Certainly an option

Transmission swaps are a fairly big commitment. A lot depends on your pocketbook. And level of enthusiasm.

Speaking just for myself, of course, I'm at the stage of life where a hobby car is more appealing than a project car, if you get what I mean. I've found that these old Jags respond very well to minor mods and upgrades...and that includes the old TH400 transmission. Satisfying for me but nowhere near enough to satisfy others. I get that !

Besides, getting the TR6/V8 was a lazy man's solution that satisfies my desire to shift gears and feel brute acceleration .

Cheers
DD

 

True but sometimes depends on what you may be doing. I replaced some solenoids in the 5r110w behind the v10 in my F250 and paid a premium for upgraded ones whereas stock replacements would have been less than half. For us Yanks parts from Europe come a high premium so that's a bit of a turnoff here.

Yes, I found the 6spd ZF in our '04 XJ8 to be great. Less parts and more gears than the previous ZF 5spd we had in the XJ-R with the added benefit of O-ring only seals without any specialized seals.
A lot can be done with the T400 for a reasonable price for sure to make it a lot more tolerable.

Yes, that would be my preference, I even have 2 Richmond ROD's. One NOS for Chevy application and a Ford based one. I would just need a pedal box, clutch and bellhousing at this point. But this would require a lot of work to do.
True, some have much deeper pockets than others. That was the only reason I was suggesting a lesser expensive option than others that would still yield satisfying results with nothing more than the trans mods and leaving everything else alone. I think it to be more feasible for some but of course not the preference of all others. Depends on your budget.

All the deficiencies of the earlier cars are why I opted to go with a later model. I prefer the dash, steering wheel, glove box, rear tail lights and even the inboard rear brakes of the older models along with the chrome bumpers and trim. But to keep peace in the home I opted to buy the '94 and '95 parts car so that I would already have the 6.0L, 4l60e and 3.54 gearset because I know those would be things I would be chomping at the bit to change. I just can't leave anything alone . Even still it's tempting to change the front pipes and do something with the intake. But at least I have most of what I want without trying to install the 3.31 gears and spare 6.0 that I have. Just trying to run through everything thing to make sure it's up to snuff. Even the 4l80e could use a deeper 1st gear as I think that a 2.50 first is retarded.