yeah, from what i read it looks like 79 (i think) to 83 are just plug and play swap. After that it gets more complex between auto and manual trannies even of the same year. Then again i'm really lucky to have a same year donor as my own car, both 82'.

Its pretty easy. The most frustrating has been dropping the auto tranny when the car was only raised by jack stands. The torque converter bolt stripping is my fault, lesson learned: Never use the open end of a combination wrench to break a very tight bolt. Mostly its just having the necessary tools, like that damn 54mm socket. Today i'm finally going to rip that flex plate off and clean everything up for reinstall once my parts arrive... in a week.

If you need any help on your own swap let me know wrightbenz, im not a pro but im going to get this thing done and done right. I can post pictures of anything you need too but ask soon before its all back together

 

Is that really the size of the flywheel bolt 54mm? That is 2.125 inches big bolt.
Any pics you can take will help all future forum members that attempt this swap.

Picked up my car today drove up from the Chicago suburbs to a place near fond du lac Wisconsin loaded her up and now have her home.

 

ohhh she's pretty. Very nice car bro.
Its a nut, 2 1/8 inch socket is what i had to buy today. Bent a piece of square tubing that I was trying to use to block the flex plate from turning. Theres tons of threads about how hard it is to get that damn nut off. Going to get an impact gun tomorrow. This swap is taking way too long.

Yours is auto? Where are you going to get the tranny from for the swap? Let me know if you find a nice donor, i'm interested in some interior trim pieces. If you get all your tools, replacement parts, and everything needed for the swap I imagine it could be done in a day, including taking out the manual from donor and auto from yours then installing the manual.

 

Here's the write up I did a few years back: Feel free to contact me with any questions:

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...-begun-783169/

 

Well i didn't touch the car yesterday. But today i got an electric impact gun from a tool rental place (the same gun harbour freight sells). And of course its not strong enough. The new flywheel arrives today and i was really hoping to get it in tonight. I can't haul the car to a shop, and don't have an air impact, not sure where to go from here. I can't get enough force onto the breaker bar to do it manually. I'll try heat next. This swap is getting to be a big pain in the *** and expensive.

 

You just need a better impact wrench. Do you have an air compressor? Guessing you do not. How are you holding the flywheel? It needs to be very secure so the impact can work. I imagine you can't get the breaker bar to reach from up top correct?

I would do this. Put the car back down on the ground and jack up the right side as high as you can, leaving the left side wheels on the ground. put jack stands under the car and add blocking to the jack and get that side even higher with your jack. The idea is to get enough clearance to use a breaker bar with a long pipe, fence post or something for leverage. You need room to do this so the higher you get that side of the car the better. If you have a long bar/pipe it will come loose easily just need the space.

Or just buy an air compressor and a 500 ft lb impact wrench.

 

If you have the flywheel locked and can get a long enough cheater bar on the pull handle it will come, I know that working under the car is awkward, but what wrightbenz says should make it easier, also try turning the flywheel slightly so you can index the pull handle/cheater bar so you can get a grip.

I wondering if you can jack up the car, situate the wrench and cheater bar and then lower the car to turn the wrench?

you should probably disregard that last suggestion, on second thought, way to dangerous.

 

thanks for the posts guys. No air compressor or air tools. I used a scissor jack to put force on the breaker bar before. Scissor jack situated between the drivers side frame rail and breaker bar. My blocking metal tube just bent along with one of two grade eight bolts i use to hole the tube to the flex plate. I'll try jacking up the passenger side of the car like you suggest wrightbenz.
New flywheel did arrive though

The flex plate wasn't doing much moving when i used the impact gun. I did block it with a wrench, but that didn't change anything.

 

recently I was taking one off that was stubborn. I was putting all my weight on the pull handle/cheater bar (it was out of the car) and it still would not budge. I was pushing so hard that it was bending the cheater. I had a friend there helping that used a trick I had never seen. While I was putting torque on the bar (all my weight), he took a hammer and struck the bar lightly and to my surprise it broke free, maybe this is a tip that might help.

 

You just need to step back and look for the best way to get leverage. Like I said you need to make some room get the car up as high as possible, I know this may seem like a pain but it is the only way you are going to fit a long fence post or pipe in there to break the bolt loose.

How do you plan to pull the flywheel?

 

Got it off. I just went out and got a compressor and 1000 ft/tq impact wrench. Worked like magic.

Today i get my clutch, but I don't have any of the hardware to mount it. No bolts came with my ebay flywheel. Anyone have the dimensions on those? Maybe i can go find some locally at a home depot? Or pull them off another car lol

 

You can grab them from your parts ca right? Hardware store will have them also just buy high grade steel bolts guessing theyare m8 size but I do not no for sure

 

I dont have a parts car, i just pulled the tranny (that didn't have an engine) from a pull-a-parts place a few cities away.
The length is what i'm most concerned about, and i'm not sure if they have a special non threaded section closer to the head

 

I say it will be difficult to get the right bolts from Home Depot. Two of the bolts are shoulder bolts that align and center the pressure plate. You need dedicated pressure plate hardware. Such as that seen on this page.


https://www.mazdatrix.com/f-other.htm


I may have an extra set if you want me to look.

 

Robert, thanks. they also have the full set here https://www.mazdatrix.com/flywheel.htm ?
I'm really considering buying that but that means waiting even more time to get her on the road. But I'm not in love with mazdatrix. I want to make a big order from atkinsrotary, they however do not have the bolt set.

If you could look around that'd be awesome. Do you have any interior shifter trim pieces btw?

 

I will check tonight

 

Haven't gotten anything done since mounting the flywheel. Ordered the clutch bolts from mazdatrix a few days ago, and i haven't even seen a charge on my card. So i guess i have to call them up.

Where do i wire up the reverse switch? I had also read something about an automatic computer in the passengers footwell, is that something i need to unplug?

 

its holiday weekend so nothing will prob go thru until tues.

 

Got those bolts from mazdatrix, i ordered the wrong ones. Replacements coming tomorrow.

In the clutch kit i got the through out bearing, pilot bearing, its oil seal and another bearing. I have no idea where the second bearing goes, its outer diameter is the same as the inner diameter of the throw out bearing. I'm probably just not going to install it since i can't figure out where it goes

 

Can you post a pic of this other bearing?

 

Yeah. It fits on the input shaft where the pilot bearing will go. I have the pilot and oil seal in the e shaft so it's not pictured.


Also still don't know where to wire In the reverse switch wires.

 

Got the transmission in tonight. Took a bathe in gear oil in the process. Still not done.

I hadn't realized that the bolts for the starter are much much longer on the manual tranny than the auto. I didn't get the longer bolts when i pulled the tranny since they weren't there. So those will have to come from a hardware store tomorrow
And i'm also not sure now if the starter gear will make contact with the flywheel, it seems farther away than the flexplate was in the auto.

Getting the transmission in was by far the hardest and most pain in the *** job. This whole project has kind of been a bummer, too much wasted time and money and i'm not even done. I was hoping to have it buttoned up and washed today for a car meet tomorrow. Never had so many problems when working on my vehicles.

 

You will be an expert in no time lol. Next time, dont use a floor jack. Instead bench press it while the tailshaft is tilted up (as close to the floor board as possible via a rope tied to a piece of wood wedge across the shifter hole). There are other tricks too like "draining the tranny oil" prior to install and wrapping the tailshaft with a grocery bag so no fluid spill and such. Lol


In fact i will be doing the same thing next weekend, converting my buddies s3 to stick. Im heading to junkyard this morning to get the pedal assembly and driveshaft, and shortening a s5 tranny

 

Sounds like you are almost there. This is a pretty big project so I wouldn't get to down about it. You can't really compare a transmission swap to a lot of other jobs it's a big under taking. I think you need the manual starter. Pretty sure that was on the parts list in the other threads.

 

Got the car done 3 days ago! Had one of the rear heat shields/underbody shields bent and pinned between the drive shaft and body so it made a terrible noise when i drove it around the block. Everything seems to be running good. THe idle hunted a lot at first, plugged the air line that went into the auto tranny and its a lot better now, didn't do anything else with the carb though. I did do something pretty ghetto though, the long bolt that goes through the starter then tranny then engine casing didn't seem to have any threads in there so i used a long SAE standard size bolt with a nylon lock nut to hold the starter.

I think im going to do a write up on the job. because i didnt find all the information i needed in any one single post and some stuff was just plain missing in most threads. Bad part is i didn't take pictures so its going to suck.