Converting to a Manual Transmission – What’s says the voice of experience?

[stilljester]

Looking for some opinions from those who have been down this road...my Touring’s auto box is coming up on 200k so I'm sure it won't be long before I'll need to rebuild it. Instead I'd rather have a manual anyways so my question is to those how have done this swap:

Would you rather buy a complete swap setup from a place like the Euro Depot or Buy a complete car and just swap the transmission and what not out of that?

[winfred]

the swap is not a big deal, pedals with clutch switch, shifter assy, hydraulics/lines, tranny, crossmember, couple feet of the back up light wiring/plug from the tranny, flywheel/bolts, clutch kit with pilot bearing and pressure plate bolts, driveshaft, differential with 5 speed friendly gearing (if you want to figure out if you would mind the current ratio i think 3rd on the auto is direct drive and would let you know what cruising rpm would be) you need to play with the wiring a little like jumpering the neutral safety switch wires together, and hooking the reverse light switch to the right wires in the same plug that you just jumpered at the shifter for reverse lights, you also need to ground a wire at the tranny computer to kill the trans program warning in the cluster, pop the gear selector bulb out of the cluster

thats about the procedure, a parts car is not really needed unless you can get it at or around the price of the kit price or you need other stuff and have the room

[gale]

Ditto, Winfred sums it up on the money. I thought about getting a parts car but none were available in the area at the time. In retrospect, piecing individual parts was pretty easy & alot of the used donor parts you'll either want to get new or use other items such as ditching the dual-mass flywheel.

www.toms4n.com currently has an e34 530i manual trans on ebay. Odds are pretty good they have most of the rest of the components you'd need to go with it:

http://www.toms4n.com/asp/parts/details.asp?ID=1643395560



Nothing wrong with getting a "kit" from eurodepot. Also check Terry Sayther in Austin, they can put together kits too.

[brosher]

http://westernmass.craigslist.org/car/254913520.html

The M20 trans bolts to the M50, right?

[winfred]

it bolts up but the engines bit at different angles so that throws off your shifter and crossmember, plus the driveshaft coupling may not be compatable with the driveshaft


http://westernmass.craigslist.org/car/254913520.html

The M20 trans bolts to the M50, right?

[Mr Project]

Totally worth it, not that hard to do, and other have covered the parts car vs kit subject pretty well.

[stilljester]

it bolts up but the engines bit at different angles so that throws off your shifter and crossmember, plus the driveshaft coupling may not be compatable with the driveshaft

So avoid it then I'm taking it?