Whats up people im in need of some greatly appreciated help i own a 1997 cavalier 2.2 I have been building up as a show car and won many trophies and money,but im falling out of that phase slowly and i want to start working on the engine and trans.Since this is an auto 2.2 wat is needed to swap in a manual trany please help me i did search for answers but came up with nothing maybe im looking the question up wrong or not in the right place but can some body point me in the right direction please.
you will need to cut and weld the mounts from a manual trans get the pcm and get the clutch assembly and shift linkage thats about it as far as i know for the basics also the center console
Erik Packard
yo Erik thanks for the info at least someone helped me thanks again
Only reason i know is we swapped one on my buddys sunfire and you will also need the stick shift mount for the center console but thats kinda a given thats what i meant by center console and just change that little plastic piece the one that has the automatic PRNDL to a manual with a shift boot, make sure the shift boot is good since you cannot get a universal one like the honda guys since the boot is molded into that center console piece
Erik Packard
This is what I had in my collection of information. I would say that if you are going to go to the trouble of changing out the trans, you might just be better off to buy a Ecotec and trans and change out the whole thing while you are at it. Fixing up the old 2.2 can be an up hill battle.
SunCavi wrote:Author: SunCavi
Date: 05-10-03 09:36 AM
.................and here it is guys and gals, I told y'all I was gonna write this
This is exactly what you need and you will also need the PCM out of a manual or just get your friends VIN number or someones that has a manual and take yours to dealership and they will reprogram it.
*2.4L tranny
*Tranny mounts
*bolts for the tranny mounts
*bolts that go through the mounts
*Chassis brackets (need to be MIG or TIG welded)
*Flywheel
*Flywheel to crank bolts
*Pressure plate
*pressure plate to flywheel bolts
*clutch plate
*alignment tool
*slave cylinder
*Both axels
*Complete front wiring harness(different sensors)
*ECU reprogrammed by GM
*Shifter
*shifting cables
*shifting cables bracket
*bolts to mount shifting cable bracket
*clutch pedal
*master cylinder with reservoar and lines
That is pretty much it, and knowing how to make it all work
Many people don't even think about the wiring harness but when you look at the plug in 4 speed trannies it has about 10-12 wires going to it and a couple of more sensors and a manual has only 2 sensors.
If you cannot get the whole wiring harness because it is expensive or something, just get the VSS pigtail off a 5 speed and the reverse taillight pigtail (those are the only pigtails on the tranny), and I will let you know how to hook those up on your automatic wiring harness.
Manual tranny has mounts on it and these mounts are bolted on to these brackets that are welded on your chassis.
So, that's what automatics lack (the brackets)
You are gonna need the junk yard to hack them off the old car so you can weld them on yours.
Also, you are gonna need to drill a hole in your firewall for the master cylinder .
Also, you are going to need to bend your front driver brake line, but don’t break it!!!!
Bleed you clutch and your brakes and take it for a spin!!
As you can see, I didn’t write that you have to take the dashboard off and your brake master cylinder and stuff because if you don’t know that all that has to come off, you should not be doing the swap.
Also, in automatics, there is this one like a shifting cable that is under your carpet and it goes from your auto shifter to the ignition, that is there to prevent an auto tranny to be shifted by you if the keys are not in the ignition. Don’t fuk with it, just disconnect it and leave it where it is because it is somehow connected with the damn ignition and you are going to have to put ignition apart to be able to pull it off.
Also, the clutch pedal sensor: The way you are going to wire this is, there are 2 wires coming out of the pedal sensor, one yellow and one purple.
There is a thick yellow wire coming out of your ignition, on the left side of the steering wheel and splice the pedal yellow into ignition yellow.
Purple goes to the engine bay, right under your clutch master cylinder (now you have one since you came this far with the swap ), your wiring harness plugs one into another and there is a think yellow wire there and that is where the purple from the pedal plugs in.
The thick yellow wire is there with another 40 wires and another at least 3 yellows, but a hint to be able to find it is, it is in one of the corners, all the way in the corner and it is beefy.
If you wanna over ride the sensor, so that you don’t have to push in the clutch every time you start the car, just connect those 2 wires where the pedal sensor is and pull the sensor out.
Make sure that if you bypass this every time before you start the car and the clutch is not applied, the tranny has to be out of the gear, because the car ‘’’WILL’’’ jump!!!
All in all the work is not that bad when you think about it. LOL
I have swapped my car from a 2.2 3 speed to a 2.4 4 speed and now I am swapping in into a 5 speed and I did all this.
I have done a total of 4 swaps on Cavies including mine and all of that were manuals beside mine, so I know what I am taking about. LOL
Trust me if you are not very mechanicly inclined don't even think about performing something like this by yourself just because your friend that owns a Civic told you that it is not hard. (I had to do this)
By the way you got to decide weather you wanna go with the Isuzu tranny or Getrag because those brackets for the mounts that you are gonna need to have welded, in Getrag are 5 inches more apart than in Isuzu, and shifter and shifter cablets, etc…. are different.
SunCavi I hope this helped
Please, do not try to sell this on E-Bay because the certain actions will be taken by me (I will E-Mail you with something fierce), this is for J-Body owners, “only”, and I don’t know if you want to reffer to this when doing a swap in a different car, because I don’t know how compatible it is.
P.S.One last thing I forgot to tell you, have fun driving your 5 speed.!!!!!!!!
