towing mk2 on a 2-wheel dollie?

YIKES! I can see a whole bunch of dead trannies coming...

Norbie, you're right about the automatic and no line pressure. If you tow an auto, you risk burning out all your final drive clutchs

However you can EASILY destroy a manual tranny by towing it by the front wheels.

If the rear wheels are allowed to turn, EVEN IF the tranny is in neutral, you will burn out either your speed gear bearings or your output shaft bearings due to lack of lube.

a manual tranny relies on the countershaft in the tranny spining to lubricate the entire spinning assembly. If its in neutral, the counter shaft is going to be held still by the input shaft because of engine compression, and the output shaft will be allowed to spin dry, therefor burning out speed gears.

If you have to tow by the front wheels, put the rears on dollies too, or take the driveshaft off (good luck on a MKII :lol: ) OR, you could let the car idle when it is being towed so that the counter shaft is being turned and the assembly is being lubed. Thats what I do =)

Aaron

Well your mostly right Aaron, but theres a few things you didn't think of. Yes the counter shaft provides the majority of the lubrication for the transmission by flinging oil up with its gears, but you forgot 3 important things.

1. When the car is in neutral the only gear on gear contact in the whole transmission is between the counter gear on the counter shaft, and the counter gear on the input shaft, and neither of these turn if the rear wheels are turning and the car is in neutral. Therefore the only thing that needs lubrication is the output shaft, or more specificly, its bearings.

2. The bearings on the output shaft (and also the couter shaft) appear to be sealed bearings, so they should be good with or without constant external lubrication. If someone who has actually ripped apart a w58 could confirm this that would be cool (I'm just going by the FSRM diagrams).

3. The biggest gears on the output shaft or located at the rear of the transmission, this obviously includes both 1st and reverse. These gears will be more then big enough to dip into the oil reserve and fling up enough oil to lubricate the few parts that are in motion (really just the output shaft). Also, if the car is jacked up front end first, then the majority of the oil in the tranny is going to be sitting at the back of the tranny where those big gears are anyways.

So in conclusion I think its pretty safe to tow a w58 equiped supra by the front end. I'd also say its safe to say that toyota thinks of these things when they design their trannies, they have been doing this since 1935. Also your very own mk2 Aaron has been towed numerous times, long distances in a couple instances, and it never seemed any worse for wear after towing. Oh, and what do you mean about the drive shaft? They're two piece units and come off very easily, only 4 bolts on either side. I've taken yours and others off many times, its the easiest part of switching a diff or doing a clutch change. Not trying to rag on yah man, just want to see the correct facts come out about this subject as its something we all wonder about.