Is a Getrag 260 worth $50?

Mike Goble said:
I got all three of mine for less than $350 each. The ones I got from Pick-n-Pull were about $120.
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There are a handful of folks where standard parts pricing doesn’t apply. When I quote parts prices I try to use real world figures, that apply to people with reasonable enthusiasm. I will save any bargain heroics for my “build thread”. $1,000+ is the going rate for a G265/6 and it has been that way for several years. Unlike Petri steering wheels and red handled screwdrivers, they are a wearable item. Unless you stumble upon a complete car, or beat the under-the-table parts pullers at pick-n-pull, you won’t find one for under $1K.
 
Just to be clear- I PAID 600.00 plus towing to shop and to junk yard 200.00 and 200.00 labor to pull diff, head and tranny on that 528i.
Add 4000.0 a month for the shop......
I have at least 500.00 into a tranny that I hope is ok. It will cost 300.00 at the gear shop for clean, inspect and seal.
IF it is ok, I will install into a client car. My cost is 1000.0 figuring that 20% of all tranny's I buy are junk.
 
Lenoxx said:
It relies on GPS, which I'd rather not use. Reading the Hall effect sensor seems to be a better approach. But apart from the speed sensor, if the mechanicals in the 260 are reasonably good and if the main dislike is only hooking up the speedometer, then I guess it boils down to cost and time. The 265 is a lot more expensive than the 260 and the 265 is harder to find. The 260 is cheap but I'd have to design and test a device to hookup the speedometer, which will take time. o_O time is what I have more of right now, but if a great deal on a 265 comes along then that's what I'll get. Thanks for the feedback.

On a bit of a side note, can a 6 speed from a 2008 Z4 (N52engine) bolt directly to the M30? I assume not, but figured I'd ask.
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If time is what you have more of, I recommend spending more time hunting for the correct parts.
 
Another thought would be to broaden your search -- by way of example, seek to learn which other cars used the 265 - I think Jaguar used them, but with a different bell housing. If my recollection is correct, and the pick and pull guys haven't figured this out, then you may stand a better chance of finding a Jaguar tranny with the wrong bell housing at a bargain price.
 
no idea Steve - i went looking for a wiki page on the 265 - only found the 260 page. one interesting bit was that the e36 ('92 - '95) used the 265. never heard that before ... who says wikipedia is correct.
 
Ohmess said:
Another thought would be to broaden your search -- by way of example, seek to learn which other cars used the 265 - I think Jaguar used them, but with a different bell housing. If my recollection is correct, and the pick and pull guys haven't figured this out, then you may stand a better chance of finding a Jaguar tranny with the wrong bell housing at a bargain price.
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The pick-n-pull guys figured it out years ago. My friend owns a wrecking yard, and they know what to look for. Some of the Jaguar XJS came with the 265 and some Euro XJ6 did too. It's easier to find a cheap 5 series than an XJS. But my question isn't really where to find a 265, I was hoping for some feedback about the mechanics, reliability and maybe performance
Ohmess said:
Another thought would be to broaden your search -- by way of example, seek to learn which other cars used the 265 - I think Jaguar used them, but with a different bell housing. If my recollection is correct, and the pick and pull guys haven't figured this out, then you may stand a better chance of finding a Jaguar tranny with the wrong bell housing at a bargain price.
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XJS, which the e-type owners began stripping years ago.
 
And, I bought the 260 and installed it over the weekend. Shifts and revs seem fine but a bit noisy. I'm rebuilding my 4 speed while it's out. :D
 
Lenoxx, interested in the setup here! The 260s I've seen don't seem to have a separate bell housing.
Did yours, if so did you use the e9 housing (internal or external clutch slave) is the gearbox the same length as the 4 speed or have you shorted the drive shaft?
Been thinking about doing this myself as price/availability of 265.
 
Respect to the guy who installs the “wrong” swap trans. Over a weekend.

:)

I have a 265 in the car now but a 260 attached to the B35 l’ll eventually put in so I’m interested to hear these details.

I do appreciate the 265 is a better trans, btw.
 
E9madada said:
Lenoxx, interested in the setup here! The 260s I've seen don't seem to have a separate bell housing.
Did yours, if so did you use the e9 housing (internal or external clutch slave) is the gearbox the same length as the 4 speed or have you shorted the drive shaft?
Been thinking about doing this myself as price/availability of 265.
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Basically it's Frankensteined. It doesn't fit directly and I had a bit of rust to contend with but overall it wasn't too difficult to fit.

This 260 was made for the M30 engine and even though the bolt pattern matches up, not much else does. Fortunately I have loads of old BMW parts sitting around and so I cut and welded parts to make new mounts/brackets/shifter linkages. It barely fits and I didn't want to hack up the E9 because the 260 will be pulled out soon enough. But if I decide to keep the 260, I might have to reshape the tunnel a bit and manufacture better pieces.

The two main barriers for me were the throw out bearing and the driveshaft. I eventually found a larger bearing and the driveshaft was made for me by a friend. He owns a driveshaft shop nearby my workshop and he made it from old parts -a 6-pack goes a long way sometimes.

The fun part was getting the speedometer to work. I used a Hall effect sensor mounted under the rear driver side spring and a magnet stuck to the axle. As the axle rotates the magnet excites the sensor, which generates a pulse. I read the pulse using my laptop and some external hardware using rs232. I did a bit of math and then wrote a quick program to translate the pulses to rotational speed and then to ground speed. I then used a speed controller and electric motor to spin the speedometer. I calibrated the speed using Google GPS on my phone. Not the best calibration but good enough for a weekend project. My oldest son is interested in computer programming so this was a practical application for him to learn a little bit. Which frankly was my main motivation for installing the 260. A side benefit is that, from my point of view, I learned that it's a fine transmission and from what I've read, this model has 265 guts, but I haven't verified that. And frankly I'm not sure if I really care, I'm not making a muscle car. But if I had a choice between the 260 and 265 I'd go with the 265 only because everyone says it's better. And I believe them, but this 260 was practically free so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Anyway, I wish I had more details to share but I basically just winged it. If I decide to keep the 260 and install it the correct way, then I'll maybe make a tutorial.
 
E9madada said:
Lenoxx, interested in the setup here! The 260s I've seen don't seem to have a separate bell housing.
Did yours, if so did you use the e9 housing (internal or external clutch slave) is the gearbox the same length as the 4 speed or have you shorted the drive shaft?
Been thinking about doing this myself as price/availability of 265.
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"The 260s I've seen don't seem to have a separate bell housing.
Did yours"
- the bell housing is integral with the gearbox. It was also deeper than the housing on my 4 speed.

"internal or external clutch slave"
- the fork is internal and the slave cylinder mounts directly to the housing. The 260 that I bought came with the slave cylinder, clutch, and various other parts.

"is the gearbox the same length as the 4 speed or have you shorted the drive shaft?"
-its longer. Shorter driveshaft, shorter linkages, bigger throw out bearing, bigger mount.

"Been thinking about doing this myself as price/availability of 265."
I imagine the 260 and 265 require the same amount of modifications. Maybe it depends on which generation of 260/265 you end up using. Not all 260s are the same. Price should always be a factor, no matter how much money you have. but I admit that $1000-$2500 is about average and even less than other transmissions that I've bought. But I don't want to pay a premium for a transmission just because it was used in the 'M'. I know that M generally means better, but BMW has bastardized the Motorsports moniker in recent decades. I've owned lots of manual drive bmw's and they are all good transmissions. The 6 speed manual in my 09 Z4 was excellent. It's the ZF automatics that suck. I've burned at least three of them.
 
'69 2800cs said:
Respect to the guy who installs the “wrong” swap trans. Over a weekend.

:)

I have a 265 in the car now but a 260 attached to the B35 l’ll eventually put in so I’m interested to hear these details.

I do appreciate the 265 is a better trans, btw.
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"Respect to the guy who installs the “wrong” swap trans. Over a weekend."
What fun is there in doing it right the first time? And it was a 3 day weekend.
 
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