5spd manual conversion on my e30

[Carl 3]

FYI: The automatic "in-gear" ignition inhibitor that the Haynes says to short circuit seems to do more than just inhibit the ignition...when my inhibitor circuit is closed my engines idles slightly lower than when the circuit is open...anyone knowledged up on this phenomenom?

[nz320i 0]

yo,

should get my box this week,

repco said 360 for a clutch kit and i might be able to get trade for 300 inlcuding gst- would it be a good buy?

then its off to the wrecker for the rest and its in!

Dam i hope its as easy as that..

[Guest Andrew]

yo,

should get my box this week,

repco said 360 for a clutch kit and i might be able to get trade for 300 inlcuding gst- would it be a good buy?

then its off to the wrecker for the rest and its in!

Dam i hope its as easy as that..

try BNT - I got a pressure plate + master cylinder from them for 280.

[topless 13]

There is a brown which appears to be ground for the light for the shift selector. there is power (Green yellow stripe) which goes to the bulb and also to the reverse light switch which then grounds through the blue white stripe wire via the bulbs. Then there are two green and blacks which enter the plug at the same terminal (i.e. they are common) then go to the shift selector. Where do they come from??? Do they work by going to ground? or do I jumper them with another one of the wires? Any help please!

The easiest way is to remove the relay that controls the starter inhibitor and jumper pins 87 and 30 on the relay block with a jumper wire.

If I get a chance I will dig in behind the cubby on my F/L and check out how exactly to remove the auto wiring loom properly and for good... that is if you want to.

[bravo 35]

Yeah sounds great Carl - Let me know if you suss it.

My clutch kit was in that vicinity of price from Euro Italian.

BNT quoted $343 incl. GST.

Repco rip the trade off, but if they think you are going to spend some money with them they give you trade. 25% discount is common for me, but I pick and choose what I buy from them. Not everything is made equal.

Box is in!!! I sheared one of the heads of the screws holding the pressureplate to the flywheel, so had to pull it all off again and drill it out (used an "easy-out" so I didn't have to re-tap the thread). All back in now. Discovered my clutchline between main steel line and slave cyl. is faulty, so now have to get one of those before I can finish.

Z3 shifter conversion done. With the console already out of the car it took about 5-10mins. I didn't melt the shifter like Carl did, I just cut one of the nylon cups. My theory was that nylon cups are a dollar or two and the shifter is over a hundy. I'd rather replace a cup than a shifter if I f**k it up - went sweet and everything sits nicely.

Now starter motor is back in, I might play around with the inhibitor loom etc - was a bit hard to test before with the starter motor not earthed properly lol.

Should finish it the day the clutch line arrives.

[Gus 5]

Z3 shifter conversion done. With the console already out of the car it took about 5-10mins. I didn't melt the shifter like Carl did, I just cut one of the nylon cups. My theory was that nylon cups are a dollar or two and the shifter is over a hundy. I'd rather replace a cup than a shifter if I f**k it up - went sweet and everything sits nicely.

ten points for logic!

[E30stz 0]

minus 11 points for no pics

[bravo 35]

minus 11 points for no pics

don't make me slap you.

Plus 1000 points for actually getting around to doing it and not just talking about it and doing it myself.

Edited October 10, 2005 by bravomikewhiskey

[E30stz 0]

Minus 998 points - and we'll call it a day on 1 point!! And I wont go telling everyone bout that random conversation .... you know the one lol!

Edited October 10, 2005 by E30stz

[Gus 5]

taking pics is a pain in the ass...when your all greasy and shitty your not in the mood to snap pics for the internet.

[petone 0]

Plenty of pics floating around on teh internet anyway, Carl's one are still floating around somewhere and R3V has got some?

[topless 13]

To answer the question about removing the inhibitor wiring, have just opened up my F/l and sorted it out...

Check photo, the plug here has 3 wires going into it from the relay, black, black with yellow tracer and brown. Cut all 3 wires on the female plug (that is the on from the relay) and join the black and black/yellow wires with a suitable joiner, pref crimp joiner, or solder the 2 together. Brown wire does not need to be connected.

Have arrowed the 2 wires to be cut and joined.

Now remove the relay and wiring to the shifter.

In answer to the bit about the idling being affected by the system, one of the the green/black wires from the shifter switch goes to the motronic box and signals to it that the car is in gear and speeds up the idle to stop stalling. It goes to pin 42 on the motronic unit joining to a red/blue wire there. Disconnecting this wire when removing the wiring from the shifter will disable this function.

Sorry, forgot to point out where it is... check photo, is on the main loom going to the drivers side in the cubby hole area under that black plastic cover above the cubby. (The male side of the plug has 2 black/yellow wires and a brown wire).

clear as mud???

Edited October 12, 2005 by topless

[nz320i 0]

don't make me slap you.

Plus 1000 points for actually getting around to doing it and not just talking about it and doing it myself.

wannna sell your old shifter? my box goes in next fri but it didnt come with shifter?!! pm me if you are keen?

[bravo 35]

Done!

I will look into that wiring topless - at this stage I got it going by splicing the two green/blacks with the green/yellow power for the reversing light as per results from my multimeter sussing out what wires cerated what circuit in various shift positions. After finishing discovered it matched a photo on r3v, so all good till I can be bothered removing it entirely.

NZ320 - you putting an auto in??? Yeah we can sort something with my shifter. PM me.

Other issues/findings:

I never got the bracket that secures the rear of the shift console so I made one out of some angle iron.

I also modified an electrical grommet to fit for the master cylinder firewall opening.

I scored slave cyl. clutch line of an e21 that was being wrecked on the side of the road.

Mounting bracket for the centre driveshaft bearing/vibration dampener was a different size so I swapped them - used the opportunity to service the bearing.

There is a little bit of play in the clutch pedal, but it was late when I finished last nite so I'll look into that tonight.

There is a little bit of play in the gearshift - I think it is the front shift-rod knuckle joint which I decided didn't need replacing - damn. Oh well future project.

The brake lights wouldn't go out - just needed minor pedal adjustment.

I think that is all. So a couple of tiny things that need tweaking, but otherwise a very successfull project.

Total cost $1850 incl. purchase of a torque wrench, allen-head sockets (for pressure plate bolts and gearbox drain plug), 2x 1/2" drive extensions, 1x 1/2" drive universal, clutch alignment tool (good one - not cheapy), sundries. So actual cost of gearbox and parts not too bad and labour was all free of course - except for the couple of boxes of beer I consumed whilst working.

Anyway - reackon I could do it in about 1/3 of the time next time. Most of the time was spent waiting for parts. I accidently pushed the clutch arm retaining clip inside the box after install - took me less time to remove the box, fix it and re-install the box than it did to pull out the auto. Now have a zip-tie through the ends of the clip to stop it happening again :thumb:

Anyway - now officially a member of the manual club - feels good.