This is a brief post about my personal experience with the dreaded 5 speed swap.
So I finished my 5 speed swap a coupe of days ago (took about 13 hours over 2 days). I used a W58.
A few tips:
- If you are going to use the hard line from a manual car for the hydraulics, be prepared to curse....a lot. I did (see below). The good thing is, every A70 body i have ever seen has the soft line mount point on the underside of the body, so no worries there.
- Pull the engine. This will give you a chance to run the clutch line down (if you used the stock steel line), and tie up anything on your motor that might be leaking (valve covers by #6 in my case). You will save several hours by doing this.
- The clutch pedal is a kick in the dick....seriously. Overall, its not too hateful until you get to nut on the top left of the assembly. Have fun with that one. i think I got lucky.
- The brake light switch is identical. You can pull the switch labeled "Clutch Switch" out of the clutch pedal assembly, you won't need it.
- For the wiring, I have attached a basic outline of the harness I made for the backup lights, clutch safety switch, and cruise cancel. The wires from the engine bay connectors to the pedal switch are approx 4 feet in length (and are a bit too long), with the reverse section being approx 12-15 inches. Be sure to check these lengths. My car will not start without the pedal down, cruise works fine, and reverse lights work like a champ. This will require a few connectors from the old auto trans, as well as the reverse light pigtail from a 5 speed engine bay harness. The speed sensor connectors are plug and play, although the auto is 4 wire and the manual is 3 wire. My ABS works fine regardless. The other square connector is not used.
- Some people keep the auto 7MGE engine controller...I opted to use a manual computer. I dont like my engine jumping to 1K at idle with the clutch pressed because it thinks its in park. The manual computer will stop this (it did for me). I would imagine that fuel delivery and certain elements of timing are different between auto and manual cars, could someone chime in on that?
- Your O/D Off light will flash quite a bit. The only thing I can tell you is take the bulb out, or for a cleaner look, install a tach from a manual car.
- The shifter hole did not need to be cut, however the bolt holes for the rubber boot closest to the coin holder are not in the right place. The ones by the radio are. I did not consider this a big deal.
Overall, it was a (fairly) painless swap, and i could probably do it in half the time next time. If anyone has any questions, shoot me a PM and i'll do my best to answer you as best I can (based on my own experiences).
Per usual, your miles may vary.
So I finished my 5 speed swap a coupe of days ago (took about 13 hours over 2 days). I used a W58.
A few tips:
- If you are going to use the hard line from a manual car for the hydraulics, be prepared to curse....a lot. I did (see below). The good thing is, every A70 body i have ever seen has the soft line mount point on the underside of the body, so no worries there.
- Pull the engine. This will give you a chance to run the clutch line down (if you used the stock steel line), and tie up anything on your motor that might be leaking (valve covers by #6 in my case). You will save several hours by doing this.
- The clutch pedal is a kick in the dick....seriously. Overall, its not too hateful until you get to nut on the top left of the assembly. Have fun with that one. i think I got lucky.
- The brake light switch is identical. You can pull the switch labeled "Clutch Switch" out of the clutch pedal assembly, you won't need it.
- For the wiring, I have attached a basic outline of the harness I made for the backup lights, clutch safety switch, and cruise cancel. The wires from the engine bay connectors to the pedal switch are approx 4 feet in length (and are a bit too long), with the reverse section being approx 12-15 inches. Be sure to check these lengths. My car will not start without the pedal down, cruise works fine, and reverse lights work like a champ. This will require a few connectors from the old auto trans, as well as the reverse light pigtail from a 5 speed engine bay harness. The speed sensor connectors are plug and play, although the auto is 4 wire and the manual is 3 wire. My ABS works fine regardless. The other square connector is not used.
- Some people keep the auto 7MGE engine controller...I opted to use a manual computer. I dont like my engine jumping to 1K at idle with the clutch pressed because it thinks its in park. The manual computer will stop this (it did for me). I would imagine that fuel delivery and certain elements of timing are different between auto and manual cars, could someone chime in on that?
- Your O/D Off light will flash quite a bit. The only thing I can tell you is take the bulb out, or for a cleaner look, install a tach from a manual car.
- The shifter hole did not need to be cut, however the bolt holes for the rubber boot closest to the coin holder are not in the right place. The ones by the radio are. I did not consider this a big deal.
Overall, it was a (fairly) painless swap, and i could probably do it in half the time next time. If anyone has any questions, shoot me a PM and i'll do my best to answer you as best I can (based on my own experiences).
Per usual, your miles may vary.
score