Allright. I know alot of people have done this swap, and i’ve done alot of reading of those threads, but i still have a couple of questions.
I have two 1990 cars. an automatic LS and a 5 speed GS. how many of you guys that have done this just swapped out the transmission vs the whole engine/trans assembly. I plan on doing the whole assembly as I just swapped a 90K mile motor into the GS before i took a curb at enough speed to torque the frame pretty bad. the LA has 126K. Are there any differences in the wiring harness for the engine?
Also, when you swap the ecu from AT to MT is this just a plug in deal? or do you have to do some wiring changed at the ecu? I know the “can’t start unless in park” has to be wired to the clutch pedal switch, and the ignition keylock has to be jumpered. also i recall the reverse light has to be done a certain way to. so yeah, you just unplug the AT ecu and plug in the MT ecu? and what do you do with the TCM? just unplug it, toss it out, and leave the wiring? Wiring is my weakness in automotive repair, so I’d definatly appreciate the advice.
I’d also really like to do a really nice write-up including a complete list of what tools you need when for what. I know this may seem like overkill, but if the helms manual had that in it, all of us would’ve had sooo much time saved in just crawling out from under the car to grab the socket you actually need than the one you thought you needed, just to crawl back under the car. I KNOW everyone hates that.
well, I got the pedal assembly out of the old car and it definatly made me doubt how worthwhile this swap really is. In the other threads they said you didnt have to pull the whole dash, but i had to in order to get the heating ducts out. they’re bolted in and there’s no way you could get to that bolt without pulling the dash. But i did have the dash out in about 4 hours or so… granted this was on the car that i’m not at all concerned about putting back together. And also there’s alot of wiring differences between the cars. The donor has power windows, and ABS, so i dont want to bother to swap the harness. I imagine that the computers could probably be changed without swapping alot of wiring or none at all even. The dash wasnt too hard to pull, and now i know how it’s bolted in there, so i’m not worried about breaking pieces of it like I did on my donor car. And if anyone else is doing this swap and wants the manual gauge pod, let me know. I might not change mine out. Is there any way to get the brake booster out without pulling the intake or engine? doesnt really matter, as i’m pulling both motors anyway, but I was just curious. Also, does anyone know if you can use an ABS booster in a non ABS car?