Fellas, I need some advise/help.

The swap will be between two 93 hatches - one SE auto one Base manual. All the stuff is going into the Auto SE shell from the Manual Base. I was wondering what the difference is between an 5spd and and auto driveshaft in a 240. I am looking into picking up a shell that has an auto and was wondering if the driveshaft would work with my manual trans. Will it??

Any issues that I might look out for when doing such a swap. I'll be checking the stickys for the step-by-step...more or less asking about any potential hidden issues or stuff i might want to consider while i'm doing it.


One last thing, the SE is also a Super HICAS model...if that makes any difference (I know, ABS, blah blah blah. I more than likely will be swapping my subframe into it.)


Any info would be greatly appreciated!!


-Royce

 

The auto driveshaft is too short to work with the 5spd tranny.

 

Thanks for that info Idrive!! Bummer though.

 

Don't know much about the hicas in general.......2 things about your thinking about swapping the subframe. 1) if you dont have a lift, don't do it.. It's a waste of time. 2) unless there are a lot of upgrades, (OEM or aftermarket) don't do it. Another waste of time. if your subframe is contorted or something of that nature, it's really not worth the hassle. Are both cars sohc/dohc or one of each?

 

The chassis are both '93 models. My sub frame has z32 uprights and an 180sx diff already installed in it. I figured since it would be smart to do a bushing update to the sub frame this would be a good time to swap out the sub frame and do those bushing as well.

 

Gotcha. Whatever floats your boat. Not sure if this would apply to your situation but I dropped a manual dohc into an automatic sohc chassis. Once I did this, my car wouldn't turn/crank/spark/fuel pump prime even after I triple checked everything. Come to find out, being that I did not swap the engine bay chassis harness, there was one plug that was by the relay/fuse box by the battery that I had to cut the plug off and twist the 2 wires together. Not sure if this is because the chassis is a sohc chassis or if because it was an automatic chassis. Something you might want to keep an eye out for if the car doesn't want to do anything

 

I hear you the sir. My guess was that in order to have it work without cutting this or rigging that I would need to swap everything from the manual in place of the autos existing wiring. Strip out the auto and replace it with the manuals guts, so to speak. The biggest issue I see will be drilling the freaking hole for the CMC in the firewall.

 

It's really not that difficult for any of the procedures. I thought that I was going to have a hassle w/ drilling holes for the clutch peddle. The layout is actually already there for it. You will see once you stick your head under the dash. All you'll need for drilling is a 1/4" drill bit, a step bit, (aka Christmas tree bit) and a 3/16 bit for a pilot before using the step bit. The only wiring that you should have to change is the lower and upper harness

 

I would imagine pulling the dash out of the way and doing the drilling from the inside would be easier. I've seen pix of the process from the firewall side in. It looks like a bitch from there.


This will be the biggest undertaking i've ever done on a 240sx. I've pulled v8's and done engine rebuilds but this will be a first for me as far as harness swaps and such, so i do appreciate your input Kruked.

-Royce

 

Dont pull the dash. A regular power drill will fit in there fine. You dont even have to pull the brake pedal if you dont want to. Just chop that bitch and put the manual cover on it.

IMO, dont swap the harness either. Youd have to swap the dash harness too iirc. Waaay too much work. All you need to do is find the wire for the reverse lights and wire that up, run one wire for the neutral position sensor, and then cut that plug by the fuse box (inhibitor switch) and short it out. Takes like a half hour longer than a clutch job to switch to 5spd.