Additional notes on the MT swap

[Dr_Snooz]

I followed the MT swap How-To thread pretty carefully when I did my conversion. There were a couple areas that weren't as clear as I would have liked, so here they are. The wiring will look like this when done.



Basically, you'll need the two heavy Black/White wires crimped together to start. That bypasses the shift interlock. For the backup light, I ran a black wire under the dash and through the side wall, up the fender well and into the engine bay and connected it to the reverse switch on the transmission. The other end I connected to the Green/Black and Yellow wires as shown at the right of the picture. The last part is a little difficult to see and I apologize, but the Green/White wire AND the Pink wire are connected to a black ground wire. The Green/White wire bypasses the '89 key interlock and the pink wire gets the cruise control to work again.

Be aware that if you ground the Pink wire to get the cruise working again that the only way to disengage the cruise is to hit the brake. If you just press the clutch, the engine will race. At some point, I am going to scavenge a clutch interlock and relay from the junkyard and wire things properly. Until then, I'll have to remember to hit the brake first. I'll update this thread when I do that.

The last issue I had was the rear engine mount. The How-To says to use the engine mount off an MT. Well to me that meant the rubber mount. What it ended up meaning was the mounting bracket. This guy here:



It looks exactly like the AT bracket but the bolt pattern is different on the MT. If you feel comfortable drilling holes in your AT bracket, then rock on. I ended up putting everything on hold to run to the junkyard.

Anyway, hope that helps someone.

[Pico]

Great addon, I have to recheck my reverse light wiring on mine.
I have the wire going from the car to the engine bay but had no power to the switch.
I ran a wire to the underhood fuse box for power

[2ndGenGuy]

Yeah I never did the reverse light wiring on my MT swap on my hatch. I should definitely do that one of these days. I'm sure the colors are the same, as I had to do that same loop with the big black wire.

[1ajs]

someone should add this side note to the how to...

[AccordB20A]

jdm cars have the mean reverse light setup, just get a mt loom for the motor and then all u have to do is join those two yellow and green reverse light wires together the same as you did with the starter

[carotman]

The A/T engine loom has the reverse lights wires coming near the battery. It's a yellow wire that comes out of the loom and directly goes back in.

All you have to do is cut that loop and connect both wires coming from the backup light switch on the transmission.

[lostforawhile]

snooze why don't you run the pink wire back to the clutch switch like on the factory cruise with manual transmission? if i remember correctly and i'll check with a meter, the clutch switch is grounded until you push it. you can check it really easy with a meter, see if there is ground between the pink wire coming out of the clutch switch, and ground on the car, with the clutch not pushed. then the ground should be cut off with the pedal pushed. i believe it's a pink wire at the clutch switch. if you didn't hook up either wire, the pink will go to the pink wire at the center console and the other wire to a ground source like the body. you also tie into this pink wire at the console for your start interlock relay. it's easy, the two wires for the interlock on the old shifter will go to the normally closed side of a bosch relay, the pink wire will go to the coil ground, the other coil wire will go to power at the key switch at start. I believe one of those heavy wires that used to go to the shifter may be the hot wire coming from the key at start, check with a meter and see if it goes hot when you turn the car over, if it does, you saved yourself a lot of wiring hassles. how this works, is normally the shifter interlock circuit is closed by the relay, when you turn over the car,if the clutch isn't pushed, the clutch switch provides ground to the relay coil, and the start circuit provides the hot side, so the relay opens,preventing the car from starting. if the clutch is pushed, there is no ground for the coil, the relay stays closed, and the car starts. Snooze you may have solved a mystery for me too. do the auto transmission cars have the short jumper plug between the fuse box, and the ignition switch plug? i'll bet that plug is only there on manual cars to eliminate the entire ignition interlock switch circuit. if it is, all you need to do is unplug that jumper from a manual car, plug it in, and bypass the entire ignition interlock system

[Dr_Snooz]

The A/T engine loom has the reverse lights wires coming near the battery. It's a yellow wire that comes out of the loom and directly goes back in.

All you have to do is cut that loop and connect both wires coming from the backup light switch on the transmission.

That makes sense. It's like when you buy the base model that didn't come with a clock, but there's still a wire to where the clock would be. Maybe they used a universal loom that covers both AT and MT configurations. Do you have to cut the loom open to get the yellow wire?

snooze why don't you run the pink wire back to the clutch switch like on the factory cruise with manual transmission? if i remember correctly and i'll check with a meter, the clutch switch is grounded until you push it. you can check it really easy with a meter, see if there is ground between the pink wire coming out of the clutch switch, and ground on the car, with the clutch not pushed. then the ground should be cut off with the pedal pushed. i believe it's a pink wire at the clutch switch. if you didn't hook up either wire, the pink will go to the pink wire at the center console and the other wire to a ground source like the body. you also tie into this pink wire at the console for your start interlock relay. it's easy, the two wires for the interlock on the old shifter will go to the normally closed side of a bosch relay, the pink wire will go to the coil ground, the other coil wire will go to power at the key switch at start. I believe one of those heavy wires that used to go to the shifter may be the hot wire coming from the key at start, check with a meter and see if it goes hot when you turn the car over, if it does, you saved yourself a lot of wiring hassles. how this works, is normally the shifter interlock circuit is closed by the relay, when you turn over the car,if the clutch isn't pushed, the clutch switch provides ground to the relay coil, and the start circuit provides the hot side, so the relay opens,preventing the car from starting. if the clutch is pushed, there is no ground for the coil, the relay stays closed, and the car starts. Snooze you may have solved a mystery for me too. do the auto transmission cars have the short jumper plug between the fuse box, and the ignition switch plug? i'll bet that plug is only there on manual cars to eliminate the entire ignition interlock switch circuit. if it is, all you need to do is unplug that jumper from a manual car, plug it in, and bypass the entire ignition interlock system

That would probably be better. I plan to go to the yard to pick up a clutch interlock relay at some point and will revisit the wiring at that time. I really want the interlock because I don't need to crunch up the front of my car because I forgot to park it in neutral. Mostly, I just wanted to get the cruise working with minimal effort to see if I'm reading the schematic correctly.

Not sure about the jumper plug. I never really looked at the fuse box. Can you be more descriptive? What color is it? Is it in a loom/strung separately, etc.?

[lostforawhile]

That makes sense. It's like when you buy the base model that didn't come with a clock, but there's still a wire to where the clock would be. Maybe they used a universal loom that covers both AT and MT configurations. Do you have to cut the loom open to get the yellow wire?



That would probably be better. I plan to go to the yard to pick up a clutch interlock relay at some point and will revisit the wiring at that time. I really want the interlock because I don't need to crunch up the front of my car because I forgot to park it in neutral. Mostly, I just wanted to get the cruise working with minimal effort to see if I'm reading the schematic correctly.

Not sure about the jumper plug. I never really looked at the fuse box. Can you be more descriptive? What color is it? Is it in a loom/strung separately, etc.?

on the manual transmission cars, where the plug from the ignition switch plugs into the fuse box, there is a little jumper that plugs in first between it and the fusebox. you don't need to buy a clutch interlock relay, i will send you a bosch relay and tell you how to make it work with what you already have check the interlock wires will you, and see if one goes hot when you crank the car, that will make it really easy to hook up

[Dr_Snooz]

I did unplug the ignition when doing the pedal box. It was just a big Molex-type connector with no extra funny stuff. Plugged directly into the fuse box. Not sure if that helps.

[carotman]

That makes sense. It's like when you buy the base model that didn't come with a clock, but there's still a wire to where the clock would be. Maybe they used a universal loom that covers both AT and MT configurations. Do you have to cut the loom open to get the yellow wire?

I think you don't even need to cut the loom

I'll check on my parts car here and take a picture of what I'm talking about.

The yellow loop is in the big square plug in the exact middle of this picture

[Dr_Snooz]

Yeah, I think that one sits right under the battery box. So if I'm understanding correctly, you'd wire the green/white and yellow wires together at the shifter and then cut the yellow wire at the connector and wire the reverse switch in there. Dang. Wish I knew that before.

[carotman]

That's exactly what needs to be done!

[import racer]

If you use the manual harness do you still cut and join the green/white wire with the yellow one?

[marvis]

I'm putting a manual into my 89 efi with cruise control, do I need to swap ECU's?

Thanks,
Marvis.

[Pico]

I'm putting a manual into my 89 efi with cruise control, do I need to swap ECU's?

Thanks,
Marvis.

No, I ran my A/T ECU for almost a year before I put in a Manual ECU

[marvis]

Awesome, I thought that would be the case, I thought they would pretty much be the same..

Thanks!

[Dr_Snooz]

I swapped for a manual ECU which immediately gave me a CEL. I swapped the auto ECU back and it runs great to this day.

[marvis]

Interesting!

I have pulled all the auto gear out of the donor car and will start the conversion tomorrow. Fun fun!

[marvis]

My starter motor won't fit on the bellhousing? The lower hole is off by 1cm..

[Pico]

My starter motor won't fit on the bellhousing? The lower hole is off by 1cm..

M/T starter is different, they are not interchangeable

[marvis]

Why was this not listed?

I did a dodgey and grinded the hole out and running a big washer for now.

[Hauntd ca3]

that must be an a series thing with the starter, i have an auto one on my manual.

[import racer]

Can't you just switch the nose piece on starters.

[lostforawhile]

Can't you just switch the nose piece on starters.

I can't remember off the top of my head, but I believe they are completely different brands