So this is my build thread for my Wifes 85 2.5l. We picked this up back in early October as well as a parts car that was supposed to have the parts i needed to do an auto to manual swap minus a trans... Well that ended up not being true. (The morning after) Honestly I was really ready to walk away from this "deal" but my Wife really liked this car. The reason I have delayed starting this was due to paperwork. Another untrue thing was that the seller had paperwork. So we had to go through the process of obtaining new paperwork and a chp inspection. This car has 215k on the odometer. The engine looks stock. I did a compression test and found it had about 90psi per cyl. It has the factory CAT on It as well. After doing a car fax and the compression test the "ran 2 years ago with no smoke" was another lie. There's no way this car has run in at least 18 years. Tags expired in 01.
The CHP inspection was not for a couple months and so a bunch of things came up and happened. Then the day of the inspection cam and they rescheduled us for a month out.. They called back a few days later and rescheduled for only a week out. My wife's car on the trailer ready to go to CHP next to my daily driver.
I finally finished with one of the 2 GTs i had and decided i wanted to work on projects in order so I put my GT into cold storage and brought home my wifes car and a new parts car for the Auto to Manual swap.
I will add when we first brought it home my wife has done a lot of cleaning to the inside and outside of her car as well. When we got it the drivers window was down after hooking a battery and jumping out the window switch it rolled right up. Luckily a tarp had been kept on it for the most part however it didn't keep squirrels from hiding a horde of nuts in the seats.
So i plan to try to see how the new parts car runs and probably do a full cradle swap. The parts car ran 5-10 years ago. We will see how this goes.
Took some time today and looked over the parts car. I hooked up the electrical and with some minor patches i was able to get it to start and run. Sounded good no knocks. So i know i have a ok engine and now will work on doing a direct cradle swap.
I started pulling the stuff on the white car to get ready to drop the cradle. I need to figure out the heater lines as they always tripp me up and the throttle cable seems to be in an impossible location. Im really mostly used to working on my 4tech in my 87 so this is a bit different.
My wife worked on gutting the interior for the shifter removal also helped with pulling the wiring harness.
[This message has been edited by skywurz (edited 01-01-2021).]
I'm in San Leandro (East Bay) My buddy, my Stepmother and a couple of Fiero friends all live up in the Sacto area...I pass through your location often...have enough Fiero knowledge to be dangerous....I also have some spare parts.
I feel like I asked this before but my memory is kind of....What were we talkin' 'bout...?
Worked a bit out in the damp today. I managed to get the rear cradle dropped.
It was too dark to do much else at this point.
The wife managed to swap the shifter assembly and pulled the auto shift lock cable. We already had a shifter so we had not pulled the one from the parts car yet. She then set to work pulling apart the interior of the parts car so we could get to the shift cables and ECU. I noticed the bend on the shifter is a bit unusual. Has a heavy kink down near the base.
She also found 2 mouse nests 1 under the hvac/raidio surrounded and the other in the insulation above the ecu in the glove box on the parts car.
I've done it the other way but to covert from auto to manual you will need quite a few parts; the transmission, axles, shifter, cables, clutch pedal, clutch pedal bracket, the clutch itself, flywheel, clutch master/slave cylinders, feed lines, B.U. Light switch, manual brake pedal, clutch safety switch, shifter surround, shift ball and a bunch of small parts. Its quite a bit of work but its been done before. Its much easier to swap in the 4 speed 4T60 automatic.
------------------ " THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Spintech/Hedman Exhaust, P-log Manifold, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, Champion Radiator, S10 Brake Booster, HP Tuners VCM Suite. "THE COLUSSUS" 87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H " ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "
I've done it the other way but to covert from auto to manual you will need quite a few parts; the transmission, axles, shifter, cables, clutch pedal, clutch pedal bracket, the clutch itself, flywheel, clutch master/slave cylinders, feed lines, B.U. Light switch, manual brake pedal, clutch safety switch, shifter surround, shift ball and a bunch of small parts. Its quite a bit of work but its been done before. Its much easier to swap in the 4 speed 4T60 automatic.
Since im swapping the full manual cradle assembly with engine from the parts car it makes it a lot easier. The hardest part i see is the transmission lines. I also need to swap the E2 pin to the A4 pin on the manual engine harness.
Since im swapping the full manual cradle assembly with engine from the parts car it makes it a lot easier. The hardest part i see is the transmission lines. I also need to swap the E2 pin to the A4 pin on the manual engine harness.
That will certainly help and it sounds as though you may have all the parts from the parts car. The work under the dash can be tedious but doable. You just disassemble the the auto brake bracket remove the larger brake pedal and attach the clutch pedal bracket to the auto bracket. Then attach the manual brake, clutch pedal, with springs and bushings. You will need the long bolt that holds both. Do not try to remove the entire auto brake pedal bracket. Its nearly impossible to remove it without removing the dash. That part of the pedal assembly is the same on both manual and auto cars. IMO its a lot of work but that is sometimes part of the fun.
------------------ " THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Spintech/Hedman Exhaust, P-log Manifold, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, Champion Radiator, S10 Brake Booster, HP Tuners VCM Suite. "THE COLUSSUS" 87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H " ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "
That will certainly help and it sounds as though you may have all the parts from the parts car. The work under the dash can be tedious but doable. You just disassemble the the auto brake bracket remove the larger brake pedal and attach the clutch pedal bracket to the auto bracket. Then attach the manual brake, clutch pedal, with springs and bushings. You will need the long bolt that holds both. Do not try to remove the entire auto brake pedal bracket. Its nearly impossible to remove it without removing the dash. That part of the pedal assembly is the same on both manual and auto cars. IMO its a lot of work but that is sometimes part of the fun.
THIS!!!! This is a fantastic idea! I have pulled 2 peddle assemblies over the last 2 months and 1 I pretended the dash was still in and fought that wire loom. The second i waited until i pulled the loom because i did not wanna fight it. I was just looking at how the manual bracket bolted to the assembly too and did not think of this. Thank You! This will make my wife's job much easier as i was going to send her in to do the peddles as she is much smaller than I.
THX SOUND! I actually was reading through your swap when I first started auto to manual research. I searched and just about every post about auto to manual swap you say "been their done that have the t-shirt" its been really helpful. also why i decided to go back and get a complete donor car. Also how i know i need to swap some pins on the C500... well Raydar also talks about it a bunch too... so some credit to Raydar.
Ha, yeah well if it was not for her I may have sold off my Fiero out of frustration years ago and not have one today. Instead we now have a gaggle of them . Like i keep saying this 85SE is her car. She likes to work on her projects. I have to watch my step because if I do something she could have done or was planning to do then ill get myself into trouble .
The drivers side trunk torsion bar had snapped. I removed it and replaced it with another i had on had with the same red paint on it. (Remembering something about a color coding on them to determine what strength they were.)
The trunk now supports itself!
I removed the rear/front/firewall heat shield. I took note of the heavily melted fuel sending unit wire. I then pulled the fuel tank.
Grabbed photos today of the snapped rod and melted cable
Then i started the cradle pull of the other car. It took me just shy of 3 hours to complete. Everything was in place and hooked up except the deck lid when i started.
I took the cradles and put them next to each other. I guess today I was pretending to be the Pontiac assembly line.
I do need to figure out the spring rate differences as i notice the 2 letter tags on these 2 are different. NON SE
SE
I also am going to need to repair some of this manual harness as this cable is shot
Probably put some new smurf tubing while im at it.
The weather has not been the best so i had not gotten much done.
Today is my only good day of good weather where im also off work so i made the best of it. I removed the automatic transmission lines. I pulled the spare tire well on both the 85se and the parts car. I then removed the clutch line from the parts car and moved it to the SE. Putting in the line was much easier than taking it out.
After this milestone i decided i was tired of having to protect the cradle from the elements with a tarp. I dragged the cradle under the car.
Then after a bit of working with the hoist and a jack and a chain i got the cradle up into the car and secured.
I went ahead and tossed the louvers on for fun and latched the deck lid for the upcoming weather.
Went out today and spliced on a new connector for the fuel sending unit. I forgot to do that before putting the tank in over the weekend. While i was out there i decided to see if it would start.
Today got out and put coolant in so i could start and run it longer.
Started and ran it found and fixed a few vacum leaks now it idles really nice. Its seeping coolant out of the cap on the thermostat housing. I took a wire brush to the surface and hopefully that will stop. Its also puking a bit of coolant from the water pump. I am unsure if its coming from the weep hole or poorly tightened coolant/heater hose. Tits gotten less as I've run the car. I didn't feel any water around the heater hose or coolant hoses. I will have to jack it up and investigate but i suspect new water pump will be needed. This is not a surprise as i pulled and used the water pump from the engine that had been sitting for 20 years as it still had the pulley installed. The last ran 10 years ago engine was missing the water pump pulley and i do not have the correct pulley puller on hand. Good news no oil leaks so far. Bad news the dash has 0 lights gauges work. I spent times messing with the corroded fuse box and got things semi working except the guage lights. So no check engine or alt lights. Id like to know if its throwing a check engine (probably coolant temp) but we will get there. Im thinking we are going to have to pull the fuse box and de pin it and clean/replace every pin.
Did you swap roofs because you wanted to get rid of the sunroof?
I did the opposite with my '84 last year. I never bother taking the sunroof panel out/off in any of my Fieros while driving, but I've always appreciated the added ventilation of an open sunroof in a car with such a small cab.
Did you swap roofs because you wanted to get rid of the sunroof?
I did the opposite with my '84 last year. I never bother taking the sunroof panel out/off in any of my Fieros while driving, but I've always appreciated the added ventilation of an open sunroof in a car with such a small cab.
Every single car with T-Tops or Sunroofs I have ever owned leak. My wife's main car has a leaky sunroof and she didn't want to deal with it on the Fiero. The interior of this car is already trashed from the leaky sun roof we will be gutting the interior and swapping with good spares i have.
I an hoping we are running out of hot days in this year so I decided today was the day. Plus the longer the hard top sat the more chance it would get busted.
its been really helpful. also why i decided to go back and get a complete donor car. Also how i know i need to swap some pins on the C500... well Raydar also talks about it a bunch too... so some credit to Raydar.
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