Hey all,

Looking to swap out the 5AT differential gears to the MT 3.5 ratio. Is it simpler to just swap out the entire pumpkin of just the gears, Pro's and con's of doing it either way?? Any mods needed or suggested to do the entire swap?

Thanks

 

Simple to do the swap if you get the whole unit. But i do suggest buying a real LSD when you do the swap

 

Why do you want to do that? More fuel friendly?? Are you goin to boost?

 

you're only choice is swapping the gears and diff together. You can do that by buying either a used pumpkin from someone, or replace the internals on yours. You will need a diff (be it a stock one or aftermarket) for a manual transmission car to be able to use the various final drive options

 

F 1, ya kinda confused me ( not hard to do ). Are you saying I can't swap out the entire pumpkin? I thought I could buy a MT pumpkin from an 04 and swap it with mine, would that not work? Just want to make sure before I buy one from the local junk yard. I know I don't want one from a base since it has no LSD. Is there something I am missing like a difference between the 2 that won't work or was I missunderstanding your reply?

Thanks

 

you can swap the entire pumpkin with one from a manual yes. It will get you the gears (3.5), but you'll still be left with a POS differential (or, an open diff, depending on how much you trust the person you're buying it from). Stock LSD's have very minimal lockup, and because they are viscous based, they get even worse as they age. Depending how the car was driven, it can be toast even without much mileage (my stock one was done by 30k miles, I'd say maybe 15 track days in that time, the rest just street...it had next to no lockup left)

the better route, albeit more costly, is to build your own with a quality aftermarket LSD (best choice depends on your uses/budget) and the final drive of your choice,

 

OK, Great advice. Cleared things up for me. I have chance to buy a good used pumpkin from a low milage wreck. Then I can plan on putting in a better Differential and use the old gears. I drive pretty easy so for now I can pace myself on spending.

Thanks again!

 

Differential work requires many special tools, like a dial gauge, shop press, gear puller, slide hammer, etc. Unless you're mechanically inclinded and plan on buying these expensive tools, I recommend you just swap the entire pumpkin. Leave the internal work to professionals.