Manual Conversion 'fun and games'

bartsau · 14-01-2010, 09:50 PM

Hi all i am finally getting around to getting my car converted to manual.

Over the past 18 months i have bought and stripped out a couple of utes and other cars. The main donor car was a 1999 AU Series I XL Ute 5spd 6cyl.

A month or so i bought a new wagon to put it all into.

So finally booked it in a my mechanics to get done.
Therefore i got out and started to change the pedal box to the manual one. Here i encountered my first problem. The pedal box only had two holes for the brake booster rather than the four required for my series III wagon. Easy fix just drill out four new holes which lucky didn't interfere with the original holes. Then stupid me put the auto brake pedal back in which was never going to work as the foot plate on the auto brake pedal is about twice the width of the manual and therefore interfering with the clutch pedal. Also, there is no loom to simply plug in the clutch switch for use with cruise control however this doesn't really bother me too much. Aside from this it is a little fiddly but went ahead without any dramas.

Now with my part done car was delivered to the mechanics with no centre console and pedal box already in and ready to go.
Turns out that the auto drive shaft is too long though and rather than trying to find somewhere that will shorten and balance it he is going to just get a steel one made up using the ends of my original one. ( Suits me becuase when i put a V8 in it i will know that the driveshaft will hold up)
Also, the wiring loom needs to be modified to overide the inhibitor switch for the auto (Easy fix).

Hoping it is finished before the weekend so i can fit my new centre console with re-trimmed console lid and gearboot (Love the smell of new leather).

Also went down to ford to price a TS50 Gear lever and at $181 i will wait until i have driven it for a couple of weeks first. (Besides i will get dad to get it with his seniors i think last time he got about 25% of the full price) Oh and they couldn't show me a photo on their system to confirm it.

For anyone else considering a manual conversion. My advice is make sure you have everything or better still a manual wreck.

frd906 · 14-01-2010, 11:55 PM

I think if you putting a v8 engine into it later, you will have trouble with using the 6 cylinder gear box, as i think the input shaft is longer then the i6 box and the bell housing is different, not to sure.

cheers

bartsau · 15-01-2010, 12:29 AM

Yeh i believe that you are correct about that. In which case it is just as well another one of the utes i have stripped was a 5spd V8 hence i have all of the parts required.

However going V8 i am shopping around to compare prices on a crate motor fitted with efi intake or just to rebuild and stroke the 302 windsor. The one i have is only a 175kw variant though. I am trying to figure out if anyone has used the crate motors from Pavtek in an AU and if the oil sump needs to be swapped? Will all the ancillarys bolt straight on and will the bell housing/flywheel etc all bolt up as well.