Auto to Manual swap

Man I really appreciate your help, I definitely understand more of what’s behind doing the swap.
Still having troubles finding my donor but might have to piece everything together and find a used auto until I’m ready for the swap.
I wish I could find one out west and drive it back to Florida but that might be

Edit: Are the transfer cases compatible between the auto and manual? I have the J shifter already. I found a truck in Phoenix but says the 4x4 doesn’t work. If I can use my T-case then I might try to snag this one if he would come down to about 3k.

 

No prob.
No idea about about the TC compatibility. I've heard that possible issue being mentioned before. But never read about anything definitive.

 

So I found a 01 Tacoma on Craigslist that could be a possible donor.
He says that he tried jumping it a couple months ago and for a split second crossed the cables and now it won’t start. He says he thinks might be a fried computer, which is the one thing absolutely needed for the swap. I’m not very keen on electronics but from what I’ve read it could have just blew the fuse and not actually fried the ECU or just fried the battery itself, Is there anyway to tell if it is fried or not?
I’m in Florida and he’s in NC so I’m not able to just check it out for myself

Any help is appreciated

 

I'd've bought that in a second. In fact, I will if you pass on it and it is still available.

 

I’ve found a truck for a decent price for the swap, it is everything my truck is expect it has the push button 4wd, mine does not. Does that matter for swapping ECU? Or will I just need to swap the transfer case from the donor?

 

No. But you'll need the 4wd ecu and a decent amount of wiring to make it work. I did a write-up on how to convert the 4wd pushbutton to a j- shift and vice versa.

 

Ahh okay, so I’m guessing it would be possible to keep my j shifter Tcase without problems in the ECU?

I would much rather keep it instead of dealing with a bunch of wiring just for a push button to engage 4wd. I actually prefer to have the manual shifter

 

I'm not completely sure if manual & automatic transfer cases are interchangeable.

But no, the ecu has no connection to the transfer case. The transmission/transfer harness from the donor will need to be "modified".

 

I finally found my donor truck. Buying STLHarry’s old 01 5spd. Driving it back from VT next weekend. But it has got the push button 4wd so I will most likely be converting to the push button if it turns out mine won’t work. Was wondering how I can find your thread of J shift to push button swap.

I’m stoked to finally do this swap, but I’m kinda intimidated when it comes to the electrical, not very savvy when it comes to that stuff. Is there anything other than the ECU, Clutch start cancel, and possibly the push button 4wd?
Also, I decided to buy the manuals for my truck, all three volumes since all I had before was a 98 4runner manual and could really relate mainly engine stuff. I’ve been doing my research but have got quite a ways to go in finding everything I need in the manuals. I guess my question is, is most of the electrical I am going to be doing referenced in the manual or is it just having to figure it out?

 

Dang I would have said buy my truck in michigan if i would have seen this thread earlier.

 

Lol I probably should’ve posted on here and I would’ve found one much faster, took me months, I found his on Craigslist. it’s gotta be a matching year and everything just manual. Good luck in selling yours though!

be on the look out for the full write up in about a month or so. I know there’s a couple out there but I’m going to try to make it as in depth as a Timmah video haha

 

I was mistaken. I just searched and all I did was a write-up on how to get the 4x4 illumination light to work when removing the ADD actuator to convert to manual hubs.

It's not going to be impossible. But you're going to have to take a crash course on automotive electrical. The positive part is that's the worse case scenario.

Great news is you have a full donor of the same year. I would start by seeing if your j-shift off your auto will mate to the 5spd before anything else.

Things you're going to be wanting to look into:

A 2001 Electrical wiring diagram. And ability to know how to read it. Luckily, it is one of the finest examples of an EWD I've seen. It's highly visual, color coded illustrations are easy to follow.

This book isn't included in the FSM package. It's indispensable to demystify the electrical system and all its associated location of parts, part numbers, connectors,wire colors & pin locations.

I'll have to look at my paperwork of what you'll need to do. It's in my paper copy of my EWD buried in my storage someplace.

But yeah, cut hole in fire wall for clutch Master, cut out a small part of transmission tunnel and glue the cut piece to the rear of the TT, front section of the donor's driveshaft, clutch start switch, clutch start cancel switch, combination of your two transmission/ transfer case harnesses and depinning/ repinning a few pins on the IK2, IK3 & IK6 connectors ( if the j-shift won't work). Everything else bolts right up.

 

These are the only photos I got. I couldn't find the picture of the master cylinder hole, but it you have a donor you can get a measurement of where to cut the hole.

Transmission tunnel:

 

Ahhhh okay, looks like I’ll be getting the wiring diagram then, I’m guessing it’s an option to just repin by copying the other without the diagram? But I’d rather have the diagram if that would be a pain

so I found this, is this what is meant by repinning?
Just finding the plugs and comparing them in the diagram and correcting them for my use.

I guess I should specify I plan on swapping my auto into the donor truck to either sell it as a running truck with a bad tranny or eventually fix it and use it for work. What would I need to swap over between the truck to keep from repinning stuff? Would it be just swapping the entire engine wiring harness and all? And I’m guessing that’s no easy job haha

I just found this website as well. Seems maybe more of what I’m looking for
http://www.markofshame.com/fsm/01_Tacoma/01 Tacoma Wiring Manual.pdf

 

Yes that looks to be a page from a Toyota EWC.

De/repinning the connector is unlocking the connector so the wires can removed, swapped around & or deleted. I doubt you can "copy" the wires of the connectors, because they change location in some instances depending on a large variety of things, such as auto vs manual & transfer case types etc. Hence the EWC, which provides where exactly which wire is for what and what it goes to, along with if that particular wire supplies voltage or continuates a ground path.

The EWD details every electrical system in your truck.

The whole point of a donor is to take parts from fairly hassle free. To swap parts back & forth to have two running vehicles is a chore I wouldn't want to tackle.

Chances are, you'll be hacking into some of the harness. Stealing wires & connectors from the donor & possibly damaging something on the donor along the way.

I personally think without two donor's you're setting yourself up for failure. Just my honest opinion.

I'd use the donor for the parts you need and part out the rest, including the parts being removed from your primary truck. Maybe save a few high dollar parts for the future ( ur air box, evap. stuff etc.

Keep in mind, my swap cost me around $1200. That included buying my donor from insurance ($3400) & keeping it in storage for two years ($1200) by parting it out. I even have a ton of spare parts that I'll eventually need in the future. Such as was with the donor's brake booster I kept, when the $16 seal failed that isn't sold aside from a new brake booster ($600+).

My donor was low mileage so YMMV.

But yeah. To sell the donor with a bad tranny after reinstalling it? What can you get? $1500-1800? I'm pretty sure you'll change your mind on your venture while trying to remove the transmission... Sorry just being realistic.

 

haha you might be right, I’ve never tackled something this big before so not sure if I’m going to wanna do it twice in a row but we’ll see.
Reading the EWD is definitely getting me more comfortable with the electrical.
And I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and 2cents

 

As a suggestion,
Keep the Auto Transmission Radiator.
Use the Transmission cooler as an oil cooler.

 

Never thought of that. Sounds like a good idea, I’m keeping my radiator, it’s only like a month old denso, but I wouldn’t do it unless I’ve got an aluminum radiator, I would hate to have pink milkshake a second time haha

 

I've done this swap on a 2000 and a 2002. The hardest part was running the clutch pedal, there's no room to work under the dash. And I had a stencil for the clutch master cylinder that lined up the holes on the firewall, I can dig around and see if I still have it if you needed it. The swap overall was easy, didn't change ECU's and just delt with the CEL telling me my shift solenoids weren't working, cause obviously they weren't. Other than swapping my prerunner to 4x4, this was the best swap I ever did.

 

That’s interesting that you didn’t swap the ECU. I can’t remember the forum I read it on but I thought I read somewhere that someone had fried their ECU doing that or that the truck wouldn’t run correctly.
I plan to make a template for drilling the master cylinder holes out of a piece of pine or maybe just construction paper