Fivespeeder!

During the winter of 1997/98, the BlackMagicCapri was stored in my friend Davids grandmothers garage, which meant I didn't have the possibility to make any improvements this winter. Instead I gathered some useful parts. A five-speed gearbox had been the plan from the beginning, and I found one very cheap. OK, the bearings were shot, but the type 9/N Sierra boxes usually need an overhaul anyway.

I thought I'd try to change the bearings myself, anf although it was no easy task, I kind of succeded. It hadn't been possible if I hadn't been able to use the workshop at work though. According to some people, a Sierra box will "slip" into the place of the 4-speed Capri box. The crossmember needs to be moved, and it should be possible to use parts of the propshaft from a Sierra, I was told. We'll see how that worked...

One tuesday night I took the Capri to work to change the gearbox. Down with the old four-speeder, and try to fit the 5-speed. Everything seems to line up OK, start to tighten the bellhousing bolts - BANG, the bellhousing CRACKED! Seems the former owner tried to fit the box with the wrong bellhousing, and it started to crack. I finished the cracking job...

Hummm....I remembered there are Sierra boxes with two types of input shafts - one is longer. Sure, I had a mismatched bellhousing/input shaft. I managed to find another bellhousing, and could use a lathe to shorten the input shaft.

This time things worked better. The crossmember was moved, and I started to fit the propshaft. Hmmm...mismathc again. Whoever told me a Sierra prop would work with parts from the Capri prop was truly wrong... Thanks to Stephen Flood in the Capri Club I got hold of a true "5-speed Capri prop", and that did work.