Transmission Swap Diary (With PICS), You think you know, but you have no idea Options

[Sev408]

Ok, for everyone that has been dying to see how to auto to manual swap, Here it is. Starting today I will start a week long diary of the whole process.

Day 1-Saturday June 26:

Ordered parts from Brims Automotive in Ohio. Took 4 days to arrive in Northern Virginia. Two days to have the parts pulled out of a car and two days to ship.

TOTAL COST: $725 shipped to the door, payed extra because they only ship to businesses, and I wanted it to my door.

Parts list:
-Transmission
-Shifter
-Shift Cables
-Flywheel
-Clutch Master cylinder
-Slave cylinder
-New clutch
-Clutch metal fluid lines
-Rubber clutch line
-Flywheel bolts
-Pressure plate bolts
-Clutch pedal assembly
-Manual brake pedal (just the pedal because John told me you dont need the whole assembly)
-Tranny fluid
-Brake fluid for clutch
-Manual Transmission Drivers Side Mount
-Starter Relay for Manual
-2 bolts for Trans- 12 by 1.25 (1 is 65mm other is 75mm)


-Manual ECU
(I bought it because I dont want to have a constant check engine light)


Extra parts I have bought:
New clutch kit---OEM $100 (pressure plate, clutch, throwout bearing, clutch tool)
TWM short shift kit----$130
Shift Boot---$Free(yes its new)
Shift Knob---$Free(yes its new)


Find HUGE sheets of cardboard. Like refigerator boxes so you don't destory your garage or your drivway with all kinds of crap.



Day 2-Thursday July 1:

Decided to change out CV Boots, change radiator fluid, and fix my cigerette lighter because it has never worked and my dad was to lazy to have Yota fix it when we bought the car new. Oil will also be changed along with filter.



Day 3-Friday July 2:

Installed a cone filter on stock filter tubing. Did custom job on the air sensor into pipe. Very clean and its definitly less restrictive. PROBABLY NO HORSE POWER GAIN!



Day 4-Saturday July 3:

I am removing interior console panels and cleaning all the parts I recieved. They are covered in black dust crap. I think I took a pound of it off the flywheel. (Its the black circle crap on the cardboard, I cleaned it up somewhat.

Well i took some of the panels out and found out why my cig lighter doesnt work. Yota never pluged it in? Anyway it works now, and now the whole console has been removed except the cd player.



Day 5-Sunday July 4:

Today I got most of the panels out of the car and installed the manual brake pedal. The only problem was that there is very little room under the console to work a wrench and a rachet. Thats all I got done before the fireworks and all the food.



Day 6-Saturday July 5:

Took out the auto shifter and all the linkage. Droped the auto trans out of the car and took all the rust off my rear drums for painting. Make sure you remove all the bolts from the torque converter other wise when all the bolts on the transmission are removed the trans wont come out. We forgot to remove these so we had to push the trans back together and figure out that we needed to remove these 6 bolts. Make sure to brace the motor when you remove the trans mounts other wise your motor will drop out. We used a wood board and screwed it into 4x4 as a hoist for the motor to keep it level. Only one mount holds the motor the others are attached to the trans. We used rope to hold the side of the trans since one side is heavier then the other. the rope helped out alot.

WHEN YOU ORDER YOUR TRANSMISSION!! GET THE SAME YEAR CELICA TRANS. I HAVE FOUND OUT THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF DRIVE AXLES. BOLT ON AND ONES WITH KNUCKLES. YOU NEED THE TYPE TRANS THAT HAS THE SAME AXLES AS YOUR CAR. STICK WITH THE SAME YEAR AND YOU WONT HAVE A PROBLEM. example: 96 celi st, get a 96 st manual trans so everything works properly.



This post has been edited by Sev408: Jul 12, 2004 - 12:45 PM

[shid]

Wear some closed toe shoes before you continue. I do it sometimes... but you're step on something or whatever it'll be bad.

[macavely]

this need to be made a sticky... great work so far shid...

looks like some one needs a pedicure also

[shid]

Thanks Mac, yeah my auto --> manual swap is really coming along, can't wait to post the next segment!

PS: Sev wrote this Mac, not me

[Sev408]

its ok, I understand im not wanted. Anyway i just took pics with out shoes on i know. and btw that is my broken toe, my nail got rippec out of the bed so it looks really nasty while its healing.

[macavely]

sorry guys.. i ment to write Sev.. but shid came out...

[boosted_K2]

sounds good, keep this updated sev and when its completed we will remove the excess posts and leave your how-to up there as a sticky. good luck!

[shid]

Understand you're not wanted? Where did you get that idea? This is an awesome post- and it's great seeing the pictures, keep it up sev

[Sev408]

hahaha, im joking shid! but i have a question for you so ill hit u up on aim.

[funnyboy117]

So you're doing the swap yourself? I'm just wondering how you know how to do everything, because I know even if I had all the parts to make the swap happen, I wouldn't know what to do with about 99% of them. Did you just research a lot online, or do you have shop experience, maybe a mechanic helping you out?

[Sev408]

well, i have mechanic skills and my dad is also a mechanic so there are two of us. and thats it. we have done everyting out of our garage at our house.

[Akimbo]

Hey man! IM SO GLAD you are doing this. ALSO, i am glad you dealt with Brims. They are great. I got my new 5SFE from them. Good local place. I will host for you, gladly. Make sure you keep us updated with prices and things.

[shid]

Sev, did you hit me up on AIM? I dont remember. Did I answer your question? I hope so.

[Sev408]

na i forgot but i figured out the answer to the question. but my question was if i could install my GPS in the dashboard above the console and have it flip up out of it. but i saw today that there is no room for it. so ill have to have another idea.

[shid]

There's no room anywhere in our cars except behind the head unit- thats whY i moved mine

[Akimbo]

bump cuz im still mad interested

[Sev408]

ahah, yeah ive come across a couple of problems that people failed to mention. Such as bolt size and the fact that you need 1 trans mount and your reverse light plug needs to be different. Ill update tonight or something.

Ive gotten the shifter in/linkage/transmission/ecu and what not. now i have to sort out the wiring issues.

--Scott

[Sev408]

Day 7-Tuesday July 6:

Swaped the Drive axles from the auto trans to the manual. Filled the manual trans with fluid. Replaced rear brake pads and fronts.


Day 8-Wednesday July 7:

Installed Manual Transmission



Day 9-Thursday July 8:

Installed manual ecu

[FAQdaWorld]

BUMP, any more progress? I need to know as much as possible about this. Gonna be doing this soon. Also, sticky please?

[Jdog1385]

need more info