BattleWagon Auto to Manual Swap with pics! - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

curry.style · 12-09-2010, 01:21 PM

Just thought I'd post a thread with my BattleWagon newly returned to me after being sold to someone else for several months. I got a call from the guy last week that the auto trans had gone out in it and, knowing I had regretted getting rid of it, asking me if I wanted to buy it back. So I did! I always wanted the car to have a manual trans in it when I had it before, but never had the time or reason to swap out a working automatic. So I found a 1992 Camry sedan with manual trans and manual everything else, with a supposed "trans slip" in all gears. Bought it from the very nice lady for $400 and drove it 45 mins, in 15 degree weather, with no blower motor, and the driver's window cracked so the windshield wouldn't keep fogging up.

Realized on the way home the clutch grabs good, but the motor barely runs in the organ donor. Been working on stripping/swapping all week with the goal being to drop the transmissions this weekend and being driving my 5-speed wagon by Sunday night at the latest!

So now without further stalling the pictures!!!!! This is the progress so far. I will update tonight or tomorrow and this weekend as things move along. I will probably be pulling the entire dash on the wagon to get easy access to drill/punch out the holes for the clutch and see if I can figure out why the center dash vents never worked.

Here is the wagon last winter, the first time I owned it. I bought those wheels off Craigslist and absolutely love the way they look!

Snowmobile by curry.style, on Flickr

Stopping to put enough gas in the organ donor to get it home before my very cold 45 min ride! That's my wife's 95 sedan behind me with 320,000 miles on the clock!

Camrys gas by curry.style, on Flickr

The donor getting worked over. The tarp is to keep the ice water from the melting snow on my deck from dripping down the back of my neck. This poor car isn't in horrible shape, but seems to have been neglected in it's "short" 197,500 mile life.

Donor car by curry.style, on Flickr

And finally the wagon in the process of having the engine bay gutted to make room to work and drop out the automatic. Also have the consoles out of both cars to swap shifters, and, again, pulling the dash on the wagon here in a few.

Recipient by curry.style, on Flickr

This is all the work completed thus far with much more on the horizon for this weekend. Any questions, comments, or concerns are appreciated! Thanks for looking at my BattleWagon Conversion!

2win2rbo · 12-09-2010, 01:29 PM

Good luck with the conversion!

Based on my experience, it's going to be a bit time-consuming to remove just the auto transmission from the top (That's what I actually did because I didn't want to mess with the subframe). You're going to have to move the engine away from the transmission too much to create space. I believe it would be easier to remove the whole package (engine+auto trans) all at once and do the fitting outside of the engine bay.

curry.style · 12-09-2010, 01:32 PM

Yeah. I think we are actually going to take the "easier" route and drop the subframe. A good friend of mine used to be a Toyota tech. He's the one helping with the actual moving of the transmissions.

***Mister_Perkins*** · 12-09-2010, 01:43 PM

I think the hardest part on this whole swap is going to be installing the slave cylinder and pedal assembly. The transmission swaps going to be straight forward (remove - install).

I'm not completely positive on how the swap goes, but I am fairly certain your going to have a drill a few holes in the dash and run some bolts to mount the slave cylinder.

2win2rbo · 12-09-2010, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by curry.style

Yeah. I think we are actually going to take the "easier" route and drop the subframe. A good friend of mine used to be a Toyota tech. He's the one helping with the actual moving of the transmissions.

Nice! Dropping the subframe would be less hassle to do than taking the transmission from top. I think it would have been quicker for me to have done the conversion if I took that route.

2win2rbo · 12-09-2010, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mister_Perkins

I think the hardest part on this whole swap is going to be installing the slave cylinder and pedal assembly. The transmission swaps going to be straight forward (remove - install).

I'm not completely positive on how the swap goes, but I am fairly certain your going to have a drill a few holes in the dash and run some bolts to mount the slave cylinder.

I actually mounted the clutch pedal and master first before I did the whole trans replacement. I did it first because I got excited to feel the clutch pedal in the car.

Also if you have a look under the carpet on the firewall, the holes to be drilled for the master should already be outlined.

curry.style · 12-09-2010, 02:04 PM

Yeah. The holes are marked. I'd just like to get the dash out of the way so my drill will actually fit. LOL And my goal is to have the shifter, pedals, etc. mounted by the time we get ready to pull the transmission so all we have to do is switch them and I can drive my wagon. Otherwise it's just setting down in the garage like a lump for no good reason til swap day.

jtex2717 · 12-09-2010, 02:50 PM

I pulled a 5sp and Auto from the top of my first coupe but I also had a lift to get to everything underneath...I did the whole removal process within about 3 hours...Wasnt hard at all...just gotta be patient w/ it...

Chris Crash · 12-09-2010, 03:42 PM

Dropping the subframe is tough in your garage. You have to be able to get the car high enough to get everything out from under it....unless you like laying down to work on it.

I pulled the engine and trans out together for the work. I'm doing transmission work right now, and instead of just pulling the tranny, I pulled both because I like having the extra room to work when it's in my garage (and not someone else's garage.....)

The shift cables and master cylinder were the hardest part for me. The hole is ROUGHLY outlined, but getting a drill in there is tough. I used a saw and dremel and it isn't pretty...

Shift cables would be easy if you remove the heater core...but I didn't feel like learning how to do that.

curry.style · 12-13-2010, 05:07 PM

Dropping the subframe really is my "easy" option though. I don't have enough roof clearance in my basement/garage to get a hoist over a car on jackstands, but I do have room to lift the car as high as I'll need to. Progress has been moving slower than I'd like, but I'll live with it. It's gotten cold and snowy here and the parts car is outside, so that has thrown a bit of a wrench in to how much I can get done in a single sitting without having to stop to go in and warm up. The wagon is pretty much prepped besides dropping the transmission, just have to start installing stuff now.

Photo Updates:

Transmission to come out by curry.style, on Flickr
Everything is pulled away from the auto trans. The only thing left here is to drop it out.

Gutted dash by curry.style, on Flickr
It is not totally necessary to gut or remove the dash depending on what tools you have available. I decided to in order to swap the clusters, and make drilling the holes easier. If you decide to swap clusters, make sure to swap your automatic speedo into the manual cluster to maintain the correct odometer reading.

Interior stripped by curry.style, on Flickr
Here is the stripped interior before installing any of the manual parts. Note how empty and sad the car looks with no shifter.

Manual shifter by curry.style, on Flickr
You will need this bracket behind the manual shifter when you install it into the automatic car if you do this swap. The console bolts to it instead of the shifter like it does on the automatic.

Master cylinder by curry.style, on Flickr
It is my advice to anyone doing this swap to unbolt the brake master cylinder from the booster. It is NOT necessary, but it will make removing the line from the clutch master cylinder much easier.

Now for the fun part, anyone who has done an auto to manual swap on one of these before I need some advice/questions answered.

1. Did you use the auto ecu or the manual? I was wanting to use the manual ECU for a factory correct style swap, is this even a possibility?

2. Did you have to swap the dash wiring? I noticed while poking around under the dash of both cars there is wiring for the upper limit clutch switch under the auto dash, but not the lower limit switch. This definately needs to be addressed since, to the best of my knowledge that switch allows the car to start.

Thanks again for checking out my progress and offering help. Everyone here is awesome!!!!!

***2wickedtoyz*** · 12-13-2010, 07:54 PM

you got PM

***Mister_Perkins*** · 12-13-2010, 07:58 PM

Post Mordem ?

Chris Crash · 12-13-2010, 10:37 PM

To answer your questions:

1) I used a manual ECU. You should too, if you have the option. You CAN wire resistors to fool the computer, but I wouldn't feel good doing that...
2) No. I deleted the switch. You'll have to hack the ignition wiring and wire, I think to the starter relay. This will make it so you don't have to push the clutch to start the car...so be careful. I had this same problem, and posted the same question for a week with NO help. So if anyone has a better idea, now would be a good time.

curry.style · 12-13-2010, 11:08 PM

I was advised to swap the dash wiring since that switch is in the dash wiring. I was also told I may need to add the necessary wires to the engine bay to route to the ecu, but I'll find out for sure tomorrow.

Chris Crash · 12-13-2010, 11:18 PM

You will need the engine wiring harness, but the only difference in the dash wiring is the one little clutch start switch.