I'm currently in the process of gathering up all the required parts to swap my car over to the beloved VLSD 5Spd tranny. So far, I've come up with several questions, a SS clutch line and an ECU.

1. Do one or both of the axles need to be VLSD specific 5Spd axles? I know that the drivers side needs to be swapped for the 5Spd unit but what about the added stress that the locking diff. puts on the passenger side?

2. This is for those of you that have done a 5Spd swap that are GLE(Whether VLSD not important) What did you do with the electronically controlled engine mounts. I know the auto ECU tells them to tighten up when the car starts rolling. I will have the auto ECU in the car for the first several months with the new tranny. Will the ECU still control the mounts without detecting the tranny? If so will there be a lag time in which the mounts are very soft? I forsee a situation in which the mounts don't harden up quick enough and I wheel hop off the planet. How do the GLE engine mounts work? Do they harden up when they recieve a signal or are they soft with the signal. If the later is true then there is no extra work necessary. If they are hard without the signal it would be a forseeable mod for a GLE'ers to unplug them to decrease engine movement on a hard launch. If they are hard only with the signal then I ask for your advice. I can see three aproaches to take. First, trick them into recieving this signal whenever the car is on. This wouldn't be that difficult. It would just require knowing the voltage that they are recieving in the correct position. Second, disconnect them and fill it all in with polyurethane. More of a PITA than anything because I already have the correct Shore 80A Urethane to do the job. Third, give in and buy aftermarket engine mounts and stop wheel hop before it starts.


Please give me all input and ideas. I will listen to all although I really don't want to drop $200 on new mounts.

this is way out of my league technicallyl Sorry. Good luck though!

I'm finishing up from the conversion your doing, from what I know and what i'm doing is just use a regualar Passenger (Right) 5Spd Axle. Nothing special, remember to get new seals for your axles.
Can't really help you with the second question, haven't really seen that issue come up at all....

Thanks for the info. I'll ask you in a month to see if you have broken the pass. side axle. Wouldn't having an LSD axle on one side amplify the stress to the other? If yours doesn't break I'll follow suit.

I'm still wondering about the engine mounts. Anyone?

Only one engine mount is electronically controlled (if it really is controlled), the one near the radiator. I wouldnt worry about it. None of the other mounts have wires going to them.

If you're poly filling them, don't fill all the mounts. Do the one on the front and rear of the car/engine. I filled all of mine, and kind of regret it, because while it got rid of all wheel hop, It has an annoying drone sound while driving up to 3k rpm. It sounds like an aftermarket exhaust with a stock one. Very annoying unless you like that sort of thing

About the mount.... Just leave it unplugged, or take it out. I've been driving around like this for over a month, and so far so good.

Skeelo34, thanks for the advice. I certainly wasn't thinking of filling in all four. The max I was thinking was three largely because it will be a PITA to get out the one opposite the tranny. Do you think it would be most beneficial to do the Front and Rear or the Front and Tranny. The only reason I say the tranny one is because it would be easy to do while it was out. Would it be alright to not balance the front and rear? Are you sure the rear isn't controlled? If you are I won't bother with it unless needed to reduce wheelhop. I'll look in the FSM and under there next time I'm doing something which should be tomorrow. I sit under there for hours cleaning and looking at that big, hideous auto and thinking how nice it will be once its gone.

ImStockBaby, does unplugging the cable increase vibrations at idle? If so I would assume then thats the way to go but if it doesn't then it means that your driving around on a soft mount and it will eventually rip. I'll unplug mine tomorrow and see what its like. What do you mean when you say, "...or take it out." What are you refering to because I do know that driving without an engine mount is a no no.

1. dude why are you swapping from auto to manual? manual sucks, i hate it, you have to do more work. they don't call it auto for nothing, it's AUOTMATIC meaning high tech meaning betteer than manual. iwant to sawp my pos stick to luxury automagic

2. in answer to your questions i have the answer. this is all the advise you need. for the axles, just put in 350z rear axles, they will fit perfecltly (weird but true!!) and give you way more power and torque. for the engine mounts you can either fill them with c4 plastic explosive or playdoh or just go withjout the mounts entirely because mounts just eat up your engines power!!!

WHAT!?!?!? since when was automatic better than 5spd? you lazy ***.. i really hope you were joking.. wow.. im just.. shocked.. omg.. im sorry.. but this just annoys me... wow...

5spd is defintly better than an automatic.. i cant believe someone actually said a automatic is better than a 5 spd.. your a lazy sack of crap.. thats all i have to say

I get a little vibration at idle, but then again I did the rubber eraser mod.. As for taking it out, I belive you can just take the electronic part of the mount out right ?

i left my electronic mount plugged in for a while. I switched to an auto mount since then, and havent really noticed much of a difference, except that the mount is slightly smaller. I suggest only filling the mounts on the crossmemeber as most of the engine movement is forward and backward, not sideways. I regret doing the tranny and the opposite side mount.

They can be undone. You just have to cut out the old polyurethane, but its a pita. It sort of peels off from the rubber on the mount of you force it to.


Only the mount near the radiator has a plug. I've taken it off a billion times, I'm sure

sorry to ask a qestion on ur thread but wat about the actual pedal the switch on it , I curently have a 97 5speed max in my drive way im talkin it taking the tranny and wat ever else i can for the 5 speed swap but I took out the clutch pedal and found out 2 buttons on it 1 when the pedal is in and the other one is when the pedal is all the way out, so will this effect the car in anyway?

Thanks again for the advice guys. My impression of the controlled mount is that it is filled with fluid and when this fluid is electified in hardens/softens(don't know which). I would think that if you popped the sack that this fluid was held within you would be left with quite a large hollow area. Thus leaving the surrounding rubber to support what its not meant to. I would think that eventually this rubber is going to fail and then your going to have a loose beast. Still, until that point I would think that without using erasers or urethane your going to have a lot of flop in the engine and tranny. No?

Skeelo, I'm going to start by filling the front unit. If wheel hop rears its head once the swap is complete I'll do the rear as well.

urmab, those switches serve a purpose but they are not required for the car to run. One of them is the clutch interlock switch. When you fully depress the clutch this switch closes and completes the clutch interlock circuit allowing the car to start. When you don't have this switch it will be possible to turn the starter while the car is in gear. This isn't a big deal just don't do it when your parked close to a wall cause it will jerk the car forward or backward depending on whatever gear you park in. Its not a biggy if this happens several times but if you continuously start the car in gear on accident I'm sure it wears on a bunch of stuff. The other switch is for the cruise control. When you tap the clutch pedal this switch opens and breaks the cruis control circuit. The same type of switch can be found on the brake pedal because the result is the same if you tap the clutch or brake pedal. I'm not sure of these switches position but I'm sure from looking at it you'll be able to figure it out. Like if you don't mind the starting issue but still want cruise. If it makes you feel any better I'm not doing either. Who needs accessories of amenities? My new steering wheel isn't going to have the cruise buttons on it anyway, so...

Funny post Tom. If makes me hate auto even more.

Oh yeah, update on the situation. I might be ordering a VLSD tranny this week for $800. You guys think good price? I gotta check it out. I hope its low miles.

that sounds like a good price, pending on how much milage is on the tranny. where are you ording it from? online or a local place?

great price, so inorder for me to make the cruise control work is i have to connect that other switch, or it will function wiht out it

I have two possibilties at the moment. The original price that I mentioned is an I30 5Spd that is not VLSD. I was unaware that i30's even came with an open diff. Anyway, thats what personal conversation revealed.

I found another VLSD 5Spd in VA that has 43K on it. This one came out of wrecked car and therefore was not drive tested. It does go into gear but who is to say that it works. This one comes with a 120 day warranty. They want $900.

I found another VLSD 5Spd in Carnesville, Georgia that has 0K on it. The guy I spoke to explained that this means it has less than 10K according to their method. I'm slightly sceptical because its in a junkyard and has so few or no miles on. They want $1080 firm.

I'm stuck between them at the moment. I'm going to sit on for about a week and think and maybe another good deal will come up. If the yard in VA will start the warranty the day I install it I'd go with that one. I won't be installing it for at least three months. At that time it'll be cold as **** up here and the Max won't see more than 50 miles a week of driving. At that rate it'll take over a months to break in the clutch and I won't really be able to diagnose the health of the unit. I won't be until early March that I'm really able to drive the tranny and by that time the warranty will be useless.

urmab, I think that switch needs to be there for the cruise to work. Without, the cricuit will never be complete unless you just splice the wires together permanantly. This is probably an easy way of tricking it but I can forsee a dangerous situation. Lets say your on the highway and you need to do an emergency stop. Well, you hit the brakes but in your panic forget to hit the cancel button on the wheel and your car is trying to counteract your stopping effort thus greatly increasing your stopping distance. Also, I can forsee the situation in which you need to downshift suddenly and forget to hit cancel and while you have the clutch in the engine revs up and you can't shift well or at all depending on how quickly it revs up.

Right now i have a nonLSD in my garage which is only 70k miles great shape no problems, ive spoke to some of my firends in Canada so ill probabaly will be able to get a maxima tranny from there for fairly cheap , and from what I undestand that most canadian maximas come LSD well either maxima or I30 no mettter so when ill get the info on the price if u want I can work something out with u where u can pick it up

The switch that is pressed when the pedal is pressed will be the clutch interlock, the button that is always pressed until you push the cluch, is for the cruise.

Correct.

I have more questions. Why is a new brake pedal needed? I actually know that this is needed to clear the clutch pedal but is only the pedal needed or is the whole arm and pedal needed? For those of you that have done this and are 95, what is the difference in the Slave Cylinder. Car-part.com makes you delineate between before 11/95 or after. Do I really need to figure out when the i30 tranny was made and match the SC? VQ power says that both axles need to be changed. Can anyone repudiate this statement? VQpower also has, "1 Manual Motor Mount" in the supply list at the top. Do they mean, manual tranny mount(I assume so)?

First of all you have to have the driverside axle of the LSD. The regular 5spd one is completely different. On the passenger side the Manual and automatic are different lengths so you need a 5spd one. I dont think you have to have an LSD specific but not sure.

As for the front engine mount are you 100% positive the rigidness of the mounts are adjusted but that front sensor?

While i did the swap i did new PR motor mounts. I know that they are expensive but i love them and they are very well made. Nice welds, powder coated, overall a nice mount. Its also easy to do while swapping the trannys.

Good luck on findin a LSD tranny and stuff for a good price cause thats probably the hardest part of the project. Also if you can get all the stuff from the same place or even the same car, it can be alot cheaper. I got my donor stuff out of a 96 I30t that got hit in the rear for $1000, that includes tranny, axles, pedals, all the lines, even the ECU. If you take the stuff out of the car yourself, you dont run the risk of having stuff damaged and its cheaper.

I have the whole car in my driveway the one that im parting out u are talkin about the front engine mount that sits on the crossmember right closer to the radiator ?

Ya thats the one I'm talking about. When I took mine off, I took the sensor apart and thought it was related to sensing movement inside the mount. I never really thought it would be for changing the actually rigidness of the mount.

It definitely changes the rigidness of the mount, that's why they call them "electronically-controlled engine mounts". What good would sensing movement do if there was no way to change the mount behavior itself?

What good is sensing movement of the engine? Alot of things are possible. ECU could look at it for rough idle, or over all rough operation and compensate accordingly.

VQ power is talking about the mount on top of your tranny, and yes you will need a manual one. As for the brake pedal you will need the whole assembly. The arm and the pedal are one piece which are very different then the auto one.

Thats annoying that I can't chop the pedal in half and keep the stock arm.

The point of the electronically controled engine mount is to reduce engine vibration at idle. When the engine is higher in the rev band vibration is greatly reduced and therefore the mount can be stiffened to increase handling. The GLE is supposed to be the luxurious one and thus they tried to make it very quiet and BMW or Mercedes-like. Personally I think its a gimick to sell the model to the people that are getting it for the comfort. Maybe mine is broken but I felt no noticable difference in vibrations smoothness between the auto SE's that I've ridden in and my GLE.

I have found a good tranny and I'm contemplating getting it. Buying a parts car is not an option for me because I live in a condo. Also, going to a junk-yard and taking the stuff out myself is not an option either because none of the yards within 100 miles have an i30 in their possesion. I've found a cheap starter half an hour away and a cheap flywheel in Greenbay. I'll try to get everything locally to save shipping and be able to visually inspect the parts but there is no way I can find it all in my back yard.

Broaner, I'm pretty sure that both SE and GLE autotragics (can't remember about the GXE) had the electronically-controlled mounts. I've seen that somewhere. That said, my SE manual with regular mounts is very smooth at idle...a lot of times I can't even tell the engine is running at idle!

Something I just discovered: at least in model year 1999, the GLE had "Green-tinted glass with dark-tint upper windshield band" and the SE and GXE did not. Interesting.

Quick question guys... How do you know if you have a LSD or not? which cars did it come on?

Acually, if you really wanted to, you could. When I got my manual pedal in the mail, there was only about a 10% difference. The arm was slightly angled to the right more, and the pedal plate was just smaller. So with a little bit of hammering and cutting, youve got yourselfe a manual pedal.

VQuick, I was under the impression that only the GLE's had the mounts. I don't know where I picked this up. Anyone else. Interesting about the windows. Do you mean all the windows were green tinted or just the windsheild? Maybe thats why the tint looks so different on some Maxes.

NYC Maxima97, lets make this simple. Your not LSD unless you got your car from Canada or the previous owner decided to swap out the open diff. Some Canadian Maxes and all i30's are VLSD.

Thanks for that info ImStockBaby. Thats good to know. So, are you saying that the arm comes over to the drivers side just as much as the auto but cuts back more abruptly? This seem revers of what is logical. I would think that the designers would want to give you more clutch foot room. Thats odd. If thats is the case, I'm definitely not buying a new arm. I'll unbolt this pedal, stick it in a vice and bust out the Sawzall. What part would need hammering? If your talking about the arm; that won't move without extreme heat persuasion. Its like 1/2" steel!

Thanks for all the input guys. Keep it flowing.

Imagine the auto pedal about 3/4" to 1" CLOSER to the gas pedal. This will make room for the clutch. Also, I believe on a manual pedal, the part where you step on is a 2 X 2 inch square (or something close to that)

[QUOTE=Broaner]Correct.

There is absolutely nothing different about them.

Not likely. But I heard that the 98 - 99 trannies were much less prone to differantial bearing problems, and the 5th gen trannies dont have the bearing problems at all.


Yes.

I think I'm going to attempt to cut my pedal this week. I'll let everyone know how it goes. I'll do the motor mount soon.

Are the trannies in the Max and i30 exactly the same excluding the different differential? If so I can imagine that a pre-98 unit would have some problems. If they are differenent, how so? Is third gear stronger? Are the bearing issues non-issues? I'm really thinking on buying this bad boy this week.

More questions...

Are the axles specific to 5th gen AE trannies?

I had more but now I can't think.

Check this thread Broaner: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....t=tranny+axles

Seems the 4th gen MT axles are identical to 5th gen MT axles but the LSD axles are different from the OD axles. You might want to reply on that thread or PM Mishmosh, he has a 5th gen tranny in his 4th gen.

If you're having problems finding AE LSD MT axles, you may be able to use I30 LSD MT axles with the AE tranny, but obviously you need to look into that.

Thanks VQuick.

A dude in my FS thread mentioned that I don't need to sell the auto starter because it can be used in MT trannies. Is this true? I know VQpower said a MT starter is needed but this dude contradicted this. Anyone?

More q's and info.

A guy in my FS thread confirmed that the PN's for starters are identical no matter the tranny. So, I'm not selling the starter. For all those doing this in the future. HLH0501 is incorrect in the write-up. I'm not ragging. Other than that the write-up excellent and serves as my bible at the moment.

I pulled off the torque converter and flexplate today. I'm wondering if the bolts that hold the torque converter on are the same as the ones that hold the pressure plate to the flywheel. I'm also wondering if the bolts that hold the flexplate on to the crankshaft are the same as the ones that hold the flywheel to the crankshaft. The only possible difference would be length. Anyone? Maybe a simple call to nissan will reveal that the PN is the same. I have seen pics though of an installed flywheel. The bolts have little M's on them signifying Manual. My bolts have no letters on the ends.

The bolts that hold the TC to the flexplate are different from the pressure plate to flywheel bolts.... The flexplate to crank bolts should be the same as the flywheel to crank bolts.

Thanks man. I see on your hompage that you have a black plastic piece for the shifter console instead of wood. I've been wondering about this. Did SE's not come with wood option? Does this mean that a wood piece cannot be had? I've been thinking that I'm going to have to cut the stock one to make it fit cause I wouldn't be able to stand that mismatch. What about the i30's? They are all wood aren't they and they obviously have 5Spds.

I have seen the 5spd shifter trim in woodgrain...