Stick Conversion

Hey

Can someone give me a general idea what all is involved with changing an automatic transmission to a manual transmission.

V8 and Rear Wheel Drive of course.

Basically all you need are the pedals and rods from a stick shift car. Usually their is a punch-out in the fire wall for the extra clutch rods. The linkages are the hardest thing to find. Next all you need is the trans/clutch assemblies and a hole in the floor. Cosmedic work is optional.

Dont forget $$$$$$

How much do you think it would cost to do that? (I'm planning on doing it with my car)

I would budget $2000 but you might be able to do it for half that if you can get good deals. That is assuming that you use a common 4-speed tranny and not an overdrive.

You're gonna need the throw out bearing, a flywheel, flywheel bolts, bellhousing, crossmemeber from a manual or fab your own, the transmission, the pedals, the linkage from the pedals to the throwout fork, clutch kit, new driveshaft or modify the one you have (could be just changing the yoke or more), shift boot for inside the car, modify your center console if you have one, remove the vacuum line from your transmission, and block off the cooling lines running from your radiator to the transmission.

Can someone give me a general idea what all is involved with changing an automatic transmission to a manual transmission.

Lots of time and money and probably not necessary. In the early sixties the Max Wedges with automatics were beating four speed manuals on a regular basis.

The transmissions were set up a lot differently than stock but there are some inexpensive shift kits are still avialable to do a similar job.

I think they also had high stall torque converters which would cost a little more but would probably still be cheaper than the conversion.

Here is one place that sells shift kits http://www.txchange.com/transgo.htm

Good luck.