Auto To Manual-Is It Even Possible?

[RockyV]

Okay,I hear this so much,"Dude,you should have gotton a stick,ya never goin' to haul!". Well I've grown way too attached to my car & have invested too much money in it to just sell it and buy a stick. And I do plan on wringing some serious hp out of it. So is it possible to convert to manual? If so,will it cost more than brand new Eclipse?! Thank you for your time.

 

[EvuLFleA]

Yes.

A few people on www.2gnt.com/forum.html have done it.

The1Bill, Avenger, and TrishasTalon to name a few.

 

[cucumber]

Originally posted by RockyV
Okay,I hear this so much,"Dude,you should have gotton a stick,ya never goin' to haul!". Well I've grown way too attached to my car & have invested too much money in it to just sell it and buy a stick. And I do plan on wringing some serious hp out of it. So is it possible to convert to manual? If so,will it cost more than brand new Eclipse?! Thank you for your time.

200 Horsepower is serious horsepower?

Yes, it can be done. Click the link that Evulflea provided you with.

 

[RockyV]

Originally posted by cucumber


200 Horsepower is serious horsepower?

Yes, it can be done. Click the link that Evulflea provided you with.

Yes,for me anyway. Plus,I don't have the money or resourses to go beyond 200.

 

[cucumber]

I understand.

 

[Nikita]

Originally posted by cucumber


200 Horsepower is serious horsepower?

for an N/A is most certianly is.....

 

[ninja0331]

Hey, it's possible, and for under $500 if you do the installs yourself.

I did mine about 2 months ago and it's the single highest performance mod 've ever done to any car I've owned.

I was lucky I got a manual tranny for $250 at the junkyard and it was good. I strongly recommend getting the transmission rebuilt (less than $300) before you put it in. I didn't do it myself, but again, I was lucky.

The tutorials to do the swap are missing information that will save you tons of frustration.

You'll need the following parts from the donor car (parts with an asterisk are not mentioned in the tutorials but you DO need them):

- Transmission
- Flywheel (You'll have to resusrface it)
- Flywheel bolts
- Pressure plate bolts*
- Transmission mount* (The bracket and the actual mount are different)
- Rear motor mount* (Bolt located at a lower position in manual trans)
- Starter for manual transmission* (gear is shallow in AT and wont crank)
- Shifter boot from manual DSM* (sounds stupid, but you can only install a DSM boot
- Cables and shifter from a 2.0L manual DSM* (I installed mine from a 1.8 and it seems the cables are about an inch different and I'm having problems with first gear going in smoothly)
- Clutch lines from the donor car* (no need to bend lines yourself, the stock ones fit nicelly alongside the brake lines and are already bent and have fittings, doing your own lines are somewhat stupid and more expensive, go figure)

- Remember you'll need to splice the black cable at the front connector or the car wont start.

The way I did it to save money was by installing the pedals (big pain in the ass) in the first day and driving the car with the manual pedals. It sounds weird, but you can drive the auto car with the new standard pedals in it.

I also installed the clutch reservoir and the lines (don't fill it yet) all of this and the car was still driving normally.

When I finally decided to put in the tranny, I started on Sunday and took out the transmission computer and drilled the hole for the shifter cables. Hard work there, but can be done from the inside of the car, with a powerfull drill and a punch to make a hole and make sure the bit doesn't slip, start with a small bit and work your way to the biggest you can.

Then I slipped the shifter cables and installed the shifter. The automatic shifter cable is a B I T C H to cut, but if you have patience you can hack at it little by little then just pull it out from the engine.

When everything was ready to put in the transmission, On Monday I called a tow truck and paid $25 to take the car to the trannie shop where I had an appointment to put in the transmission. Most transmission shops wont even go enar your car if you tell them to do all the previous work, but if all they have to do is take out a transmission and put another one in, they wont give you warranty, but they'll do it.

Putting in the transmission is not a big deal, just time consuming and messy. I have put in transmission before and it can be done between two persons very easily. I live in a condominium where I'm not even allowed to lift my car to get under it, and I don't have any power tools in the parking lot or electricity for a drill, just hand tools and an electric drill. If I did this, I'm sure someone with a garage and power tools can do it in half the time for under $500.

My only advice is: Don't listen to anyone that tells you to go buy a manual car, or a turbo car. These people are usually too scared to do any mods at all and even when they get a turbo car, they don't get past the stock power levels if they have to do any hands-on work. Sorry to put this in, but it just pisses me off. You can fly past a boosted turbo eclipse with a 75 nitrous shot for less than $400

Hope it helps