ea-82 auto to 5spd swap

[daeron]

im thinking about this.. ive driven the car now for a year and a half, which was far longer than originally planned... im also driving pizzas for a living.. ive heard that the five speed is much better fuel economy.. and i have always hated automatic transmissions. especially three-speeds.... there is a 92 loyale in the boneyard with a radiator i was eyeing (even tho i need a trans cooler if i swap that one in).. and i was thinking.. what would i need to buy beyond the tranny/clutch/clutch cable&pedal setup to swap it out? would i need the flywheel off the other motor? the differential? both cars are front wheel drive...

 

and how much time and effort is it?? it took me a little more than a day to put in a new clutch on my datsun, five or six years ago... rear wheel drive car, and since then my mechanical experience has grown greatly.. last time i swapped a trans in the same datsun 280Z (RWD) it took me about two hours soup to nuts, taking it easy... so given that info about me, the mechanic, how long would this job be likely to take? i have a project car that i cant find time to work on in the first place, but this is a money saving upgrade to a vehicle i spend a great deal of time in.. and its at least five to ten times a day (working, maybe three or four if im off) that i wish i had a five speed... so im REALLY on the fence about it... anyhow, im sure this is a totally typical post, but its four thirty and i dont have time to search a great deal...

 

okay i guilt tripped myself into searching and found this..

 

trans

clutch

flywheel

clutch cable

pedal assembly

crossmember

shifter linkage*

speedo cable*

instrument cluster*

starter*

driveline*

 

okay, the unstarred ones are no brainers... but the rest (except for the speedo cable) seem likely to be somewhat extraneous.. ive heard about starter interchangeability already... and about the only wiring i can think of would be the "Park" cutoff switch (probly plugs into where youd plug the clutch switch) and the backup lights... driveline, does this really apply to a 2wd-2wd swap? instrument cluster.. why would i need that?! and shifter linkage.. doesnt it just popup thru the floor? im sure if i do this, that question will answer itself easily enough..

 

but the junkyard boys are savages around here, they may well charge me over three hundred bucks for all that stuff..... this was a free car!! i wouldnt be too shocked to hear them tell me as much as five, to be honest. anyhow, thanks in advance for the help, and if i DO do this, i will make a detailed photographic survey and write up, if someone else can host it somewhere.

[idosubaru]

best bet is to find a complete parts car and swap out. florida may be a tough place to find subaru's though. if so you'll have to put forth cash or some legwork to find all you need. around here it would be nothing to find a complete FWD subaru with parts needed somewhere between free and $150.

[SuBrat84]

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45000

There's a little info here on this exact swap that I did.

You don't need the driveline, because you're doing a FWD swap. You don't need the instrument cluster if you don't care about having your old auto indicators up there still. Everything else you need. By shifter linkage they mean just actual gear shift lever and everything that attaches it to the transmission and body and stuff. Like it says in my post, I got everything I needed (including a back-up cpu, which I didn't use, for $150 at my local u-pull-it) I used: Tranny, Flywheel, Clutch, Pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing, starter, pedal assembly, speed-o cable, cross-member.. basically everything ATTACHED to the tranny (save for the motor of course) and the pedal assembly and shifter stuff. It's fairly straight forward... I was doing this completely by myself and spent about 12 hours total. If you go to a pull a part.. when you walk up to the counter with all the parts.. be like "What kind of deal can you guys give me on all this stuff?" ... tell them something like "My buddy got all this exact same stuff from a different yard for like $120." I told the guys at my yard "This is how much I can afford to spend, sorry." When I started to walk away without the pile of parts they didnt know what car it came off of they dropped from $200 to $150 like it was chump change. Anyway, good luck.

 

-Eli-

[kayakertom]

One more thing to add to your parts list is the hill holder return spring assembly. It may not be worth it to add the hh (interfaces with the brake circuit), but you need a return spring mod for the clutch fork.

[SuBrat84]

The hill-holder is probably more trouble that it's worth.. but If you're into that kind of thing.. you will need the hill holder cables and stuff too..

[daeron]

well, i probly wont bother with the hill holder.. incidentally, down here in south florida, hill-holders are kind of irrelevant.. as we have no hills not man-made, practically... but i get the gist :- )

 

anyhow, thats about what i figured.. unfortunately, all my junkyards are now staffed by semiliterate minimum wage labor, and as such must adhere to strict pre-set pricing policies... so the mere fact that there are about a dozen parts on the list makes me fear the dollar signs racking up..

 

i appreciate the tip on manipulating the folks at the desk.. it hadnt occurred to me, but that sort of thing hasnt been too successful around here lately.. i dunno. i need to walk into a place and try to talk to one or two of the guys who have been there forever, im pretty sure one of them knows me well enough to realize that he oughta lemme have the whole shebang for a reasonable price.. but thanks for the list and the link. ill bookmark em and keep them for future reference.