So I don't know... I have thoughts going all over the place, I want some opinions from anyone who cares to provide on the subject.

Long story short, I have my wrecked Z in my garage with repairable front end damage. Need to buy new radiator support, radiator, bumper, hood, and right fender. However I don't have the title for the car from my bank yet, and they are all up in arms about a remaining balance which wasn't part of their agreement (in writing). I have an attorney and am fighting the situation, but thats another matter. Anyway, i'm sitting on the car, afraid to fix it and drive it for fear they will send some repo truck to take it and then i'll have put in all that money for nothing.

So while its sitting here, I keep thinking about what I want to do about the transmission. It's a 5AT and I made a huge mistake of settling for it instead of waiting out for a 6MT. Anyway, I could sit on it for awhile and fix it when I get the title and then sell it. Problem here is since its a salvage title I won't get much out of it so i'll have to front even more cash to get into a 6MT. Another option is to buy the trans and all the related parts and do the swap myself.

I have the time... I have a little mechanical experience, for instance I've replaced clutches and stuff before so I don't think i'd have too much trouble with swapping a trans. I know i'll have to buy a new diff, drive shaft, trans mounts and other related parts, flywheel, shifter assy, clutch and brake pedal, hydraulic lines, master and release cylinder, 6MT engine wiring harness, 6MT ECU and instrument cluster, and maybe a few other bits and pieces. I've looked at two forum discussions (one from here, and I think one from g35driver) started by guys who actually swapped from 5AT to 6MT. It looks like a lot of work, but its been done at least twice on these cars so I have a few resources.

I already have the entire front of the car off ready for new parts, so the motor is right there. All I need to do is disconnect more stuff and take the motor and trans out. This would make it a lot easier to replace the engine wiring harness and install hydraulic lines, and drill holes into the firewall for master cylinder mounting if needed.

I have the time and perhaps the gumption to try out a interesting project and get a good learning experience. Maybe its not going to be all that fun, I don't know... but I'm not in a rush so I could do it over a few months I think.

What are your guys' thoughts? I'm really looking at opinions from guys who do their own mechanical work on your cars, fairly major stuff like clutches and such. But even if you don't work on your car but feel you have something useful to say, go for it. I'm just tossing around the idea.

Talk me into it, talk me out of it... I don't care. Open forum. Just thinking about it...

 

You have had this wrecked Z sitting for 13 months?

https://my350z.com/forum/2003-2009-n...-ditch-it.html

Give the junk man $100 to pick it up and haul away.

 

Never ceases with you does it davidv?

Congrats on the pointless post # 39,347. Carry on...

 

May I ask why you plan on switching over to mt? If you get to keep the car, do you plan on keeping it stock? If not then you might aswell get your bolt ons done.

From what I hear the swap its expensive, and very time consuming. If it is totaled, then just get a mt instead and save yourself the headache. Its your car in the end, so do what you want.

 

Stop wasting money on the transmission and repair the car and have it up and running. Either way you have to worry about them taking the car if you can't cough up the money to pay of the balance.

Let me ask you this what is wrong with the current transmission. Does it work, does it function and does it move you from point A to point B. Now what about your car's front end. How is that kinda beat up right and at this point not drivable. Lets try to get the car repaired and save the rest of the $$$ to pay of the balance. Then we can talk about swaps and stuff. In reality just do the Trans-Go kit/cooler and get some good new stock fluid and you will be fine.

 

this guy is horrible, please report his posts, thank you

 

Lol at another davidv thread report. That's why I love this place you guys always making things interesting

 

i just did the swap and it is not hard at all. Don't listen to all these guys. You don't need half the crap they put on the list like the ECU, wiring harness, transmission cross member, transmission mount, and other random crap. It cost me less than $1000. Search the forum for used OEM parts, slidegood, and other vendors that sell used parts. BUY IN BULK to save money. There is literally one wire that needs to be jumped for the car to run. I might do a write up but there doesn't seem to be that much interest in the swap.

 

Before I would go on a spending spree/I would make sure the car wasn't considered a total loss... then I would consider spending $ like the above poster suggested...

 

+1

if you or anyone is interested in the swap you can just PM me and ill help you throughout the process. I did EVERYTHING myself. no shop did some of the work. I know EXACTLY what to do. It was a pain in the *** to figure out because the other guys that did it had shops involved that wouldn't release information.