Popular Post =jon= 65 Posted January 4 Popular Post Share Posted January 4 (edited) Hi I mentioned I was doing this on another post and was asked to put up a thread on my progress... I've been running a ZF 4HP22 converted 110 for a while now. The previous owner built a custom central box with a RRC auto shifter mounted on it. I've been looking to increase the storage space and do something a bit different - after looking at the price of the Ashcroft NAS console I decided to look at alternative ways of mounting the shifter, when I stumbled across a thread on a US defender forum where some people are using a Lokar floor mounted stick shifter: https://www.defendersource.com/threads/show-me-your-lokar.61569/ I did a bit more research, and found out that RW Engineering in the US make a kit which consists of a new transfer box linkage, a mounting plate and a new quadrant for the ZF that lets you use the shifter for a GM700R4 auto box with the ZF - essentially the layout (PRND321) and spacing is the same between the two, but the pull 'ratio' is different. I really liked the look of this as it mounts the new shifter where the manual stick would be, so you can use the normal rubber gaiter etc and it's very 'standard' looking. Some pics (and excuse the mess of wires ): Mounting plate sandwiched between transfer box level mounting. A replacement transfer box linkage is supplied to account for the transfer lever moving up 1/2" or so. From the other side - Lokar shifter is bolted to the mounting plate, with the Lokar GM arm and linkage (you get a load of different options in the Lokar box to choose from). The RW supplied quadrant fits at the ZF end which is considerably longer than the ZF standard one to account for the differences in 'pull'. There's also a Lokar supplied rose jointed linkage that you measure and shorten to fit. This was probably the fiddliest part - from reading the US forums most people seem to be able to select the full range of gears, however I couldn't get it to reliably work at the extremes of travel by adjusting the rod length, either it would click nicely into park but not click nicely into '1', or vice versa. In the end I modified the detent plate on the Lokar with a dremel to give a little more travel - just shaving some material away to allow it to drop into '1' nicely. Detent plate looks like this, and is behind the lever fixing on the shifter itself: I had to shave a few mm away from the flat by the 700 stamp. Tunnel back on, foam cut to size: Rubber gaiter fitted: I've been running round with it for a week or so now, and it works a treat - although you now have to reach for the shifter, as it's an auto it's pretty rare that you have to do anything but plonk it in gear and pootle along. Once you get your head around the lack of 'which gear are you in' indicator it's easy enough to use - there are stops on the mechanism to let you easily select gears, eg. press button on top down, pull back until the stop and you are in D, and you can get aftermarket gear indicators for it as well if it's really needed. I may take it apart and bend the transfer lever slightly - I can lock it in '1' on the auto box with H + Diff lock on the transfer box, but 1 + L Lock would foul, but it's not a massive biggie for me... If you are reasonably handy with metalwork I don't doubt you could make your own mounting, linkage and quadrant, but I'm not so it was much easier for me to buy it. Shifter wise there's all sorts of different stick lengths, stick tops etc - and there's also other brands of shifter about for the 700R4 all with their own pros and cons. There's Lokar shifters available for a whole range of different auto boxes, so this may provide some inspiration to those doing non standard stuff. for anything that's not supported by them, given enough time and patience I'm sure you could make your own shift detent plate up to suit whatever pattern you wanted... Edited January 4 by =jon= 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
steve200TDi 112 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Thanks for the write up, it looks a neat solution. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Snagger 880 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 How are you finding the ZF generally? What mpg are you getting? I still like the idea, having gotten lazy with an auto out here (manual transmission cars are very rare in the Middle East) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
=jon= 65 Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 The ZF actually suits the V8 quite well on the road at least - you plonk it in gear and it's generally relaxing and wafty like other cars with big engines and auto boxes (as refined as a 110 can be!). You need to provoke it a bit to make it kick down, but when it does it goes pretty well... In terms of MPG - when it was a 3.5 (with Thor manifolds / Megasquirt) on simple BLOS LPG it would do 10-12MPG depending on the type of journey, so probably 14 or so on petrol (although it was rarely used on it!). I dropped in a 4.6 last summer and it's not done many miles since with lockdown, probably less than 1500 so it's still barely run in, and a lot of the time has been spent remapping the Megasquirt and getting the now multi-point LPG injection playing nicely together. Fuel economy is about the same on gas, but I reckon I can get it better as I improve the mapping over time... I was a bit hesitant when I bought it due to it being an auto but I actually think it works well... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Snagger 880 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Ah, I forgot you had a V8. I’d love that, but couldn’t afford the fuel bills, so went diesel. 😏. Autos don’t have a stellar reputation behind Tdis, and I wasn’t that impressed with a Tdi RRC VogueSE with auto when I was trying to find a good Classic (narrowing the search to a manual), but with a Defender or Series, they’re driven slower, so I figure it might not matter like it does in the RRC. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
=jon= 65 Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 AFAIK @Les Brock has a 90 Diesel Auto which may be running now so may be able to comment more... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Snagger 880 Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 I followed his rebuilt and he seemed very happy once it was running. I haven’t seen him on here in a while, though - the last comments I remember on his 90 thread were him pondering removing the tubular front wing system and fitting standard wings, which was a few years ago now. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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