Hey every one I have an 85 RX-7 that was an automatic. the transmission had some problems and i prefer stick any ways. A friend gave me a 79 rx-7 a few years back it ran great no problems just the body and interor where bad. so riped out the transmission and i'm now trying to put it in the 85 rx-7 but i'm running into problems I got the stick transmission bolted in but it dose not look right the release fork is going to hit the firewall when it is raised to meet the engine. any info on this. I thought the chasis where all the same for first gen's. no matter auto or stick

 

Have you posted this question in the first gen forum? I did this same swap on my 1987 626.

What color is your FB? I am also running around the bremerton area. Dark grey FC3S. Maybe I'll see ya on the roads sometime.

Good luck with your swap!

 

We did a similar swap on my old 79, only it was the opposite problem. We were trying to put a manual tranny in and it didn't seem to fit, so we had to get a completely different one. Hopefully you won't have to do that. Good luck

 

Just trade the '79 tranny to someone for an '81-'85 tranny. The '81-'85 shifter is a little further back and will fit in your car better.

 

Jeff20B did you have to change your drive shaft also? I'm Shur i have to the manual trans drive shaft is about 2 in. longer then the auto. Now that i have the manual mounted in with NO engine I can see that the release fork is hiting the chasie. Did you have this problem do i need to move the engine mounts forward. When i have time i'm going to the junk yard and i'll look at some stock manual first gens to see that the diffrence is.

 

Since you car is an '85 you may have to change the driveshaft. Appearantly the '84-'85 auto cars with overdrive had a longer tanny with a shorter driveshaft.

Use the same front mount on the front cover of the engine. The release fork will not hit the tranny tunnel. The tranny mount that sits under the car might need to be changed. Perhaps that's what's messing you up.

Yes, look at some stock manual trans cars to see what the differences are.

Hmm, I seem to recall the front engine mount on '84-'85 cars has a 10mm difference compared to '83 and older cars. You'll need to pay attention to this as well.

 

Dose any one recall the 79 manual trannys being shorter than the 85's? and if so how is this done. the bodys are the same no matter what (the hole for the shifter didn't move) if the tranny mounts are place diffrent all right but then the shifter wouldn't even line up with the hole. Now i'm realy getting irritated. the only thing i can think of is that the trannys from the 79 is shorter then an 85 tranny.

 

I don't know if any one will find this of use but lots of info here.
http://www.mazdatrix.com/g1.htm
mostly about trannys on rx7's

 

for those of you that have been helping Thank you and hear are some pics of the project