My auto to 5-speed swap

[vbrad511]

Don't know if this belongs here, but this was the write-up I did some time after my conversion. I'm sure other people have done things differently, but this was the way it went down for me. ( I swapped the motor at the same time too)

 

-- There's quite a bit involved so don't plan on this being a one-weekend project unless you've got a lot of help. The most challenging parts of it were the hole for the clutch master, the wiring (which wasn't too bad), the trans mount, and cutting the shifter hole out. For the clutch hole we used an electricians one inch knock-out cutter. It was a little hard getting up in there, but it worked like a charm. Wait until you've got the motor and trans in place before you cut out the shifter hole, that way you can see exactly where you've gotta cut. Make sure to duct tape over the shifter opening in the trans first. I actually cut mine a little big, intentionally. I'd cut the shifter mount-plate out of my 5-speed car, so I put a bead of sealer around it and used self tappers to secure it into the "new"car. Now all the original shifter boot holes line up just fine. My buddy is an electrician and he had some U-channel (I think that's what it's called), that we ground clean and did some assorted welding on to make the trans mount. The wiring was another trick. On the firewall towards the center of the car you'll find the plug for the trans wiring. Get the service manual for this just to be safe. I actually cut the pigtail off of the trans side of that harness so I wouldn't have to butcher the car's wires. Two wires are for the reverse lights, you can tap into them and use the 5-speed car's wires to run back to the tranny. Two wires are for the nuetral safety switch. I did a little creative wiring here. Since I had the the old "automatic" brake pedal I wan't going to use, I pulled the switch off of it. It's a 4 wire, 2 position switch, meaning one set of wires connected with the pedal up, the other set of wires connected with the pedal down. I then tapped into the auto car's brake switch wiring and found the cruise wires. I was able to splice into them using the 2 appropriate wires, run the other 2 out through the firewall into that harness, and now my cruise will deactivate with the clutch pedal, and I've also added nuetral safety switch in the pedal (never even an option when the car was new). I'm just a shade-tree mechanic at best, but if I can do it, most anybody can, but buy a big can of hand cleaner and a lot of rags, you'll need them.

[chuck641]

to add to vbrad511 ...

 

here is a link to a post where I put a bunch of bits and pieces from when I did my swap. I think it should pretty much solve any problems or answer any questions if you read through everything.

 

http://www.starquestclub.com/forums/viewto...&highlight=

[starquestJOE]

i dont know about other starquest but my 89 shp didnt have the mount under the dash to mount the clutch pedal to.....i had to drill out the spot welds that hold it on......not very easy to do even on my parts car .....maybe if the dash was out it might have been easier..... and rewelding it on was easy ........but maybe other cars have this mount but again im didnt

[cashsaudio]

taking the dash isn't that hard. I can pull out and put the dash back on and the center console back in in about 1 hour. Reason I can do it fast I striped out 4 conquest and ripped my current one out alot too so its painless to do anything on these cars for me

[HotrodTSi]

**Important** If you do an auto to manual tranny swap, BE SURE to remove the bushing in the end of the crank before installing the flywheel! The bushing will be in all auto-equipted cranks to center the torque converter...DO NOT leave it in when switching to a manual setup if you value your engine. Your thrust bearings will thank you. :wink: