Fitting a 5 speed gearbox instead of a 4 speed gearbox on a Lotus Europa TC

[OliverEuropaTC]

Hi guys,
I think the title tells what I come up with.
Some years ago I drove with my son from Montreal to Ontario, north of Toronto.
I planned to buy a Renault Europa.
Once at the hotel, I called the seller who said : oh I'm sorry you're there, I don't sell my car anymore.
I was disappointed but I did not yell anything I would be ashamed to tell now.
The next day, the seller had probably slept on it and concluded he was a complete a..., called me back and explained he wanted to switch to a Twin Cam, which was the reason of selling his car, and he eventually changed his mind. He had already spotted a Twin Cam and said, since i won't buy this car any more, why won't you have a look? So we headed to the place and met a Lotus enthousiast with probably 8 samples of the breed in his heated garage. I bought the car - a '72 type 74, TC big valve - from him and shipped it back to Europe where I live.
The car's plate was Lotus1.

The car has collected dust during these last years until now.
To get to the point :
- I was lucky to find a Renault 365 5 speed gearbox.
- I thought it would be a plug and play job to replace the existing 352 4 speed gearbox, which is not.
In case anyone has the same project, here are some pictures which attend to show the differences between the two gearboxes : the 365 is some inches longer than the 352 and these additional inches are a real problem. No way to fit the 365 without a frame modification at the very back of the car.
The workshop book would have told that ( I know rtfm). There is a scheme that is very explicit about that. I would have assessed the things differently.

4293 shows the car with the 352 4 speed gearbox. The curved part down the back of the gearbox has to go.
4298 shows there is no free space between the frame and the 352 gearbox.
4354 shows the curved part that has to be replaced with ... a part that has to be a do it yourself job, there is no such part for sale.
 

 

[OliverEuropaTC]

The 365 (4427 picture) compared with the 352 (4429). The bodies are alike, only the back ends are different, the 365's extra space being presumably used for the fifth gear.

[PeteTC]

Hi Oliver,

Apology for belated response but have only just joined this Forum. My chassis is same as yours and I changed from the Type 352 4-speed gearbox to Type 365 5-speed without any chassis modification at all. As you correctly state the '365' is slightly longer but I suggest that difference is accommodated by the mounts being turned the other way around, as shown on page 0972 of the Workshop Manual.

Regards, Pete 

[OliverEuropaTC]

Hi Pete, thanks a lot. Too bad I haven't read that before! The project is currently a bit in stand-by.  Regards, Olivier