I managed to gather up all the parts needed for my manual swap and decided I would swap it to manual until such times as my DET engine is built and ready to go. This weekend me and my friend Hamish (Yes he is very Scottish) decided to have a go at fitting it, using the motor club at work I booked out the ramp for a few days.
The original suspension was quite soft so I decided to start by installing the coilovers, also a pic of the underside showing no rust.
Before the manual swap commenced I got the car in for an MOT at a local garage, a big smile on my face when it passed first time with compliments on how fresh it was considering the miles.
Most of the manual swap waiting to go in, my shifter and clutch fluid never arrived in time so I have to wait until Monday to complete fully, some Redline shockproof gear oil to keep the box healthy.
So first things first was disconnecting and removing the automatic box, a total nightmare with the weight of the gearbox and size of the bellhousing compared to a manual one, even with the engine mounts loose and the engine tilted fully back it was very hard to get to clear, the gearbox stand at the motor club came in very handy to save our backs from stress. Eventually we had it out.
The next challenge was really frustrating, the automatic pilot bush! I have always managed to get manual ones out with bread or grease, but after literally hours of battering it stupid it was not coming (3 full slices of bread into the hole :grinning: ), so we went in hunt of a blind bearing puller however we did not manage to get one. A tactical Nandos dinner happened and on return I managed to get a slide hammer and used the MIG to weld a threaded nut onto it, a few smashes off the slide hammer and it was off.
Hamishes face when he does stereotypical scottish thing and drinks Iron Bru says it all.
Next thing was onto clutch installation, again didn't have a clutch alignment tool so had to get a little bit funky with some sockets and a spare cut down extension bar, worked a treat and it was in ready for the gearbox.
Literally 15 minutes to get a manual box in when you have a ramp, I am used to doing this on a garage floor with a gearbox laying on your chest so it was a dream to have it so easy.
Then onto making the holes for the clutch pedal and master cylinder, didn't have a hole cutter so done some chain drilling.
Done some wiring after this to make the car think its in nutueral and make the reverse lights etc work. Now I am just waiting on some clutch fluid and my new shifter to arrive before giving it its maiden manual voyage. At the times when we were at a loss for waiting on parts or trying to figure things out I decided to also fit my Bride Artis with Driftworks superlow rail and my gorgeous Nardi with Works Bell snap off boss.
