Jonnie Fraz
11-09-2005, 07:47 PM
I just recently finished a auto to manual swap on a 1990 coupe and thought I would share some helpful tips.
First before you get started search and read all you can find on the swap, all the tips and tricks that you can find. There are several great write ups in the FAQ's section. Believe me these helped a ton.
Second get all the parts that you will need before tearing your car apart. There is a great list of all the parts in FAQ's by Drift freaq. This includes any new parts you will install, ie. flywheel, driveshaft, clutchmaster or slave. trust me this will save time and frustration. You do not want to get your car torn down and find out your new flywheel is on back order.
Third things that you should just get new. Clutch package T.O. bearing, input bushing, clutch disk and preasure plate. and alignment tool. New rear main seal, new rear tranny seal, new lower shift boot. Also you will want to get your gear oil and engine oil before you start.
Fourth set aside at least three days to compleate the swap. It may not take that long, but it might. The more prepared you are the less time it will take. Make sure your car is in a place where it will not have to be moved, also choose a nice level place to do the swap. Trust me on this one.
Fifth make sure you have the tools to do this. Good quality tools, I broke several Craftsman sockets during this adventure. You will need a good floor jack if not a trasnsmission jack. The manual trans weighs in at aprox 80lbs. and I would say the auto is twice that. If you have a friend to help that would be great, I did the whole swap myself including pulling the manual out of the donor car.
These are some of the things that I could think of to help make swapping transmissions a little easier. Your FSM will be of little help on this one, it does help with wiring the new trans up,and torque settings but other than that I did not find mine very helpful.
This whole thing took me about 12-15 hours including pulling the donor.
First before you get started search and read all you can find on the swap, all the tips and tricks that you can find. There are several great write ups in the FAQ's section. Believe me these helped a ton.
Second get all the parts that you will need before tearing your car apart. There is a great list of all the parts in FAQ's by Drift freaq. This includes any new parts you will install, ie. flywheel, driveshaft, clutchmaster or slave. trust me this will save time and frustration. You do not want to get your car torn down and find out your new flywheel is on back order.
Third things that you should just get new. Clutch package T.O. bearing, input bushing, clutch disk and preasure plate. and alignment tool. New rear main seal, new rear tranny seal, new lower shift boot. Also you will want to get your gear oil and engine oil before you start.
Fourth set aside at least three days to compleate the swap. It may not take that long, but it might. The more prepared you are the less time it will take. Make sure your car is in a place where it will not have to be moved, also choose a nice level place to do the swap. Trust me on this one.
Fifth make sure you have the tools to do this. Good quality tools, I broke several Craftsman sockets during this adventure. You will need a good floor jack if not a trasnsmission jack. The manual trans weighs in at aprox 80lbs. and I would say the auto is twice that. If you have a friend to help that would be great, I did the whole swap myself including pulling the manual out of the donor car.
These are some of the things that I could think of to help make swapping transmissions a little easier. Your FSM will be of little help on this one, it does help with wiring the new trans up,and torque settings but other than that I did not find mine very helpful.
This whole thing took me about 12-15 hours including pulling the donor.