'94 A4LD To M5Od

[pteepee69]

A4LD has died and now it is time for the remains to be removed and buried. Moment of silence please.... ok manual tranny time. So far in the last week I have removed the transfer case and am ready to drop the auto tranny. I am in no way a mechanic, but give me a book and one hell of a website like this one and it will be done. I ordered my clutch set and flywheel today, will be in tomorrow. Some parts will come from the pull-a-part in Louisville. I am looking at an M5R1 from www.smartpartsauto.com. Will slowly work on this project for the next few weeks. While I have things apart I will make some minor repairs. The transfer case rear output shaft seal needs to be replaced. Anything else I see will be repaired. I love it.

 

[pteepee69]

I have also noticed my front driveshaft from the transfer case to front differential the dust boot on the slip yoke is pretty much destroyed. I have two halves and two clamps. It has a Spicer part number of #232 485 on the clamp edge of the boot. I checked this part number on spicers website and it is obsolete. The fluid that I drained from the transfer case was black and smelled like old gas or grease. I do not believe it has EVER been changed. When draining the auto tranny I took the pan off the bottom and their was not only the usual small fine metal particles but some bigger shavings in it.

 

[EastoutWest]

Do you have any questions, or were you just informing us of your plans? I recently replaced a manual trans in mine, but it was manual to start with (it was really torn up inside). You really plan to scrap the old transmission, not bury it, right? If you do scrap it, cut a hole in the oil pan, or leave it removed, so they can see there's no fluid left in it. I broke up my old transmission with a maul (great stress relief) and sold the brass, steel, and aluminum separately. It was sold mixed with other scrap, but I estimate I got about $40-50 for it. I know the aluminum case was worth $25 itself.

For me, getting the old trans out was much worse than getting the new one in. The front axle was on jackstands and I cut the exhaust off because the bolts were seized ( but I wish I would have tried a map gas torch first because I had to pay a muffler shop to re-assemble the exhaust). I didn't have a transmission jack. To get the trans back in, I had a helper. We laid on our backs and lifted the bellhousing onto the radius arm cross-member, then he lifted the tail housing while I lifted and guided the bellhousing onto the engine output shaft. Remember to leave the tranny in gear so you can rotate the output shaft to line up the splines at the clutch (I struggled for a while before remembering this). Feels good when the splines line up and the trans slides into place!

Good luck!

 

[pteepee69]

Well I was going to use this for questions but most of my questions have been asked and answered on 94fourdoors sticky on the auto to manual swap. Me and my dad went to pullapart yesterday. Today I have been swapping my auto brake and the brake and clutch pedal. These last two days have been a blast outside in the nice mid 90's. Nothing like heat to really make you enjoy being squeezed under a dash. I have almost all of my parts. The only things I have left to get are the manual dust plate, shifter and tranny. Every manual vehicle at pullapart was stripped.

 

[EastoutWest]

That's a good thread. Yeah, the pedal assembly is a bear... I removed one for a guy doing a swap on this forum. I wish you luck on finding a transmission. If I'm not mistaken, the M5OD was also used in rangers and mazda pickups, also ford aerostars, so hopefully you can find some parts you need on one of those. I'm at pull a part sometimes and I've seen just a few intact manuals over the last 2 years. I'm hoping to come across some good eddie bauer seats. Also check the classified forums. If you end up needing an electronic transfer case or the housing that goes between the transfer case and the transmission, let me know, I have working spares. I think I also have a 4wd computer. And back glass.

 

[pteepee69]

Well I lucked out and the parts I did get came off of a 94 Explorer 4x4 manual. Got the computer, manual tranny wiring harness, steering column cover, brake/clutch assembly, shifter boot (shifter was gone), shifter plate. One screw in the shifter plate wouldn't come out so we had to mangle it to get it off, was able to use it as a template on the auto floor plate. Now that I just finished getting the clutch and brake in and connected, I think I will take a ride to town and get new brake/clutch pedal pads and some DQ for the wife and kids.

 

[pteepee69]

No parts stores had the pads so I ordered them from LMC part#50-1412. Was also able to get the manual wiring harness run. Tomorrow I might go ahead and put the flywheel and clutch set on. Try to get it all ready for a transmission. Still need to cut a hole in the carpet for the shifter.

 

[pteepee69]

Question. If I go ahead and put the flywheel and clutch set on will I be able to slide the dust plate in later? Wanting to get as far as I can with the parts I have.

 

[pteepee69]

For those that like to be as close to factory as possible, I'm gonna try to tell how to cut the shifter opening in your auto plate. The opening is roughly 120mm X 157mm. With the plate still mounted in your truck you'll want to draw some lines and use a cutoff wheel. First, from the top edge of the plate, use a square to draw a line from drivers side to passengers side 28mm in from the edge. Next draw a line on the passengers side of plate from front of vehicle to back of vehicle 30mm in from edge. Now, from the first line you drew, measure down 157mm and draw a line from drivers side to passengers side. Next, from the second line you drew measure across 120mm and draw a line from front of vehicle to back of vehicle. You should now have a pretty picture of a 120mm X 157mm square. This is the opening on a manual shifter plate. Cut your square out and there you go. Now the corners of the opening on a manual plate are rounded but I don't think it will cause a problem with it being squared. I hope this isn't to confusing without pics.

 

[EastoutWest]

Honestly, I don't remember if you can install the dust shield after the flywheel. I want to say yes but am not sure. Maybe someone else is watching this thread and can answer that...?

Congrats on the the work accomplished so far! Sounds like you're making good headway.

 

[pteepee69]

Thanks. Gonna put shifter plate in and cut my carpet while I wait on an answer about the flywheel.

 

[IAmTodd]

Good luck. I'm doing the same project. Hoping to start to get things together next weekend. I have a lot of other maintenance bits to go along with it.

I haven't cracked the transfer case to see the condition of the fluid yet but I'm expecting it to be the same as the crap I pulled from the trans cooler lines.

 

[pteepee69]

Just finished putting the flywheel on and clutch set. When I get a dust cover I will let you know how big of a pita it is to get it to slide behind the flywheel. I used threadlock on the flywheel bolts and the new pressure plate to flywheel bolts. For those like me,when you get to the junk yard and everything is already stripped clean, the pressure plate to flywheel bolts are M8-1.25x20mm grade 10.9. I guess that is all the parts I have for now. Sure wish a tranny and shifter would fall out of the sky right about now.

 

[mr cribb]

Good luck. I think one other member gave up on hers... she'd got alot of the swapping done but couldn't get it to run after, or something.

 

[IAmTodd]

Good luck. I think one other member gave up on hers... she'd got alot of the swapping done but couldn't get it to run after, or something.

Please don't say that!!

I think you can slide the block plate up but it would be much easier to do so before the flywheel is installed. Don't get ahead of yourself. Walk the pick n pull every week or two. I was lucky enough to find a complete truck to get most of what I needed. Make sure to computer your trans harness to your auto one. There are a few different versions. I originally got one from my '91 donor which didn't have enough plugs. I found a '93 with all the proper connections.

I ordered the Dorman clutch master/slave kit from RockAuto (http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=965531). It included a prebled master, clutch switch, line, and slave. I have to pick up new bolts for the slave(longer) but it's a complete package. The price has jumped drastically since last week but still not a bad deal for all it includes.

 

[pteepee69]

The trans harness and computer came out of the same 94 Explorer 4x4 standard from pull a part. I ordered my clutch master and slave as a pre-bled unit from Advanced Auto. I tried ordering from RockAuto last weekend but I was having trouble getting my order to go through. Making phone calls to all the local junk yards right now trying to find a shifter and dust cover.

 

[pteepee69]

Just got off the phone with a local junk yard. They have a shifter and transmission and dust plate. Stop tomorrow when I get off work and check it out. She was wanting $35 for the shifter, $20 for the dust plate, and $250 for the tranny. I have bought trannies and motors from this woman before and have never had a problem. But you still got this bug in your head when buying stuff from a yard.

 

[pteepee69]

Well, I got a shifter for $35, the tranny was off a 3.0 and the dust cover the same. Apparently, the m5r1 is hard to find. Guess I will keep making trips to pull a part until I luck out. Smartpartsauto quoted one for $814 delivered, that includes freight and core. I checked another website that quoted $1100 + $100 delivery + $1000 core. That's funny.

 

[mr cribb]

If it helps at all you can use a 5 speed from behind the 2.9v6... another member on here did that, and to my knowledge he hasn't broke it. His explorer is built to beat on.

Foxracin is his handle, he did a whole posting on swapping from auto to manual.

 

[pteepee69]

Just got back from pull a part. Got the 5 speed out of the 94 Explorer from last week that I had left. Put the shifter on it and it shifted smooth. I figure $65 for a 5 speed is worth it even if it needs to be rebuilt. The number on the side of the case is F17A RC A464102. Also got the gauge cluster out of the dash, rubber plug for the firewall where the kickdown cable went through, and the boot for the front drive shaft slip joint. Before even attempting to put the tranny in what should I do as far as checking the tranny.