Auto trans to Manual trans swap Part II: IT HAS BEGUN!!
 

ok, for those not familiar with my swap, please see this thread: https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generation-specific-1979-1985-18/auto-trans-manual-trans-swap-761003/

the swap has begun. i have all of the old auto stuff out. i have the manual trans pedals in, the auto shifter is completely removed, and the flywheel is on. today, i will install the clutch, trans, manual trans driveshaft, clutch master, reinstall the underbody heatshield, exhaust, and starter. i may as well throw a new set of plugs in the engine. as promised, i am documenting the swap with pictures. a few deviations from previous posters. i never had to cut the shifter to get it out. if you remove the bottom boot off of the plate, it exposes a throug bolt with a nut. remove the bolt and the shifter assembly can be removed from the bottom of the car. the metal plate then is removed from the top. i did not swap in a complete pedal box from a manual car. instead, i removed the auto brake pedal and installed a manual trans brake and clutch pedal in the existing frame. the auto and manual pedal frame's are identical. the only difference is the through bolt that the pedals pivot on. the manual bolt is longer to accomidate for the clutch pedal. it was pretty straight forward. its installed to factory spec. no one will ever be able to tell that there was ever an auto pedal assembly in there. so, today i will try and finish up. i will continue taking more pics and post them later tonight. stay tuned for further info. here are some pics of the progress thus far:

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07215.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07217.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07218.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07220.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07221.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07222.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07223.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07224.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07226.jpg

and that maniacal auto shifter as seen from the bottom:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07228.jpg

+1, I would love to see this archived as well when it is finished!

How did the auto drive when it was installed? Did it really choke the anemic engine down, or was it just a little slower than a manual?

the auto trans was nice. it shifted very well. as nice as it was, it made the car much less enjoyable. it took the "sport" out of sports car. it was very much noticibly slower.

You installed the wrong flywheel! Get yourself the correct '83-'85 flywheel for your rotors.

I was going to say, my flywheel looked a little different when i did mine.

My automatic transmission had a lot of issues with switching gears, and it was definitely a lot slower. Only would rev up to 4000k unless you manually ran it through the gears.

yes, that dawned on me after the thing was completely together tonight...using a pre 84 flywheel may cause some harm to the engine...i believe the flywheel i'm using is a 23 pounder and i will have to go and zip one off of another engine that is correct. should be a 26lb flywheel... but of course that means it all has to come back apart..

Glad to see someone doing a writeup on this often asked about mod. I do hope you take the time to degrease the engine bay. Then check your heater hoses for any swelling or softness due to oil saturation. That's the #1 reason the heater hoses fail and then one loses their engine to overheating.

I'm also curious if the manual tranny cross member will be a direct bolt in to the auto tranny body mounts. I know on the 2nd gens they aren't and a new set of body mounts need to be welded in. I suspect the 1st gens are the same. If that's the case, drill out the spot welds on the body mounts, bolt them to the tranny mount cross member, bolt that to the tranny, square it up perpendicular with the drive shaft and weld the mounts in where the spot welds were drilled out. Be sure to grind off any paint and undercoating where the spot welds go and spray with a weld through primer, then undercoat after it cools. You will need to move the carpet and padding to prevent an interior fire. If you don't have access to a welder, you can drill the holes where the spot welds are through the floor pan and use 5'16" bolts with larger flat washers and split ring lock washers. a dab of red Locktite wouldn't hurt either.

ok, i'm going to pull the trans back out and swap out the flywheel and clutch. luckily this should only take a few hours. a lift and air tools make for an easy job. the mount that i used was the auto trans mount. the angle on the body mounts for the trans mount were different and therefore i could not use a manual trans crossmember. this worked out perfectly though. the mount extension was made, was made from 3/16" flat stock steel. we measured the necessary angles and raidused the steel for the proper fit, cut it, drilled some holes and it's tighter than a nun. fitment turned out excellent. here are some pics:

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07231.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07232.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07233.jpg

later, one i reinstall the trans i'll post pics of the other items that i photographed. i'll show the pedal assembly, driveshaft differences, post what needed to be removed, what got in the way and any other suggestions i may have for someone wiling to perform the swap.

Can you post the measurements and location of the holes for the adaptor plate? Your solution looks much better then others I've seen. Is there anything special to get the speedo cable to fit? It's hard to tell if there is enough clearance.

the auto speedo cable is marginally longer but works just fine. i zip tied the small loop that would be dangling. its so minimal in length that one would barely notice. i can see if i saved the measurements. if i did i'll post them up.

the car is complete and running great. i'l lpost pictures up here tonight or first thing in the morning. i pulled the trans and removed the 79-82 flywheel and clutch assembly and replaced it with the proper 83+ flywheel and clutch. the flywheel is from an 85.

Right on!

as i had said, i got the correct clutch and flywheel installed and everything went super quick from there:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07240.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07241.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07246.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07248.jpg

there were a couple of snags that i ran into. the first one was the top inspection plate for the flexplate/torque converter. this plate is bolted to the engine and to the trans. the auto dipstick tube bolts to this as well. the plate is larger than that on a manual trans car and cannot be used with the manual transmission. thus the plate must be removed. the next snag was the pedal assembly. i never removed the entire assembly. i simply pulled the auto brake pedal out and replaced it with a manual trans brake pedal and added the clutch pedal. there is a through bolt and a spacer that must be removed in order to remove the pedals. the auto through bolt is shorter because it does not have to accomidate the pivot for the clutch pedal. so, i used all of the components from the manual trans pedal assembly and bolted them into the auto's pedal box...which was identical once the brake pedal was removed.

the starter bolts are different. one must use the starter and bolts from a manual trans car. the starter wiring was a little rough at first. we figured out that we needed a trigger for the solenoid. the solenoid was getting power but because of the in car wiring, it needed to see neutral. so by wiring the BY wire to the BY wire that came off of the same connector initally, the soilenoid was then powered up, engaging the starter. here are a couple of pics:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07243.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07244.jpg

the driveshaft length was different, which i knew from the start. the automatic trans driveshaft is shorter because the autobox is marginally longer. here is a pic of the two driveshafts. the auto driveshaft is on the top:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07234.jpg

the intereior turned out nice. the snag i had was removing the auto shifter's mounting plate and boot. i had to completely disassemble the shifter from the bottom. once the shifter was out, i was able to remove the black boot under the metal mounting plate. after the boot was out, i was able to remove the mounting plate from the top. i then used the manual trans mounting plate and proper boot.
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07230.jpg

although dirty from the swap, the interior fits perfectly to the manual trans:
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07238.jpg

all in all it wasnt that difficult. the car runs and drives excellent. the trans has a tiny amount of bearing noise. the sucker has been sitting for 10 years so i'm hoping that i can use a better fluid (redline or synchromesh) and take away a little bit of the noise. other than that it shifts perfectly and drives so much better than when it had the autobox in it.
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...7/DSC07250.jpg

more pics to come!

holy hail/rock damage on the hood lol

nice writeup, thanks for doing it!

i really enjoy working on these cars. the car was originally from florida, thus the nasty hail damage on the hood:( luckily nothing else is hail damaged..perhaps the car was mostly backed under something, exposing only the hood, fenders, and nose and the hail ruined the hood..dunno

1-800-radiator

radiator is fine.

looks like i'm leaving this afternoon with my army national guard unit to go down to louisiana to help with hurricaine relief (my second time down there, first in september of 05). they gave us notime frame as to when we'll be back. i'll try and keep updated via the internet on my cell phone. i'll let you guys know when i'll be home as soon as i can. if anyone has any questions about the swap, feel free to ask. i'll try and answer them via cell phone internet.

ok, i am officially back from baton rouge. at any rate, if anyone as any questions on this swap or would like more pics, please feel free to post, as i can answer most any question regarding the swap.

Lucas Oil makes an additive that you put in an automatic trans that can be put in a manual trans with automatic fluid. sounds crazy, i know. ive never heard anything bad about lucas oils so i gave it a shot with my manual tranny. it was amazing the difference it made. i thought the syncros were going out before the change, but after.....i could have swore it was a new tranny. try it and see if it stops your noise.

the noise is very minimal. thank you for the advice though. i may consider the additave.

what i am experiencing is the speedometer jumping at speed and under acceleration. i replaced the cable and it got worse!!! i'm going to try installing a speedo cable i know is good as well as the speed sensor from that trans and go from there. its always something, lol. the car has been my daily driver since, covering over 800 miles without a flaw.

so i was reading this old thread and yeah..wishi had taken the time to do that. lost the engine a year ago to a failed heater hose. i should've known better and i kick myself every day for not doing that. Scott, you were right. now the car just sits. i sold it and bought it back and i've got a lot of work ahead of me.

Sorry to ask a question thats been asked 200 time but what the deal on the flywheels? why one over the other?

the flywheel is the counterweight for the engine. the engine is essentially balanced to the flywheel weight. if the wrong flywheel is used, the rotor bearings will wear quickly and cause engine failure..

hello,
I'm in the process of trying to figure out a swap that was done by the PO, will you talk about the wiring changes you had to make to get your car to run? Sorry to hear about your engine, good luck with the repair.
Thanking you in advance, Mark 206-909-8877