Transmission disaster
 

ok, so i have looked alot to find answers to the same problem as mine, but no luck so hopfully someone knows my pain.

ok, so i have a 88 gxl fc n/a auto, bad news, trans took a crap and i daily drive this thing.

later down the road, i want to do a tll swap but until finances start cooperating, its not gonna happen.

went to my local pick and pull for salvation, only to find a 89 convertable, engine missing, but the 5 speed tranny and all lines and cylinders(slave, master) still there.

by now you can kinda see my problem... what to do what to do.....

PLEASE HELP!!!

Just do the swap.. get eeeverything you can, google or youtube "5 speed swap" and get on it!

Trust me, you will fall in love with the car all over again, once you are done..

Ps. Don't be too discouraged thinking it will take forever.. I've known of people doing the swap in a matter of hours

problems;

1. no point in putting another auto tranny in it if in a few months im doing the swap

2. if i do the swap, but put in the n/a tranny now, can i keep it and just buy the tll motor, save some cash, when i want to swap to turbo motor?

3. if i cant keep it, how much stuff do i change to go from the n/a to turbo tranny(mounting and rear end wise)?

and the most important problem of all, tight budget and i dont know how to fabricate....

then you're screwed, these problems will arise doing the turbo swap anyways.

either buy a cheap daily beater in the meantime or get all the 5 speed parts from the wrecker and do the swap. only thing you will need to fabricate is the mount adapter to the auto crossmember since it sits about 8" further back.

there are plenty of tranny shops in san antonio texas, could they fab the adapter?

how much would that cost? (adapter)

any changes need to be made(mounting wise) when i put in the turbo tranny when i do the tll swap?

if you are unsure and money is tight get that NA trans set up and put the TII stuff off until another day.

i'm sure a tranny shop could, or a muffler shop, or a regular repair shop.

Kevin did a writeup on the conversion, just read it to understand what you're in for.
Rotary Resurrection home of the budget rebuild.

in the past i have had customers cut off manual transmission mount tabs from a manual vehicle, i then welded them to the automatic chassis BUT the sound deadening material SHOULD be removed as well as the carpet while doing this, the sound deadening was making the welding very difficult and the carpet likely would catch fire if you left it in. this is a more proper way to do the conversion but it is a royal pain in the ass.

Including the pedal box?

no, to cut a hole in the floor and make a flintstone mobile.

plan on it taking several days at least.

I have an 90 S5 automatic tranny in the storage shed and you are welcome to come up to Austin and get it. It worked fine when we pulled it out and swapped in the Tii 5-speed. I dont know if there is any difference in S4 to S5 auto trannys.

You'll find that the swap will be more expensive and take more time than you plan for. For example, you'll have to buy a clutch and flywheel and drive shaft and new pedal assembly and...

look up v8killa's writeup for doing the transmission adapter. Then search my user and auto swap

Basically you need two pieces of angle iron with 4 holes in each, then you put the automatic crossmember on the S5 manual trans and use the two pieces of angle iron to bolt that up to the automatic body side mounts.

Searching auto swap with my username will also give you a drawing of the wiring necessary to adapt the manual into your car.

Don't do the RotaryRessurection method, this one should yield considerably better results :)

Other stuff you need: manual flywheel, pedals, pedal bar [you don't need the whole frame that holds the pedals though - that's a waste of time], 4 nuts and bolts similar in size to your crossmember->body mount bolts, some wire, spades[weatherproof], electric tape, manual starter.... I think that's about it.

It's really, really much easier than you'd imagine. ^_^

lol... This was my thought too... I've given away more GREAT condition RX7 transmissions than I've blown up!

well the good thing about the 89 convert at pick and pull is that they left everything i need for the swap; pedals, pedal frame, starter, tranny, flywheel, clutch, slave and master cyclinder, fliud line, shifter, ect. 20 bucks says theyll only charge 100 bucks for all. im just worried bout the fab work cost, and what im gonna have to change when i do the turbo swap(want to put as little money as possible to keep it driveable till the swap. i think i will be able to start here in 3 months

The brackets arent that big of a deal. I think it is DerekCat's model we used and I just took his instructions and measurements to a fab guy with a garage and he put em together for me.

btw, my wife is under the impression that any car project I take on will take 20 minutes and I have all the parts on hand at the start.

:bsflag:

:lol: