This is not my write up, I just elaborated and made a few things easier to understand for nim rods such as yours truly.
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 didn’t get specific about a lot of stuff because its explained perfectly by the Helms. No need to rewrite whets already published. Rather I just elaborated on the things that aren’t published, at least to my knowledge. TIA and all feedback is welcome, except smartass remarks on my bad grammar
! WARNING! I do not recommend doing this conversion. Just my little way of saying that it would most likely be easier to sell your current car and buy one with a 5-spd already in it rather than take on this chore. I leave these instructs for the last resort people whose automatics have gone bad. The only reason I attempted this conversion was because I already had a complete donor car, a full shop with air tools, a person that had years of Honda experience willing to lend a hand, AND my tranny after having 3 years autoxing finally died. Keep in mind that this conversion was done on a 90 LS. The cars will vary a little throughout the years, but Ill try to mention where these differences apply. Also, there is no way I can remember all the nuts and bolts that I encountered during the swap, so I highly recommend buying a Helms manual. You’ll need it for wiring diagrams if nothing else. Believe me, I sat down and followed a lot of diagrams to get everything in my car to function. I also wont get into detail on how to do things that are in the manual. I’ll try to cover only the things that aren’t in the manual. Having said that, Ill start this little “how to.”
Ok, first off, here’s a list of things you will need.
- tranny (cable see note)
- clutchplate (matches tranny spline number)
- pilot bearing
- throwout bearing
- pressure plate
- clutch cable and housing
- clutch pedal assembly (including all pedals and wiring)
- shifter with boot & knob
- shift linkage
- intermediate shaft
- tranny mounts
- ECU (year specific)
- gauge bezel
*NOTE: You can go hydro, but you will need the salve cylinder, all the lines, the 92+ clutch, hydro tranny and the 94+ integra clutch peddle. For more see zoomintegra / Armed Ferrit’s cable to hydro write-up.
The intake manifold is also different, however I didn’t change it, and I have no idea what the differences are between the two. I blocked off the extra vacuum lines. The gauge bezel is pretty much optional too, but I listed it, so if you stumble on a wrecked car you won’t forget to get it.
This is not necessarily in the order we did things.
INSIDE
- remove the shifter
- remove the automatic ECU
- remove the pedal assembly
This, to me, is the biggest task. You have to remove the steering column, the heating ducts, and everything else that’s in the way to get access in there. This intimidated me more than anything. Just seems like your ripping your poor car to pieces. Just pay close attention to how the things come apart, even though there’s pretty much only one way to put it back together. Remember: don’t just start cutting wires and stuff, make sure you can abort the mission when you figure what a pain in the butt this is. Everything unplugs and plugs back in.
The reinstall is just the opposite of the removal with the exception of the extra bolts on the pedal assembly that go where the auto ECU was. Be sure to leave enough wire for the two plugs that go to the clutch pedal. They need to be long enough to rewire into the new system. They are very hard to access after the assembly is back together. These wires are for cruise control and the "cant start the car unless the clutch is in” switch, which I left disconnected.
I’ll cover the issues with the ECU when I talk about the inside. The ECUs between 90 and 91 are different. If people try to tell you otherwise, tell them they are uninformed. The difference between these two is this, the 90 has an external PA sensor, the 91 has an internal PA sensor.
Example: if you put a 90 ECU in a 91, you’ll get a check engine light (CEL) and the ECU will flash code 13. The only ways to get the CEL to stop are to be to get the correct ECU, or put electrical tape on the CEL (Homer Simpson style); you just won’t know when something else goes wrong. Also, the auto ECU will work to drive around on, but you’ll get a CEL flashing code 12 pretty much telling you that your tranny isn’t there. I have no insight on the 92-93 ECUs.
While inside, you’ll want to patch the holes left by the automatic cables etc. What I did was use the auto cable holder as a template and cut a metal plate out in the same shape. I took the gasket off and bolted it up with 4 bolts and nuts from Ace Hardware. Another note if your going to install a short shifter: some of them will hinder the reinstall of the center console, and you’ll have to drop the exhaust and linkage to reinstall the console if you wait till the end to do it.
TRANNY
Okay, the reinstall is pretty basic with the exception of the upper tranny mount. I suggest you replace the motor and tranny mounts, since you have it all apart anyway (they have a reputation of going bad). Now, I’ve talked to some who said that when they did this swap, they rewelded the upper tranny mount into the spot where the manual would go. I didn’t want to do this, so I shimmed the mount first, and then added the longer 92-93 motor mount, which, so far, has worked without any problems, and, so far, I’ve put 1,000 miles on it…
How to shim: Take 48 1/16” thick washers and three 12x1.25x60mm bolts. This process may not be the best, but it has sustained the abuse I have put on my car. This also raises the 5spd mount 1”. Make sure you buy at least grade 8 bolts or stronger, no reason to skimp here. Start the install by having the tranny installed and hooked up like it needs to be but supported by something other than the mount. There is a plate that goes under the actual mount. I added 16 washers between the tranny and the bottom part of the tranny mount. Get it all bolted down secure, then add the top portion of the tranny mount and finish bolting her up. You can also reweld the other mount in, it’s your choice.
Now that the tranny is in, you can install the shift linkage. The only trick to this is to drill two holes where you will bolt it up. Hook it up to the tranny so you know exactly where to drill, or if you are lucky you will have the shift linkage holed prestamped and will know exactly where to drill like me. Otherwise it’s pretty straightforward.
The clutch cable and housing is another thing that has to be modified. It’s easy though, just get a 1 ¾’’ hole saw, and drill out the little indentation.
Then, hookup to pedal and hookup to tranny. Adjust accordingly.
Okay, back to the inside to rewire everything. You will have to bypass a few things to even get the car to start. You can bypass the shift lock; all you need to do is cut the two fat black/white wires and connect them (or to the switch on the clutch peddle).
Now, ground the green wire and this will allow you to get your key out of the ignition.
Okay, this took me longer to figure out than anything else: the cruise control wire from this plug is pink (photo below) that needs to be hooked up to the pink wire that’s attached to 1 of the 2 switches on the clutch pedal. Ground the black wire from the same switch.
The other switch is the “cant start the car unless the clutch is in” switch.
The reverse light hook up is simple. Take the reverse cable from the auto shifter and hook it up to the reverse light wire on the tranny. If you look at your transmission you will see your reverse light switch. It has two wires connected to it. One is green
and the other is yellow. Connect a wire from the yellow wire on
the switch to the green wire with a black stripe under your center console.
Connect the green wire from the reverse switch to the bottom
black wire with a yellow stripe.
Want to thank my friend Dave for the facility and knowledge, Kaab (Blackteg), Danial (battlecat), Ryan (GEN2GSR), and Jason (BR) for helping me figure out all this stuff. I really appreciate the help you guys gave me!! I’m sure there were many others, seeing as how I posted so many times about the troubles I was having. I just can’t remember who and what for, sorry bros. Remind how ya helped, and Ill list ya here.