Okay, so the transmission swap is now project #1 and I've started working on it. In my driveway. With "help" from a 4 and 6 year-old son & daughter, and around my work/life/church/social schedules. Yes, this will probably take a while, until I get right down to the work for the actual swap into my driver.

So far:
Acquired a 1998 Elantra for parts $700
Swapped in the 1.8L ECU (the 'good' one, I forget the part number)
Swapped a burned out 3rd brake light with a turn signal light from the parts car (did you know little boys can almost sit up in a trunk and turn a ratchet? I didn't either).

2 hours pulling the console & glovebox, airbags (for resale), shifter surround, gauges
1 hour changing the bulb (with "help") and removing shifter mechanism.

With a few photos along the way probably to come, but don't hold your breath. It's bad enough being upside-down in a footwell without having to take photos in there.

Question 1: the shifter cables: am I luckier than I thought and they are the same cables for the automatic, or do I have to really go to town with penetrating oil and pliers & screwdrivers to get the clips off from the bracket in the engine bay? They have to get separated from there somehow but it's looking like it will be ugly.

Youll need to get cables from a manual, i was sick of wrestling with the damn cables so we just bought some from the dealer for like 100 bux.

Thanks I was afraid of that. It looks like the clips need to come off from the transmission side... I'm guessing it's time to get jiggy with the Kroil and pliers. Doh. Another hunnert bucks for something I already have one of sitting in the drive is probably out of the question unless I get a pay raise. I'll let you guys know how it comes out wink1.gif

My wife came back from choir practice, and she says 'are you almost done?'.

I said, 'honey, I'm just getting started!' laugh.gif

Somebody with a pro mechanic's shop and lift got this swap accomplished in 15 hours, and I told her about that, so of course she was thinking that's what I'd have in it, total. She didn't quite catch my psychic projection that this was with all the parts already OUT of the donor car...
Also, she reproached me because I didn't have helpers like I said I would. You know, like I said I would, when it came time to do the actual swap into the driver car. Doh.

5 more hours have been put into this project today, about half of it with my son helping. He actually did help this time though. I sat him on the radiator with his feet on the HOT plate, unbolting the stuff that was straight on top of the engine. He freaked out about the thing saying HOT right on it (he can read, what's up homeschool! ), till I had him on there for 30 seconds without his feet erupting into flame. AND touched it with my finger, AND told him the car hadn't run for months. And he still had to ask a few times to make sure it hadn't been running (so it wouldn't be hot, you understand). He's 4, cut him some slack. fing02.gif

Still dismantling the parts car. A lift would have saved a little time, but only a little.

If you don't have a stubby ratchet, you will regret it. If you don't have a big huge long ratchet, you will regret it. If you forgot to take your air ratchet home from work before the day you knew you would be working on the car, you will regret it. If you don't have a can of penetrating oil, you will NEVER get this job done. Ever. EVAR. owned.gif

Removed in those 5 hours:
*spark plug wire cover
*spark plug wires (they were arcing to each other, nice.)
*valve cover
*intake and exhaust cams (1.8 intake cam to go to my car, exhaust cam to make removing the new timing belt easier)
*upper timing belt cover
*timing belt tensioner
*passenger side splash guard
*a/c belt tensioner
*a/c belt
*alternator belt
*crank pulley bolt (need to buy a pulley puller that sucker is really on there. had to reposition and use my other car to jump the parts car enough to get the starter to even turn the engine to get the breaker-bar-on-the-crank-bolt action working)
*pass. side engine mount (a piece of 2x4 on top of a jack, under the oil pan, will help you reposition the engine/transaxle assembly for (slightly) easier access with this off. Plus it is in the way of the timing belt.)
*coolant overflow can
*power steering reservoir
*intake elbow
*throttle body (this thing is tiny. All except the fat, unnecessarily fully-round shaft, which is getting the half-shaft treatment at the same time it gets bored another 5mm and a bigger throttle plate)
*fuel rail with injectors (who want$ it?) (note: if you don't release the fuel pressure somehow, it will splash gas everywhere, maybe 1/2 cup. One drop of this will drip from the sway bar into your eye later when you are under the car trying to pull the stupid bolts out that hold the intake manifold brace on the engine block. Rinse your eyes immediately, or go blind. This part sucks, trust me.)
*intake manifold with brace attached (the gasket was ok, till I tried to remove it without using a razor to slice/pry it from the block. Then it crumbled. The IM needs a lot of work to get the ports to match the gasket; the head is almost port-matched already. The intake side of the IM, it's pretty obvious they were just trying to get it made, not get it to flow the most it could.)(the a/c compressor is big-time in the way and will leave dents in your arm from reaching for the nuts on the bottom of the intake manifold, unless you are light in the @ss and can fit your arm in there without rubbing on the compressor. Or unless you are a fat@ss in which case your arm will never fit at all. I very slightly envy Red, who is, last I saw, the former, for this reason.)(Removing the brace under the manifold taught me that a mechanic is NOT being overpaid even when they rape you on labor charges.)(there are 342 vacuum hoses on the manifold. Be careful removing them, or you will be replacing a torn/cut hose)
*HOT plate (nicer than the other one, it may move to the other car)
*1st catalytic converter (for sale to the scrap man)(the bolts on the bottom of this sucked to get off, big time. Had to put a jack under the wrench and jack up the wrench just to get the 1st one started. Then had to hammer the studs on top to get it to fall out, after prying the cat far enough from the exhaust pipe, to get the studs down there to release. Remember to disconnect the O2 sensor harness first or it will rip the wires out when the cat falls free. I did disconnect it and did not rip the wires out, yay!)
*exhaust manifold (not welded to the converter)(it was cracked, unfortunately)(need to pull the power steering pump bracket off, it's keeping the manifold on there by 1/16" of bracket material being in the way. Computer design at its best.)

That's about it. Gas in the eye sucks, even one drop. I'm lucky I didn't smash myself in the head, because I was under the car (in my driveway, remember) holding a hammer when it dripped. I turned my head and the drop ran to contaminate the other eye also. I was basically jogging into my house with my eyes closed, and grabbed some paper towels from their dispenser by the garage door (you MUST have a paper towel roll in your shop) and wiped my eyes with the paper towel... with the hammer in my hand. Thank God I'm okay, but the eyes are still a bit sore. I got back under the car and saw that the sway bar was shiny and new looking... oh, they got a new sway bar... no, everything else is dusty and dirty except the oh look there's gasoline on the sway bar. Wipe that off. Then I almost got a drop of penetrating oil in my eye spraying the bolts for the intake manifold brace. Which has what looks like thermostat housing gaskets between it and the block, which I thought was highly peculiar, but, whatever fits I guess.

And now my wife wants me to rearrange the kids' rooms, so they all sleep in 1 room, and the other room is a school/play room. Gee, that won't take time from working on the car at ALL. tongue.gif oh well. I love her & them more than the machines anyway.

Soooooo... anyone want to come wrench on my car for free?

Sounds like its coming along. Where are you located?

Cliffs?

+1 ^


E-bay tools are you friend if you need stuff.

got my auto to manual tranny kit with everything i need coming from flyryde next week, in transit right now. wanna race to see who gets theres done first?

only thing is, i got a car hoist and all the power tools i will need when i start it,lol.

^are you sure next week isn't "next week"?

you got a lot of dirty work done in 5 hours. hell that would take me days. removing stuff is the easy part though. putting it back together is the flight against the wind. next, making the new transmission actually function...

Need to update the profile... Austin, TX (actually Pflugerville = austin northeast)

Cliffs? You wanta jumpoffa one? Not recommended. And for 5 hours of sweat, man, that IS the Cliff's. I didn't even write out the VERY choice expletive I learned from a shipmate, that I said when I got gas in my eye.

a kit? There's flippin' KIT?! How much would that have cost me? And does it include the transmission and everything, all the way to the shifter boot and +40HP stickers & whatnot? Feel free to bring your hoist to my house. Power tools I have. Space in a computer designed engine bay, I don't. But man, that air ratchet would have REALLY come in handy... Also, if you happen to have 30 hours laying around that I could bum off you, or a remote to put my family & job on hold...

And here I was thinking it was going too slow... lmao.gif As to getting everything working, theoretically it's only a matter of reassembly. I'm seriously considering having a peek inside the transmission just to be sure everything is okay. The folks I got the car from said it wouldn't start, once the timing belt was changed, and that the transmission was driving fine, and the clutch wasn't slipping. I may have some ugly things to say if I find out I need to replace a clutch and synchros, etc., but at least it will go into every gear when the engine is off. . .going to have to find some Delrin for those old bushings tho. . .

It would be very cool if I could find a taller 5th gear while the transaxle is out, and replace it before installing the trans. I've heard you can do it with the trans. in the car, but that must stink. (current 5th should be .8x something, and there is a .7x out there somewhere with my name on it).