Midship Runabout » Transmission

Manual Transmission Conversion

Darkday — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:41:38 +0000

First off, do not be affraid to do this conversion. Everyone who says it is difficult has probably never attempted it. Everything bolts on, and you can even keep the center console from the auto. This thread will only cover my manual conversion. I am choosing to keep it separate from my generation 3 3sgte swap, because even though i did them both at the same time, most people who do a gen 3 swap do not do a manual conversion.

parts and tools:
vice grips
12mm flare nut wrench
14, 12 & 10 mm socket and ratchet
hammer and flat head screwdriver

all other tools to remove transmission

new manual transmission
shifter cables
master and slave cylindars
clutch hard lines and soft line
clutch hard line connector
brake and transmission fluid
entire shifter assembly
grease
brake pedal from manual transmission mr2
clutch pedal and assembly

start off by removing the center console:

there are some electrical plugs to remove, and you must remove the bolts holding the entire shifting assembly onto the car. You can just remove everything and disconnect the cable. I didn’t know this at first, and since i didn’t intend on keeping any of the pieces I just broke everything and then figured it out you may need to keep the small black computer attached to the shift assembly. I have heard that if you just do a straight manual conversion that you need it to start the car, and the automatic shifter needs to be in park when you remove it. otherwise the car may not start. I believe you also need to plug that computer back in when you’re done. I did not need that computer, probably because i put in the gen 3 with the new harness designed for a manual. after that disconnect the cable from the transmission.

remove the transmission from the car. ( I took the whole engine out ).

remove the gas tank. ( this I needed to do anyway, and would not have otherwise known where to route the cables).

Install your new master cylindar in the frunk. it bolts directly to the clutch pedal you must also install now. there is a dust cover over the hole. push it out from the passenger compartment. place a light on the floor of the passenger compartment facing forward. this allows you to see where to mount the master cylindar. you need to install both pieces at the same time, and it is easiest with two people, although this is the hardest part of the swap IMO. you may notice there is a sensor on the pedal assembly. You will not have anything to plug there so don’t worry about it. generally you would need to depress the clutch pedal to start the car, but I do not need to. I thus assume that the ecu defaults to allowing you to start the car if the sensor bugs out. Its a good thing toyota did that . you also need to install a new brake pedal because the manual car uses a smaller pedal so there is room for the clutch pedal.

now, you may want to rebuild your shifter assembly.

It just takes some time and a little work you may need to get physical to get the shifter out of the bushing. I just hit it against a piece of steel until it came out (probably not the best idea, but it worked.) remove all bolts and retainers and washers, and just get the whole thing into as many peices as you can (remembering where everything goes of course ) now take a look at everything, isn’t that dirty!

clean everything well, and put fresh grease on the bushings. I took this time to install a TRD short shifter

Put it in the car!!! it bolts right in.

route your shifter cables through the rear firewall where your old one went. you can either customise that rubber seal to fit two cables, or get a new one.

see how the center console fits:

if you are just doing the manual conversion, plug that little black computer back in before you install the center console.

route your clutch lines. there is a short one from the master cylindar, and a longer one that attaches via connector to the short one. Use a flare nut wrench to connect them. size 12mm I believe for all connectors on the clutch lines. that is the only connector you need to buy. I got all my lines from Toyota. the long line follows the brake line perfectly, they even left dual hose brackets for you! Just unbolt them one by one and put them back on with both the clutch and brake lines in them. easy!

make sure your bleeder valve works for your slave cylindar BEFORE you put your transmission back in. its in a really bad place to replace if you break it. now put your transmission back in the car. fill it with fluid. hook up the flexible hose to the hard line at the front of the engine bay with a flare nut wrench (12mm). now you just need to bleed the system and you should be good to take it for a test drive. it took me an entire hour of bleeding for the pedal to get pressure, so don’t give up! Also, make sure you don’t let the master cylindar run out of fluid while bleeding. otherwise you get to start all over again!

Enjoy!!!

Changing Transaxle Fluid

Darkday — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 17:13:12 +0000

Changing the transaxle (transmission) fluid on an MR2 turbo is actually very simple. The only difficult part is removing the drain and fill plugs which can be somewhat stubborn, particularly if they have never been removed before. Click pictures to enlarge.

Which fluid?

I have tried Mobil One, Redline MTL, and Redline MT-90, and have the best results with MT-90. The difference, in my case, was much easier shifting, no more grinding on 3rd gear up-shifts, and easier downshifts into 1st gear. I would have to say that the improvement in shifter feel was significant when using MT-90.

Draining

The first step is to remove the fill plug. While this may sound strange, it is best to make sure it can be removed before draining the transaxle of fluid. I find it easiest to jack up the car and remove the driver’s side rear tire. This makes access to the plugs much easier.
Tools used – 24mm socket.

Filler Plug:

Now remove the drain plug.
Another view:

Make sure the car is level. If you have removed a wheel to gain access to the filler and drain plugs, just adjust the jack so that the car is level. Fluid draining:

Once the fluid is drained, replace the drain plug. To fill the transaxle, I use a funnel, a tube (from Home Depot) and some duck tape.

Run the tube through the engine compartment and down into the filler plug. Then place some sort of oil pan / bucket under the filler plug to collect any excess transaxle fluid. You want to fill the transaxle until fluid starts to run out of the fill plug. Make sure the car is level when filling – it usually takes 4 quarts, sometimes a touch more.
Tube inserted into fill plug:

Then just start adding fluid to the funnel. If it is particularly cold when performing the fluid change, it can help to warm up the gear oil by bringing it inside, or even putting it in an oven at very low heat. Wives love it when you do that! This will help it pour and drain into the filler more quickly. It does take time.

Allow any excess fluid to drain from the filler plug, replace the filler plug, and your done! I usually replace the fluid once per year, and have been using Redline MT-90 for about 6 years now.

ATS Racing Axle upgrade

Darkday — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 03:29:54 +0000

Since I plan to run some quicker times this year, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up a set of Axle upgrade parts from ATS Racing. Axle breaks are common on MKII’s with good traction making above 300rwhp. I decided to do the install without pulling the full axles out of the tranny as the BGB tells you to do. Done that before, and it isn’t always fun putting them back in, plus I didn’t want to drain the tranny fluid…
I bought a box of latex gloves (necessity on this one!), CV Joint grease, and lots of paper towels. To pull apart the CV Joint, I also had to pick up this 8mm “disc brake caliper socket” from Autozone.

Main match mark, very important, go all the way across the joint, I used whiteout. I also put match marks on each of the washer/clips and cv joint so everything went back exactly as it came off. You’ll see those marks later.

First thing to do is to break all of the CV Joint bolts loose. I found a good angle to work with, and broke one free, then I took off the parking brake, and rotated the joint to get the next one. Do not remove them all the way yet, just get them loose. It took quite a bit of elbow grease.

Here is a shot of the passenger side joint.

Next, the wheel bearing lock nut cotter pin and cap…

32mm hardened socket…

Breaker bar and support so the socket doesn’t slip off. I also used a cheater pipe over the breaker bar for more leverage.

I pull the nut most of the way off, then use a piece of wood and hammer on it to push the axle back through the carrier. This can be a pain if they haven’t been off recently, but mine popped through like butter because I had done this about 5,000 miles ago.

I was also changing the rear brake pads, so here’s some shots of me taking the brakes off.

Tie rod end…

Disconnecting the lower arm from the axle carrier.

Taking out the 2 crash bolts from the knuckle…

Passenger side coming out now…

Mud bomb!

Time to get to work. Get a clean area setup first, and I suggest having a box of latex gloves ready, a cup of gasoline, and some rags/towels. Take pictures of the dissasembly if possible. Clean the grease off to get a good view. When it’s time to pull the inner race out, set it down face first, and pay attention to the side profile. It looked to me that once side is shorter than the other, so I made sure to reassemble the ATS parts in the same way. It could have been my imagination, but better to be safe than sorry.

Pry the boot clamp off with a flathead screwdriver, don’t damage the boot! (Ignore the grease here, these pics were taken on reassembly).

Once the clip is off, remove the CV Joint assembly as a complete unit.

Using snap ring pliers, pull the ring off of the end of the axle, and remove the inner race, cage, and bearings.

Pull the CV Joint out of the boot, and lay them both down carefully.

Old parts removed. I was real smart, and didn’t take pictures of the CV Joint still assembled, this caused me a headache later…

Here are the ATS upgrade parts…

Assemble the inner race, cage, and bearings. I tried to put duct tape on the CV Housing on the left to minimize on dirt and grease cross contamination, but it wasn’t really that helpful.

The trick for me was to place the housing above the race/cage/bearings, and put a little pressure on them from above, then lift them up, and push the inner race up an inch or two, this puts a little slack in the bearings, and the assembly will pop in. It takes some time, and at first didn’t seem like it would work, but it did.

Here is one of my first attempts. This is an incorrect install. The red and yellow marks should line up. It’s hard to explain, but here goes… The inner race has 3 long sides and 3 short sides, same thing for the outer race. The inner race short sides should line up with the outer race long sides, and tje ommer race long sides should line up with the outer race short sides.

Here is a correct install. The inner race and cage should be able to move freely when installed. Taking these pictures was actually a dangerous decision because the cage wanted to slide down out of my hand and drop the bearings, which would have forced me to start all over. I lucked out.

Time to put the CV Joint back on. First fill the boot half way up with a compatible CV Joint Grease.

Here is the ring going back on.

Cleaning the housing (use gasoline on all of the cleaning).

Cleaning the other half.

Cleaning the bolt holes.

Put some more CV grease in there.

Putting them back together. Lined up the match marks. Can’t tighten them until the brakes are back on.

Pull/push the axle end through the carrier.

Bolt up the lower arm.

Here I have loosely installed all of the bolts. Tie rod on the left, top crash bots, and bottom lower are bolts.

Put the brakes and disc back on, and then tighten down the CV Joint bolts one at a time with the help of the parking brake.

Tighten everything down, double check, cleanup, and you’re done.