5-Speed Conversion

[pghosh1741]

How difficult is it to convert an automatic e12 to a 5-speed? What would one resonably expect to pay to have it done?

[grumpsjr]

My good buddy Pierre and I just finished this on my car. Assuming you had absolutely everything you needed and didn't have any hiccups, I would say 10 hours or so to remove everything related to the automatic, 5 hours for the pedal box, 5 hours for wiring and interior and 10 hours to do all the re-installation. Plus 5 hours for miscellaneous other stuff. So 35 hours at a shop rate of $90 plus whatever you spend on parts...needless to say, I bought a parts car and we did the work ourselves. My net cost was probably $1,000 plus time.


Feel free to hit me up with specific questions...


Brian

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 1, 2013, at 18:01, "pghosh1741" <pghosh1741@aol.com (pghosh1741@aol.com)> wrote:

How difficult is it to convert an automatic e12 to a 5-speed? What would one resonably expect to pay to have it done?

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

[Mike W.]

I don't think it's quite as time consuming as Grumpsjr makes it out to be, but it does take some time. And shops really aren't much interested in doing work like this. A few will, but not many. They are geared to fixing what's broken, not being creative.

[Pierre]

A shop will most likely charge by the hour. I doubt they will be able to tell you in advance how many hours it would take. After all, it's not a repair listed in their book and, it's unlikely it's a repair they do on a regular basis.
$3000 does not sound unreasonable PLUS PARTS. And you can't foresee all the parts you will need. I strongly recommend a donor car. That's what we did.
Pedal box, clutch line, clutch master and slave, center console, instrument cluster, (optional) flywheel, driveshaft, transmission support bracket, clutch set, under dash cover (replace or modify to accommodate the clutch pedal) of course the transmission itself with the linkage, platform, etc, overriding the starter interlock... yeah. It took a while.
Some thing will cost anyway. The drive shaft may need rebuilding. Seals and gaskets may need replacing. The guibo may need replacing. The exhaust system may break coming off. Bushing, bushings and more bushings. It depends on the quality of parts in your car and in the donor car, your budget and how you feel about used parts.
Will it take less time if we did it again? Maybe. But I had completed an auto to 5-speed swap on an E36 prior to helping Brian with his. So I wasn't totally green. The time of 35 hours was both of us working on it. so 70 man hours.
If you will have a shop do it, don't. Sell your car and buy a 5-speed. It will be much cheaper.

[KenB]

While 70 man hours for a transmission conversion on an e12 seems slightly high to me, it is completely refreshing to see a thread with somewhat realistic and sobering talk about the prospects of taking something like this on.

on car forums, you usually run into the bravado of folks saying stuff like, "Oh, yeah, my buddy and I swapped a BMW V12 into an original Mini Cooper in a day and a half and most of that was drinking beers anyhow. Sweeeeeet ride, man. Doooooooo it!!"

Now, all of that said: converting an e12 to manual is a very achievable project for even one person of reasonable mechanical inclination and some experience. You will not finish in a day. You will not have collected ALL of the parts you will need up front, no matter how hard you try. You will have to stop your progress and "call it a day" due to missing items probably more than once in the course of the project. You will probably have to fudge and/or improvise something at some point. That's fine, just be smart and creative about it. The project will also cost more than you thought.

Don't do this to the car you need to drive tomorrow. Or the next day. The best is to do it when you have the time and energy to be totally focused on it while you're working on it little by little, and not need to worry about the end date. That's the way to roll. Any other conditions make me hate working on cars and really, I love working on cars.

Good luck!

KenB

p.s. I have never swapped a 5-speed into an automatic e12 but I have:

1) converted a Mercedes-Benz 300TD automatic to 5-speed manual AND
2) converted an e12 4-speed manual to a 5-speed manual AND
3) pretty much entirely dismantled a good running e12 5-speed
4) swapped a Bugatti W18 into a Triumph TR-7 in one morning (kidding)

[Mike W.]

on car forums, you usually run into the bravado of folks saying stuff like, "Oh, yeah, my buddy and I swapped a BMW V12 into an original Mini Cooper in a day and a half and most of that was drinking beers anyhow. Sweeeeeet ride, man. Doooooooo it!!"

Truth!!! It's very doable, but it does take some time. Not a marathon project, but not like changing the oil either. I too have done a few, E's 3, 12, 21 and 24. Seems like I'm forgetting one too but maybe not.