Hey .org, i've been done with the 5speed conversion for a while, but i had little issues that i wanted to take care of before posting. I put some info on my cardomain site: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/352601/9
but for those too lazy to click i'll post pictures and info here as well.

Basically, i put in a 2001 AE 5speed and i'm somewhat of a perfectionist, so i wanted to get all the little details taken care of(reverse lights, clutch pedal depressed to start, cruise cancels when clutch is pressed in).
You can find a good mechanical writeup in the How-To's or at this website:
http://www.dynomagic.com/maxima/5spd_conversion.htm
However, there are some small electrical details I would like to add:
-you need to wire up the reverse lights to the transmission position sensor if you want your reverse lights to come on when your car is in reverse
-if you don't want to be able to start your car without the clutch depressed, you have to wire the PN switch to the switch on the back of the clutch pedal
-if you want your cruise control to disable when the clutch is depressed, you need to wire up the cruise to the switch on the front of the clutch pedal. i cut one of the cruise wires going to the switch on the front of my brake pedal and wired the clutch switch in series with that.
-if you swap out to a 5speed ecu, you may find that the OD light blinks 16 times at startup--to fix this disconnect the wiring harness from the TCM (I just pulled the TCM completely).

okay here are some pictures:

some interior stuff removed

automatic shift linkage removed (once you remove the shift cable, there will be a hole in the firewall that will be good for running wires through--i ran my PN wires to the switch on the clutch pedal)

my car up on jackstands


5speed tranny and auto tranny. the first transmission i received had a crack in the clutch housing, so i sent it back to the junkyard (NandS parts in TN), but the guy said instead of a partial refund, he said he'll send me another one. I know these are rare, so i'm wondering when he will even receive another one and he isn't responding to my emails, so anybody know what i should do? i ended up buying a 2nd AE tranny from an .org member so i could finish the conversion this summer, but i'm still waiting on gettin the tranny or my money back, but i almost feel he's just gonna ignore me and keep my money, so i'm pissed about that.

 

courtesy nissan sts and shift linkages installed

act stage 1 clutch and pressure plate. if i had to do the swap all over again, i think this is the only thing i would change. i think i would have gone with a 5th gen clutch and pressure plate, because this thing grabs pretty hard, and since im new to driving stick, it makes driving smoothly even harder.

these are what i used to connect the wires and the switches. to wire the cruise control to the switch on the front of the clutch pedal, i simply cut one of the cruise wires going to the cruise switch on the front of the brake pedal and wired the clutch pedal in series. by checking the switch with a voltimeter earlier, i figured that the default setting of when cruise is activated is a closed circuit, and when either brake or clutch pedal is depressed, the switch goes up and breaks the circuit, cancelling the cruise.

 

the TCM. that blue plastic connector is what you need to unplug, or just pull out the TCM completely, which is much easier if you take out your radio. the unit above it is the BCM.


all done

special thanks to nismo3112 for coming by and helping me many days when he wasn't busy being a dairyboy at schnuck's. =)

 

THAT'S F*CKED UP!

Who is it?

Man I hope everything else works out for the best! It feels like a different car w/ a 5spd huh??

 

conversion looks great. Sucks someone stole your money. Defiently report him. How did you pay? if you paid with paypal i think you can contact them and they will get the money pack.

 

haha thanks. yes it is f*cked up. i bought the original AE tranny i had from N&S Used Foreign Car Parts:
http://www.nandsautoparts.com/
then i found the crack in the clutch housing, so he said ship it back, you have my word it well get fixed. so i spent the $85 @ UPS to ship the tranny back, and now i've sent him like 4 emails and he hasn't responded. i paid by visa check card. he works for that business, so i'm not sure how to handle the situation.

 

i was looking at a 5speed conversion i think from the stickies and the guy like completely tore off his front end. tahts whe ni decided i'd never do it. but it looks like yours wasn't messy at all.
how hard is this really?

 

I'm interested in this as well. What was the total cost and how many hours did it take?

 

Great work, thats the shinniest sts I've seen.
Now you can truely enjoy your Maxima.

 

That was the parts car.

 

great conversion man,

are you a mechanic

giev you props~!

 

total cost: i'm not sure, since i paid for TWO transmissions

total time: too much, because i started ripping my car apart only to find that the transmission had a crack in the clutch housing, so i put everything back together until i found a 2nd transmission.
if you have the right tools and the right know how, it can be done in less time you think. i believe THT had his car up and running in one day.


*anybody know what i should do about that foreign parts company as far as dealing with the first transmission he said he would replace?
and thanks for all the input.

 

Good job on the swap... Feels great when it finally done huh?

 

yup feels great, except i still have another transmission out there that i have no idea when i'm gonna get or if i'm gonna get a refund.

 

man. i am envious of your garage size.

 

seriously that garage is pimp O_O

 

How much did all parts cost you?

 

wow soo many ppl doing swaps, you, broaner, that dude with the mforrestor name or what not... i want to do mine too!

 

thanks s0ber. my dad likes a big garage... he drives an expedition. and plus i live out here where land is abundant.

and as for ppl asking how much this cost, i'm gonna wait till i get that 1st transmission taken care of, b/c i've paid way too much otherwise. also, i've sold things to compensate (auto black leather shift ****, the wood grain trim, auto tranny)

just a list of things for the conversion:
-2 2001 ae trannies
-misc conversion parts (master cyl, slave, shift rods, random bolts and washers)
-2 remanufactured axles from '01 max
-'95 5speed JWT ECU
-ACT stage 1 clutch
-redline mt-90
-stainless steel braided clutch line
-new diff side seals
-new trans pos sensor
-courtesy nissan sts
-nismo ****

you guys can take a guess, but i won't say anything yet as far as cost goes except that my "spending money" bank account is in the 3 digits (not including cents). =(

i hope this helps for people doing the conversion in the future, because i know some guys like to do it and they get so excited that they're car is running they don't care about the cruise, reverse lights, or having to depress the clutch when they start their car. it's actually not that much extra work to get it done right.

 

i did my conversion for a little over 900, 900 being for the parts car i bought. I had to buy buts to make spacers for the clutch pedal. I found a shift boot and shifter from the junkyard.

 

ya, i bought washers from menards to make spacers for the clutch pedal. i got them for like 40 cents, it my least expensive part.

 

hmm yummy.. i want a AE tranny too,.. there hard to find.... = ( .. but when my tranny does go.. hehehe... cause i feel my auto THROW into Drive like theres no tmmrw.. my dad is even wondering my mar car jumps liek that...

 

ha, my tranny sometimes hates going into reverse, and feels like im doing a neutral drop shifting into drive sometimes. Oh well, 5 spd this winter eh?

 

dayum, that **** looks hawt!

 

yup, if you guys are interested, AND IF my 1st tranny ever comes back, i'll have an extra AE manual tranny available.

 

ill be interested in it, just let me know the mileage, price and shippiing cost

 

5speed swap in mind?

 

of course, the only thing thats bothering me is all the other parts i may have to get....

 

if you have the search function, there was a thread where I30mike, posted a link to his site with pics of a lot of the parts you'll need.

forgot the name of the thread though. Or PM him he can give you a link or better yet tell you.

 

its that and the downtime... i want to do it, my dad says its going to be a mess.. wtf

 

If you have all your parts and ask all questions you might have, and run thru the install in your head, you should be able to knock it out in a weekend. Someone just did the swap in 4 hours, thats insane

 

i mean this is my 2nd tranny in the car, it should be like cake to drop it out, ok this is what i can remember, take off intake, starter, harness on tranny, take off calipers, to take out cvas, unbolt cross member, then take off the tranny from tranny mount, drop tranny on the other side of the ypipe.

now i have ABS and how the hell im i going to run the clutch line? and what is the slave cylinder? is that what shifts the tranny?

 

ABS isn't that bad, i kinda learned the hard way installing a non-ABS axle on my ABS car. but it's an easy fix, you just pull the abs ring off your old axle and install it on the new one. the clutch line i used an aftermarket one that you bend to make it fit. the clutch line connects to the slave cyl and that pushes the shift fork that's connected to the throwout bearing.

chances are if u buy a tranny it'll come w/ the slave cyl still bolted to it.

 

Nice pics, welcome to the dark side

 

dude, the dark side is turbo and everyone knows that.

but...

its good to see another guy in the area that has a 5-sp.
Steve

 

there must be a 5speed swap fever going around because I've seen more threads this past 2 weeks about completed/mid way 5 speed swaps, that every since being on this forum.

 

xmax is looking at doing one too.

his auto is ******* up

 

slimer, there are two more 5-spds in st. charles, mine and a friend down the street, only two ive ever seen, other than one at a dealer for 8k.

 

I'm looking at a 5 speed swap to in the future, but mine will have a 3.5 attached to it

 

no, you're looking at my cf trunklid.