Edit 3/4/08:
Ok well. A big thanks to Arro for stickying my how-to. Its been a while but it was well worth it. This thread is a little unorganized compared to some how-tos but there's a lot of info here and in other threads I have linked here. I guess you could say this is a databank of info on the topic rather than a strait forward how-to. Be sure to read everything and if you have anything to add please don't hesitate to post it.
--------

HOORAY! For MK2 owner ths swap is 100% bolt-on! See http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=22446 for more details.

Any MK1 Auto owners please snap underbody pics of trans crossmember and trans mount. Post those babies up. Pics needed to confirm possibility that the swap is bolt-on for MK1s as well. thx


Auto-to-Manual Transmission Conversion/Swap

This is a fun project and very rewarding in the end since you go from boring auto trans driving to 5 speed joy. My conversion was on a 1985 (MkI) ca20e. I used a S13 C trans that came on a ca18det. I get carried away and do some story telling from time to time. I hope it doesn't drive anybody crazy. If you have any questions or any info on the topic or know about some of the things I wasn't too sure on then by all means please post it. I will be editing this to add/change stuff.

My approach - Edited
At the time I did the first part of this swap I had a lot of professional tools at my disposal. And although I didn't have any buddies with spare Nissan parts I did have a very good junkyard only about an hour away from me. My mindset is very do-it-yourself so theres very little I outsource. If you aren't prepared to tackle custom work that includes welding then my approach might not work for you. But the information I give can certainly still be useful.


Parts List
Ok I was thinking about this cause of another thread so I'll go ahead and post it. Heres a list of everything you'd need if you were swapping an auto S12 to manual using parts entirely from another S12. If you go to the junkyard for parts just try and find a manual trans car and take EVERYTHING you need for the swap from 1 car.

-Clutch master cylinder
-Clutch hardline
-Clutch slave cylinder (which is attached to the trans so you can leave it there and prob not have to pay for it separate)
-Clutch dampener (its on the end of the clutch hardline. If you're making you're own hardline then you could eliminate the dampener from the system. Or you can eliminate it by replacing your clutch rubber line with a 280zx front brake line or a steel braided clutch line made for a 240sx.)
-Clutch rubberline (if not eliminating the dampener)
-Clutch pedal assembly
-Brake pedal assembly
-Transmission (you might have to take the shifter out of the trans to get the trans out but just don't forget to take the shifter with you.)
-Metal separation plate that goes between the engine and transmission.
-All associated hardware connecting engine to trans, trans to chassis, etc.
-Flywheel (dont forget the bolts, grab the pressure plate ones too)
-Front section of the driveshaft you are taking the transmission out of, or with an S12, the entire driveshaft is ok
-Starter (still don't know if the auto trans' starter will work with the manual trans and flywheel.)
-Shifter boot from the center console (To go into your console or just take the whole console if you want.)

And you'll need a new clutch kit. Tell them the year/model of the car you got the trans out of.


There are two major obstacles with this conversion that keep a lot of people from going for it. The driveshaft and the trans crossmember.

Driveshaft - Edited
Heres the updated version of whats below.
The S12/S13 driveshaft is a two piece design. You can swap front sections while retaining your original rear section. Use the front section that came with the trans you will be using. For example if you get a C trans from a MK2 S12 you will need the front driveshaft section out of a MK2 S12. If using S13 be sure that it is in fact S13. S14 will not work. (thats what I got on accident.) Another option altogether is to have a 1 piece driveshaft made. I highly recommend it. http://www.drivetrain.com is the shop I used. They're located in Las Vegas but they can ship a driveshaft anywhere. Just give them a call if interested. http://www.driveshaftshop.com also comes highly recommended.

Original driveshaft info (re-written)
The rule of thumb is to use the front driveshaft section or the entire driveshaft that came on the trans you're using. For using an S13 trans there were two options: First was using the front section of an S13 driveshaft as a direct bolt is replacement of your current front section. Just like any other trans swap. I wanted to try it so I grabbed one from Pick-N-Pull when I had the chance. LET ME TELL YOU... if you have a 1985 ca20e auto with IRS... the front section of an S13 driveshaft WILL NOT WORK. Apart from the length being too long, the carriage bearing on my car is on the front section of the driveshaft and the carriage bearing on the S13 at the junkyard was on the rear section. Swapping front sections would leave me with no carriage so obviously that won't work. (I have a feeling this trick only works for MkIIs but I'm not sure)

[moderator edit: all s13s should have the carrier bearing on the front half. there shouldn't be any problems with this, obviously there was, so more research needs to be done on s13 driveshaft setups....]

The yoke on the S13 front section I got was the correct one for my trans however so it wasn't a total loss. Second option is a custom made 1 piece driveshaft. Old yokes, new yokes, steel, aluminum. This is costly no matter which way you cut it and being the stubborn do-it-yourselfer that I am I wasn't prepared to pay someone to do what I could do myself. That being said, I highly recommend that if custom work is your only option as it was in my case then you should have it done professionally so the driveshaft is well balanced and you can clutch kick all you want worry-free. (there was problems with this setup. read on further...)

If you're ready to accept the responsibilty when your self-made custom driveshaft comes apart at speed and takes out the legs of you and your passenger (yes, shrapnel will go right through the sheetmetal floor) then do what I did. I cut the old yoke off my current driveshaft and welded in the yoke from the S13 shaft. To remove the yoke from the S13 shaft you need to grind the weld off. A faint line should appear that separates the yoke from the shaft. Be carful to not grind away too much of the yoke. You want to grind the shaft but leave the yoke intact. Once you have the line going all the way around you can use a hammer to grandually knock the yoke out of it's shaft. Be careful not to hit the U-joint and damage it. The yoke is in there tight and might go flying across the room when it comes out. Try to prevent this also. When cutting the old yoke off your driveshaft you want to cut it about a half inch from the weld and as straight as possible. A cutting guide is ideal in this situation. I used a new pipe cutting blade on a Sawz-All but you could hacksaw it if you had to. I don't suggest using a torch for this cut. Not nearly precise enough. Make sure your cut is square using a... square and start tapping the S13 yoke into it. Make sure your U-joints are phased properly. This means the U-joints opposite each other are mirror images of each other. Another way to state it is that the second U-joint is rotated 90 degrees from the first. See diagram:

When driving the S13 yoke into your shaft don't strike it on the slip shaft that goes into the trans. Not even with a rubber mallet or block of wood on it. (niether of those will hit hard enough anyways) The stress can damage the U-joint bearings. Strike it on the yoke section that goes into the shaft. If you have a press and the proper U-joint rigging then that would be ideal. Make sure the yoke is in there as square as possible. Measure from as many places around the circumfrence as you can. When it's as true as you can get it then it's time to weld. I used an arc welder to weld the yoke on. I don't suggest using MIG but I understand its the easiest and most accessible type of welding around. If you use MIG just crank the heat all the way up, control your heat with your distance, and go to town. Here's the pics of my driveshaft:

Driveshaft just after welding.
Leftover parts.

WARNING: I don't care how good you are. Without the shaft being properly balancd it WILL cause a vibration. Mine isn't too bad. Only a slight low drumming noise at about 40-60 mph. But this vibration will cause the seals on the trans and differentil to leak. Maybe sooner, maybe later, but they will leak. I have plans for my car a year or two down the road anyways so I'm not worried about it. But if you don't want to have to deal with these problems any time soon I suggest a professionally made driveshaft. If the vibration is very bad it can cause serious damage also.

NEW DEVELOPMENT WITH DRIVESHAFT (7-18-07): Yesterday my front U-joint locked up. The lack of articulation caused a violent vibration in the drivetrain. Not safe to drive home so I had to have it towed. That sucked. Anyway, my theory here is that the heat from welding cooked the grease out of the bearings in the U-joint. Of course Nissan had to make these U-joints non-serviceable so I can't really regrease it. The damage is already done though and the U-joint is toast. My only option now is to have a driveshaft made. So in the end it seems that welding your own driveshaft isn't the way to go. But I knew that while I was doing it, lol.

New driveshaft = roughly 300 dollars


Trans crossmember - Edited
Updated Info
Confirmed now that there is an Auto S12 Chassis and a Manual S12 Chassis. This is confirmed between two MK2 cars side by side.
NEW THREAD http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=22446

For MK2s the crossmember design is the same but the mounting location is further back on the auto. Luckily enough the Manual trans has extra mounting tabs further back on its case that are the same dimentions as the MK2 auto mounting tabs. So lucky MK2 owners get to bolt in the manual trans using their original auto crossmember and mount. This is confirmed for the C trans and may be true as well for the B trans but I have not confirmed it myself.

As for MK1s. The same method has not been tested but the design and mounting of the Auto/Manual crossmembers is completely different. So even though it seems less likely since the MK1 auto mounts in a different way it not impossible. Any MK1 auto owners willing to raise their car and snap some pics please do so and post. Crossmember, trans mount, locations, etc.

I just fabricated the mount out of my auto trans crossmember. See diagram for work plans.



Pics of crossmember (56k beware, full-sized pics from camera sorry):
http://premium1.uploadit.org/iggyeguana//I...7-06-30_049.JPG
http://premium1.uploadit.org/iggyeguana//I...7-06-30_050.JPG
http://premium1.uploadit.org/iggyeguana//I...7-06-30_051.JPG
http://premium1.uploadit.org/iggyeguana//I...7-06-30_052.JPG
http://premium1.uploadit.org/iggyeguana//I...7-06-30_053.JPG
http://premium1.uploadit.org/iggyeguana//I...7-06-30_054.JPG

In the pics of it in the car you can sort of see that a part of the original mount rests against the crossmember. This transfers vibration from the trans into the car and puts more stress on the mount. Here's the modification I recently made to the S13 trans mount for clearance.





Other parts you will need for the swap:

Manual trans - It doesn't have to be a C trans out of an S13. But this How-To is most useful for those doing this conversion with that trans. My trans came still bolted to the DET so I had all the correct fasteners and the spacer plate thingy that goes between the engine and trans. It had the trans mount and the rubber was in good condition. No crossmember of course. It came with the shifter but no shift knob. My trans also had its harness intact. (the whole lower harness in fact was just cut away from whatever car the motor came out of.) And it had the trans output shaft yoke still in the tail of the trans. They had just cut the driveshaft off with a torch.

Flywheel and pressure plate(clutch cover) - I got mine off of a MkI manual trans car. It had a B trans as MkIs do but its ok. Don't forget the bolts for those too. You can grab the clutch disc to use as a reference for when you go to the parts store for your new clutch disc but please don't try to use it, lol. In fact the car at Pick-N-Pull that I got most my parts off of had scattered it's clutch disc. The rivets on the marcel left some score marks on the flywheel. I didn't have a lot of options or time that day so I had to take it.

Clutch pedal assembly - There are two studs on the assembly that go through the firewall(bulkhead) and one bolt that goes straight up into some part of the dash support. Just get way in there and look up. You'll see it. My pedal came out of a MkI car and had no wiring going to it. Not to say that MkIIs have the clutch safety switch on the pedal. I can't say cause I don't know.

Clutch master cylinder, hard line, clutch dampener, rubber line, slave cylinder - I took all of these off the same MkI car. The master cylinder bolts up to the two studs from the clutch pedal assembly. I couldn't loosen the hard line cause I didn't have any flare nut wrenches with me. (It's a loose fitting 10mm by the way.) So I cut it near each end on straight areas. To install it I pieced it together using: about a foot of brake line tubing (don't know the size off hand but its the metric equivelant to 3/16ths inch), small tubing cutter, double flare tool, tubing bender, non-"union" type connectors. (not sure if unions are better or not, parts store was out of them) I HIGHLY suggest getting the hard line out of the donor car in one piece though. Much easier. I had to bend mine a little just to get it out from behind the engine of the donor car but I was able to bend it back upon installation. Just be careful not to kink it. The rest of the hydraulic clutch system parts were easy to remove and install. I used the slave cylinder from the donor car. It was longer with a slightly smaller cylinder diameter (more travel per pedal stroke) and a longer pushrod. It gave a lot of throwout bearing travel while still allowing it to fully rest. I used the throwout bearing that came on the trans and one of my concerns was that the throwout bearing would be the wrong one and it wouldn't fully disengage the clutch. But it worked out fine. You can eliminate the dampener from the system which will firm up the pedal some, see the sticky in this section.

S12 manual trans speedometer sending unit (mechanical) - If you have a digital dash I don't know if the electronic sending unit that comes in the S13 C trans (or at least it came with mine) will work for you. Maybe so, maybe not. The auto trans sending unit won't work in the C trans or B trans. It physically doesn't fit in the hole. I took my sender from my B transmissioned donor car. The sending unit in the C trans had 21 teeth if I recall correctly. The mechanical sender I got out of a B trans had 22 as did the auto trans sender. (or vise-versa wih the number of teeth) I don't know if the mech sender out of a C transed S12 (MkII) would have 21 or 22. I will add how much its throwing my speedo off as soon as I can get someone to tell me how fast I'm really going. Should be reading slower that I'm actually going so hopefully its not a highway patrol that tells me, lol.

Starter - Ok so I don't know if the auto trans starter could potentially work. My trans came with its starter so I simply used it. It works perfectly with a MkI ca20e flywheel and as far as I know MkI, MkII, ca20e, ca18et, it doesn't matter all CA series flywheels are the same. I did notice though that the ca18det flywheel, although the same offset and diameter uses 8 bolts to the crank rather than 6. So don't plan on using DET flywheel on your 20e at least.

Some other swap threads. Mostly older info that we've worked thru now:
http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7952
http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=15764
http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=18085
http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13950
http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=24553
http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=20639


Keep reading this whole thread for more info.

This post has been edited by 200sxkitcar: Jan 12 2009, 08:09 AM

When you swapped in the manual trans, what did you do with the wires that went to the autobox? Did you have any running issues afterwards? Are you still using the original (automatic trans) ECU? Thanks!

Nothing, no (kinda), and yes.

There was a sub harness that had all the automatic trans function connectors on it. It plugged in on the lower passenger side of the engine bay along with a couple other plugs I believe. I just unplugged the whole harness and tossed it in the parts pile. Have had no problems. With a ca20e you'll want to advance your timing 5 degrees BTDC which is the spec for manual trans cars. Don't know the manual trans timing spec for ca18et cars off the top of my head but I know its different.

An odd thing to note is that immediately after the swap I had a high idling issue. I assume the automatic uses the vacuum line that it has to control idle. After a while the idle was only high when cold. Now it has settled down and is normal at all times. Note that this means I have no high idle when cold. Which an engine is supposed to have. If you're planning to keep your current engine for the long haul then I would suggest finding its manual trans counterpart ECU. I'm going to be swapping engines so I'm not worried about it. You might also remove/disable the auto trans kickdown switch on the gas pedal assembly.

Dug up a couple pics. The first is the auto harness with some of the loom taken off. Another wire or two run through the loom for protection but dont go to the plug on the end. The second is the location of the plug-in on the lower part of the passenger fender well.





ON the INTERIOR:

If you don't want to cut the floor then dont go S13 trans. The floor MUST be cut for it. Personally I like it. The whole stock S12 shifter area looks dumb anyways and having a bend in the shifter arm is not the same as having the shifter closer to you.






Heres some info about the pedals that I neglected to include before.



Well the way it should be done is to replace all three pedals with the pedals from a manual car. I don't remem if the gas and brake are one unit or if all three pedals are sparate and I don't know if the gas is the same between the two but you should swap them all over. Now how I did it was a little different. I don't remeber if I posted it on my thread but I took a sawzall and literally cut the large auto brake pedal in half. This works but the brake pedal is not very well placed for heel-toe. Not sure how the feel of the manual pedals is but I have looked at them and they appear to be better.




I glued the rubber pad onto the pedal so it wouldn't fall off afterwards.

S12 clutch pedal is all I used.


This post has been edited by 200sxkitcar: Jan 12 2009, 06:21 AM

The higher idle speed is probably because manual and auto cars are meant to be adjusted to different speeds. Also the auto trans is meant to be adjusted so it's that speed in drive, with a load on the engine. While the manual is supposed to be that in neutral, no load on engine. It's easy to adjust, but ca20e's are known to have wierd idles anyway. Mine just idle's at whatever it feels like, no matter how much I adjust it. I actually found that adjusting it more causes it to be more irregular, and idle speed is affected alot by temperature. In drive when cold my engine will idle at about 500 but when hot in drive it will be about 900. When I put the engine in park while hot it can idle as high as 1500 sometimes. It's weird but I just let it do it's thing.

Yep yep. My idle is all over the place too. Another side note is that when you have your car smogged the guy might not know that the car has to be in drive in order to idle properly. I had mine done in California just before I left (past the test by the skin of it's teeth). The guy told me that the idle was out of spec and too high to test. I told him to put it in drive and then it seemed like he realized, "oh yeah". It was funny at the time. I'm sure he felt dumb.

"Hey man. When you swapped your car from auto to manual, did you trick the neutral safety switch to think it's alway in neutral, or how did you get it to run?"
-Dave

"Unfortunetly that is what I had to do. I wired it up to actually work like factory but it didn't work. I bypassed it just to get the car running and I actually haven't messed with the wiring since."
-Waylon (IggyEguana)

"Thanks. That's what I was planning to do for mine. I'm still kind of lost about reverse lights though. How did you get those to work?"
-Dave

"Ok, well there are 4 wires on the lower harness that concern the trans. The two thicker black ones are for the clutch safety as you know. I think on my MkI they were black with yellow stripe and black with red stripe. Connecting those two makes the car think the clutch is depressed when you try to crank the car over.

The other two wires are green. Not sure of the stripe colors. Maybe one had a stripe and one was solid. Dont remember exactly. Anyways the reverse sending unit on the trans is near the tail of the trans. (for my s13 C trans anyway) It has two green wires of its own. This sending unit is nothing more than a light switch. On and off. Hook it up so the signal (electrical current) can go from one of the green wires from the car, to the reverse sending unit, out the other green wire from the sending unit, and into the other green wire on the car. The pairing of these does (should) not matter since the sending unit is just a switch. That being said. I have a problem with my trans. Wired up that way, I have no reverse lights in reverse but I can get my reverse lights to flicker and come on when I'm just starting to put the trans into 2nd gear. I'm very very close to 100% sure that this indicates a problem in the trans AND verifies my wiring is correct at the same time. Please please try this stuff out and tell me what you come up with. My reverse lights still dont work. I'm pretty close to giving up on the sending unit and mounting/wiring a depression switch in the cabin to operate the reverse lights directly off of the position of the shifter, lol."
-Waylon

"Thanks. I just got a new job so I'll be doing this within the next few weeks. Do you think maybe you're connections are loose on the reverse light sending unit? Maybe just the unit itself is bad. A new switch can be picked up for only $10 new so you might as well give it a try.
http://www.partsamerica.com/productdetail....401&PTSet=A"
-Dave

"Thanks for the link. Thats one of the things I thought about. Isn't that weird though how the lights come a little around 2nd gear, lol. Hopefully it is the sending unit. I haven't had any other problems with the trans. No unusual noises. I know manual transmissions pretty well and I honestly don't think there could be a problem mechanically in the trans without any other symptoms. If a pin or detent ball got loose in the trans I'd know about it. The trans wouldn't live long with chunks like that getting stirred up inside it. Hey do you mind it I use this in my swap guide/story? I'm not sure how I'm going to do the wiring section but I might want to use some or all of this."
-Waylon

"Go ahead. I'm sure it will help some people out. I'm going to try to figure out more about getting the clutch safety switch to work. If that is just a switch too. It's strange that it doesn't work. All of the s13 auto-to-manual guides I have seen have just bypassed the clutch safety switch, so I'll have to check more into how it actually works."
-Dave

"Thanks. Check out the wiring diagrams for manual s12s and s13s. Sorry I didn't mention this earlier, I just remembered. There was some kind of connection to the alternator on my ca18det motorset but the harness obviously was cut and I couldn't tell what the purpose was. Theres definetly something between the clutch safety and the alt though."
-Waylon

*I figured I'd save you sometime Waylon.



Basically the automatic s12 trans has a neutral safety switch with four wires. 2 for the reverse lights and 2 for the neutral safety switch (equivalent to the clutch safety switch). The manual trans has these separate.

What IggyEguana did was bypass the clutch safety switch by just connecting those two wires. He then hooked up the reverss sensor to the two wires for the reverse lights. His reverse lights are most likely not working right because of a bad connection or a bad sensor.

What is unknown is whether the clutch safety switch runs off of the wires from the alternator. We don't know whether it is just a simple on off switch like the reverse sensor or whether it needs to be powered. If it was simply an on off switch then when Waylon attempted to hook it up, it should have worked. So that leads us to think that it needs to be powered to work. It could also just be a bad sensor though.

If anyone knows how the clutch safety switch works and is hooked up, just let us know on here.

This post has been edited by lvDave: Aug 14 2007, 01:03 AM

Ok... Jason (sideways_S12) and I just put in his engine and trans. Its a MK1 turbo car with a MK2 C trans. To our knowledge the crossmember and driveshaft were also MK2. (maybe just the front driveshaft section or maybe the whole thing, not sure, not sure if it matters, i.e. if there are different rear sections or if they're all the same.) It did go in, driveshaft and all. HOWEVER! The engine/trans sat about and inch and a half too far back for the crossmember to line up and the driveshaft was/seemed about the same length too long. It didn't make a lot of sense and we weren't too sure why. Not sure if this would happen for everyone converting to a C trans but it was a problem for us. We know that engine mounts are the same for all CA engine S12s, MK1 or MK2 so the problem can't be the engine mounts. And the engine didn't look to be sitting too far back relative to the firewall. I don't really know what to think of the stuff I saw with Jason's car. I wish I knew for sure where each of the drivetrain components came from.

I didn't use to think that you could accidentally use a MKi driveshaft on a C trans because I thought the slip yokes would be different but considering the difficulties with Jason's car and what I just read on another thread ( http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=18765 ) I'd say they're the same... except for the length.

[Moderator edit: The S12 C trans is longer than the S12 B trans that was in the car originally. This is why the crossmember mounting locations would not line up, and the front driveshaft section was too long. Rear driveshaft sections are the same length for all S12s, the C trans front section is SHORTER than the B one to accommodate for the extra length of the C trans. Chances are, the front section they got with the C trans was from a B trans. Waylon/Jason, what ended up being the solution??]

Its confirmed with driveshaft front sections that the B trans piece is longer than the C trans piece but otherwise its identical. Curious how the auto piece compares.

Ok I say "MK1" and "MK2" a lot in here and I've had some questions regarding what model year is which. I could've just pointed them towards some other thread on here but I figured I would just write up my understanding of it.

MK1 is 84 and 85
MK2 is 87 and 88

Thats the easy part. Now for 86.

86 is often called MK1.5
For 86 Nissan made some changes but they used up all the MK1 parts they already had.
So for 86s it greatly depends on what month they were made in. According to the FSM, anything later than 6/86 is MK1.5, but...?
Heres what I know about MK1.5s.
All but the earliest 86s had MK2 wiring and all were equipped with the extra MK2 smog equipment (as required by the US EPA).
Nissan kept the bodies either all MK1 or all MK2 (no mixing and matching lights, bumpers, trim, etc) and it seems like most 86s had MK1 bodies.
In contrast it seems that most had the MK2 "C" transmission.
I've seen 86s with the ca18et (turbo) and both the blacktop ca20e and the silvertop ca20e.
But not the vg30e (because there is no 86 SE).
So after they ran out of the ca18et they only had ca20e engines to use (which is why only 5% of 86s are turbocharged).

Thats all I can think of for MK1.5 right now but there are other small things.

Ok. I recently got a small arc welder and I'm willing to make conversion crossmembers for people. Check out this new thread about it.

http://www.club-s12.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=20849

this may be the wrong place to ask, but since you just did it, i was wanting to know how the gas/brake pedal location was for heel/toe shifting (do you know what i mean?) my s12 racecars pedals are perfect, but soon i will be converting an auto to manual and since i own/owned every s12 ive ever seen in person, im not sure of the availability of a donor s12 clutch setup. ive driven many miatas, and they have wonderful pedal arrangements, so as an alternative, ive considered swapping their pedals in. wondered if you had any insight into using a different manufacturers pedals into the car?

Dont know about using miata pedals or even 240sx pedals but I've heard stock S12 manual pedals are good. My brake pedal is crap for heel toe. Worse then my old Ranger! lol. But if you convert the brake pedal over instead of just cutting the auto one like I did then you should be good. Btw, not sure if anybody already knew this but its confirmed now that each pedal is its own assembly. Separate from the other. So you could pull the clutch and brake pedals from the donor car and slap them in easily. Especially if all the AC and heat crap is stripped from under ur dash.

More random info while I'm thinking about it...
The snout length of the R200 diff and the R180 diff is the same. Meaning the distance between the diff mounting points and the shaft flange is the same. So a driveshaft for the R200 will work with an R180.

My 1 piece driveshaft is 34 7/8 inches (35 will work) from the centerline of the front u-joint to the centerline of the rear u-joint.

This post has been edited by IggyEGuana: Jun 26 2008, 10:55 PM

About those pedals. I was in a 87 manual trans S12 at the junkyard and the pedals are NOT ideal for heel toe. The brake pedal sits closer (higher) than the gas. In fact it sits in the same place as my auto pedal. Stupid Nissan.

Ok I was thinking about this cause of another thread so I'll go ahead and post it. Heres a list of everything you'd need if you were swapping an auto S12 to manual using parts entirely from another S12.

-Clutch master cylinder
-Clutch hardline
-Clutch slave cylinder (which is attached to the trans so you can leave it there and prob not have to pay for it separate)
-Clutch dampener (its on the end of the clutch hardline. If you're making you're own hardline then you could eliminate the dampener from the system. Or you can eliminate it by replacing your clutch rubber line with a 280zx front brake line or a steel braided clutch line made for a 240sx.)
-Clutch rubberline (if not eliminating the dampener)
-Clutch pedal assembly
-Brake pedal assembly
-Transmission (you might have to take the shifter out of the trans to get the trans out but just don't forget to take the shifter with you.)
-Flywheel (dont forget the bolts, grab the pressure plate ones too)
-Front section of the driveshaft
-Starter (still don't know if the auto trans' starter will work with the manual trans and flywheel.)
-Shifter boot from the center console (To go into your console or just take the whole console if you want.)

And you'll need a new clutch kit. Tell them the year/model of the car you got the trans out of.

Then you have to make or modify your crossmember to work with the new trans you got.

This post has been edited by IggyEGuana: Jun 26 2008, 11:01 PM

I found my problem with the lights. My problem was that I had them backwards. Ya dumb huh, lol. On my S13 C trans the nuetral safety is the sensor near the shifter and the reverse light switch is up by the bellhousing. Those are the only two things it has apart from the speedo sending unit.

A lot of the swap parts are independant from the engine/trans

copied from another post in this thread and edited


-Clutch master cylinder
-Clutch hardline
-Clutch dampener (its on the end of the clutch hardline. If you're making you're own hardline then you could eliminate the dampener from the system. Or you can eliminate it by replacing your clutch rubber line with a 280zx front brake line or a steel braided clutch line made for a 240sx.)
-Clutch rubberline (if not eliminating the dampener)
-Clutch pedal assembly
-Brake pedal assembly
-Front section of the driveshaft
-Shifter boot from the center console (To go into your console or just take the whole console if you want.)

And you'll need a new clutch kit. Tell them the year/model of the car you got the trans out of.

Then you have to make or modify your crossmember to work with the new trans you got.

I would just wait til you're ready for the engine swap and do both together. Having said that. I did my auto-to-manual conversion well ahead of my engine swap. I was anxious to have a 5-speed. But I put in a CA18DET so the engine series is the same and I'm using the same trans.

This post has been edited by IggyEGuana: Sep 29 2008, 05:14 AM

Do s13 clutch/brake pedals, as well as the clutch master clylinder from a s13 work in our cars??

EDIT: In regards to my question about pedals/master cylinder fitting.. I went to the junkyard today, and checked to see if they were the same in any other car. There are not. the pedal and clutch master cylinder look like there s12 specific. I checked almost every nissan imaginable... Z31, s13,s14, Z32,Pulsar NX, sentra B13, and a 280zx.none have the same pedal and linkage setup as the s12.

Negative on pedals. Completely different design. As for clutch master I dont kno, mayb. Hit up the parts store anD ask 4 both and compare. Might even come up as same PN

i brought this up with hung (modmastaz) since the auto tranny is a L4N71B and my manual trans is FS5W71B. they both seem to be 71b's will i still need the front half of a b trans manual car or can i use my auto front half...... sorry for the thread hi-jack....

This post has been edited by EightySix200SX: Dec 10 2008, 08:25 PM

No thread jack at all my friend. You are right that the tailshaft size and spline count is the same. The shaft would slide in. Prob is the length of the shaft is wrong. Never measured this, just eyeballed, so give it a try. Can't hurt to try.

confirmed auto drive shaft is a good inch or two shorter than the manual counter part i will get pics soon.