Rosie really needs a manual tranny. Shes got RB exhaust elec fan and i cant feel any power difference with this tranny. Is anyone willing to help me do this? Shes my daily driver... so she cant be dead to long. How long would it take to do and would anyone help me? I dont have any manual parts either. Im in Shoreline WA

 

im in spokane, but am in no position to drive out there and help you
if you wanna give me a call sometime i can tell you what parts you need to do the swap
i did this to my 81 rex and it was worth every penny and worth ever minute it took to do it

trust me, you wont regret it, its like driving a totally different car

-greg

 

Is it true the pedal boxes are fundamentally different in mounting points to the firewall?

I had a friend a few years back that converted an '82 from auto to manual, and he mentioned he had to redrill things, and even then the pedals never sat the right distance apart. Mind you, this was a RHD car, maybe it's different for LHD?

 

my car id LHD everything was a DIRECT bolt in, no drilling or fabricating involved at all
unless you have the automatic tranny with overdrive, then u have to get a tranny crossmember custom made
but if its the 3 speed auto then the manual tranny crossmember bolts right up

-greg

 

Bouis is supposed to be doing the swap , should be done by now, but he never posted results. I'd like to see my old car with a 5speed.

 

im just about finished swapping out a 4spd auto with a manual, still need the crossmember though, only other thing i have a problem with is the neutral/clutch switch, im not sure exactly how to hook that up (factory, i could bypass it quite easily), is there a different ecu for the autos?

 

Dont you have to drill some kind of hole in the floor for a pedal and stuff? If its just simply, pull the tranny and bolt everything on how long would it take in a fully supplied ship with hyrdeaulic lifts? (school) the mAX i could have it in this shop is for the week. How many hours with 2-3 people would this take?

 

Joe: the swap is done. It has been, but my computer has been busted since Christmas and I've been busy with school; I'm taking 18 hours currently and I don't get much free time these days.

The swap was pretty straightforward -- I sure as hell wouldn't call it easy -- and as far as I can tell everything works fine. Except the reverse. I've tried double clutching it and I've tried rolling the car backwards and I've tried just pulling on the ******, but it won't even grind. So, I think it might be the shifter linkage, but I just haven't had time to pull the transmission again since the car is at my folks' house and I'm at school. Otherwise, it's fine: no noise or synchro problems.

With the MSD, lightweight flywheel, racing beat exhaust, and five speed, the car is fun as hell. I've done a lot of other little things, and a few more in store. Unfortunately, I've only gotten to put about 25 miles on it since the tranny swap. When I get the chance (maybe this weekend) I'll drop the transmission and try to figure out what's wrong with the reverse.

 

damn sorry to hear about the trans, take a look at the bushings yet? If you can't fix it, i'll send you another for the shipping cost (probably less than or about 50.)
18 hours is crazy!
good luck, hope you kept her covered and nice and warm over the winter.

Joe

 

Elvisjer, what year is the car that you are swapping the auto out of? I have a friend in Olympia who needs an 84 - 85 auto driveshaft.

 

I had this problem once, turned out a penny got stuck in the folds of the boot in just the right position which caused me not to be able to shift in reverse, .

 

Which bushings are you talking about Joe? The little plastic things around the base of the shifter? There aren't as many as you'd expect to see from the Mazdatrix website, but there's a number attached to the bottom of the shifter, it feels solid and it certainly goes to where reverse *should* be, it just never sticks or engages. No change under the boot, either.

 

Kill No Cone: I've got one from an '85. The u-joints and all look good, and it only has 89k miles on it. Unfortunately I'm in Mississippi so it'd have to be shipped. I don't know how feasable that would be. Let me know if you're interested.

 

two bushings right? one on each pivot point(*****). hehe

 

Mine is an 82' gsl... sorry. Im going to find a donor car and just swap the heck out of it! w00t w00t! Theres 3 white GSL's within 2 miles of my house, all moss covered and never moving. Im going to offer to take them off their hands.. all three are 5 speeds also. Maybe if i limp a lot and act really nice, and bring a baby....

 

.

 

I did this last September, took me 4 days total, most of which was finding a starter that worked cause pep boys sucks...... started thursday afternoon, worked thru saturday afternoon spent saturday evening and sunday finding a starter. It helps if you get all the parts first. the pedals were a bitch cause I got the assembly out of a 85 gs and was putting it into a 83 gsl and the holes wouldnt line up so i had to take both apart and fabricate the mount of the 83 to fit the 3 pedals. other then that everything should line up.