94 Celica GT ST215 Transmission Advice Options

[Kevchek]

First off, my names Kevin. I’m new to the forums over here. I’ve owned my st215 swapped gt for about 2-3 years now. It was stock when I bought it, the turbo went so I slapped a ctx15b 58mm on there and drove the piss out of it until I finally threw a rod and piston out the side of the block. It sat for about a year and a half and I’m finally buying a new motor and bringing Cali back to life. I pulled the motor and trans this past weekend and decided to see how much a rebuild would cost on the s54 transmission. The trans would grind third on downshift unless I revmatched and shifted without the clutch. I figured it would only be as simple as syncros. Well that wasn’t the case, turns out everything needs replacement. I got a quote from a very reputable shop, that I’ve used for years, with a price tag of 2100$! For a transmission that was only meant to handle 200hp. I thinks that’s insane. I was looking into an e153 lsd from an Mr2. If that’s even possible how can I achieve it. Basically I’m looking for a better alternative than the piece of garbage s54. Suggestions ?

[richee3]

You got it, ST204 axles are interchangeable with SS-III axles. It’s still an S54 in the same chassis so everything goes together perfectly. I’ve had an S54-06D since like 2011 and I think I’ve only used one SS-III specific axle, and the boot ripped shortly after so it was back to USDM GT axles.

[slavie]

S51-S54 "inner" axles are all same, LSD or not. It's the E153 where LSD axles are different. Plenty of people have put in factory LSD axles into S-series boxes without issues.

[Smaay]

your axles will be fine, and ill confirm the MR2 E153 is not drop in, it needs modification because the linkage is on the wrong side. you want an E153 from a Solara.

but since you got the BEAMS trans its all moot