Five Speed Conv questions

[Guest Anonymous]

Ok I have the five speed and I have read the FAQ artical on the how to...Being as limited on the cash flow as I am(I have a full shop at home). I need to go about doing 90% of this conversion myself. I need some help understanding the shift linkage modifacation, like where to cut and weld and so on......The actual conv is long down the road so I can't just take out the four speed and start measuring and cutting. I have to get an LSD and replace the long neck diff/subframe.......The other thing I would hope for is a weekend job so I will have everything ready and pieced together before hand..

TIA

Ryan

68 02

76 02

PS. Anybody got a LSD for me (3.91:1)

[Guest Anonymous]

give yourself more time then a weekend. TRUST

me!!! I tried to do it in a weekend with an

experienced helper and it was crazy. we got it in

but it was a total rush job. there are so many

details that need to be done right. More time also

leaves some room for the mistakes and correcting

them properly. And then there are the Misc parts

that you'll need half way through the job because of

a broken bolt or something. I thought I had all my

parts in place too but there i was scrambling on a

sunday, trying to find open auto parts and

hardware stores that had those little randoms that I

needed.

Just my 02 cents

-josh

[Guest Anonymous]

Ryan, in the March, 1993 European Car magazine, an article was done on this conversion. I did my conversion based on the article back about five years ago. I don't recall any big problems. As far as the shift lever mount, look at the assembly mounted to the tranmission, then know that it will need to be about three inches shorter so that the shift lever lines up with the hole in the tunel. The five speed is longer, so you will need to cut and weld both the horizontal part that the shifter ball fits into (the shifter mount), and the brace that runs down diagonaly from the shifter mount that you will cut, to the transmission. The article give the all the numbers. There may be better ways to do the conversion now but this article worked well for me five years ago. If you can do 90% of the job, you can do it all. It's not that bad. Good luck

Eric

[Guest Anonymous]

selector rod, and the way mine was done (I inherited an already-converted parts car) was just cutting them right in the middle of their lengths. Remember that the 5-speed is exactly 3.65" (right, Gil?) longer than the 4-speed, so that is how much shorter the shifter platform and shifter selector rod need to be. As for the support link (diagonal link from base of rear of tranny to rear of shifter platform, I just bought a new one for the 320i from Paulo@Maxipeeps because the ends are bushed with rubber and mine had gotten destroyed by oil leaking from the rear of the tranny. HTH!! As for doing it in a weekend, you might want to buy a spare shifter assembly and shorten it while the car is still operating (aka dont touch the car itself). That way you can get a jump on the procedure.... HAVE FUN!!! =D

-Rob