Have completed an auto>manual swap on my 97 FWD Tsi

[~97TalonTSi~]

I know there are quite a few people out there who question doing this swap constantly so I wanted to share my experience in doing it.

First off, I have had my car since I was 16 and it was brand new with 36 miles on it so for that reason, plus the fact that I have put a lot of money in it already, I could not sell it and but a 5-speed like so many people suggest.

Next thing I will mention is the cost. I am being as honest as possible in how much this cost me. I have included everything down to brake fluid for the clutch...

-Tranny w/slave & speedo on it - $500 off the trader
-New front M/T axles - $158 reman auto zone (lifetime warranty)
-Got the pedals, shifter, shifter cables, and master cylinder at a junkyard for $75.
-Clutch master rebuild $13.49 from NAPA
-Flywheel $30 off ebay $40 to resurface
-Starter $22 off ebay
-Clutch line/fluid $5.50 for 60" of autozone brake line, bent it myself.
-Motor mount brackets $68 from the dealer...and yes I was pissed about it but I couldn't get ahold of any used ones. Seems no one wants to take them off or something.
-New 2100 clutch $325 from Extreme Motorsports

So that's a grand total of $1,237...not exactly the 5 grand I was told it would be.

The only labor I paid for was the $40 to resurface the flywheel, everything else was done in my garage.

Next thing...This was NOT a difficult project at all. The VFAQ for the 1g isn't completely useless but pretty close. The 2g's are a lot different. The under dash stuff took about a half hour. Since the clutch and brake pedal are seperate items and more movable, I didn't have to take out the steering column, it wasn't even in the way. The bolt holes for the clutch master resevoir were there already, the cylinder holes through the firewall are stamped, we just had to drill them out.

There were only two PITA's of the project. One was getting my old axles out of the hub...they were pretty much welded in there so we had to take all the suspension apart and press them out, wow were they ever stuck. The other was getting the auto out. The torque convertor didn't want to seperate from the motor and it's a big TC plus a tight fit anyway. But it finally worked it's way out.

Everything else was pretty simple, the manual went on fine, it's a lot lighter and smaller than the auto, which I expected. Shifter cables fit perfect and go through the same hole as the auto, clutch bled fine, well after the master had to be rebuilt. The neutral safety switch and back-up light wiring has not been done yet.

Took it for the first test drive last night and it went well, the tranny shifts good, clutch still needs to be adjusted a little. Can't wait for my clutch to break in. Little nervous about crankwalk but that's what 6-bolts are for I guess.

All in all it took around 15 hours over a couple months of trying to find time to work on it. 4 of those trying to get my old axles out. I would do it again and will tell anyone who's serious about it to do the swap, it was a lot easier than I had thought.

I hope a few of you find my post interesting and if anyone has specific questions about a 2G turbo auto>manual swap I can probably answer it.

 

[AW4G63]

Congrats


Welcome to the shifting world.

Trannys are great arent they.

 

[scorpion]

That's great to hear. I'm working on getting the parts together to do mine, so when I start you might be getting some emails from me Good work man.

 

[daltah]

I have a 99 n/a eclipse and i just got all the parts for my tranny swap and the toal was only 900.00 plus i can sell my auto tranny and make some money back.

 

[~97TalonTSi~]

^^ hey sounds good, yeah I'm hoping to get a few hundred for my auto too. After a couple days of driving my car again, I have no regrets

 

[hardrive07k]

Hey on the tranny, whats a slave and speedo, I'm getting ready to do the swap on my 95 AWD Auto and would just like to know, Congrats on the swap!

 

[~97TalonTSi~]

The slave is the clutch slave clylinder that's mounted on the tranny and the speedo is the speedometer sensor.

 

[daltah]

Do you need the speedo and new brake lines for the conversion on a 99 rs eclipse?

 

[sike]

I wish I were you, congrats. About to embark on this journey myself, got all parts for shifter and clutch pedal (+clutch, mst/slv cyl) for $250, rest of the parts shouldn't be a problem. Starting as soon as that stuff gets here! Mine's a 95 GS, should I be expecting to have problems with the axels also? I'm hoping we can get this done quickly without any complications from what I've been reading it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[~97TalonTSi~]

daltah - You do not need new brake lines. When you replace the brake pedal, everything just plugs right into the new one. You'll see when you get down there. I know you can use non-turbo pedals in a turbo and vice versa...mine came from an Esi so they are the same. Not sure if you have all the parts yet, but make sure you get non-turbo clutch cables cause turbo won't work.

If either of you doing the N/T swap need clutch cables I have a set of the right ones off an Esi.

About the axles, since the tranny's are completely different from the turbo cars, I have no idea if the axles are different. Call a chrysler dealer and tell them what your doing and they can tell you. If you meant having trouble getting them out of the hub I couldn't tell ya. Apparently they usually slip out, but mine were pretty much welded in there Hopefully you'll have it easier.

 

[laserspeed]

I also have done the swap about 1 and a half years ago on my old 95 TSi. It was pretty easy to do (only took about a month with working on it a little at a time, hard part was getting the flex plate bolts out because i chose to wait to borrow an aircompressor). On the swap you can reuse the axles because they are the same between m/t and a/t. I also just unplugged the TCU. Wireing up the reverse lights was as simple as splicing into one of the connectors for the a/t and pluging it into the reverse sensor on the m/t. The nuetral safety switch was a little bit more complex but was able to get it so it would start only if the clutch wasn't engaged, this did two things. 1 no pressure on thrust bearings during start up to maby help with c/w and 2 little bit of theft detterant.
If anyone has any ?'s I'll be glad to also help out just e-mail me.

 

[wibblersnatch]

Clutch line/fluid $5.50 for 60" of autozone brake line, bent it myself.

Motor mount brackets $68

New front M/T axles - $158

I'm still a litlle confused. Do i absolutley need all this stuff^^^?

 

[~97TalonTSi~]

You absolutley need motor mount brackets. In the rear your actual mount will work but the bracket will not...just find that bracket from a junkyard or order it from the dealer. On the left side, the mounts are different from auto to manual but your auto one will work, it did for me.

As for the axles, like I said, everyplace I checked, including the dealer, said they were different, had different part numbers blad blah...but next to each other they are identical so its up to you if you want to swap. I probably would have just used the auto axles if I had not already bought new ones. Laserspeed has confirmed that he used the auto axles and they worked fine so it's up to you.

You need a clutch line from somewhere...doesn't matter where but you need it.

 

[jrou111]

osh this is so insprational, I'm in awe

I'm Soooooo ready to do this, but I'd kind of like to do a six bolt swap(built) at the same time + m/t conv. + turbo upgrade(14b at least).

I'm a junkyard scavenger, and have located all of the parts for the m/t swap, except the tranny, which i regularly keep on the look out for.

I'm ready to be like this: Jrou111 > GreddySpyder

 

[DSM mechanix]

Anybody know the difficulty of doing this swap on a AWD? Whats different from the FWD auto swap?