Assembling a Better Quality Auto to Manual Resource

[KatsumotoWorks]

Hello everyone!

I’ve spent the last year and a bit acquiring the parts and doing the reading necessary to complete an auto to manual swap on my '90 LS.

The information I’ve found here on G2iC and elsewhere has been helpful, but I think the quality and organization of that information ought to be improved upon. I have identified a few shortcomings that I (with your help) would like to address. After filling all the holes in our collective knowledge I will produce a complete and thorough auto to manual resource for everybody’s reference.

Problem #1: The parts list is incomplete

The most complete auto to manual parts list/writeup I have found on G2iC is here:

automatic to manual swap (auto - 5spd conversion writeup)

auto to manual writeup, need imput from those who have converted thier own. Looking for help doing this write-up on auto to manual. I put to words everything I can remember, but it seems like I missed a few things but cant put a finger on what those things were. Could everybody whose done this, has knowledge about this,or who wants to do this give a read here and lemmie know what you think I left out. I didnt get specific about a lot of stuff because its explained perfectly by the Helms. No nee…

A nice writeup, but this post was written in 2002. At the time, a complete manual donor car could be found in any local wrecking yard. The list the author provided is short and incomplete given that many of the necessary small items needed for the conversion would be found attached to the tranny/linkage etc on the donor car already. Also, the author just recommends that you sell your auto DA and buy a manual one. We don’t have these luxuries anymore, sadly. The reality of owning a DA in 2023 and beyond is that these cars are SUPER rare now and parts can seldom be found at local wreckers, and that almost all of the clean DA’s left are autos. Since we must turn to craigslist, marketplace, ebay etc to source our parts we need a more detailed list. I keep thinking I’ve assembled everything I need only to learn that I’m still missing something small but important.

Further, the aforementioned writeup includes some shortcuts as well - like using nuts and long bolts to space up the transmission mount rather than using a proper conversion mount or M/T crossmember. I want to find all of the shortcuts and bodges that typically get recommended and substitute them for a part or process that is of higher quality.

Also, there are some model-year specific parts/wiring etc that I would like to include in the final writeup.

Problem #2: Pics went byebye

We all know what happened to photobucket. I will take the responsibility of providing photos for the conversion along with the complete writeup after I do the swap myself, so don’t worry about this.

Let’s Begin!

I have already identified a few parts that you will or might need which are not mentioned in any writeups that I’ve found so far.

Clutch Cable Bracket, Part number 22871-PS1-010

Clutch Cable clips, Part number ???

Innovative Auto to Manual conversion mount. You will require a different mount depending on whether you are using a cable or a hydro transmission.
Cable tranny PN: 49321-60A
Hydro tranny PN: 49322-60A

Clutch inspection plate/cover: PN 21351-PR3-010
As of this writing these are still readily available NOS

Also I have a few questions which I have not been able to find answers to by searching:

Do you need manual trans specific front and rear motor mounts? I have read somewhere that you need to use these, and rockauto lists them with different part numbers and fitment. Can anyone confirm?

Pedal assemblies may be slightly different from model year to model year. I have seen 90-93 pedal assemblies on ebay with more pigtails and sensors than on my pedal set, and its not clear whether this is important. Can anyone confirm?

Starter motor: Does the starter motor from the automatic transmission work in the manual trans or no?

Vehicle speed sensor: Does the VSS from the auto work on the manual trans, or do you need to source a manual specific one?

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This is all I have so far!! Please reply with any knowledge that you have which fills in the gaps or clarifies anything written here or in older writeups. Soon I will attempt the swap myself and write up a complete and condensed guide for everyone’s reference.

Thanks!

[shenrie]

Do you need manual trans specific front and rear motor mounts? I have read somewhere that you need to use these, and rockauto lists them with different part numbers and fitment. Can anyone confirm?

I used all stock AT mounts on mine other than the tranny mount and while there are official mounts now, which is way cool, the longer bolt and spacer method worked fine for roughly 4-5 seasons of local autoxs with zero issues.

Starter motor: Does the starter motor from the automatic transmission work in the manual trans or no?

I was able to use either. saved the MT one as a space and never used it.

Vehicle speed sensor: Does the VSS from the auto work on the manual trans, or do you need to source a manual specific one?

i do remember there was a difference, but for the life of me i cant remember the details or which one i ended up using.

sorry i cant remember more. its been 20 years since i did that writeup. ive had quite a few concussions since then, lol. good luck with your conversion either way. hardest part for me was the wiring.

as for pictures, ya those are long gone

[KatsumotoWorks]

The OG himself! Thank you for chiming in. It’s cool as a DA noob to still get to have access to the wisdom of the ancients lmao.

@shenrie

I used all stock AT mounts on mine other than the tranny mount and while there are official mounts now, which is way cool, the longer bolt and spacer method worked fine for roughly 4-5 seasons of local autoxs with zero issues.

I’ve got both AT and MT mounts, and I’ll make sure to do a sidebyside when i have them both out of the car. Did you have issues after those 4-5 months on that swap or did you just sell the car?

@shenrie

I was able to use either. saved the MT one as a space and never used it.

Good to hear about the starter, those are pricey

@shenrie

i do remember there was a difference, but for the life of me i cant remember the details or which one i ended up using.

sorry i cant remember more. its been 20 years since i did that writeup. ive had quite a few concussions since then, lol. good luck with your conversion either way. hardest part for me was the wiring.

as for pictures, ya those are long gone

Sorry to hear about your melon! lol. I’ll see if i can find part numbers or a diagram in the service manual. thanks again for your help!

[shenrie]

@KatsumotoWorks

The OG himself! Thank you for chiming in. It’s cool as a DA noob to still get to have access to the wisdom of the ancients lmao.

glad to help, but seriously, im forgetting so much im sure. i moved to 4th gen civics after the db and i hate to cross pollinate info, so i dont wanna guess with my responses.

@KatsumotoWorks

I’ve got both AT and MT mounts, and I’ll make sure to do a sidebyside when i have them both out of the car. Did you have issues after those 4-5 months on that swap or did you just sell the car?

ill be interested to see if theres actually a difference. I couldnt see any, but who knows.

I said 4-5 seasons. Thats equals 4-5 years, but in all reality, it was likely closer to 7 seasons as I had a co-driver a few of those seasons. I then swapped in a built gsr/ys1 combo, that ultimately ended up my my rt4wd with a crv trans.

np on the melon bashing. its 5-6 of bmx racing (with a helmet), countless years of mt biking and snowboarding, half of which helmets werent specific to those sports, so i didnt own them at first. such is life, lol. i just turned 53 a couple of weeks ago and i am feeling my age. it sucks.

[KatsumotoWorks]

@shenrie

I said 4-5 seasons. Thats equals 4-5 years,

Sorry i misread! that’s encouraging. one of my concerns is whether there will be axle alignment problems from using different than factory mounts on the auto crossmember.

[shenrie]

^^^ well considering my car was lowered 4.5-5" for around 10 years, i obviously chewed up axles on the regular, but had a lifetime warranty on them both, so it really wanst an issue to me. i attributed the axle destruction to the height of the suspension, not the conversion.

[KatsumotoWorks]

I’ve done some digging on the vehicle speed sensor. The actual term for the VSS on the DA is “Power Steering Speed Sensor”, given that it is a mechanical on/off switch for the power steering in addition to being the VSS.

The PN for the A/T VSS is 56500-PR3-900 or 56500-PR3-901
The PN for the M/T VSS is 56500-PR3-000 or 56500-PR3-010

Acurapartswarehouse is showing that they are not interchangeable, but I cannot find a detailed enough diagram to be able to tell what the difference between them actually is.

I found some photos of the M/T sensor from a for sale listing:

Can anyone who has an automatic gearbox sitting in their parts pile pull the VSS and photograph it?

[butt.dyno]

Nice write up! Yes the DA had a speed sensitive steering system (how cool is that?). One thing I noticed is the Y1 transmission from the crx and civic does not have this, so I’m assuming this is unique to this trans coming from a civic/crx. I think even the small spline DA transmissions all have this style vss meanwhile the y1 had the electric speedo sensor. I managed to plug my speedo cable almost directly into the y1 case and appears to work ao far…not sure if thats right lol

[KatsumotoWorks]

thanks for the pic and the post! sorry to leave this thread unattended-to for so long. life got in the way a little bit.

I did end up picking up a manual trans DA VSS, but I’m thinking about swapping to a manual rack when i’m under there so i might end up needing a different vss after all.

Just a heads up to anyone that was following this thread, I still intend to do a proper write up on this after the swap is done.