Guys I need your input

94blaze1.6 · Post by **94blaze1.6** » December 14th, 2006, 12:35 pm

It's time to decide what I wanna do. I have 2 mx's a 95 (crashed) and a 94 just paid for waiting for it to get shipped. The only problem is the 94 is atx and has 300k on it.

My options are:

1. Use the 94 as a part car for the body and fix my 95 (got a reasonable quote)

2. Swap 95 b6 and tranny into the 94 (atx to mtx). (free if i do it myself)

I would rather do option 2 and not because it's cheaper but because i wont be working on a car that's been crashed twice (once b4 i bought it very minor, and once after even more damage) But i could go either way I just wanna have a nice mx at the end of it...

obviously I have all the parts for the swap, but I lack the confidence to do it. I have swaped engines before in a friends car and I do my own brakes, oil changes and maintenance. I have searched this site and the only decent post i found was by tunes67, all the other ones are either v6 tranny swaps or unrealated garbage, kinda like my post here. I start school full time Jan 2 so I really wanna get moving on this.

Help me decide! anything helps! if you have done this swap please please reply with your experiences.

Mike

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » December 14th, 2006, 1:38 pm

I'd do the engine & tranny swap from the 95 into the 94. It is a big project.. but if you can tell the difference between a left handed screwdriver and a right handed screwdriver.. you can do the job. And you have all the parts and better yet.. you can even see where they go and how they attach. Get a good quality digital camera and take TONS of pics of both cars from all kinds of angles.. lots of closeups too.. this will give you a visible reference that you can refer to if you have already torn down something you want to look at. Bag n tag all your bolts & brackets as you go so you wont have any issue figuring out what goes where. Make yourself a list of things that need to be done.. prioritize them and stick to the list. While this is a rather involved job because of the number of small projects required to finish it.. its not that difficult if you are well organized and well prepared ahead of time. Take your time!!! If you get into a hurry you can bet you will make a mistake. I know you dont have that much time available because of school.. but seriously.. this is a project that will take at least a week or a couple of weekends for someone relatively inexperienced. The online shop manual is also a great resource that you can refer to as you go. Acknowledge ahead of time that there are going to be things you should buy and things you will NEED to buy for the project. Oil, gear oil, brake fluid, etc.. Use the situation to perform preventive maintenace if you can afford to. When you have the engines out.. there is no easier time to do the timing belt or water pump if your mileage is getting up there a bit. Same goes for your clutch. Yeah this will cost a bit more.. BUT you also wont have to worry about or dink with this sort of stuff for a long time. Best of luck.

Tunes67

94blaze1.6 · Post by **94blaze1.6** » December 14th, 2006, 1:45 pm

Tunes, as always you are here with good advice! I do have a digi cam so I am ahead of the game there lol. From what i understand so far (correct me if I am wrong) *Not in this order*

I will need to attach the tranny to the b6 in the new car(duh!)

Run the linkage and stick.

swap pedals and run the clutch line.

also the harness from the 5spd (is it the one that goes from the ecu to the engine?) and the ecu itself.

Are there any mounts that need to get changed around? the tranny mounts are different?

I will have to swap the right axle as the left is the same? Thanks dood you are awesome!!!

Mike

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » December 14th, 2006, 2:00 pm

You shouldnt need to swap the harness.. they are the same for the engines.. the ATX harness runs independantly from the engine wiring harness.. you can just unplug it from the transmission for the most part (far simpler than transferring everything under the dash behind the gauges) There are other details but you can cross the bridge when you get there. You dont need to swap ECU's either.. they are the same.. you will need to swap the #4 tranny mount, the other 3 should be the same. The #4 tranny mount is the one attached to the top of the transmission under the battery tray. If you really want to you could swap all the wiring, ECU, etc.. but its a LOT more work and really time consuming and really a lot more trouble than its worth. You can also check out the MOCA forum.. AtlantaMX-3 converted his RS from a ATX to MTX. I have only done this on my GS so far and I am not even finished yet. Probably the most difficult part of the project was swapping the brake/clutch pedal assembly.. this job sucked azz.. your upsidedown under your dash for about 2 hours with this stuff. Though if it makes you feel better.. my buddy that was helping me looked under the dash of my 94 RS and proclaimed that it had been much better engineered (and thus would have been easier to work on) than my 92 GS was. Cheers

Tunes67

94blaze1.6 · Post by **94blaze1.6** » December 14th, 2006, 2:16 pm

Interesting, so the tranny is not integrated in to the ecu. That is defiantly good news that the harness doesn't have to be swapped. So i guess there is no wires running from the 5spd to the ecu is there? and I can just discard the atx harness. This is some very good info!

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » December 14th, 2006, 2:54 pm

I wouldnt even bother yanking the ATX harness.. in fact.. I didnt yank it LOL. The ATX has its own brain called a TCM (Transmission control module) sort of a piggy back to the ECU. You will need to jump a couple of wires to get your reverse lights and you will need to jump a couple of wires to get your clutch pedal safety switch hooked up.. but nothing major. When you get to this point I can help you get stuff done.. I havent actually reached this part myself in my project (lawyers & holidays have halted progress on my GS till January.. long story) You will need to use your 5spd Axles. Most of the work really is in the little stuff.. like taking apart your center column, removing the ATX shifter & shifter cable.. clutch pedal assembly.. clutch master & slave cylinders & the hydraulic lines.. you will need to bleed this system most likely.. I'd also recommend replacing your Shifter Bushings at the same time.. they are cheap you can get them from mazda for under $35 or so. What I would do is after taking all the pics.. rip the ATX car to the ground.. and then just swap over parts from the MTX car piece by piece.. that way you can see exactly how it came off the MTX car and then put it exactly where it needs to go. The key is to take your time and research.. research.. research.. Since I am doing a GS.. there will probably be differences between my project and yours.. not everything will be the same. But you have a complete donor car to work with.. and you cant ask for a better guide than what you have at hand already. Cheers

Tunes67

94blaze1.6 · Post by **94blaze1.6** » December 23rd, 2006, 11:31 am

Talked to the company that's shipping my car, it should arrive wednesday and will be released to me on thursday due to hollidays.... Can't wait to see it in person

94blaze1.6 · Post by **94blaze1.6** » December 28th, 2006, 9:17 pm

What a pos this mx is.... I am no longer going to be swapping engine and tranny as the car is a total mess. I will use it as a parts car and fix my crashed mx. This is defiantly turning expensive. I promised myself not to start talking about the previous owner on here but let just say I could say a lot and none of it is good....

Boris · Post by **Boris** » December 28th, 2006, 9:26 pm

ouch sorry to hear that man. What's wrong with it?

94blaze1.6 · Post by **94blaze1.6** » December 28th, 2006, 10:22 pm

First of all the pictured he had posted were not uptodate, I dunno what he tried to do but the dash is all busted, wires everywhere. He told me the car hed no rust except on the hatch, NOT TRUE there is rust bubbles in the wheel whels. Popped the hood the battery he had on the pictures (an optima) is gone there is a generic one in there but that I dont care about, the biggest one is rust and a messed up dash. I could even swap my dash in but he put light and swithces everywhere it would be a mess to try to wire. I am not going to bother with fixing it, I will take the hood, both doors, left QT panel, both bumpers to fix my car and part out the rest of this one. I guess you get what you pay for and i didnt pay much for the car it just that i paid for the shipping on top of that and it turned into a 1300 dollar car. If I knew the condition this car was in then I wouldn't have bought it but i am gonna play with the cards i was dealt and not b---- and moan. At least pretty soon my mx is going to get resprayed and look all sexy again...