I am thinking about doing a 5-speed swap but first I want to get the facts: How much money is it going to cost? Is it something a certified mechanic must do? Are there any downsides to it? Is it worth it?

I hate having an auto, it's no fun.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

http://web.archive.org/web/200111231...om/autoto5spd/

I suspect it will be easier to just sell your auto and buy a manual car.

 

Wait'll Broaner sees this thread....

Yes you can do it yourself, it's not really that difficult, but it is time-consuming and you will need to spend some time and money assembling all the parts you need.

Also, you'll definitely want to use a 5.0 gen 5-speed tranny rather than a 4th gen. Look for an 2001 AE (Anniversary Edition) Maxima tranny, which had VLSD. www.car-part.com

 

and after you do what VQuick said, you definatly should read the stickies, and FAQ's because i can garentee that 99% of your questions you have right now can be answered in them.

 

LOL VQuick.

Currently I've spent $1,698.00 on the project but I've gotten a lot of nicer parts(B&M STS, ACT St. I, '01 AE VLSD). I have ~$100 left to go on misc. parts. I'm doing many other things too so its taking a long time. If I did it again on someone else's car I could do it in two solid days. No, a certified mechanic isn't required. I'm not one although I will be in two years. "Are there any downsides?" You gotta be sh!ttin' me. Well, I'm not done yet but I can assure you its worth it. Do it right the first time. If you don't get inexpensive OEM parts I'd say you could do it for $1200. For example, the ACT clutch is nearly $400 while the OEM from Courtesy is <$200. Oh, and if your paying a regular mechanic forget staying under 2 G's. Check my homepage for more info.

 

If i were to convert to a 2001 VLSD transmission, which tranny computer should i use? will the 2001 work, or should i look for a 4th gen computer?

 

That's awesome! I'm going to start saving up. Is finding a good tranny hard? (the AE VLSD) I've already done some stuff to this car so I can't sell it.

 

Its not an easy task... time consuming yes, but not something a person with good automotive knowledge cant accomplish in a full weekend.

You'll need alot of patience and a lift but as long as you have all the parts required.. you should be fine.

I was planning on doing the swap but its just not worth it...

 

If you're talking manual trannies, they are just boxes of gears so there is no "tranny computer" whatsoever.

If you're talking automatic trannies, I have no idea. If you go from auto to manual you need to get a manual ECU anyway to avoid CELs.

 

done without a lift here. all you need is a good jack and some jack stands. you will need alot of patience......its a very long and involved project. plan to spend 10-20 hrs if you have never attempted it before.

 

I believe thats what he was asking, which ECU to use.

I really have no idea if the 5th gens will work, definetly talk to Broaner on that one mrnock

 

much respect to Broaner - i've just visited your cardomain and pic of your car beeing worked on gave me an instant boost of motivation to keep my car till the wheels fall off and than some. As much as i hate it on some days - it was a good training ground to learn lots of things. I have a garage which is just as small as yours but i could not imagine doing 5 speed swap in it
now is see it can be done !!! way to go with that " little" space heater in cold Wisconsin winter.



Nick.

 

I just updated my spreadsheet and it looks like the swap has cost me $1,768.00 so far. I still have ~$100 to go.

No lift is required. You will need a block of wood to go on your jack to get the car up that extra 2". True, my garage is extremely small. I plan to be working in a 3000 sq ft. building next year.

Mrnock, the original ECU will work fine. You will have codes up the wassu but the car will run. As for "tranny computer" (AKA: TCM) none is required. Rip that bia out of the dash, sell it and save the 3Ibs while your at it.

As for the difficulty, it is very low. This has not been difficult whatsoever so far. My car has only seen one real winter(It used to be an Atlanta car) therefore there is virtually no rust on anything. I have not run into any difficult bolts or anything. The project is however extremely time consuming. As you know if you look at my page I'm doing much more than swapping trannies. My timing cover is about half bling'ed right now. Another five hours and that should be shinning like a top.

As for the availability of the AE tranny. I'd be willing to guess that for every 200 regular 4th gen trannies on car-part.com there is one AE. When I got mine there were only three working ones on the site including mine. The day after I bought it there were none. Its luck of the draw.

Thanks for the compliments guys.

Also, a note for everyone contemplating this swap, VQpower is wrong in the writeup. A manual starter isn't required. There is no difference between auto and manual starters. As proof, the PN's are identical.

 

I think Broaner and I spent twice as long trying to remove my stock clutch line than he spent removing his entire auto tranny, due to the fact that my car is a rusted-out POS that was daily driven in 4-5 Chicago winters, and his car is a clean Southern belle.


Broaner deserves much respect indeed. He knows an insane amount about cars, does all his work himself and practically taught himself to be a gearhead. All this and he's barely 18....barely legal!

 

exactly

Thanks for the explanation. I originally meant to say the car's ECU.

Say if I were looking to do the swap with the VLSD trans- will I be able to avoid CELs going off? If it's possible to do so, will I need a 4th or 5th gen manual ECU? If not possible, i'm assuming the codes that do show up aren't really important, and the ECU is just getting confused with the new tranny. Correct me if i'm wrong.

Thanks again Broaner!

 

Mrnock, you want a 4th gen manual ECU from a '95 for best compatibility. Since there is nothing electronic in the transmission (except the neutral position sensor and the reverse position sensor to trigger the white back-up lights) it's basically transparent to the ECU. Several 4th gen owners on the Org have put in a 5th gen 5-speed tranny with no problems. This is what I was trying to get at earlier.

The reason you'll have codes if you keep an auto ECU is that the ECU won't find the TCM and will think it's malfunctioning, among other little differences.

 

i got an estimate from maximum tuning of $3500 with all parts/labor...alot of money...so i bought the lakeshore blue max instead

 

Thanks VQuick im clear on that now

 

Beautiful explanation Tom. As VQpower says, "As long as it runs and revs the swap should work." The wire harness on the 5Spd tranny is not required for the car to run. There will not be any codes either if they aren't hooked up. You just won't have any reverse lights.

TopElement, how long did you spend polishing/cleaning up your tranny? Mine is much more corroded/covered than the engine. I've only spent 4 hours on it so far.

The thread that got me all my answers.
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....=GLE+VLSD+5Spd

 

Broaner, are you planning on hooking up the wire harness on your new tranny or is there no easy way to make it work? It would be a shame not to have reverse lights.

 

I was just saying that for explanation purposes. I fully plan to have working reverse lights. It just requires splicing some wires. Its in the write-up. I haven't read that section carefully yet and it doesn't seem to be working at the moment. I hope it gets working again.