I only took on the manual conversion because I found a cheap donor parts legend with all the parts needed to do a successful swap. I credit FUT for taking pictures back in the day with my disposable of his 6 spd sedan. I also give props to Takemorepills aka sneek for he gave me heads up on what to look for upon doing the swap, he also helped me out on what electrical I had to do.
I stripped the donor car of its entire pedal assembly, clutch master cylinder, lines, ECU and shift linkage. I spent a total of 350 for all the parts. Of course I already had a 6spd tranny from 4 yrs previous when I was going to attempt it then. The trans then cost me 1300, now its about 1k. I had to purchase a slave cylinder($60), 6spd clutch and 6spd flywheel. A the time I didn't want any surprises so I stuck with all original 6spd parts. I found out from Sneek that the 6spd used a different flywheel and clutch setup (unsprung clutch, dual mass flywheel.) Finding a dual mass flywheel was a task, because they are rare. I found places tiring to rip me of asking for 500+. Local auto parts stores only charged 150 or so, but none of there where houses had them in stock, this was true for all six auto part stores I checked. I finally found a salvage yard that sold it to me for 225. A steal considering. I opted to go with a SPEC stage 3 clutch, rated at 500 ft-lbs, I knew that was the clutch I needed to take Nitrous abuse. The clutch came out at an even $500. Update. The Dual mass Flywheel found on 6spds is a piece of garbage if you plan on racing your car. I have found that the 5spd Flywheel and Clutch setup can be installed into the 6spd trans and work the same with 16LBS minimum less rotating mass.
As I waited for the parts to show up, I bolted the 6spd tranny in the engine bay, I had already removed the engine. Bolting up the tranny to its two mid mounts allowed me to see what kind of tranny mount need to be constructed. It was actually a breeze. Apparently there are two or more different type of tranny chassis tunnels, 91-92 (93 not sure) 94-95 sedans. 91-92 are a piece of cake. I used three long 110mm bolts and about a total of 100 washers to extend the tranny bracket from the back of the manual tranny 2-3 inches to line up with the original tranny mount holes using the original tranny mount. About 15 bucks in parts and 2 hours labor I had the tranny bolted up, easy.
Next I took my entire pedal assembly out. With the experience of taking it out of the donor car it came out a lot easier the second time. Pull it out in sections, by pulling out certain cotter pins. The area were the clutch master cylinder didn't have any embossed holes on the firewall but the noise dampening material on the floor of the car extended up the firewall. The figure of the clutch master cylinder is cut out of the material, so using the template of the gasket that is attached to the clutch master cylinder I made markings of the three holes I need to cut. I used a roto- zip to punch in and create the three circular holes tracing my template. After the holes were cut everything else just bolt right in. There are bolts which are a pain to bolt in, but using ratchet extensions and a flashlight resolve the problem. Total time spent was about 6 hrs and I had my whole pedal assembly in.
Bolting the flywheel and clutch to the engine was no big task, just like doing any other flywheel and clutch. Get the flywheel resurfaced if its used and torque everything to spec. Bolting the engine to the manual tranny proved to be a pain, as the release bearing just flops around in the pressure plate and your supposed to have the release fork, fork into the release bearing as you put the two together. Being Impossible to do, I joined the engine and tranny together and used the release fork window on the bottom of the tranny to attach the fork to the bearing and seat the fork in its cradle. Not easy and require a lot of improvising. Everything else is pretty basic, the engine and tranny attached got dropped in and bolted up.
The electrical proved to be more challenging. You'll need a service manual for sure. There was the starter system to figure out. I never did figure it out, but I just bypassed it, by removing the starter cut relay and ran two wires together and two wires to the clutch switch the clutch switch is also wired into the cruise control system, however I haven't spent any time figuring it out yet. As long as the 4 wires see ground then the car starts. The 6spd tranny has three switches built into it, the 5spd has two. The first is the neutral switch, power needs to be wired to the ecu and you'll need at get a wire with a connecter and fit it into the harness as the wire does not exist, the negative goes to ground. Second, the reverse lights switch should be wired to the harness in the center console were the auto shifter was disconnected from. Third 6spd transmission there is the reverse lockout, its to prevents down shifting into reverse while shifting into 6th. If you use a 5spd ecu which will work fine for the swap it can't connect, but if you use the 6spd ecu then it will and you'll have to figure that for yourselves. Its not necessary to connect it, as I didn't, or couldn't since I uses a 5spd ecu.
Video documentary:
I stumble on words and names when I'm filming. I kind of get nervous. I really do know a master cylinder from a clutch pedal:)