Finished the auto to manual swap 535i

**Craig in Davis** · 09-03-2005, 11:43 PM

Well, after a few months I finally finished the swap. I bought the car, an 89 535i, minus a transmission for $300 because the previous owner was sick of sinking money into it and got an estimate of $3000-5000 for tranny repair. He had recently had the head gasket replaced, A/C converted to R134a, replaced door lock module, etc all during the 1 year he owned the car. I took the car out for a quick spin today and was very pleased with how it drove. It has a 3.91 final drive so not the best for freeway driving or for current gas prices but it does get up an go! At 70 mph it is turning ~2900 rpm. The cruise control worked, everything seems to be working fine.

It would have been easier to get a package deal but I did it the hard way. I got the pedal assembly including brake and clutch switches, clutch master/slave cylinders, shift boot/shift console, and drive shaft from Bruno. The slave was rusted but I replaced it with an e12/e28 model anyway. The tranny, flywheel are from an 80 e12 at a local Pick N Pull with only 100k on the odometer. This is the G265 tranny which is pretty bulletproof but it is longer than the e34 manual transmission so you need to modify the driveshaft.

The u joint was bad on the e34 driveshaft so I used the driveshaft out of a early 7 series and had the rear portion cutoff and the rear portion of the e34 driveshaft welded on and the driveshaft balanced. I had the driveline shop put in a new u joint which is now user replaceable held in with circlips. It is also permenantly lubed so no maintenance. I used the 7 series driveshaft because it is the old sliding spline style. Allows a little fudge factor when measuring for driveshaft modifications. I was pretty nervous about using the e34 driveshaft as there isn't much wiggle room if you measure incorrectly. I installed a new guibo, center bearing, and end bushing so basically all new driveshaft.

My neighbor helped me out with the shift linkage modifications. I used the e12 shift linkage which is about 2 1/8" too short. He cut the shifter console and fabricated an insert, bead blasted everything, TIG welded the pieces together, bead blasted again in preparation for paint. The shift rod was much easier, simple cut, insert extention and TIG weld back together.

I jumpered the TCU pin 33 to ground to get rid of the trans program message. For now I have pin 30 and 87 of the starter relay jumpered so the starter works. I removed the bulb behind the "S" on the instrument panel to get rid of this leftover reminder of an automatic. For the back up lights I connected one of the manual transmission back up switch wires to the blue/yellow wire and the other one to the green/black wire of the socket connector left over from the auto transmission.

For the pedal assembly I simply removed the bolt holding the auto brake pedal and swapped in the bolt and clutch/brake assembly in its place. Bolted up the clutch slave. Connected the clutch switch to the existing wiring tucked up under the dash. Connected the hydraulic hose from the brake fluid reservoir to the clutch master cylinder. The brake fluid reservoir had a nipple for the hose and just needs the end cut off to make it work.

I bled the clutch hydraulics by using a 60 cc syringe to push brake fluid from the slave cylinder up into the brake reservoir. This is a great way to bleed clutch hydraulics in case anyone is wondering. I also flushed and bled the brakes.

Including $300 purchase price and $150 registration, I now have $1290 invested into the car.

There is more work to be done. I am trying to repair the drivers side door panel but I think I will need to find another one as this one is too far gone with the material coming up from the pressboard. The hood has clear coat peeling but the rest of the paint is in good shape. The dogbones are worn out, I have some good ones off an e28 but not sure if they will fit.I'm sure there is more but until I get to drive it a little bit more that is all I know about.

Many thanks to Gale aka Don and to Chris Manderson for their technical help and support via email. Also, thanks to Chris Ade my neighbor who did the fine modification of the shift console and shift rod.

Craig

Below is a picture of the modified shift console and shift rod.

**Chris'91'525i** · 09-04-2005, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by Craig in Davis

. The tranny, flywheel are from an 80 e12 at a local Pick N Pull with only 100k on the odometer.

Craig are you in Davis ,CA ? ( I'm in Suisun).
By any chance did you go to the Pick n Pull in Rancho Cordova for your parts ?
They have two yards there ,one of which has all imports.
I have not checked it out yet, and was wondering how thier BMW inventory is.
I plan taking a look out there next Thursday.

I did go to the Oakland and Richmond yards, and they had a good Bimmer selection. Unfortunately I was to late for the parts I needed

Also how is the R134a in your A/C system working out ? I plan on doing the conversion soon myself.

BTW , It looks like your neighbor is pretty handy with the TIG. Nice work !

Chris

**liquidtiger720** · 09-04-2005, 01:30 AM

More locals! Hi.

BTW. Nice project, good luck tying it off.

**mattyb** · 09-04-2005, 01:54 AM

thats amazing.well done!

**bullyd** · 09-04-2005, 06:10 AM

congrats on the conversion i guess u gonna be having some fun now

**niall** · 09-04-2005, 06:12 AM

awesome,

i think you will now be inundated with tech emails !!!!

**SRR2** · 09-04-2005, 06:24 AM

What I'd like to have seen is where you raised the car up into the tower during the thunderstorm and arrange to have it hit with lightning. IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE!!!!

**Craig in Davis** · 09-04-2005, 09:03 AM