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1987 na supra atuomatic to manual swap.

2K views 15 replies 3 participants last post by  1933beer 
#1 ·
So a little back information on this car. My son and I picked it up when he was 15 and now he is 20. There are a few threads on how we brought the car back to life and have done other things. here is one. https://www.supraforums.com/threads/87-supra-part-3-paint-the-car.1109813/post-13837471

So my son got to drive the car about a year after painting it. the car has 165k on it, I think. This fall however the car started to slip in second gear.:mad::cry: thankfully he had not taken it to Ames with him. we drained the pan and there is metal in the fluid. FML Porter said. this shit is getting a little old.
what to do rebuild fine other old auto that could go out in a year, or put what I always wanted in the car a manual transmission.
the choice was pretty easy as Porter can now drive a stick. and the price to have the tranny rebuilt is more than what I think it will cost to convert the car.

I have been looking for donner car. I actually find a good candidate this week and would have been on the road to get it today but it was sold. I think the car was savible so perhaps for the best. (a little front end damage) In any case I an in search for a manual MKIII parts car for this project. I don't have to find one until May when my son is off of school. If I can find a car in my area I can buy it and let sit until spring.

I could also consider just buying the parts I need but not sure all I will need.
tranny with shifter
drive shaft
clutch pedal assembly
master cylinder
slave cylinder
? is the rear support different on a manual?


In any case I will update when car is located.
 
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#2 ·
11-24 update. great news a donner car was located in the KC area and we drove an picked it up yesterday. plan is to pull the parts at some point and sell the car with the parts we remove from our car for a few hundred to recoup some cash for new clutch parts. This car had it engine spin a rod so it needs rebuilt but the car came with a aftermarket front and rear spoiler. I like the idea of fitting the front spoiler but not in favor of the rear. person had lowering springs still in the box. brand new wiper motors. Porter was glad that it had the original belly pan, our was missing.
 
#3 ·
A full donor car makes the swap much easier, glad you were able to find one. What are the details on the donor; year, color, engine, etc.?

Lowering springs will make a huge difference in the appearance of the car and a pretty good difference in handling. What brand of springs are they?
 
#4 ·
Blue ,1987 na non targa. The car has some rust on the wheel wells but the car would work as a track car. i will have to see what brand the springs are. we may sell them as we are considering coilovers.
 
#5 ·
Happy St Patrick's day Up date time Since Porter and I are off due to spring break and Corona virus we decided to make use of the time and start the manual swap project. Today we brought up the donor car and put it in the garage and started the dismantle process. at the end of the day we have 3 bolts left to remove the tranny. the two top bolts and the top starter bolt. These fluckers have been on the car a long time almost everyone has been a bear. the carrier bearing is shot. I need to order one but rock auto shows 2 different inner diameters 1 inch and 1.18 or something like that. I did order the kit from W58bushings.com there was nothing left of the larger bushing and the smaller one is sitting down in side the tranny. I also need front and rear seal I may just look for a complete seal kit and pull the case apart to take a look at the internals before we put it in the other car. We are thinking of parting the rest of the car when done and crapping the rest of the car. that will be decided when the other car is done and I know we don't need anything else from it.
 
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#6 ·
If you go into the W58, do so pre-warned....
I had to make a bunch of special pullers to disassemble mine due to how tight everything is pressed together. And I had bought a sub $200 kit with bearings, syncros, and gaskets.
First, the stock trans had no gaskets, and by adding them, it would have increased clearances. Just use the Toyota grey sealer between the case sections, only at the shifter, and maybe under the front cover where the throw-out bearing goes.
Second, the kit did NOT have all the bearings, as Toyota had some specials in there.
Third, the syncros fit looser that the stock ones, so I just reused them.

Another thing, does the '87 have an aluminum center plate, or an iron? I forget the change-over year.
My 86.5 trans had the weaker aluminum, and so I never stuck it in, will probably sell it to someone wanting a 5-speed to put behind a 4-cylinder engine.
You can lengthen the life of the aluminum center plate trans by running a light weight flywheel, and not get crazy with clutch clamping force, as there will be less shock loading.
 
#7 ·
It looks as if we have the aluminum center plate. I think I may pull it apart to see what shape it is in. the car did not run so I could not test it out.
 
#8 ·
update
We have only one bolt on top of the transmission to get out but was not able to get it from the back. We removed the brake booster but it did not help much. I broke down and went and bought a engine hoist. we will lift the engine up off the mounts and move it forward so I can get the last bolt. We will likely do the same on our car to make things faster.

question do I have to remove the brake hubs to adjust the emergency brake? I need brakes since we removed the brake booster.
 
#11 ·
Ya I didn't remove the disk adjustment was easy. the brakes slow the car but don't stop it.
I use about 3 feet of extensions to get to the rear top bolts when I pull a trans, after removing the trans cross member, and tilting the engine to the rear by letting the trans down. Had to go out and buy a long one to go with what I had.
This is the way I have always done this and it worked with the bolt on the passenger side but didn't work on the drivers side.
we ended up buying a engine hoist. it didn't reach from the front so we removed the passenger fender and pulled the engine up and forward. we got the bolt loose. when it came out we could see that it was messed up that's why we could not get the socket to stay on. there is a lot of stuff to do now both seals need replaced I want to open up thecase and inspect gears.

one problem may be the flywheel. it has a grove in it ( the clutch was in good shape it had been replaced with in the last few years it looked like) I looked in the TSRM for the minimum flywheel thickness to see if I need a new flywheel or I can have it turned.
Question can anyone tell me the minimum thickness of the flywheel?
 
#12 ·
Have had hundreds of flywheels resurfaced, and never worried about minimum thickness.
When one is resurfaced, the pressure plate mount surface is cut down the same amount as the clutch surface to maintain the preload on the disk.
Any automotive machine shop should know this, but tell them anyway, just in case you run into a retard behind the counter, like I did at Kotzer Racing in San Antonio. Biggest bunch of morons I ever had to deal with.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the advise Sixpack. I don't plan to rebuild the tranny if it looks bad. I don't have the special tools. We would have to either try to see if there is someone local that would tackle it or find a rebuilt one. It is my sons money so he gets to make the call. I just don't want to have to do this again.
 
#14 ·
update time
We have the receiving car dismantled. still have to change out foot peddle assembly.
transmission- I had cleaned up the manual transmission and while doing so saw it had stuff painted on the bell housing. I think this is not the original tranny to that car. we replaced both front and rear seal and installed the kit from w58bushing. swapped over the rear rubber mount from the auto to the mannual. It sure makes a difference. I think this tranny will work fine.
pressure plate- We got it turned the grove could not be completely taken out as it had been turned before. It will work but not perfect.

drive shaft- the carrier bearing was toast in the donor car. I got one from rock auto. the tabs do not line up things have to be modified. I will post a pick but what I did was cut part of the original bearing off grind it back to line up with the bearing and I will weld the old bit to the new bearing. I hope that makes sense if not the picture will. In any case if you have some tools and time this is much cheaper than the original.
next steps- start putting things into car. I have to figure a way to get the hard line into place without removing the other stuff on the firewall. install pilot bearing, do what has to be done with the pedal assembly, install the pressure plate and clutch then muscle the tranny in place.
everything else easy.

note- taking our car apart was easy compared to the donor car.
My son has decided to part the donor car until end of May. then car is a hard top If someone is wanting a solid car for the track this would be a good option the rear wheel has rust but the spare wheel well and the back of the car is solid. I would hate to scrap it if someone could use it.
 
#15 ·
we now have 3 pedals:). hard line is in and new hose for the slave cylinder. we ran into a bit of a problem when installing. The PO had installed a Clifford remote start 3 all that wiring and a control unit was right in the way of the clutch pedal. we cant even get to the bolt on the outside of the master cylinder. I didn't want to add a variable to car starting for now so we left it out for now. we would have been done today but Porter is in his final week of the semester at college so he had to work today.

another note : the hole in the automatic car has smaller opening in the tunnel for the shifter. I asked the question in the general section but finally found someone mention it in a thread in the fact section so future people in need I guess the answer I found was it does not have t be made bigger.
My hope is we will have the transmission installed tomorrow. I will weld the carrier bearing and he can install the drive shaft.
 
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