Hello all,

Lots of classicTVRs are equipped with the Essex V6. Doing some research for myself, I noticed on several forums it's a common question how to mate it to a 5-speed box and very often they are answered by people who don't know what they are talking about.
Having succesfully converted mine, here's a guide how to do it.

What you need is a 5-speed Type-9 gearbox from a 2.8 V6. These boxes are the only Type-9s that can cope with the torque of an Essex, as they have better layshaft bearings. Also, the input shaft of 4-cylinder boxes is too short.
The early ones usually allow a cable speedo, but they don't have the lubrication improvements to avoid damage to the low gears (1st & 2nd) while the car is climbing steep gradients. The later ones don't have this problem, but they usually only allow an electronic speedo.

Next you'll need a bellhousing. You can convert the original one by drilling new bolt holes and machining a recess in it for the layshaft stub and the selection rail, but the original item is quite heavy. 
The other option is ordering an lightweight aluminium bellhousing which is quite expensive, but I believe it's the best option. This still requires machining the recess for the layshaft stub.
These bellhousings are made by Ric Wood and also available via Tran-X, Burton Power, Gearboxman, etc. I bought mine at Tran-X as they were the only who had one in stock.

The Essex clutch disc and pressure plate are both compatible with the type-9 box, so no changes are required. Still, while its easily accessible, you might want to replace the clutch disc.

Once the box and bellhousing are mated, you'll have to shorten the input shaft. The shaft should be approx. 1-2mm beyond the position of the bellhousing mounting flange. I can't remember exactly, but I believe you'll have to shorten it by 14,5mm. I did this using an angle grinder while a helping hand was spinning the prop shaft with the box in 1st gear. This makes the input shaft spin as fast as possible to create some sort of lathe. Then I noticed the spigot bearing was a tiny bit to narrow for the input shaft to go in (0,2mm or so). Not having found a suitable spigot bearing, I had to narrow the input shaft diameter. Using a belt sander and the same propshaft-spinning-trick, the problem was easily sorted.

Next problem was the clutch slave cylinder. It seems all pre-1972 Essex engines have a few differences compared to the later ones. The fact that mine had an hydraulic clutch and the later ones had a cable operated clutch was one of these differences. The opening that holds the original slave cylinder was cast in the old bellhousing, so i couldn't use the old slave cylinder as the aluminium bellhousing is meant to use the cable operated clutch. I bought a new aluminium in-bellhousing slave cylinder that bolts onto the front of the gearbox, using an adapter and a spacer to bring it into the suitable position to operate the diaphragm spring properly. This slave cylinder uses its own release bearing and all these parts are available via Rallydesign. Even if your Essex has a cable operated clutch a can only strongly recommend this hydraulic conversion, even when you think of the steep prices of these items. The difference in clutch pedal operation is remarkable. Once everything was mounted in the car I also fitted a stainless steel dust cover to fill the remaining gap on the underside of the bellhousing, so this required drilling some mounting holes through the bellhousing flange and tapping thread in it. I used stainless steel M4x20 screws for this.

Then, there's still the propshaft and the crossmember left. My Tuscan was equipped with the old Type-5 box (large, slow, extremely heavy), combined with the (faulty) Laycock de Normanville LH-type overdrive. The crossmember position was an exact fit, and I only had to make a 28mm spacer to fit underneath the gearbox mount, so the inclination angle of the propshaft was right. The propshaft had to be shortened by only 13mm and was re-balanced. I also fitted a straight quickshift gearlever which is available from Rallydesign. I still want to add that this might be a problem for the shorter amongst us, as the gearlever position has moved quite a bit backwards. Shorter people might prefer a forward bent lever. As I'm 6'1", the straight one is a perfect fit for me.

If anyone should ever want to do this conversion too, feel free to contact me if you have more questions.

Cheers,

Björn Puyenbroeck
Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
1971 Tuscan V6