Sera Tranny swap

[fast4phreak]

Hi guys and gals,

I'm looking at getting a Sera sometime fairly soon but all the Seras I've seen locally (Canberra region) are autos and, frankly, I can't stand driving an auto. With this in mind I was wondering if anybody could tell me:

a) how hard it would be to do a swap from auto to manual transmission

and

B) whether I'd be able to swap in a non-Sera transmission without too many extra issues (something like a Starlet, maybe?) as Seras are pretty hard to come by and finding a spare Sera tranny might not be worth the effort.

Thanks!

Edited October 21, 2010 by fast4phreak

[fast4phreak]

Also, if anyone in the Canberra region is looking to sell a manual Sera that would of course be so much better!!

[rthy]

depends on the value of the car/effort

in my Corolla AE71 coverting from 4A-C auto to 4AGE manual i needed:

Manual clutch cylinder, clutch line and slave

Manual T50 Gearbox and Tailshaft (the sera wouldnt have a tailshaft but the auto/man drive shafts may be different?)

Manual Pedal box (had to remove the whole dash, was a #$%$ to work with)

RWD 4AGE (had Manual ECU, Flywheel/clutch, etc)

inaddition had to drill 2 holes in the firewall for the clutch cylinder

widen the shifter hole in the transmission tunnel (would assume u would need the manual shifter + cables for fwd)

the whole conversion was easy enough, but it did cost me quite abit (very hard to find parts and expensive ae86 crap).

not sure if the 4efe (c52?) starlet gearbox would bolt into the sera 5efe gearbox (c155?).

if it does then the conversion should be alot cheaper if you bought a complete ep91 wreck for like $500 or something with rear dmg.

[Graham]

I was just checking the forums looking for a 4EFTE to put into our Sera and found your thread.

Manual conversion can and has been done and I don't think it's extremely difficult.

The best way to do it is to have a donor vehicle and in the instances I've heard of, the donor was a EP82 or EP91 imported starlet front cut.

There should be some details of the conversion on the www.toyotasera.co.uk website or forums.

I'd recommend joining up there if you haven't as there's lots of Sera owners there and lots of good information.

Here's one snippet of info I've found after just 1 quick search:

In another toyota I'm running a computer from an automatic 5E-FE on the 5E-FHE motor (with 5E-FE injectors & no knock sensor). Never got around to adding wires for the knock sensor.

I've also done a conversion from auto to manual on that car. I fitted a C52 rather than the C155. The C52 I got came off a 4A-FE motor. I fitted a bell housing section from a C150 trans from a 2E powered car.

Remember that the flywheel on a 5E has a different bolt pattern to crankshaft than 1E, 2E etc. Get a flywheel from a 5E.

Half shafts & inner CV's from the auto fit the manual (I think this is the case with most smallish toyotas)

Swap the brake pedal & fit a clutch pedal

Bypass the auto start inhibit & connect wiring for reverse lights.

The LHS & front mounts were the same on that car, the rear mount was only slightly different (I reused it with a ~5mm spacer & redrilled holes).

Hope this helps.

Graham.

[fast4phreak]

Thanks a lot guys, I've done some research and it looks like a starlet front cut would be the way to go, a big job but doable. Thanks for your advice and good luck with your conversion, Graham.