its my first car..ive been savin to buy an EJ but i really wanna fix my first car..but i have no idea how difficult it would be to convert an automatic to manual..plz help

 

http://hometown.aol.com/jrmupzaii/auto2man.html

 

its a major pain in the ***, and while going through it you will wish you just sold the damn thing and got a manual

but i bought my hatch for 400 bucks with a bad auto tranny, mobbed it around for a few thousand miles before reverse and 4th gear blew up, and got basically everything except pedal assembly and shift linkage for free. it was a huge hassle but i'm happy with the results

 

My swap wasn't that hard at all. The hardest part is swapping the pedal cluster.

 

Not a bad swap at all. Just the pedal swap is a pain in the neck but its not difficult. It's worth it IMO.

 

Hardest part for me was aligning the manual tranny to the block properly, and even then it wasn't hard, just annoying and time consuming. Pedal cluster was also annoying, theres a bolt all the way on the top and you have to drop your steering wheel, it sucks.

 

http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=1033

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1220898


I feel that the swap was worth it, definitely pain in the *** at times. I got a killer deal on my hatch, $60 with a blown headgasket and an automagic transmission that was on its last legs, so the extra effort to do the conversion was totally worth it. I got a complete 5-spd parts car for free and had access to every single part that I needed. Having the parts car made it much easier, it would be a bit more of challenge if I'd had to track down all of the parts individually.

Removing the auto transmission was a pain, I did with the engine still in the car. Removing the engine would have made that part much easier.

The pedal swap was the worst part of the conversion, more tedious and time consuming than difficult/complicated. Don't try and rush it, you'll break stuff, just take your time.

The manual throttle cable is different than the auto, so you'll want to swap the gas pedal from the auto pedal cluster to the manual pedals. Much easier than running the manual throttle cable.

I can't remember if any of the links cover it, but you will need to run a cable from the manual transmission to where the wiring for the auto shifter was to make the reverse lights work.

If you have any problems or questions I can do my best to help.




Modified by Fej at 6:48 PM 6/24/2008

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Heylookits shawn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">its a major pain in the ***, and while going through it you will wish you just sold the damn thing and got a manual

but i bought my hatch for 400 bucks with a bad auto tranny, mobbed it around for a few thousand miles before reverse and 4th gear blew up, and got basically everything except pedal assembly and shift linkage for free. it was a huge hassle but i'm happy with the results</TD></TR></TABLE>


are you serious???? lol...its easy as [freak]ing poo...

 

its easy, and well worth it

 

haha ya its easy and well worth it. i also flipped the auto tranny off too then hit it i few times with the sledge hammer then lit it on fire then threw it in the orchards good times.

 

maybe you people are alot shorter than i am, i've done complete motor swaps in less time than it took me to change the damn pedal assembly, long arms make moving around under there a pain in the ***

everything else went like a normal swap, but the auto tranny was monstrous and kind of hard to maneuver out of the little car

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by s10cky &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">


are you serious???? lol...its easy as [freak]ing poo...</TD></TR></TABLE>

I dont wanna hear about your personal life like that.

 

i hope you had help chunking that sum bitch

i picked up the pos 4 speed wrong and my shoulder still hurts

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thorclark &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I dont wanna hear about your personal life like that.</TD></TR></TABLE>

nice try...but seriously, this is easier than a b-series swap into an eg, that **** that everyone complains about with the new pedal assembly took me 1 hour, and I am 6'1.

 

some people are so delicate when it comes to workin on cars

 

Definetly worth the time. Its pretty easy .The hardest part I would have to
say were the pedals. Let me mention the fact that Its easier to change the gas pedal than the throtle cable. Also lots of people are under the assumption that you need manual axles. Thats bs, unless your doing a motor swap like a b series motor, etc. Your autos work. It took me about 3 hours to do the swap not including the pedals. Pedals took about an hour. Keep in mind that Your ecu will show code 19 after all is said and done. Thats normal because theres no torque converter nor the auto tranny. Easy fix.. just swap ecus from auto to manual or buy a 1 resistor and do it yourself. Also the wiring is straight forward. Green and I think a black wire from the tranny go to the center console were the 3 harnesses are. You cant miss the two wires coming out of the manual tranny. They are right under the dizzy. Run two wires from that tranny switch to where the automatic shifter used to be. Attach those two wires, one to the yellow wire on the old auto harness and the other to the green with a black strip on the same harness. This will make your reverse lights work. Also there is a harness with two thick black with a white strip wires next to the other harness stated above. Jump those to together,In other words attach them together. Those are so the car thinks its not in park, therefore allowing you to start the car and most importantly remove your key from the ignition. Again I surely recommend the swap.. Its easy and its worth it. Depending on where you live and the availability of parts, its not really expensive. I got my tranny with shifter and linkage for $ 65, motor mounts rear and side for 20 ,pedals for 15, ecu I swipped never paid for that,starter for 10, flywheel for 10 and just pocketed all the tranny bolts, Clutch and flywheel is up to you, I paid 140 for my clutch and 30 to machine the flywheel. All the parts from my local junkyard. Look to spend around 250 dollars depending on what clutch you use.N0TEARTS LIST: CLUTCH,FLYWHEEL,FLYWHEEL BOLTS,PEDAL ASSEMBLY,TRANNY OF COURSE, SIDE TRANNY MOUNT, AND REAR TRANNY MOUNT. FRONT TRANNY MOUNT FITS SO DONT WORRY.If You have some knowledge and/or mechanicly inclined then this is for you. Any questions feel free to ask!!!! late

 

***NOTE, FIREWALL NEEDS TO BE REINFORCED IF PRE EXISTING CLUTCH CABLE HOLE IS NOT PRESENT*** this is the only thing i regret about my swap!! i now have a huge rip in my firewall and the pedals need a support bracket behind the top left bolt because your pedal assembly will flex under stress and break! (on my third one) the auto firewall does not have the extra support for the clutch pedal. i'll try to post pix asap. also, try to sorce SI pedals as they are the strongest.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by I CRX I &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">***NOTE, FIREWALL NEEDS TO BE REINFORCED IF PRE EXISTING CLUTCH CABLE HOLE IS NOT PRESENT***</TD></TR></TABLE>

I cannot stress this point enough! Great point I CRX I!!!!!!

Most cars, though, are going to have the clutch-cable hole already there with a plug on it. I don't know what the variable is (year, place of origin, trim?), but I've only ever seen one without the hole there, and I think it was an '88. What year and trim was your car?

But if it doesn't, the firewall definitely needs to be reinforced!!

Also, the pedals are easy - take out the dash first!!! Then it's gravy.