Wot he said.
Don't mess with the small BW SR 5 five speed. It needs to be steam cleaned, and a nice glass fish tank asks for a pristine specimen to act as a fish activity site...DO NOT USE!
Yes, I'm very familar with them, the XE and XF 3.3 5 speeds were perfectly geared cars, and the 3.3 went very well with them. Ratios were 3.22, 1.93, 1.26, 1.00, 0.79. With stock 3.23:1 diff, the old hump would take an XE to 155 km/h (96 miles per hour) in third at 5500 rpm, cruise at 2200 rpm at 100 Km/h, and give 27.5 miles per gallon and lay down a 17.9 second standing quarter, 179 km/h top speed. Not exactly slow...not when a 4.1 Ghia carb automatic couldn't do 18.0 second quarters.
XE 4 speed 3.3's had either 3.23 and 2.92:1 gears, and suffered a little performance wise. Gear ratios were too low at 100 km/hs with 3.23, and too high for boat ramps with 2.92:1.
Only problems with the 5speed was
1) the gearbox would break teeth if you were lucky,
2) often crack casings and spectacularly dissarange itself all over the pavement in even regular use.
3) Typical gear lever rattle set in,
4) The shift pattern was a little strange and woolly even when new.
The box is the same as the 3.3 VK Commodore one. The post 1979 to 1984 Sigma 2.0/2.6, and 200B/ Bluebird from 1980 to 1985 and Corona 'Super Responsive' ST 141 had them. The Commodore VH 1.9 and 2.85 and 5-speed had wider ratios (3.65, 2.14(1.97), 1.37, 1.00, 0.86).
:idea: If your on a budget, I'd use the stock 3.3 bell, and track down an ST-141 Corona Avant 2.4 item. Better off to get an old steel case W-50 or the much better and pricey later all alloy Supra W55 Toyota gearbox. As long as no-one tries to porn off the wide ratio SR5 Truck gearbox to you, these had the same ratios, and graft it in. They can take a 302 Ford if your gentle, and more if it has a W-50 has a full Torrington roller bearing coversion. My mate used the stock W-50 and a 1600 Celica throwout bearing with a redrilled bellhousing and a very carefully ground back input shaft spigot. Worked brilliantly.
