Hey Everyone...

Driving an 02 SE/SC with a Manual Transmission (Black if you are wondering)

I have to drop my Tranny this week, long story, has to do with replacing all the bearings (Under warranty thank God)

While it's down I was wondering if anyone has heard of putting an Overdrive on the 5th Gear??

Has anyone else done this, thought about it??
Or am I dreaming of pixies and better fuel mileage.

Thanks

- Nik

Overdrive is essentially another gear. Highly doubt that it's at all feasible; nor would it be cost-effective if it was.

Why would you need that on a manual? RPMs are a bit higher than auto, but it's not that bad, just keep your speed down a little, and that's it.

5th gear IS the overdrive gear.

The "overdrive" button isn't actually a gear. It just changes the settings of the auto to shift at different intervals - no mechanics involved.

IF you want more gears - trade in your 2002 for a 2005 and get a 6-speed.

I stand corrected . Must be a long day. As stated above, just get the '05 X with 6-speed.

The Nissan Automatic is a 4-speed with overdrive.

Ratios
1st: 2.785
2nd: 1.545
3rd: 1.000
O/D: 0.694
Rev: 2.272

And "The Button" electronically disables the transmission from shifting into O/D, as well as changing the shift points.

Maybe someone makes a taller gear to replace the stock 5th. Wouldn't take much to make a difference. Somebody here must know what all the different ratios are in all the Nissan manual trannys. Maybe something from a Frontier? There has to be some parts interchange-ability in all those trannys out there. Sounds like a good idea to me. When I swapped the stock trans out of my Merkur and put in a T-5 from a Mustang I went from a .80 overdrive to a .65 in 5th. There's a 1000RPM gap between 4th and 5th now but it's a great highway gear.

Actually there are some companies out there that make such a thing. I have researched this since I have a 1966 Ford project car with a 3 speed and I am going to go to a company to have them do my tranny. It is a kit that they install that basically divides everything in half so take your 3 speed and makes it into a 6 speed. The company that I would be going through is called Gear Vendors, Inc. They have an office out in El Cajon, CA.

Take a look at the following links.

Gear Vendors
Classic trailer

There is also a little write up from Four Wheeler Magazine.
Four Wheeler Magazine .

Folks, he's talking about a MANUAL transmission, the 5-speed. There is no "overdrive" button on the manual. 5th gear is an overdrive gear, by definition it is a gear that has the output rotating faster than the input, and the .811:1 5th gear is just that.

The 5-speed is the FS5R30A, which is apparently a variant of a Borg-Warner T5. It has been used in the truck/SUV line for quite a while, and was also used in the 87-89 300ZX Turbo, some Patrols, and some Skylines. The earlier 300ZX and 280ZX used an actual T5. The T5 has been used in all sorts of vehicles over the years and it may be possible to swap out some components from a T5 or another FS5R30A application to get a taller 5th gear, but I really don't see the point. It would be a lot easier and probably cheaper to just change your diff gears out with some 4.3 gears from a wrecked Pathfinder if you want lower RPMs, but that wouldn't change your tach/speedo correlation, you would just read a higher speed than you're actually travelling.

Brent

Brent, I think we got all that already. Like most threads, they get off track really quickly. 02Xterra mentioned the Auto RPMs being lower and then KJ_Dragon started relaying incorrect info about the O/D button on the Auto. Being the "Wannabe Brent" that I am, I had to set things straight. After that the subject went back to topic.

There is a legitimate case for an O/D on the manual, a nice planetary one similar to what US Gear sells would be good as a range-splitter for towing. A nice extra-tall O/D would be nice on straight stretches of highway running unloaded. Such a crime that our transmissions are so damn proprietary.

Like ALL threads.

Re-read Brent's post.. He nailed this one 3 posts ago..