Help identifying a transaxle

I am new here, and I have a question concerning an unknown gearbox. The box has "Mercedes Benz" and the number 6312610603. That is all I know. It may be a 4 speed, but not sure. Can anyone help? I am trying to get some pictures, but I don't have any right now. Any information would be great. I need to know about this transaxle so we can move forward on a project kit. thanks for your time.
Todd
 
Ok, a little more info. Transaxle marked Mercedes Benz 631 261 06 03. Pictures attached below. Anyone?

It has a leaking shaft/gasket and we will need to go thru it before use. Or we may need to go with something else.
Thank you for your time.
Todd
 

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Hi Todd, The numbers you have here are casting numbers for the case. The looks to be a 5 speed unit. Here is a complete breakdown with part numbers so you should be able to order parts as needed. This looks like a real nice unit so if parts are available this may be the way to go as it looks to fit real nice. Welcome to the forum, We will help anyway we can and would like to see more of this project. Wally , Transmission for Mercedes-Benz G 1 / D 14-5/4,2 parts catalog
 
Thanks for the Welcome, and the great info Wally! I believe you are correct on the transmission. Woo Hoo!. We did not know if this was something worth keeping or if we needed to go another direction. Hopefully we can get some parts down here in S. Texas. I will be on the phone soon!

This car is a mystery. It was a spur of the moment deal, and was bought on a whim. My friend did some horse trading for it and is now wanting to use it to possibly run in the "Texas Mile" We shall see. I am thinking it will be returning to a SBF with a twin turbo set up if everything goes as planned. It is a full "race" car, not street lega at all, or at least not at this point.
Here are a few more pics.

Is anyone familiar with this car? It supposedly has been in Texas for about 10 years, and is a 2004 manufacture date. And a few more pics for you guys...and gals.

Thanks again!
Todd

Todd
 

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It is a Mercedes van in the European, Spanish and South American markets from what i have recently learned. Couldn't have learned that without the help of this forum! thanks guys.
 

Randy V

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Apparently the van had a payload capacity of 1.2 tons and weighed ~3,800#. The top speed is presumed to be at the 4400 RPM peak HP of the engine.
Probably no worse than some of the Audi boxes we've seen people use.
Oddly, I did not know Mercedes repackaged Korea built vehicles.. This appears to be one of them. So did Mercedes really mfgr the box or was it made by someone else? References state that the engine itself was Mercedes.

http://www.autoweb.com.au/cms/A_51864/title_Mercedes-Unveils-A-New-Vision-In-Vans/newsarticle.html
 
well if the max HP in the van was 125 HP, and this was hooked to a SBF, w/ aluminum heads, I would guess it was around 300-350 HP, maybe a little more/less. That is quite a disparity. I would guess gearing of the final drive would tell more. Well I am learning more each time.
 

Randy V

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Well remember that the gearbox was probably spec'd to pull roughly 7,000# and your car will likely weigh in at less than 3,000#.
Gearing - well - I would say right off that first gear will likely be next to worthless..
If you're serious about running the car on the track, you may want to start looking into other options - or - consider some efforts at cooling what you have and make sure you don't treat it too harshly..
Do you even know if this box is any good? Drain plug may yield some information there as well...
 
No, the gearbox is an unknown, in fact the 302 engine was bad, so that is already out. There is another 302 available, and 408 stroker waiting to be built, and also a 428 available. Not really sure which way to go, as this is entirely new stuff for me-(I'm a vintage mustang guy). I will be able to find out more this weekend. You may be correct that this is not something for high horsepower, and we may need to take another route. I will update more as I learn more. Thanks guys for all the input and keep it coming, I am learning alot.

What other transaxles are recommended? I've seen reference to the Porsche, and Audi boxes, and of course the ZF, Are there other alternatives? I've read about the griffin, will have to talk more with Delynn. Let me know what you all think...maybe recommend something that could take some serious HP?
 

Howard Jones

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When you have some time. Take a series of pictures with as much as the bodywork off as possible. Nice clear pics of the suspension and chassis will tell us what you have. There is same thing I see already that have me wondering if somebody got ahold of a older space frame car and finished it up with home made pieces like the dash.
 

Randy V

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I no longer plan of tracking my car on a regular basis but will still take it out once or twice.
Right now I'm banking on a Porsche G50/03 that's been rebuilt and has steel synchros and a beefed up side-cover and ports for cooler lines to spray each gearset including the ring and pinion. I have about half of what I would put into a used ZF. Porsche gear box parts are pretty available although not cheap.
The Porsche 930 4spd is popular and very strong - much more than the G50 I have. They are not inexpensive either.
 
No this car was a kit manufactured in Argentina (Bessia Motorsports). It was sold/exported to US as "parts" to avoid emmissions regulations (from my research) The company was having trouble selling cars in Argentina due to changes in emmissions laws in that country and also titling issues. I will attach the only other picture I have at this point-manufacturing tag.

I will be working on the car this weekend, as I live 2 hours away. We will pull that transaxle. I will try to get some more detailed pics.

You are correct that "someone" started with the basic car, and then finished it "their way". We know very little history, but supposedly this car was purchased about 8-10 years ago by a collector, who had it sitting in his collection most of that time. He did not race it, but someone before him did put it on the track at some point. It has seen some outdoor time, as evidenced by the surface rust on the chassis. The SBF that was in it was locked due to having water in it.

Keep the suggestions coming guys, everything helps. More pics coming this weekend. Thanks again.

On another note: my research on this car is very limited due to most info being in spanish. My spanish fluency is lacking, and google translate is what I am relying on. And that is a wash sometimes. I have read that this company is lead by a famous Argentinian formula 2 racer. He went to England to get specific measurements from a MKII, and speak to the original builders of theser cars. Some articles reference the total prodution at 8-10, others say possibly close to 100 units. I cannot find very much.
 

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Howard Jones

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Looking at your pictures again, I think that the body is a GTD. Three places to look at. The A pillar is very narrow, the windshield wiper washer nozzle spot that is sort of cut out, and the top of the spider along the hoop that separates the door from the rear clam. These all look like GTD attributes.

I can't see much of the chassis, but the horse collar in the rear over the transaxle isn't a standard GTD chassis part. However the interior door mount points are very similar to the way GTD did it and the exposed chassis rails and cross brace does look like a GTD piece

GTD bodywork and basic chassis with a home built roll cage and other bolt on chassis pieces? Then there is the one off Merk gearbox. I never even seen one before this one let alone in a GT40 kit.
 
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Well, you may be correct Howard, I really know very little about any of these cars. I couldn't tell the difference between any of the different kits. I was going by what we found on the car. With the Bessia tag on it, I thought that was the manufacturer. I can't say I've ever seen another Bessia, nor would I know if I was looking at a GTD, ERA, or POS....Hehe, well maybe I am familiar with the last one. I will have to do more reading on GTD's, and general builds to understand what we have. I appreciate all input. I hope to begin working on it tomorrow evening or Sunday. We are supposed to have good weather for spring break. I will try to take pics and post as we begin the teardown.
 
I started looking at GTD. They are the folks in the UK who built some of the originals, and continuation cars-Correct? If so, that is who the Bessia folks collaborated with, and travelled to the UK to take measurements from original cars. This is according to info I read (and tranlated w/google translate) on the Bessia history. You may already know all of this. But this is what I am trying to learn about.
Here are a few links:
Ford-GT40-replica - search by allcarindex.com

Bessia Biscayne: el GT40 argentino | ARGENTINA AUTOBLOG

http://www.taringa.net/posts/noticias/3076342/El-caso-bessia.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzQgtUSq4os

The second and third links are the history/story- I had to tranlate these pages. The video showcases the cobra kit.

Tell me what you think? I'm all ears.
 
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