Converting auto to manual.

[nobananas]

It seems that any T5 that takes my fancy these days is auto !. How hard is it converting an auto to manual (I would be breaking my existing manual T5 so should have everything). I'm assuming it would need the gearbox (obviously !), flywheel, clutch assembly, mountings, gearstick and cables, pedal box etc but anyone know whats involved with separating the autobox wiring from the engine/ecu loom ? Would it require a complete wiring loom change or just omitting/connecting a few wires ?

[Alan M]

Dooby has done exactly this with his 850r. NB have a look at this link http://forums.t5d5.org/index.php?showtopic=7298

[Alan M]

As Pete done you could buy a cheap donor car or as you have your older one use that as the donor.

[nobananas]

Cheers guys, Doobys not far from me either if I needed to pick his brains !. Looks fairly straightforward but perhaps not do-able in just one weekend !

[dooby]

Hiya,

very quick skim of your post I didn't spot anything missing. The wiring changes are not hard, especially if you do as I did and choose to leave the auto loom mostly in place. This still allows you to remove the TCU OK.

Took my brother-in-law and I 4 days over the Easter weekend, but we did have to remove 2 gearboxes (both the auto and the manual) and fit one. I think people in the US have done this quite a bit quicker, but I'm unsure if it was on their drive.

I think as with many things, second time around would go quicker.

Be happy to have a chat about it sometime if it would help.

Cheers, Pete

[nobananas]

Cheers Dooby. If I were going to do it I would probably be swapping the engine as well so I would swap over the engine, box and subframe which would probably make things a little easier regarding routing clutch pipework, wiring etc. I wonder how hard it would be to swap over the complete engine loom so the autobox wiring was removed entirely ?. Would be tricky with the engine still in place but with the whole lot gone !.......hmmm !. Depends whether it is intrigrated into the rest of the cars loom or just unplugs somewhere.

[dooby]

Hi,

think it would be pretty easy with the engine out, given what I encountered when I stripped the loom out of the donor car (albeit a manual one). From my limited understanding of the wiring diagrams, there is a 'junction box' where the wires can be disconnected.

Swapping the engine and subframe would probably make the job a bit easier :-) I get the impression mounting a box to an engine on a subframe would be a much nicer task than doing it with half the subframe mounted in the car!

Cheers, Pete

[nobananas]

I've unfortunately done it both ways, didn't really enjoy either of them but admittedly getting the box off and on with the engine in the car was less fun !