Was there ever an option for a 5 speed trany in 1972 '02 tii

[bambi]

Hi,

I have been looking for a trany to rebuild for my '02 tii restoration project and have come across a guy that says he has a '5 speed' box for a 02 tii.

Talks about split ratio rather than an actual 5th gear. I am new to '02s and have never read or heard of such a tranny mentioned in what I've had a chance to cover so far. Told it as optional gearbox on 2002's.

Thought I would check in with some of the experts, heard of anything like this?

Thank you.

B

[JohnN]

Check out this site for a nice history:

http://www.bimmers.com/02

John N

[bambi]

Thanks.

[osbourne]

According to what I've been reading, yes, there was a 5 speed offered. However, "back in the day", it wasn't something that customers knew about. My local dealer (Cummins Motor Sales, in Canonsburg, PA), whom I consider to have been an excellent dealer, never mentioned it to me. I certainly would have ordered it on the new Tii I bought in '72.

I don't remember reading about it in Road & Track or Car & Driver articles, which I always read.

I think that one reason for the dealer not mentioning it is that they were able to sell every 02 they could lay their hands on, with no difficulty.

[c.d.iesel]

The Getrag 235/5, optional close ratio 2002 5 speed:

The 235/5 gearbox was the factory optional close ratio five speed gearbox for the 2002. These units are fairly rare. A guess is that there were perhaps 2000-3000 of these units produced. This transmission was an option even on the 2002 Turbo. If you have one, or know where one is, consider yourself lucky! If you have one, and it needs rebuilding, prepare to spend some money and encounter lots of frustration! This gearbox is used primarily for track type events and for people searching for the best performance and overall gear selection. It is well suited to cars with heavily modified motors which have a narrow powerband. Most street applications are more suited to the five speed overdrive gearbox. Some parts can be found for the 235/5, but most of the rebuild items that still exist have to come directly from Germany. Unfortunately, a large amount of core parts for these gearboxes are NLA. If you are in need of major parts for this transmission, you may be out of luck. These transmissions are 3.0625 (3 and 1/16) inches longer than the 4-speed, and need the associated hardware adjusted accordingly. The clutch slave cylinder is mounted in the same manner as a standard 2002 four speed.

There are several easy ways to identify a transmission as a close ratio five speed. First, the front housing is identical to a 2002 four speed. There is an added cast aluminum section sandwiched between the front housing, and the rear cover. On the top of the transmission located on this additional sandwiched housing, there will be some numbers stamped. The first is a serial number, ending with a /5 (to designate five gears). There will also be a 235 or 238 number stamped on the cast sandwiched housing nearby. This gearbox also uses the racing style shift pattern, with first gear to the left and down, under reverse.

Apparently, there were additional gearsets available from the factory (or Getrag) for racing applications. These are extremely rare (even more so than a regular 235/5 box). Nevertheless, they represent some interesting gearing possibilities for a 2002. The race version uses dog type synchros, much like the racing Hewland gearboxes. With this setup, you just bang it into gear and go. They're not very forgiving, though. The ratios for all three gearsets are listed below.

Getrag 235/5, optional close-ratio 5-speed for the 2002:

street version: rally version: race version:

1st: 3.368 2.71 2.30

2nd: 2.16 1.84 1.56

3rd: 1.58 1.38 1.28

4th: 1.24 1.13 1.09

5th: 1.00 1.00 1.00

The street version is the one that is commonly (relatively speaking) available. Another thing to note, in perhaps a bit of irony, is that the 235/5 has not proven itself to be a very strong transmission. Broken gear teeth are not all that uncommon on 235/5 units that have led a hard life. The typcial mode of failure is a synchro will fail (usually as a result of over-exhuberant speed-shifting during a competition event), and parts and pieces of the synchros go through the gear mesh, taking out gear teeth in the process (this happened on the 235/5 transmission I have). Bearings (esp. layshaft) can fail as well.

....and people, please stop calling the "RED" 'Sport" steering gearbox's

a close ratio box !

Close ratio refers to the closeness in ratio's (less rpm drop between gears)

VS the wider gap and larger RPM change between gears in the 4-speed box

[Guest Anonymous]

Around 3 or so years ago MT had at least a few replacement gear sets in stock. They were big $$$ though, I remember prices around $6-900 for each gear cluster. At least at that time you could still get the split ring synchros for around $70 a piece.

CR 5 speeds are a blast to drive if you ever get the chance. Even with a relatively mild street motor a 5 speed 02 will feel a lot quicker and more responsive. Probably not a big difference in terms of raw acceleration numbers though.

[BillyRay]

C.D., thanks for the info! Is there any quick way to tell what gear set is in the box? My first feels very short, with power in 2nd, 3rd and 4th. 5th is there but, by then I am going to fast in town.

Thanks, "Z"

Steering boxes should be refered to as "Quick Ratio?"

[Ray-2002tii]

There is a difference between whether BMW made a 5 speed gearbox and was it an option on a tii. I know they made some but I believe they were on Euro cars like the 2002ti and some regular 2002's. When I purchased my tii in 1973, there was no such thing as "ordering" the car of your choice with the options you selected. Even the color was up for grabs. The way it worked was you went to the dealer and gave him a deposit for buying a tii. Then your name (actually the dealers name) went on a waiting list at the importer (Hoffman). As the cars came into port on the ships, the name at the top of the list was called and offered the car. If it wasn't taken by that dealer (wrong color, no sunroof, etc.) for their customer, it went to the next name on the list and your name stayed at the top waiting for the next shipment. Tii's were scarce and never sat around in inventory. It took me 17 weeks to get mine, and that was quick. There weren't any dealers in Southern California that had a tii in stock. A few dealer ordered cars for themselves, but usually for a dealership owner and general manager. That is also why some "dealer added" options were common like different radios, air conditioning and floor mats.

[Lee]

If dealers had no problem selling 02s in the early 70s, they would be pretty dumb to complicate things by offering an option that may have been easily available in Europe, and make them work harder. Which might explains why nobody heard from it. Go to a dealer and ask about the European Delivery program, or "sunroof delete"... They'll blush first, then try to convince you it doesn't exist. They may only want to make an easy sell.

[BillyRay]

I have parted more than my share of 2002's and have never seen one in a tii or any other 02 for that matter other than my ti, which was a Panama delivery originally. I have been searching for some time to no avail for the 1st owner, wondering if the car had any race history south of the border? The CR box has a weak synchro on 2nd, but, if you are pushing it hard and slam it it goes fine. First is VERY, VERY short though, if you are there for more than one second, you have been there too long.

Hence the question, without opening the box, is there a way to determine gear ratios? Marked distanceXRPMXSPEED=??? something of this nature? Might someone have already done this? That way I can learn from their experience rather than, do all the math myself!

_________________

Real Sergeants don't need a GPS to find themselves.

[osbourne]

I suspect that Hoffman had something to do with the dealers keeping the 5 speed option quiet. I mean, if you are selling every 2002 that the factory can pump out, why offer anything that might, potentially, impede the flow of easily sellable inventory (I doubt that the 5 speed would have been wildly popular, in the US, if it added much to the price).

BTW, I ended up craving a Tii when the dealer sent his Tii demo home with me at lunch time (I lived just a few miles from the dealership), while my '71 02 was in for service. This was in December of '72. The only Tii(s) available were the demo, and it's twin, still in cosmolene. Since I wanted to start out with a new one, rather than one that every bozo who showed an interest had been allowed to drive; I took the one in cosmolene.

Interesting that these were '72s, when the '73s had been on the market for a couple of months.