I haven't posted much on here, but I've been lurking for a while and learned a lot reading through old posts. I had been intrigued by the idea of swapping over to a manual for quite a while. The work done by Mike and Kerry showed that it certainly was possible. Recently my E4OD had been temperamental, so I decided to pull the trigger and do a manual conversion as well. I did all the work in the driveway, with a 1-car garage that served as a workshop.
In this thread I will try to document what I did and how I did it. Some of it was similar to what the other guys did and some was different. Overall, I am very pleased with the results and the truck is a blast to drive.
E4OD Removal:
Somewhat difficult, but not terrible. I had the tech manual to walk me through the steps, which was helpful. The main issue I had was ground clearance under the truck. I had the front end up on jackstands and once I had the trans lowered out of the truck on a jack, I realized I would not be able to roll it under the frame. Thus I came up with a solution:
The ramp allowed me to slide the trans off the jack and clear the c-member and slide it out from under the truck.
Before I started wrenching I had been working on collecting the majority of the parts I needed to complete the swap. I bought a used TKO-600 transmission (3000 miles I was told), aluminum bellhousing, and output yoke for $1770 shipped off the Corral forum. The list prices for these items would be close to $2500, so I saved some cash here. I need to compile a full parts list, but I will comment on most of them as I go through the pics.
For mounting the trans, I utilized an 88-96 manual transmission crossmember with corresponding brackets. I was able to get the c-member and one of the brackets direct from Ford and the other bracket I found locally. To mock things up, I bolted the trans/bellhousing in place and set in the c-member. The E4OD rubber mount bolts right onto the TKO, however this trans must not be as long as the factory model. So, one must bridge the gap between the mount and the c-member.
I decided to use a 3/8" thick piece of steel that was 6" wide to accomplish this. It's heavy enough that it shouldn't ever yield. Also, I checked driveline angles and it got the output within 2 deg of the pinion. It also provided enough clearance between the mid-shifter assembly (not shown) and the floor pan. At this point I also marked reference points on the body for the purpose of laying out my floorpan cuts.
Another purpose of having the trans in was to measure driveshaft length. I measured 55 3/8" from center of front u-joint to rear face of flange (slip yoke all the way in). I then had Joint Clutch and Gear of Romulus, MI fabricate a new driveshaft that was balanced with new 1330 series u-joints. They recommended going 1" shorter than my measured (max) length and made of 3.5" steel tubing (way cheaper than aluminum).
Another bit of pre-work was to check the indexing of the bellhousing. The idea is to measure the concentricity of the bellhousing relative to the crankshaft. This is more of an issue with steel bellhousings, but I decided to check it anyway. I installed the flywheel and bellhousing (minus 2 bolts) and placed a dial indicator base on the flywheel.
I zeroed the indicator and then began rolling the engine over without the plugs in it. Every 90 deg I noted the reading and found it was <0.002" off all the way around. If you're in the 5-10 thou range, I think offset dowels are in order. Thankfully I was OK.
For the transmission itself, I decided to relocate the shifter to I could maintain use of the center console. After doing some measuring I decided to go with the mid-shifter position. It is 6.86" forward from the stock location. I bought the mid-shifter hardware from D&D Performance of Wixom, MI and installed the kit myself. It was pretty easy, but cleaning all the sealing surfaces on the tailshaft housing mating surfaces was a PITA. Tremec has instructions online for a similar (but not identical) kit that also helped. The kit lists for $300. I also installed the correct block off plate for the mechanical speedo drive used in mustangs.
Th next fun item was the pedal assembly/master cylinder mounting. I bought the pedals new from Ford along with an extra firewall block off plate. The slave cylinder I had was a 7/8" bore, so I bought a Wilwood universal unit of the same size. The 5/16" rod end came from McMaster.
I struggled for awhile deciding how to mount the master cylinder itself. The bolt pattern on the cylinder does not match the firewall holes. Ultimately, here's what I did:
1. Drilled our studs in block-off plate
2. Had friend at work mill leftover material from studs (could not pry off)
3. Utilized existing bottom hole for cylinder; drilled new holes for top and cylinder pass-through
4. Clearanced firewall and pedal assembly for the 2 new holes.
5. Studs come from the OEM pedal assembly forward (through the holes I drilled out), but the bottom stud was too short to retain the new master cylinder flange. I drilled it out and installed a longer bolt.
The assembly is a tight fit next to the brake master cylinder, but everything clears.
Just getting the new pedal assembly in and out a couple times took some work. The steering shaft had to be disconnected, although I left the column hanging in place while I worked. Some of the foam insulation on the firewall also had to be cut out to make room for the new bracketry.
The interior part of the linkage also took some modification. The OEM clutch pedal arm came with a notched peg to accept a nylon bushing on the original master. I drilled out the peg, leaving a 3/8" hole. I needed a 5/16" bolt to match my rod end, so I used a little bushing to allow for proper fitment.
I broke out the dremel again to make the cuts in the floor. I had to cut out a section of the heat shield first. Then I laid out my hole for the shifter. It was a 4"x4" hole. However, I did have to open up another inch on the passenger side once the trans was in place (oops...). I did drill a hole in the center first, and placed a pick through to push the carpet out of the way. I didn't want to burn it while cutting the steel. I cut it out from the top with a utility knife afterwards.
With all that stuff out of the way, it was finally time to install all the goodies. First was a FMS roller pilot bearing. I just used a socket to gently tap it place.
Next up were the block plate, flywheel, and clutch. The block plate I bought off ebay. The flywheel is an FMS billet steel unit with the correct 28oz imbalance and I used ARP flywheel bolts. The clutch is a SPEC Stage 2+ for a 26 spline input shaft application. The clutch material is kevlar based and should have plenty of holding ability. The mustang guys use these clutches a lot, so I figured I'd give them a shot. There is some noticeable chatter, so it would not be a great stop-and-go clutch. It was installed with the FMS pressure plate and dowel kit.
Next came the bellhousing, clutch fork and throwout bearing. I suppose now is a good time to mention the clutch slave kit. I bought an external push slave kit from Forte's Parts Connection of MA. It's designed for Ford-TKO applications. They modified the stock cable type fork to accept a rod end. Then, they provided a billet aluminum bracket to mount the slave cylinder to the transmission. They don't show this specific product on their website, but I talked to Mike Forte and this is what he recommended. It's really a trick unit and was well worth the $250 in my book.
Finally, the transmission itself went in. A couple of issues here. First, with the shifter base installed it was impossible to get the peg through the hole in the floor while lining up the input shaft with the clutch, etc. So, this had to be removed and re-installed once mated to the engine. Also, lining up the splines was challenging. I finally got my friend to roll the engine over from the front while I pushed the trans and it went in quickly.
The c-member pieces mount to factory holes in the frame that are forward of the E4OD locations. On the passenger side the heat shield must be clearanced above the frame rail to allow room for the bolts. Even so, I could only fit 1" long bolts on either side.
Lastly, was shifter and boot installation in the cab. The stick is Hurst unit that is 12" high with a 7.5" layback, and a 2" offset towards the driver. Fitment was nearly perfect, but I had to notch the holes a bit to keep the shifter from getting too close to the console in 2-4-R.
The Hurst boot did take a little custom work. They recommend that you place the boot lip under the carpet to improve sealing (makes sense). But, if you do so and lay the trim ring on top, the carpet shows through in the corners which looked sloppy. So, I cut up a bike tube to make rubber flaps mounted under the trim ring to bridge the gap. Now it looks nice and clean!
I had the exhaust finished off by a local shop and am now driving it around. I'm trying to take it easy until the clutch breaks-in, but I forsee plenty of clutch dumps and powershifting in my future. I am using Kerry's PRNDL=N (plugged-in) trick for the computer, and part load driveability has been great thus far. I am having A/F problems (lean) near WOT that I haven't yet diagnosed as hardware or tuning issues. Hopefully I will have them sorted out soon...I'm itching to get to the track.
Well, I know that was ungodly long but I hope the community can benefit from the experiences I tried to document. Feel free to hit me with any questions.