Manual To Automatic Transmission Help

Well got some bad news. My tranny on the 2.3 most likely can't be repaired. (Input shaft bearing retainer)

Rather than replacing it, I wanted to do a 5.0 swap.

Found a complete drive train on Craigslist for a good price. Only problem is its an automatic.

Anyone know what it takes to turn a manual car into an auto?

Thanks.
 
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Why can't you swap out the input shaft bearing retainer for another one?


To answer your question. Not much needs to be done if you had entire engine/trans bolted together. You'll need the driveshaft as well, and then a 5.0 specific shifter. Everything else would be standard 5.0 swap fare. You'll need to either remove the clutch pedal or swap to an aod pedal setup.

Fairly easy swap really
 
From what I am finding out they don't make one for the 2.3 t5. Plus my rear end and driveshaft are rusted so badly that getting them apart is going to result in something getting damaged. Couple that with a leaky and worn out 2.3 and a bum left knee I'm facing an up hill battle lol.

So I did some Craigslist searching and I can buy practically everything I need for a full 5.0 AOD conversion for $900.

I am looking forward to the swap. Should be fun.

Any one know of any complications that may arise from a 93 GT vert donor car to a 91 hatch 2.3 ?

Thanks again!
 
I just did a swap. Gigantic pain in the ass and I had all winter and a 2 car garage. Have you thought about exhaust? Brake line on the pass side will hit the exhaust. Need to swap or bend new lines. Pita. 7.5 rear end in the 2.3 = boom. Swap. Power steering will need to be sorted out. Fuel lines come up on the wrong side. I'm pretty sure engine harness won't swap properly between your two years. Headlight harness. Ugh. Looking back, I don't know how I didn't scrap the whole project. Its mechanically straight forward, but you just keep thinking... what the :leghump: else needs to swap over...
 
Just looked it up. You will have to rewire the 4 cyl front to back with the gt harness... which means gutting the interior including dashboard... ask me how I know how much that sucks.
 
The body harness is identical on all of the cars. I have a complete donor car so I will be swapping the brakes, suspension, engine wiring, fuel lines, rear end. etc. The difficult part is going to be figuring out where everything goes. The motor and trans were already removed when I bought the parts car.
 
So what's different?
year-to-year differences at the least
iirc:
87-89 use the same body harnesses, but 89 has a different engine harness (plugs right into the 87-88 body harness, popular for sd to maf swaps)
90 has its own harness
91-92.5 should be close to the same
92.5-93 move the fuel relay from under the seat to inside the engine bay.

theres also differences between coupe/hatch/convertible body harness obviously, but all engine harnesses work for they're year set.
 
check under both drivers seats, if one or the other is missing the fuel pump relay under the seat, might be stuffed under the carpet so check there. Im betting the 93 will have the fuel pump relay under the hood. the entire body harness has to come over. If you get it all swapped and go to start it, and the horn stays on and wont shut off, you will need to swap the body harness