1998 2 door 3 speed auto to 5 speed manual swap

[Perry]

the 1996 manual posted in sticky post 1 covers this, fully. clutch free play steps, its very easy. best measured at the pedal but if the cable is rusted as all are this old is impossible todo right.
but note my 1 inch rule, in page below.. html.
if the end of that lever on bell moves 1 inch and IF reverse grinds the clutch is bad.
if the lever does not move 1 full inch (the free play is set WRONG) and the clutch is not bad, its that simple, and is why I made up the 1 inch rule to find a bad clutch with 15 minutes work and use a ruler please,
or test 2, acid test 2, remove all free play using that nut at the bottom end of the cable, if reverse grinds the clutch if bad. for sure. no guessing..

well if some mounted arms are installed wrong (ignoring index marks) or the spline on the top of the clutch pedal is stripped out due to rusty cable and heavy foot, will that be it, all covered on my clutch page, every word
in fact i covered every possible failure, here. even things nobody ever saw before.
ive blown up vast clutches in 50 years, when young ,ever week about.(racing)

http://www.fixkick.com/tranny/clutch/clu...-kick.html

Well I’m started on the swap, just waiting on a new flywheel and clutch because I don’t think it’s wise to resume the old ones while I have easy accesss.
so true.

In terms of the wiring, it seems that any tranny related wires come from the engine harness.
Since it’s not to much work, would I be able to swap the engine bay harness and ECU from the 5 speed donor into my 3 speed auto? Both are 1998, 1.6 2 doors so I was hoping this may be able to enable me to have no check engine light.
The check light will fail no matter what you do, the ECU sees the TCC fail to lock up , it sees VSS speed not drop and TCC Fails, only a new MT ECU fixes that.

the ECU commands TCC to lock up then checks the RPM drop, and VSS drop, and if fails , fails. DTC.

If I have to swap the whole dash harness over to avoid the check engine light I’m not going to bother and will live with the p0740 it’s going to throw at me.

the ECU does not read the dash cluster, only the VSS speed clicker reed switch in the cluster. only this, if the ECU likes the VSS speed ok, but
if not DTC errors for DEAD VSS, if the VSS works but the speed does not drop with TCC active, the ECU DTC errors for DEAD TCC.
that is all there is to that, all other things in the cluster are passive things the ECU can not read. ever.
lamps , gears for odometer.
the ECU may check for VSS rpm drop and engine RPM drop, both are going to drop when TCC locks up.


is this car 4wd or 2wd, you should make signature like this'
1998 Sidekick (or tracker,) 2doors, 4wd, G16b 16valves, usa car, tranny swap. (correct my errors please) 3sp to 5sp stick.

Yes mine is a 1998 4wd USA 2 door, donor is a 1998 4wd Canadian 2 door.

So are you saying I can avoid those errors with a MT ECU and engine side harness swap? I have all these parts here, just really have no interest in taking the dash harness out, a ton of work!! Engine harness I can take out easy.

[fixkick]

the ECU MT can never show any AT errors, impossible, totally.
the harnesses brings the clutch switch to the ECU and that is it. (there might be a 4wd switch there too, not sure)
4wd can be tricky as the newer cars 1998 with ABS the 4WD engaged ,shuts down ABS. I'm sure you dont have ABS right?

id not take out the dash harness. all that matter is that the starter works , with clutch switch missing but that is easy to fix, a bypass jumper on PNRNL switch (now missing) from P pin to common pin and the starter spins away. and ECU sees Park is engaged and is really like stepping on the clutch pedal, same. ECU happy , starter happy,
Id just to the mechanics, then with car running good, go from there.

keep in mind I have no 1998 schematics, they are rare. this is only my best opinion.

[Perry]

the ECU MT can never show any AT errors, impossible, totally.
the harnesses brings the clutch switch to the ECU and that is it. (there might be a 4wd switch there too, not sure)
4wd can be tricky as the newer cars 1998 with ABS the 4WD engaged ,shuts down ABS. I'm sure you dont have ABS right?

id not take out the dash harness. all that matter is that the starter works , with clutch switch missing but that is easy to fix, a bypass jumper on PNRNL switch (now missing) from P pin to common pin and the starter spins away. and ECU sees Park is engaged and is really like stepping on the clutch pedal, same. ECU happy , starter happy,
Id just to the mechanics, then with car running good, go from there.

keep in mind I have no 1998 schematics, they are rare. this is only my best opinion.

Great info as always. I’ll update when I’m finished and let everyone know what worked.

[Perry]

So before I started the swap I tried the manual ECU instead of the auto. It started up perfect no CEL. Since then I’ve swapped over the pedals and I have the 5 speed trans bolted up.

The trans tunnel where the shifter comes out needs a lot of modification to work. That’s going to be to touch and go. Cross member and engine mounts are the same and bolt right up.

I’m actually considering taking out part of the trans tunnel from the donor and maybe welding it in. We will see how it goes.

Still need to figure out what to do with the cable that allowes the key to only leave the ignition in park, I may just fasten it in the park position and tuck it away. Reverse lights are an easy cut and swap out connectors.

Fixkick you may know this, but when you turn the key to start. Does the plug going to the shifter tell the automatic it’s ok to crank starter or does the range sensor on the trans do this? I can easily fiind our soon but thought I’d ask. Because that will be what I wire to the clutch switch.

[fixkick]

THE PRNDL SWITCH ON THE TRANS side, ALLOWS THE starter to turn, and crank (P or N)
so same way the clutch pedal did on the MT.
nice going so far, hope that weld back tunnel is easy....

[Perry]

So the swap is complete!!

Here is what I changed out:

-pedal assembly 
-Trans/transfercase combo
-Brand new flywheel, clutch and pressure plate
-rewired park/neutral to the clutch switch 
-rewired reverse switch to work with old range sensor connector 
-cut donor trans tunnel from donor and screwed down to old auto joke in floor (welding+carpet=no)
-1998 m/t ecu
-centre console and boots from donor

I’ve put about 100 miles on it so far as is
-going to need to regear with donor gearing (has 4.30 now and it needs 5.12) 5th gear is only really good for flat, windless highway without shifting down. 
-speedo is reading about 17-18% too slow, I will swap in donor speedo when I do thirds. 

Overall much nicer to drive than the auto, don’t have the details on fuel economy yet but certainly will be better. 

The issues I’ve noticed during the 100 mile once over is even though I replaced both front and rear output shaft seals in leaking badly in the rear and the slightest weep in the front. 

On a more unrelated note I’m still leaking motor oil. I replaced the valve cove gasket and spark plug rings bout the leak still seems to be pretty fast. The main seal looked good when I had the trans out. I really hope it isn’t that.

[Perry]

Another little update for anyone who may stumble upon this. Motor oil leak at bell housing was the valve cover gasket after. I redid it and made sure it was super clean. also a dab of rtv in the corners by the cam, all good! Front output still leaking, timken seals coming in mail, no more cheap crap seals for me ever again.

Other than that, all good!! I'm up to 25-26MPG from the 20-21 with the auto, very pleased overall.

Here is a youtube video of the journey (not a howto vid) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7z8UdJ0fEU