Tranny Removal

Ohmess

Ohmess

I wanna DRIVE!
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Major surgery this weekend. Annabelle will be undergoing an automatic-ectomy, in preparation for her five speed, and I have a couple of questions for folks who have done this.

Besides removing the shift lever knob, do I need to remove anything else while inside the cabin of the car before dropping the tranny?

As to reverse lighting, Carl Nelson, in his guide posted in our technical section says "be sure to disconnect the reverse light switch"; Is this comment peculiar to the 4 speed to 5 speed conversion. I had thought that the reverse light would be activated by the selector and so the wiring for the reverse light would be incorporated into the selector wiring harness.

Carl also mentions the need to detach and remove the starter interrupt relay. Where exactly is this baby located and is it wired separately or part of the selector harness? (Also, Carl does not mention a clutch/start switch. Did the e9 have these, or is it possible to crank the starter without engaging the clutch?)

Any helpful hints to pass along?
 
I had some questions when I did this last year and SF Don was a great help for me! I did have a thread on this so it might help to read it, I'll pm you my # so I can text you a picture on how to wire the jumper under the dash.
Tim
 
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Yes there's more... let me see... it has been years...you have to disconnect the gear selector indicator quadrant at the trans, or follow it up to a connector. Also of course the selector rod from the shift lever.

The reverse light is a contact switch mounted on both trannies, simply pull off the single wire on it, reconnect to the next trans before you level it up and bolt on the rear suppport bracket.

Then there's the exhaust, guibo, rear crossmember, and all the stuff that goes onto the engine, but you didn't ask 'bout those.

It'll come out in a few hours, take it easy if doing it yourself. The engine will tilt back enough to get it out under the car. Watch for the fan/radiator interference, but I didn't take off the fan myself.

Think about replacing the rear seal, forward of the flywheel; use 6 new bolts on the fwheel if going by the book. Consider renewing the 5-speed shifter rod seal, rear seal and front seal. Check if the drain plug has a magnet in it (preferred).

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks Honolulu -- I was thinking I would install the switch after getting the tranny in place so that I don't damage it. Is it hard to reach with the tranny installed?
 
You can crawl under the car and do it - it's very accessible.

Ohmess said:
Thanks Honolulu -- I was thinking I would install the switch after getting the tranny in place so that I don't damage it. Is it hard to reach with the tranny installed?
Click to expand...
 
HB Chris said:
As Steve said, easy underneath but there are two wires not one.
Click to expand...

From looking at the wiring diagram, the switch provides power to the lights, which are grounded at the rear of the car. Thus, as you say, there must be two wires to the switch.

Carl suggests removing the wires for the shift indicator and light assembly, which appears to entail pulling the connector through the firewall opening for the clutch master cylinder from inside the cabin. I still think that when that is done, there will be two wires on that connector -- one with fused power and the other that runs along the left front side of the car and back to the lights that I could use from the newly installed switch. I will check my theory with a voltage meter when I get back into it.
 
Literally just finished my swap, I will be completing the write up I started. If you have any questions feel free to message me.

1) Unscrew shift knob. Remove the window switches, there are two screws holding the shift surround down that are accessible from the rear window switch cut outs. With the two screws out the surround will lift, disconnect window switch and cig. lighter.

Auto shifter will have 3 screws holding it down, Go under the car and remove the clip from the linkage. Then remove three screws and pull out shifter.

2) Reverse switch has two wires just like the manual. I plugged them in and everything worked.

3) Here are my directions for starter relay, should be located on the pedal box/brake booster bracket.

3.1) I followed the black wire from the ignition switch to a clear connector, other side of connector went to a relay. Disconnected wire from relay and clear connector. Removed wire.

3.2) Disconnected heavy red wire and black wire from relay.

Traced red wire back to fuse block, disconnected from fuse block. Removed wire.

Traced black wire to clear connector under fuse block. Disconnected and removed.

3.3) Disconnected brown/black wire from relay, this wire went to the connector on the auto trans harness. Removed harness.

3.4) Connected black wire from ignition switch to the other black wire under fuse block.

3.5) I also removed a gray/red wire from the fuse block. This was going to some electric gizmo that bolts to the clutch master cylinder bolting boss.

3.6) The black wire going to the starter that provides power when you turn the key to crank should go to terminal 50.

I had a black/violet wire that is switched power that was going to old starter.

This wire is currently unused. I need to take a look at the ignition wiring, I believe when you crank you typically bypass the ballast resistor and when the car is running the voltage flows thru ballast resistor.

Great time to upgrade to a E30 M3 starter, much lighter and you can actually get a socket on it. Installs in 5 minutes vs 50 minutes.
 
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I seem to have this question in multiple places on the board; sorry about that.

Anyway, here is the solution:

The connector for the manual brake light connection is wired in series after the automatic wiring. Thus, two of the wires from the nine pin connector on the engine side of the firewall for the automatic wiring go into the manual brake light connector. As Carl says, these wires are blue/white and violet/black.

These two wires need to be connected to the reverse light switch on the manual transmission. This is a simple circuit with switched power to the tranny switch, which closes to enable the backup lights to work (ground in the circuit is at the back of the car).

The wires for this need to be routed differently because on the automatics the run through the hole for the clutch master. They fit easily through the holes for the automatic starter relay wiring after you pull this wiring and the relay out.

The wires for the reverse light switch will be too short once cut from the automatic connector; extending them to the switch is what Carl means when he states that a jumper must be made.

Nobrakes -- the unused power wire to the relay does not get reconnected (mine was red); disconnect it from the fuse block and pull it.
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