Trying to install a 1989 tranny into my 1990 vert and the damn thing won't fit!
 

What do I need to make it work? tried swapping tailshafts and that was a waste of over 2 hours. Do I just need the 1989 mounting bracket?

I am probably going to say 'screw it' and just get a 1990 tranny.

what a royal pain in the ass, this stuff doesnt happen with FDs. I assumed S5 trannys were compatible, I suppose not.

Another question, which trannys *will* fit in my 1990 vert?

Is this a manual tranny? I know the automatics are different.

Sorry, should have mentioned, it is a 5 spd manual.

Very weird, I know that other than sendors it should be a straight swap. I know if you put a coupe tranny in there, the shifter can be slightly taller. But the mounts, starters an all that jazz are interchangeable. Why doesn't it fit and from where?????

Unless you're throwing a TII tranny into an N/A, you shouldn't have a problem. What's not working? The mount not lining up properly?

Yup, the 1990 tranny mount won't bolt onto the 1989 tranny. It's the wrong mount.

We tried to swap tailshafts, and found an interesting diff----the 1989 has a large weight on the shaft, i am assuming to get rid of vibration. It looks like a huge metal hockey puck, and made it a tremendous pain in the ass to get the tailshaft off. the 1990 tailshaft came right off. Also, the 1990 tailshaft would not fit on the 1989 tranny.

What a royal pain in the ass.

Are you positive it's an 89 tranny? The only time I ever had an issue with mounts was when swapping a mount between S4/S5, they woudln't interchange and I simply had to find a mount that matched the year of the tranny. I've swapped a couple of GTUs diffs into 90/91's without issues, and one '89 GXL without any troubles with the mounts, so it's leading me to think you may have an older tranny than you believe. Really, the easiest thing to do if that's the case is find an older mount.

Hmmm, maybe it is an 88 tranny? I need to call the dude I bought it from. It def came out of a vert, I saw the car briefly.

So you are saying if I get an older mount than the tranny will bolt right up? I verified that the driveshaft fits fine, I am concerned about the tranny-to-motor connection.

Hope this helps:
There are differences between a S4 and S5 NA box. The mounts are slightly different. You cant switch crossmembers/mounts between the two series, but when installed on their respective transmissions they line up perfectly. If the S4 crossmember is left on the S4 tranny it will work fine.
An S4 Mounts onto a flat section of the tranny and the S5 has 2 angled bosses that the cross member bolts to.

The bellhousing/starter/flywheel will all bolt up fine, the only troubles will be the mount. But yeah, I've fit S4 trannies in S5's using the s4 mounts without a problem.

Ahhh, nice info.

So it looks like I may have an S4 tranny. dude I bought it from def said 1989.

Just to clarify---if this is an s4 tranny and I get the s4 tranny mount, than it *will* bolt into my 1990 vert with *no other fitment problems* at all?

thanks guys!

Yep

haha!!!!!!!!Now you made me think about saving and categorizing my tranny mounts. But I usually keep my tranny mounts and trannies together.

Thanks for all the input guys! I spoke to the guy i bought the tranny from. He was very helpful, is mailing me the mount asap.

I think there was an S4 tranny in there from a previous owner and he had no idea. he personally dropped the tranny down from his 1991 vert.

I also ordered a new s4 clutch fork and throwout bearing from malloy, b/c I was told they aren't compatible from s4 to s5 (the s4 tranny i have doesnt have those 2 pieces on it). My price from malloy was only 40 bucks for both pieces!! On an FD, I'd be looking at more like 250 bucks. Gotta love the older rx7s :)

Rich

They can be nice at times, but at other times they can be brutal!

And just to throw a little more on to the fire, remember the M50 tranny that the verts come with uses a different clutch than the M85 that the non turbo coupes come with.

we swapped a 91 tranny into an 89 vert with NO problems

.

What's different about the vert clutch? Come to think about it, what's the difference between vert and coupe trannys?

it should be nothing I have swapped both no problems

Non turbo verts and non turbo coupes use the same case, so you couldn't tell the differences externally.

Clutch is probably something simple like being heavier clamping, or 5mm bigger (like the S4 Turbo clutch is when compaired to the smaller S5 Turbo clutch).