Who has done a 540 Manual Conversion

[bmw540]

Hello I am wanting to do a manual conversion to my 540iA and was wondering if any one out there has done one.

Need advice...

[BillionPa]

no... but the only advice i can give you is dont cheap out on parts!... oh you will need new halfshafts, might as well get new rear wheel bearings if you havent done so yet.... and throw in an LSD or Quaife diff @ 3.25 ratio while you are messing around down there.

[Paul in NZ]

the 540 has serious tourque and power.Its why the M5 and 540 share the large case diff and gearbox and is the reason the 540 and M5 are heavier than the 535.My indy reckons the gearbox is twice the weight of a 535 gearbox!

[VentoGT]

SEARCH. I hope you have a lot of money.

[bmw540]

not really but still want to do it!:D

[genphreak]

the 540 has serious tourque and power.Its why the M5 and 540 share the large case diff and gearbox and is the reason the 540 and M5 are heavier than the 535.My indy reckons the gearbox is twice the weight of a 535 gearbox!Yep, you'd know once you have to pull one out. Most of that would be as the 540 auto is also a 6 speed (oftentimes). Not sure about the manual- is it a g280?

Weird piece of trivia for ya: Eibach specifies the same springs for both cars- and lists the same 'overall drop' when installed. The tranny in the 540 weighs more, the engine less but i guess they position it to balance out with the additional diff weight. Ask me how I know- I have factory 540 springs on my 535, and they work just fine. (BMW parts lists spec different ones though)...

Hmmm. weird.

[BlueM60]

Ive been looking into it and dont have any hard figures yest, but I think it could easily be done for about 2 grand.
Ive found a couple trannies from e39 540's for $1000.
Either a dont car or sourced parts for the pedal buckets master/ slave etc for about $500.
Used D-shaft for probly $200.
-Clutch kit could range from $300-$1000 based on what you want to spend.
Of course this is not taking into account labor as Id be doing the work myself, that would add substantial cost in the event you have to outsource the work.

-Ben

[Evan]

JohnTee540 had his done a few months back.

It's been done for $3000... if you do the work yourself, you may save $1000.. it's a lot of work for a DIY mechanic though... a pro is worth every penny

[Mad M5]

I done it 4 months ago but I used the 530 manual tranny which come 5 speed manual, everything was great exept the shaft I had to do some work on it, but I didn't change the flywheel, and the clutch kit coz the last is 50% of tis life but I ordered a new clutch kit and flywheel for the 540 and not the 530 tranny and it will work just fine.

diff. didn't change it and happy with it with 2.93 non lsd. but not happy for the speedy highway drive coz i tried at 200 km and the RPM was at 5500, so if I upgraded the diff. it wanna be more than the rate.

from stop to 100 km was very fast I didn't try to check time by # but its really great.


this is what I did


it costs my the tranny with all needed parts 1000 US$ imported from Lebanon to Dubai.

thanx

[beetos]

the 540 has serious tourque and power.Its why the M5 and 540 share the large case diff and gearbox and is the reason the 540 and M5 are heavier than the 535.My indy reckons the gearbox is twice the weight of a 535 gearbox!

M5 will be a G280 as mentioned above. I have a G290 which is even stonger than the M5's G280, and it weighs pretty much in the same ballpark as a 535i G260 (~50kgs). The box'es are all pretty similar size and weight wise.

[yaofeng]

I am still at it. Too many things going on. Hope to complete it before winter closing in. Just replaced the fuel lines with all stainless tubing. See

http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/249858

The final drive is filled with GL-5. The drive train is ready in my garage.

The conversion package cost me $2,000 plus shipping from

http://www.austinveedub.com/

It was from a 95 540 w/78k miles. The clutch disc still has 8 mm thickness left out of the original 9 mm. But I think I have to replace it.

[bmw540]

I really want to do the conversion but I am based in Perth, Australia. I wonder who would do kit here. Has anyone put together a step by step procedure for the manual conversion. I would prefer to put the 6 speed and make it into a 540 sport copy.

[gale]

I can't help you with getting parts down to Oz, but I'm thinking you should be able to source them from a local breaker -- assuming e34 540i 6 spds were imported in fair quantities. Here's a summary I wrote after doing my own 5-spd conversion, and most aspects of the job will be very similar for yours:

http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/page_41.htm