I tried to search, but for some reason the search feature is not working. So, here is the deal.

I have a buddy with a 94 PEP auto FD, with intake, DP, Hi-flo Cat, RB Dual Cat Back, Power FC and fuel pump upgrade. He is trying to get a 5 speed swap done on it, and has purchased what he thought was everything needed for the conversion.

We dropped it off at Rotary Performance last Wednesday, and he was told it should be ready in 3-4 days. He got word late yesterday that they could not do the conversion until he bought a wiring harness from a 5 speed car. Is a new wiring harness required? Anyone know a good place to get one, and how much $$ they are?

He is frustrated, and concerned that he is already $2k into a project that he might not be able to have finished. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

No, mine was done w/o a new harness. The auto model was rewired. Try www.mzmperformance.com (austin) and www.sevenspeed.com (Penn state) - both have extensive experience in doing the swap.

Might have to replace the harness if it's old and brittle, and therefore would be a good time to swap to a 5speed harness anyways...

Funny, last I heard RP did not want to touch tranny swaps, hehe. Tight times?

 

Daniel,

Thanks for the info. I believe my buddy Erin contacted you via email about this. I'm not sure why RP is having such a hard time with this conversion, as Erin has been discussing it with them for the past 3 months, and they never mentioned anything about a new harness

 

No you do not need to swap harnesses, hell the only thing you need to do to get it to run and operate jump or wire the two biggest wires(gray and blue i believe) in the auto harness up to the clutch switch, that is what I have done right now. THe speed sensor is the same harness(plug) as the auto, and the brake switch is the same, the only ones left are the neutral, 1-2 switch, and reverse switch, which aren't neccesarily needed to operate

 

Its kinda hard to believe a good shop would have any problem doing this, seeing I did this in my driveway with minimal amount of tools...

 

(*edit* duh, I'm a noob, I can't read) I was going to post, they probably had too much time invested in it already (under the impression this is their first swap) and figured a new harness is easier/quicker. Don't get me wrong, super awesome guys there no doubt (Ari is one of the best customer service guys out there).

 

Thanks for the info guys. I don't doubt the abilities of anyone at RP, and they have been fantastic every time my friend and I have used them up to this point.

This situation is very unusual, and the fact that they have had his car for over a week, are telling him he needs additional parts and labor outside the agreement they had made prior to him bringing his car in, and have made little or no attempt to contact him with status reports seems a little fishy.

If he does in fact need a new harness, is that something you could buy used, and if so, would you want to? Any ideas on where to find a used one? I emailed Mazda Recyclers, but haven't heard back yet. Thanks again for your help!

 

you have to call mazda rec....they will send an auto reply saying that they are too backed up to answer emails. Just give em a call. You can also call clean and fast here in raleigh (who has my 7 right now for some work). They have a lot of used parts. There are also people parting out thier cars in the for sale section too.

 

Honestly, when it comes to electronics (or a very complex bundle of wires in this case), I would definitely buy new.

The harness is crap to begin with, and if it's spent any amount of time in an engine bay, it's on it's way to becoming brittle/crap.

They really need to invest more time in figuring it out though, cause sooner or later they'll have too to do more swaps (ex, potential customer calls them or MZM, MZM's quote will be a lot lower because they do not have to have the customer buy a new harness, if it's still good. )

 

Me and my friend did the swap for my car. hehe ghetto but it works.. I don't need the clutch to start the car. and the plugs that use to plug to the transmission .. well it's not plugged anymore.. do i need the speed sensor.. i've been dring my car for a while and everyhting appears to work. Except my reverse lights hhahaha.. can some one hlep me wiht hat part.. hehe. but there are suppose to be three plus that plu inoto the 5 speed tranny right.. i don't have any of them plugged up...

 

you dont need them plugged, the speed sensor would be nice though, as it tells you how fast you are going, and it bolts right off the auto tranny and onto the manual tranny

 

btw the way i have it right now i dont need to have the clutch pressed in either, but its fairly simple to wire it up that way

 

yeah hehe.. i mean the speedometer works fine ao i gess the speed sensor is hooked up.. I as thing the speed senors was one of those three plugs off the tranny.. I dunno.. my car is a wiring night mare.. Haltech is helping either.. quite a mess as well.. =(

 

can anybody tell me what the total cost of this swap would be about? i keep finding these fd's for real cheap in my area but they're all automatic...

 

http://www.jrx7.com/auto5speedswap.htm

 

oh wow - thanks

 

what's up man. So how did RP do on the swap? How's your car.

 

As an update, my buddy took his car to Don Marvel at MarvelSpeed, and Don took care of the conversion. Got it done in 3 days, and the only trouble he had was reconfiguring the cruise control. Everything works great, and he has no complaints.

I've driven his car a few times, and outside of clutch pedal feel, there is no difference between my OEM 5 speed and his auto/manual swap.

If anyone is looking into this conversion, I'd highly recommend contacting MarvelSpeed!

 

So what happened to rotary Performance? And how much did it come out too at Marvel. I'm planning on doing my conversion pretty soon but here In Florida.

 

Rotary Performance decided to pass on the conversion, since they were not confident that they could get the car to run properly without installing a new 5-speed wiring harness. I think it is something they will do in the future, but right now they are not doing them as far as I know

I'll find out what the total cost was to my friend, for parts and labor. He got a pretty sweet deal on all of the parts, and he already had a Power FC on the car, so he didn't need an ECU.

 

I talked to my buddy last night, and he told me Marvel Speed charged him a little over $1k for the labor to do the swap.

if you have any questions, you can pm him here on the forum (beavers7).

Good luck with your conversion, and keep us posted!

 

That's great man that his car is done. So did he need the wireharness after all? Well right now i'm don't have enough money to do the swap. What i'll do is get the powerFC and see how it does with the automatic. And when i get enough money later on, I'll do the swap.