Nissan Forum - Nissan Enthusiast Forums - *Write up* S13 Auto to Manual Coversion

Ok, so you have your convertible sitting in the driveway, but you feel that the slush box is just plain boring. I've seen a lot of people on the boards looking for how to do S13 auto-> manual swaps. Now it's time for the definitive swap how to...with the convertible flair.
List of things you'll need:
-5 speed transmission
-5 speed transmission crossmember (can't believe I left that off the original version)
-5 speed Drive Shaft
-Flywheel
-Clutch and pressure plate (if you get a new kit, it typically comes with a new TO bearing and pilot bushing. If you reuse old parts, make sure to get a new TO bearing and pilot bushing.)
-Clutch Master Cylinder
-Clutch Slave Cylinder
-Clutch Pedal
-Brake Pedal
-Clutch hard line (unless you FEEL like fabricating hydrolic lines)
-Shift boot
-rubber shift boot and metal circle bracket (used to hold the rubber boot to the trans tunnel)
First, you'll need to pull the old tranny out. Drain the trans fluid from it to lessen the nasty factor a little. While you're waiting for the fluid to drain, go ahead and pull the center console. It's only held on by 6 screws and pulls right off. Next, disconnect the shifter, unbolt it, and disconnect it from the selector lever.
Next, you'll want to pull the transmission. This requires that the driveshaft be removed. Remove the four bolts from the input shaft at the differention, unbolt the carrier bearing, and it should slide right out, leaking more wonderful tranny fluid out. Disconnect the ATF oil cooler lines from the bottom of the radiator at this point, too.
If you're doing a full on engine swap, go ahead and get the motor ready for removal, or otherwise, disconnect the tranny from the motor. This will be a pain since some of the bolts are going to be tucked up by the firewall. Heck, I don't even know if it's possible, since my experience for these swaps are done during engine swaps. After you unbolt the tranny crossmember, it will slide out.
Now, go ahead and remove the torque converter and drive plate. Be prepared for a lot more ATF to leak on you and the floor. Replace the old auto pilot bushing with your new manual pilot bushing. This could necessitate a pilot bushing puller. The new one should slide in fairly easy without much persuasion. Now attach the flywheel and clutch assembly. Pull the shifter out and get it ready to put back on. This WILL be a PITA to do. Even if the engine is out of the car, I have only had annoyance in putting the tranny back on the block.
The fun part is drilling the holes for the Clutch MC, and swapping the brake pedals. I find it easiest to disconnect the brake lines from the MC so you can work the brake booster back a little to get the pedal out.
Worm your way up under your dash and remove the green box up where the clutch pedal should be. That's the shift lock control unit. Just uplug it for now. Now, remove the cotter pin holding the brake pedal to the brake MC fork. Best way is to rotate it till the loop faces down, and take a curved instrument like a pick and pull it out. Now, you can undo the four bolts on the firewall and then the one bolt at the top of the brake pedal bracket. Disconnect the two plugs and worm the pedal out.
Now, take your new shiny (or rusty depending on where you got your pedal) brake pedal and put it up on the four studs of the brake booster. Thread the nuts back on, put the top bolt back in, tighten the nuts down, and then finally tighten the top nut down. Reinstall the fork pin and it's cotter pin. Fun.
For the clutch MC, you'll want to get an angle drill, some good sized drill bits, and a hole saw. The hole saw should be just slightly larger than the clutch MC's protrusion. Get back under the dash. you'll see a bracket that outlines where the clutch pedal will go. Get a drill bit that fits nicely into the hole brackets and drill them out.
Now, take a piece of paper and find the diameter of the embossed circle between the holes you just drilled. Use that piece of paper to find the center point of the circle and mark it on the firewall. With a small drill bit, make a pilot hole. Now, go back outside and use the hole saw on the angle drill to drill out the hole. Once you're done, you can install the clutch MC, pedal, and hardline. Wasn't that easy?
Take the shift lock control unit and plug it back in. If you don't, you'll never get your key out of the ignition. Find a place to tuck it in and ziptie it down so it doesn't bounce all over the footwell.
Now, to make your reverse lights work, your top work, and to get the car to start.
Find the passenger side fuse box. If you look at it, it will have 4 plugs hanging off of it. 3 large plugs, and a small 2 wire plug (it's not visible in the picture except by the two wires connected by the yellow splice).
http://nissaninfiniticlub.net/photop...plugs2-med.jpg
The small 2 wire plug is the park neutral switch. To make the car start, you'll have to jumper those. The easiest way is to canibalize the plug off the AT tranny harness. Then you can just connect the two wires together with a splice and plug it back into the chassis plug.
Next is to make your park and reverse lights work. With pictures!
The middle plug of the three larger plugs is called the inhibitor switch.
http://www.nissaninfiniticlub.net/ph...g_plug-med.jpg
(Back of the inhibitor switch)
The way the wiring of this plug works is like so: the green/blue wire is a constant voltage wire, and all the other wires run to gear sensors (park, neutral, reverse, 1st, etc).
Wire colors needed for operation:
Green/blue to complete the circuit
Brown/yellow for park
Green/white for reverse
http://www.nissaninfiniticlub.net/ph...ness_2-med.jpg
If you look at how I've done my wiring, I have directly connected the brown/yellow and green/blue wires. This causes the car to believe it's in Park at all times, allowing the top to function. Then I spliced wiring into the green/blue line (that is what the blue box is for. It allows a wire to tap into another wire without having to cut it or solder it). The new wire was ran to one of the reverse plug wires. Then I ran a wire from the green/white wire. These wires were ran to the reverse sensor. When the shifter is put in reverse, the sensor will complete the circuit and turn the reverse lights on.
The reverse sensor is the one closest to the bellhousing conveniently labelled "reverse lamp switch":
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o.../transplug.jpg
Viola. Now fill up the tranny with some gear oil, fill and bleed the clutch line, and if you disconnected the brake lines to work the brake booster around, fill and bleed the brake MC.
If the O/D light blinking starts to drive you nuts, just unplug it. The light blinks because it can't detect the overdrive unit anymore and the blinking is an error code. Disabling the light won't hurt your car at all.
EDIT: I realized that the Shift Lock Control Unit is a vital part to getting your key out. The guide has been edited to include it. Sorry for any confusion