is it too much hassle to worry about? if not how much do i expect to pay for parts and fitted? also where would i happen to find a gearbox for ba

Ive heard (as i breiefly looked into it) that its a big/expensive job. $2000 for parts plus labour approx.

hahah you wish!

it is a s**t of work man

from what i have read on here the whole wiring harness and ecu need to be changed

and that means the icc needs to be recoded or something

im sure some other members can shed some more light

yeah i knew it was big.. i think i asked the question a few months back and got the "dont bother" "too expensive" "got 10 grand?" comments.. so i bothered no more

I have recently(3months ago) converted my BA to manual. I was told I was crazy by many.. But the end result speaks for itself!

I paid $2400 including shipping (I was quoted less, and messed around when it came to $$$, but the end product was very valuable.)

I received everything I needed in the conversion except for a spigot bearing($17) and a tailshaft (which I had to get mine modified) So it was all plug and play. I did 90% of the conversion myself. the other 10% my grandad helped me with (He is by far the best mechanical engineer I know, BY FAR!)

The wiring harness is easy, provided you take the top of the BBM intake manifold off, and exchange wire for wire. The pedal box was relatively easy, but I have a genuine service manual, so i printed the 3-4 pages I needed. (I also had an adjustable pedal box which is more difficult)

The HARDEST part is aligning the clutch, we did it by eye and were fine, but I recommend getting an alignment tool to reduce time, and increase your level of confidence(it will take ALOT longer if you get it wrong)

*NOTE* Not many people knew this, but you must have the pressure plate compressed before you bolt the clutch in otherwise you will have no pedal feel or usability. If you do not have a bench press, get ford to do it. THIS IS A MUST.

Getting the gerbox in is as much a fine art as any gearbox.

The ecu, I used a hacksaw to make the round head bolts unscrewable.
I bought new bolts from bunnings hardware.

Interior is time consuming, but pretty straightforward. Most of the centre console comes out to get the auto shifter out.

The HARDEST part was getting ford to deal with my car after the conversion was finished. I made the mistake of thinking the key was the only thing holding me back.

I had to get them to reprogram the ecu to match the rest of the car. At first they told me they had to use the auto ecu (which I knew couldn't be done) then after 2 days they told me that had to use the manual one (which had 3letters at the end instead of 2) This just meant they had to find the program that would match my car.

After 3 days (and only a total of them working on my car for 3.5hrs) I got my car back (with much of my own support to them).

The grin on thew workshop managers face and he said 'she goes like a rocket' were promising. The accidental burnout when leaving was more telling.

Acceleration is much more brutal. I have the 3.23 diff ratio Vs the 3.45 in the XRs. So my acceleration could be better, but why? My gears last longer and I get massive fuel economy. I have done 330kms so far, and my car says I have 300km to go. I do have a full exhaust tho, but I have gained atleast 100km a tank.

I am yet to take the car to the drags, and never took it previously, but I will gaurantee that the $2900 I spent in total would absolutely dominate anything else I could have spent that money on. A flash tuner on the auto would not gain as much as on the manual. I just need to do a dyno run to explain the full potential properly.


All that being said, I would have paid atleast another grand for installation if I had not done it myself. I spend 3.5-4 days working on it (starting at 10 or 11 am - Im a slack C***) ford had it for almost as long..

I recommend it for the willing, the unable I recommend a trade in!

Good luck to future converts!

Happy Motoring!

A mate of mine has what is as far as we can confirm the first BA in Australia to be converted from Auto to Manual, he has had the manual in and running for about 4-5 months. the car ran a 15.6 as its best time Auto, and has since run a 15.1 with the manual on its first and only pass, the car was at ford for about 2 hours. the conversion took about 1.5 days+ the time at ford, btw the manual will run with the Auto ECU, but be limited to 1500rpm

hey man, did you put in the t5 or t56? You should write up a technical doco and give it to the admins to make it sticky in the driveline section.

I put in the T5, because it would have cost twice as much for the T56, and in my opinion it isn't REALLY necessary. I considered taking photos and writing a tech doc, but as i said, im a slack C***. I started the conversion on a V8 supercar weekend, so the first two days we constantly took breaks to watch the race. When I can be bothered I'll go to the effort to write up a tech doc, but I don't have any photos, I do have the pages from the pdf's I used though, and a few points of personal insight.

Ford had my car for 3 days because they had so much trouble finding the program to suit my car, ford HQ gave no help. They had also never done a conversion previously, so they learnt alot with my car. From what I understand it is much more common over east so the dealers are more experienced in the field. The boys at Lynford should have a handle on it now though!

In all honesty 15.6 and 15.1 sound ok, but if that's all my car would pull down the 1/4 I would be shocked enough to cry. My car does have a few mods though..

Again, in my opinion it was well worth it, and if other people have gained 0.5 of a second on their 1/4 times, imagine what is possible once their driving styles have refined.

the 15.1 was done the day the car got on the road

67RCE, i just read what i wrote and it seems abusive.. i didn't mean to take a shot at the times, i figured they were run when reasonably fresh.. it is more of a statement of how i would feel.. as an estimate i would say my car would've run a low 15 at the most before the manual, i would say now it would be a high 14.. maybe a mid 14 (I'll hope for low)

I will say though that it has taken a while to master the launch of the car, it can make such a difference with small changes in throttle and clutch. Good luck to your mate, it would be nice to hear what he gains down the 1/4 next time.

I just need to get off my a** and go to a whoop a** wednesday. I want ot post some times, but i'll wait until my mate gets his licence back so i can have a run with his WRX, he'll absolutely cain me, but i want a comparison. It its so far from stock it isn't funny.

I'll attempt ot muster up some effort and take some photos that i think were necessary, and make up a basic tech doc for the willing..

Cheers guys
Happpy Motoring!

I converted my BA to manual took me 12 hours to do including changing the icc and the seering wheel so that when I put all the manual gear in I used all the manual gear that came out the donor my kit came with box, flywheel, used clutch (turned out to be the wrong one), icc, steering wheel with barrel and key, shifter, pedal box, wiring loom and ecu so anything that was manual was taken out the other car and anything auto was taken out of my car, the only thing that I had problems with was once it was all together need the shaft shorten but like 4 inches and the hydraulics inside the bell housing f**k up somewhere and its pissing out fluid so now the box has to go out,
and when I first put it in I didn't check the clutch to see if it fit on the box as it came in the kit so just assumed haha, so I stuffed around trying to get a gearbox to fit into a course spile clutch and not a fine one like it should of been, and then took box out found a clutch that fit (landrover discovery 300tdi) was pretty much what it should be been so chucked that in it and then has the clutch fluid pissing out everywhere but Im at a stand still now needing money to buy a brand new clutch and get the shaft cut and shut.
anyone know how long the manual shafts are by any chance? as my kit came out of a ute and its miles to long

HEH.. I just did the manual conversion on my XR6T last night.. it's all working, but the computer is still auto so it flashes D and seems determined to stop me going over 40kpm.

trying to figure out if there is a way to trick the BA like with the earlier models. I don't think there is because the BA PCM stops you reving past 3.5k if you are not in gear so tricking it to think it's in neutral is problematic.

rgds

Frank

hmmmm .... maybe i will skip getting me BA changed to manual & go straight to fitting her into either the EB [ lol ] or the AU as that might be easier for this slaack arrse

yeah, I thought I was doing it easy this time.. used a hoist..

had the drive shaft, rear engine mount, starter motor etc and all but two bell housing bolts (got the top ones fine) within the first hour... but OMG.. I spent hours trying to get the BTR off the engine as the bell housing had no room between engine and tunnel.. in the end I got it out by turning the box on it's side in place and wiggling it hard for hours..

Putting the T56 in was super easy in comparison to getting the BTR out without pulling the engine.

painful but got it all done in one day and I think I have the PCM conversion to manual sussed now. I'll know soon anyway...

don't want to do that again for a long time.. once a decade is fine.

You need to program the PCM from auto to manual.