Wondering if anyone has a step by step guide for manual swapping an FB. I have a 1982 gsl automatic and I am swapping in the manual transmission from an 83. I have most of what I need but I have a few questions. First do you need the whole clutch, brake, and accelerator assembly for the swap? the people I bought my car from sourced just the clutch pedal from the 83 manual car and I was wondering if I could just cut the brake pedal in half so that the clutch can fit and if I can just bolt on the clutch to the automatic pedal setup. Also do you need the ecu from a manual car for this? I have heard you do and I have heard you don't. I don't know a lot about this area so any help would be great

 

I did this swap on a 1985 so things are mostly the same.

1. For the clutch pedal, you don't need the entire "box". You do need the brake peddle, clutch peddle, long bolt and spacers they swivel on, clutch switch,
2. From my experience, the ECU is also different.
3. The trans bolts to the same location for 1979-1983 so that is not a concern as compared to the 1984-1985.

 

I have all that not including the ecu, I attached a photo of the clutch I have is this all that I need including the long bolt and spacers? I never heard of the clutch switch could you tell me more about that? And last question how does it attach to the chassis by the long bolts? because I looked under the dash of my car and the brake pedal seemed to be attached by a bolt that went roughly where the black square is on my photo but I don't have any bolts for that or I don't know what I would even need to attach this to the car

 

Here you go. This will help. The factory service manual and parts manual come in handy. The assembly and clutch switch are listed.

You need to remove the current shorter peddle bolt and replace it with the long one while adding the additional spacer/bushings and peddle. Take the drivers seat out. You'll need to put your head up into the peddle well. It's tight and not much room to move. Your tools need to be selected and put at hands reach.

Pay attention to the parts labeled M/T and A/T

http://foxed.ca/rx7manual/manuals/pa...000A-4600A.PDF

 

Do not forget the following items when converting to a manual transmission:

-inner shift boots, outer boot and plate, and ****
-manual driveshaft
-manual trans mount and crossmember
-flywheel from your model year or correct weight flywheel
-manual starter
-modified wiring to trigger the manual starter
-clutch hydraulics
-manual trans speedometer cable

Its easier to buy a complete pedal box from a 5spd car. Forget dicking with all of the bolts and spacers that you may need to swap over pedals. If you buy the box then you can either swap it in which isn't difficult or you can swap the pedals over to your box. Either way is fine. Also, if your car has cruise control, you'll need the clutch pedal switch as well. Should come with the pedal box.

 

Erich has a video on this on his RAD potential youtube channel.

 

I have salvaged an extra engine and manual transmission from a donor car. (82 rx7) So I have most items covered. Trans and everything in that (starter, clutch, flywheel, and everything else because it was an operating manual trans in a different car. I also have the manual driveshaft and the clutch master cylinder and I am pretty sure the slave as well. The only thing that troubles me is mounting the clutch pedal and the wiring involved. (the most involved wiring project I have ever done is wiring in a stereo for my daily)

 

The wiring isn't difficult from what I remember. I did the swap on an 85 about 10 years ago. Mounting the pedal is not hard. You may just want to swap in a pedal box from an S2 manual trans car. It can be tricky to remove and install dur to it being in the kinda tight. You'll have to lower the steering column slightly and there's some lower dash trim that's removed. Its bolted to the firewall, to the dash from, and steering column if I remember correctly.

 

not sure on the US version but on the japanese version you just grabbed the short harness from the front firewall back to the tranny and swapped that... it was plug and play on all years of the SA/FB over here. as long as you got that harness you just unplugged the old, plugged in the new and your reverse lights and what not worked fine.

ken

 

Okay, I have a couple of questions.
First, for the clitch switch I'll buy the switch for like 10$ and is there already the wiring to plug into it or what do I have to do to actually make it work?

Secondly, what do I need to buy to wire up the 83 transmission? I'll attach a picture to this thread of what is already connected to the transmission.

Lastly, the manual speedometer wiring. What specifically do I need to buy for this?

 

For the U.S. versions, the only new harness you need is the trans harness.

 

The clutch switch is only for cruise control deactivation. You don't need it if you don't have cruise. The wiring will be there for the clutch switch. Mazda did not have wiring harness variations for the interior. It was all there, it just depends on if your car had particular options to plug into the connectors.

 

Oh okay, I do have cruise control but it hasn't worked since I bought the car and I don't really need it to work either. Maybe sometime down the line I'll look into it