Planning on converting my automatic 1994 Mustang gt to a manual transmission

erniessaleen

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Jan 18, 2011
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hi ppl i have a 94 mustang gt automatic, my transmission is kind of weak and im planning on getting a manual transmission, maybe a t-5. i have bbk headers on it and o/r h pipes, what exactly do i need for this converstion other than the tranny?
 
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I did the swap about this time last year so Ill give you a rundown of the stuff off the top of my head.
T5 (94 / 95 spec or youll have to either replace the input shaft or get the 87 - 93 bellhousing and a driveshaft spacer. The pre 94 t5s have a short input shaft and are rated for slightly less power. Some people have ran the fox body tanny without the driveshaft spacer with no issues. There are benefits to getting the 94/95 tranny and bellhousing but they are a little harder to come by.)
Matching bellhousing (for the year tranny)
Shifter (if tranny is without it)
Tranny slip yoke for T5 (AODE has a large vibration dampener which can make a vibration. It did on mine but some people have had no issues.)
Tranny mount plate (where the tranny mount bolts to and exhaust hangers are located - or modify the AODE version from your auto tranny)
Engine block plate
Flywheel
Clutch kit w/pilot bearing
Clutch fork (if bellhousing doesnt have it)
Clutch cable (best to get a maximum motorsports cable or a used factory cable)
Clutch firewall adjuster
Clutch quadrant
Clutch pedal assembly
T5 pcm (you can also have the AODE pcm tuned to change the load setting to 0, or else the engine will hesitate when it senses there should be an auto shift point)
Reverse wiring harness (not necessary but without it you have to put the NSS in neutral, zip tie it out of the way and wire your own backup lights which is what i did)
And thats everything I can think of. Pretty sure I didnt miss anything, but as you can see its a lot of stuff to accumulate. Most of the stuff I got used from here or corral.
 
A shade under a thousand is what it ended up costing me but I accumulated parts over a two year period and only paid 250 for the T5 so I didnt really feel the hit that bad. Plan on spending between 300 and 1000 for 94/95 spec t5 depending on condition. Another one hundred or so to rebuild it if you get one thats been beat on. Assuming you had all the parts ready to go and a spare hand to help you, theres no reason why you couldnt tackle a job like this in one dedicated day. Maybe a weekend if you dont have a good chunk of time to work on it consecutively. The majority of it is just like doing a clutch job, except the first time you remove the tranny its going to be an AODE and then when it goes back up itll be a T5. Much lighter by the way. Much more fun to drive too. And if youre looking to have fun in the meantime, a shift kit for the AODE and some 3.73 or 4.10 gears in the rearend will also wake it up nicely.
 
niceee....cool cool.....wow thats pretty cheap...i saw a t5 about week ago on ebay, it was a rebuilt one with 420hp capacity for 1300 and another one for 900 with 370 hp capacity..what do you think?
 
Those dont sound too bad. Another place you can check out is astroperformance.com. Thats where I get all my T5 rebuild parts from. They have fair prices on beefed up T5s. Also, check the classifieds. A lot of people get rid of good quality T5s when they upgrade to TKOs and T56s.
 
I have the CPU, Harness, Pedals, upper/lower boots, flywheel, and I think the stock quadrant for sale, you can PM if interested. I think the upper/lower shift boots are the only thing left off the list, and bolts
 
Absolutely right. I forgot about the boots because I actually scavenged some from a 87 Nissan 300ZX that uses the non world class T5 that I was parting out at my shop. They work great. In any case, if youre serious about the swap, Id get in touch with Kamikazi. Getting parts in lots is how I got most of my stuff. Saves time and money usually.
 
I have a 1996 ford must GT 4.6. I just installed a 5spd manual trans out of a 1996 mustang Saleen. My problem is now that I am finished the check engine light flashes and the Over Drive light flashes. The CPU is full of nothing but transmission codes! How do I fix this I have heard so many different options from just changing the CPU from an identical 96 5speed 4.6 to having to change the insterment cluster , key and CPU from a donor car that has the same set up that I now have. The car seems to run ok but this problem is driving me crazy. THANKS for your help! I can also be reached at [email protected]
 
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I have a 1996 ford must GT 4.6. I just installed a 5spd manual trans out of a 1996 mustang Saleen. My problem is now that I am finished the check engine light flashes and the Over Drive light flashes. The CPU is full of nothing but transmission codes! How do I fix this I have heard so many different options from just changing the CPU from an identical 96 5speed 4.6 to having to change the insterment cluster , key and CPU from a donor car that has the same set up that I now have. The car seems to run ok but this problem is driving me crazy. THANKS for your help! I can also be reached at [email protected]

You might want to post in the mod-motor sub-forum.
 
Have you thought about a 4r70w swap?
if you do this, just make sure you know what you are doing. the guy who did mine screwed up the wiring changes and it burned up the tranny. then when i didn't want to take a chance on the first guy screwing something else up, i couldn't find anyone to touch it.

that was when i dumped the 4R and got an AOD. i haven't looked back since.
 
Mustang Parts Specialties Auto Salvage sells a T-5 swap kit comprised of used parts from other stripped Mustangs. Might be worth the extra cash not to have to track down all the parts individually.

Kurt