My Manual Conversion Findings

[kidafa]

Thought Id piece together some of the research I did for my manual conversion and give some words on the process for those that will be doing it in the future, trying to give some back to those that helped on the day that will do it themselves and to the forums as I sent many PM's asking questions to a number of users that have done it in the past....

Here is the list of parts I used:

R32GTR 4WD Gearbox - Preferably push type as clutches are cheaper

Flywheel- 9 Bolt Turbo type and bolts

Clutch, pressure plate and bolts- Single plate Organic with heave duty pressure plate and a thrust bearing to suit

Bellhousing bolts- M10 x 1.5 60mm and some washers to suit

Clutch pedal - R34gtst

Clutch bracket - R34gtst

Brake Pedal- R33

Handbrake - R32

Clutch master cylinder - R34

Clutch line - 650mm Long stainless steel clear coated braid with banjo bolt on one end and jam nut on other

Centre console - Auto plastic welded/modified for the stick and handbrake from sau

Manual spigot bush - get one with clutch kit

Clutch slave cylinder - Get one with your gear box

Handbrake mount - Cut of trans tunnel of wrecked 33

Skyline primary shift boot

Nismo gear knob

R33 manual foot rest

4L - Transmax Z for Transfer case and attesa reservoir

2 X 2.5L Penrite box oil

Handbrake set up:

I decided to weld the bracket to the trans tunnel as this way its never coming off. Bolts arent going to get loose or pull through the thin metal and I thought rivets would wear out over time. Changing the handbrake over is pretty easy took me about 3 hours and I did it WITH the rear shaft in place with ease. IMO its pretty straight forward just take your time.

Clutch Master:

On the inside of my car the insulation was allready cut out to reveal the template of what I had to drill, all i had to do was remove the insulation. I then drilled with a 3mm drillbit through the centre of the larger hole to see where it would be in the engine bay and then removed a large section of the stuff on the back of the firewall with a Stanley knife. Drill the two bolt holes a tiny bit smaller than the template. Then i used bigger drill bits and bored out the centre hole. My R34 clutch bracket pedal and master bolted direct up! 2 bolts in the fire wall were sweet and the top bolt lined up perfectly with the thread left over from the old park brake, WICKED!

Brake Pedal:

I f**ked about dropping steering wheels down and pulling lots of the dash out but battled to get the auto pedal out. After a chat to roo I decided to take the path he did and just cut down the stock pedal and then refit the boot from the r33 brake pedal I had. Would have made my day alot easier If I just did this from the start!

Spigot Bush or as of Saturday its called the Spigot BITCH:

Do what ever you have to to break the little f**ker. Mines broke a chisel and a file in the process. Ended up making a trip to hardware shop to get a cold chissle and belted the shit out of it and bent it in on itself. Thanks to rod and mike for a hand with this as I had lost faith for an hour or so here. Install your new spigot push so that it is flush with the second step in the crank. In the photo you can see it needs to go a tiny but further.

In this photo its hard to tell but the manual spigot needs to be tapped in a tiny bit further (few mm)

Spedo Sensor:

Pull the electric sensore out of the auto box and change it with the wire driven one in your new 32R box. and it will plug straight up and work. Apples.

Auto oil Cooler lines:

Cut them out where you can and leave the rest in as they are to hard to remove in one piece.

Shifter hole:

Series ones need to cut there on hole, Im 99% sure s2's have an allowance there with a blank of plate from factory. Get a bottle with a 80mm round bottom (diggers metho turps ect have this and often in the shed), place it in the centre of the four bolts the shifter leaves behind the put it slightly to drivers side. Trace around it and then drill a few holes to get your jigsaw or something in there with a metal blade and cutty cutty.

Not my car here but you get the idea:

Wiring:

One loop require on start inhibitor so the car will start. Reverse lights are a luxury but Ive got mine going its only two wires as seen in diagram. Once these are hooked up you get your f**king reverse beeper back and my dash tells me when im in R like it used to with the auto box....

Ignition lock cable:

This has tricked a few other members.... When you remove the auto shifter there are two cables that operate of it. One that goes to the auto box and tells it what to do and then one that comes of the front and then goes to your ignition barrel. Some people leave this in and bolt it down so that its the same position as if the car is in park. Or do what I did and piss the entire thing of completely. Its easy to unclip of the bottom of the barrel. This isnt my car but the cable can be seen in this photo in front of the shifter:

Removing Toruqe converter:

You must remove a little rubber cover/grommet that is on the back/front of the sandwich plate, I had trouble finding it as I was looking from directly under and else where just not in front of the box.

Some info on what to grease ect in bell housing:

Interior:

All in all the car is SO much better to drive. You can actually drive it instead of just boat around the place. Highly recommend the conversion. I have no warning lights and have plugged consult up and ecu is not throwing any codes. To others doing it do the clutch and handbrake one day and box another. 2 days will easily get it done working at a steady work rate. The auto consists of so much bullshit weight with all the stuff thats involved with it my car now sits NOTICEABLY higher than before, which is balls as I got an alignment last week :-(

Thanks to ruby, RB30DET, Goldzilla, Ty and darrinspencer for answering questions, Mike, Rod, Dave, Adam and Justin for helping on the day.

Any questions feel free to ask as Im sure ive missed bits. What ive put here is the stuff that isnt straight forward the rest is just nuts and bolts really.

PS. Remember to tighten bleed nipples on attesa once bled prior to starting... im sure mike will chime in soon with a video for you all :S

Edited August 2, 2010 by kidafa

[-RBD2-]

Such a funny day chris,and I missed most of it

I think the auto spigot bush can be Your friend,just don't destroy it or the crank trying to bash it to pieces

I've also got some pics to upload wen I get them onto my computer

some everyone your new airbox mod too,it's a must with the manual conversion

[-RBD2-]

Also I think the events later that night were even funnier...

Green heap of shit

[rb30dett]

Great work mate, did you put the front shaft in straight away or did you enjoy some drifto action first? Balls about the ride height, i posted pics of my stagea after my conversion and copped heaps about my ride height (Navara spec). What are you planning next.

[syzsounds]

Did you collect the parts over time ?

Roughly how much did it cost to do ?

Noticed any difference in fuel consumption ?

Would you mind flying over to England and doing mine ...

[kidafa]

Great work mate, did you put the front shaft in straight away or did you enjoy some drifto action first? Balls about the ride height, i posted pics of my stagea after my conversion and copped heaps about my ride height (Navara spec). What are you planning next.

Haha no i put it straight back in. The R32GTR shaft appears to be the same as the stag shaft cept its a bit lighter and larger in diameter... Should I run this?

Well truth be known I was kind of over mods on this car and bit bored with it but man this has sparked the fire... Not sure whats next? Ideas? dono if ill lower it down on the coils or not.

[180fan]

Nice, i'm looking very closely at doing this as well. If you dont mind me asking, how much did it set you back, roughly?

[kidafa]

Nice, i'm looking very closely at doing this as well. If you dont mind me asking, how much did it set you back, roughly?

Havnt totalled it up and dont really want to tbk

Box was 650 delivered - import monster

console 400

clutch master and pedal ect 150

clutch line 80

ect ect

wouldnt be much change from 2k if any if you do it how i did. Just all the odds and ends ad up hay

[rb30dett]

Haha no i put it straight back in. The R32GTR shaft appears to be the same as the stag shaft cept its a bit lighter and larger in diameter... Should I run this?

Well truth be known I was kind of over mods on this car and bit bored with it but man this has sparked the fire... Not sure whats next? Ideas? dono if ill lower it down on the coils or not.

Yeah I run the gtr shaft for that reason, did you put any foam under the shifter surround plate to seal the gap? Oh and I'm sure I suggested cutting the auto pedal before you started?? so you have a new found appreciation for your stagea that's a good thing I have a love/hate relationship with mine.

[lachlanw]

easy way to get old spigot bush out .

fill the hole with grease and hammer the biggest bolt in there that will go in there and re grease when bolt bottoms out or even better a spare imput shaft from the gear box company that is a handy clutch alignment tool

[rb30dett]

easy way to get old spigot bush out .

fill the hole with grease and hammer the biggest bolt in there that will go in there and re grease when bolt bottoms out or even better a spare imput shaft from the gear box company that is a handy clutch alignment tool

That works for spigot bearings, I have had to bash out a few bushes cause grease would push past the drift being used.

Edited August 2, 2010 by rb30dett

[istdercollen]

looks great. I'm not sure how worried about it you are, but the brake and gas pedals seem a bit far away from each other for heel-toe and the like. just an observation, not knocking the work put in it in any way.

[kidafa]

Yeah I run the gtr shaft for that reason, did you put any foam under the shifter surround plate to seal the gap? Oh and I'm sure I suggested cutting the auto pedal before you started?? so you have a new found appreciation for your stagea that's a good thing I have a love/hate relationship with mine.

So you suggest I chuck in that 32GTR front shaft? How is it lighter and larger? :S Ive got a heap of sikalfex in the gap near the primary shift boot to seal the hole and in the hole in the tunnel that the auto shift cable goes through

easy way to get old spigot bush out .

fill the hole with grease and hammer the biggest bolt in there that will go in there and re grease when bolt bottoms out or even better a spare imput shaft from the gear box company that is a handy clutch alignment tool

Tried and did not work. Infact i even managed to get a socket that was such a good fit in the spigot that it was stuck in there. Had to put a socket on harmonic balancer to hold it massive breaker bar in the socket that was jammed to get it moving and to get it out!

looks great. I'm not sure how worried about it you are, but the brake and gas pedals seem a bit far away from each other for heel-toe and the like. just an observation, not knocking the work put in it in any way.

Photo is taken on a bit of an angle which will make this look worse than it is...

Old man just took it for a spin and loves it haha. Am slightly worried about when mum borrows the car for work duties (home stylist loads up the stag with bits and pieces every so often) when she stops somewhere in a manual and leaves it in gear and then gets out forgetting about the timer and runs into something. PS ROD KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT haha

[Rowdyr32]

Glad this popped up in my first search on the subject. I have a 32 gtr that isn't serving its purpose anymore (to track orienated) so was hoping to sell the shell and put the driving gear in a stag for a daily.

Cheers kidafa you've saved me a heap of trouble shooting if/when I do it!

[ben dinroad]

Cheers for the post, have given me inspiration for my stag

[RubyRS4]

Well done Chris.

Now you can be the "manual conversion expert" and I don't need to answer Qs anymore

[Mr_RS4]

So have you noticed any difference with the fuel economy?

[kidafa]

definate increase in fuel economy and fun factor

[Mr_RS4]

I'm going to be doing the conversion finally while mines off the road. Has anyone who's done it themselves actually done it at home without a hoist. That's my only concern is the weight of the auto. I've done an S13 conversion before and was fortunate to have access to a hoist for that.

[chef_stagea]

^^ chris's was done at home... just on stands fairly high... the auto box is like 120kgs or so... hardest parts moving it backwards off the imput shaft...

lets be honest... its never gona come down nicely... 2 guys on jacks and 1 cleaving the bellhousing saw it out pretty fast

on a serious note.. b careful.. coz its so lopsided it tilts and wants to go towards drivers side...