Stagea Manual Conversion Guide

[Terminal]

yeah well i've been battling in my garage around my GTR gearbox for 6 months now, it'll be good to get some space back. also i think my transmission is starting to give up, it's a little jerky in the mornings and sometimes hangs in gears when i floor it. 180,000km proabbly does that.

[darrinspencer]

i just got the last 2 pieces of my puzzle, the clutch and spigot bush

Where do you get the bush from

New from Nissan?

[Terminal]

nope, $8 from the same place i bought my clutch

[darrinspencer]

Here are some pictures of the new handbrake bracket and where it gets mounted in the car

The bracket needs part of it removed. It is made up of 2 peices spot welded together. The part in the photo with the part number is not need as it is already in the car mounting part of the air bag sensors. remove it from the bracket by drilling out the 2 spot welds.

There is also a mounting bracket for the auto centre console welded to the gearbox tunnel. This will need to be removed to mount the handbrake bracket. Drill out 3 spot welds.

The pic's are of a series 2, just incase a series 1 is different

[Duncan]

thanks darrin great timing

[darrinspencer]

thanks darrin great timing

One small problem

I have a r34 handbrake which is identical to a R33 one

One of the two mounting lugs on the handbrake will need to be bent to the right angle to match the bracket.

The Stagea handbrake must be slightly different

[GoldZilla]

thanks darrin great timing

Duncan, when you're ready I'll come around and pull the centre console off my car for you so you can see how it is all set up... I've already got heaps of photos up in one of the threads, but if worst comes to worst, it only takes about 20mins to get everything off, so meeting up with you and pulling the car apart is a minor issue.

[Duncan]

thanks Nick the last parts I need (console) apparently left japan yesterday so I should be ready to go soon

[gzzmos]

The clutch master cylinder you used, is it R33 skyline? Or something else?

he used r34 ones

[darrinspencer]

Who has fitted a manual pedal?

I tried to remove the auto one tonight. What a bitch

I have removed the 4 nuts that hold the brake booster and also removed the brake booster

I have dropped the steering column down get to the last bolt that holds the brake pedal bracket.

The last bolt is above where the brake light switch is, but you can not get access to the bolt as there is a a/cond duct in the way. I have tried to remove the duct with no luck. I t this satge it looks like I will have to remove the whole dash, which I am noy keen to do

The other option I thought of is to modify the auto brake pedal while it is still in the car. The only difference between the auto and the R33 manual pedal is the foot pad size and the auto pedal has a approx 10mm offset in the leg down near the foot pad. My Idea was to cut/grind the foot pad down to the same size and location/spacing between the clutch and accelerator pedal as the manual one

What do you guys think?

[Terminal]

You can get the pedal off without taking the dash out. Ask Beastian, he's done it.

[darrinspencer]

You can get the pedal off without taking the dash out. Ask Beastian, he's done it.

If I rip out (possibly distroy) the plastic a/c duct I can get to the last bolt, but I do not want to damage it.

I may have another look tomorrow with more day light to see what is needed

[beastien]

I didn't find it that hard to get to the bolt above the A/C duct. Just had to push it out of the way a little, used a socket with extension and forced it onto the bolt.

I found it more difficult to actually get the pedal assy out, and the new one in.

[CruiseLiner]

just chop the auto brake pedal down and put the rubber boot over it and its exactly the same

[darrinspencer]

I got the brake pedal out. It helped doing it in the daylight

I also removed the instrument cluster which helped to see where the bolt was hidden

[beastien]

Good stuff, I didn't even think of taking the instrument cluster out

[beastien]

Well I'm happy to say, my conversion has officially started Pulled the auto out over the weekend.

Will update as it progresses.

[EGA41T]

nice one brendan

....manual ftw

[beastien]

Cheers Andy, I'm EXCITED

[darrinspencer]

I thought I would add this photo I found of a car in Japan with a auto centre console that has been modified to suit a manual gear box and hand brake. I think I could be done better, but it looks possible