are dried up along with new replacement trans. similar to whats happened to the r154.

These are not cheap at all. V160 and R154 do cost a lot nowdays. I got mine $4000.
Used V160 transmission are around $5000 , and the used R154 for around $3000 especially if they are the latest Soarer version with JZ bellhousing
and the extension shifter tripod with all parts on it (service plates, transmission crossmember, transmission mount , clutch slave cylinder, shifter lever, shifter knob,etc.)
And yes for both transmissions replacement parts don't come easy anymore and that's a fact. I also think prices will go up too....
 
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SupraClaou

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Some progress....after a lot of work.

The V160 shifter is installed with it's small rubber boot. Also modded a little the rear section of the mk3 shifter hole for more space.
The small rubber boot of the shifter has around 2-3mm of room now from the car's tunnel and the aluminum tripod bracket has around 10mm
IMAG1252.jpgIMAG1256.jpg

The modded R154 oem shifter rubber boot is on
IMAG1257.jpgIMAG1260.jpgIMAG1262.jpgIMAG1264.jpg


Also got the driveshaft I was waiting anxiously to get and test. Driveshaft was made like that.
I had a used rear section of mk3 Supra turbo 5 speed and a V160 6 speed which I sent to the driveshaft shop.
-Rear section : I told them to use the rear mk3 differential flange welded on a custom heavy tube,and use the oem V160 center spline along with oem mk3 center bearing.
-Front : Just use the mk4 V160 trans U-joint flange on a custom tube, retaining the V160 female spline hole and it's 46mm security nut.
IMAG1223.jpgIMAG1224.jpgIMAG1225.jpgIMAG1236.jpg
 
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SupraClaou

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I kept the oem mk3 exhaust hook which is located on the oem R154 transmission's crossmember along with the Ground wire, it
just needed a slight mod to make it fit right
IMAG1230.jpgIMAG1231.jpg

Connected the speedometer cables along with the ODM gadget. Wrapped it with heat insulator also and make it fit steady up there.
IMAG1233.jpgIMAG1235.jpg
 
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SupraClaou

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Some info about the driveshaft.
- From diff flange to the center bearing chassis hole is 70.1 cm distance.
- From the center bearing chassis hole is 55 cm distance.
- From diff flange to the V160 trans flange is 125.1 cm total distance.
I got a stock oem diff and rear subframe never modded,and use 1JZ-GTE engine brackets/mounts.... as far as where my engine seats.
After installation the front section shaft goes inside the rear section's spline 9/10 and it gets secured with the 46mm wrench key.
I could only observe around 5mm of un-used spline.

Here is another picture of the driveshaft
IMAG1237.jpg
 
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SupraClaou

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Tested shifting the V160, and all gears go in properly. Started the car and moved it front and reverse.
The HKS triple clutch is a bit loud as I expected to be and it is damn grabby with a very narrow clutch pedal drive point...
I need to get used to it. The V160 is also louder in operational status than the R154, of course when I test drove it , the shifter chassis
hole was uncovered fully opened so noise insulation was zero! hahaha
Speedometer was working. ABS light on the gauge cluster went on after a while...as expected. I am waiting for a part to get it done, it's my last issue to overcome and I am done !

Here is the leather trim boot installed along with the oem stock leather knob
IMAG1265.jpgIMAG1266.jpgIMAG1268.jpgIMAG1285.jpg
 
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SupraClaou

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Piratetip;2087298 said:
Nice work.
Looks good :D


Thanks! When I finish the complete swap and the car running, we will get to the new diff.
I have to check my issue first... you know, so we can continue our plan.
 

Piratetip

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Sounds good.
I might order the 3.58 early in case it gets sold in the meantime.
Still deciding on that.
 

SupraClaou

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Something I noticed after everything was installed back in like rubber boot, leather trim, shift knob etc. , is that it wouldn't fully lock
gears 1st and 5th while shifting. 1st was at the limit but 5th was off the limit. Troubleshooting the issue I found out that the oem MA70 center console
shifter leather trim, has a metal rectangular ring where the leather trim is glued and attached to it. This metal part has two metal 'ears' facing towards
the shifter! They are about 1 inch long and need to be cut and the problem will be gone!

IMAG1283.jpg

Now...gone !
IMAG1284.jpg
 
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SupraClaou

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Well , I took it for a spin some days ago and the test drive went well. Smooth shifting and every gear went in nicely. The Reverse needs some force to be thrown in but I am used to it from the R154 . Now the car is back in for the final job and to adjust some stuff...

-I will change the Toyota oem auto transmission trans oil that I currently have with the normal V160 Toyota oil 08885-01306 that I had to purchase from abroad as the dealer here was unable to get me.

-I will have to adjust the transmission a little higher, 4 mm - 5 mm higher and that's normal to do since my oem modified trans crossmember sits 4 mm lower from the added steel plate which was welded at the fabrication shop.

-Install the ABS ring and pinion at the oem mk3 differential outer flange so I can have a properly ABS working system and make that gauge cluster light go off.

-And last make some adjustments on the speedometer 90' degree angle , because it touches the chassis and I get some slight vibrations.