Once again, one person says it can't be done and the other says it can. What a ping pong game. Actually, with what the guy above says, as well as another guy who repairs and replaces trannys for a living(from another post), it looks like it's not an interchangeable unit and the modifications must be done. The guy on the other forum didn't mention all the wiring changes, though. He mentioned having to take the bellhousing off the ford tranny and putting it on the mazda tranny. Then, it may require spider and differential swaps too. Nothing about wiring having to be changed. As a matter of fact, he mentioned something about connectors hooking right up with no mod. By the way, would you believe it looks like the timing belt on the thing just broke? Looks like I will have to deal with that first. I have done it before. It's no fun. I did it on the Mazda, Chevy, Nissan, Ford, and I think on the Plymouth too. The belt for this Escort LX is only $9 for models built before March of 91. That's not much consolation because of the work involved.

u just lost me... when u said the bell housing had to be changed were u refering to a 1.9 enigne ?

also, what is the code for the 1.9 ? is it a ford or mazda engine ?

our ford lasers (are the same as ur ford escorts) and are mechanicly identical to our mazda 323's

as in both 323 and laser from 1986 onward used a B series mazda engine with either a F or G series mazda box..... they were just baged differently...

just want to clear that up ?

sorry the 1.9L tranny does not want to bolt to a 1.8L the ford tranny can be made to fit with a bell housing swap, though.

It's that the Mazda Protege models 90-94 and the Escort GT from 91-96 are interchangeable engine/tranny. However, the Escort LX, which I have, is not interchangeable. This was told to me from a guy that works at a tranny shop for a living. He's on a Ford Escort forum. Here are three different posts he has responded to me on. I do not have the one where he explained specifically why they don't fit but it's on the Ford forum. Here are the posts:

That's why i told you about changing the front bellhousing as you had one. The plug that comes out of the tranny is the same so you'll just have to plug your external harness to it without needing to open it. for the rebuild there's no special tools needed for those tranny and the atsg manual would really help you and they also have a section on modification that you can make to improve it, i'm really glad i took their seminar in toronto those guys are awesome. forget to mention you may also have to change the differential from your ford but you have it in your hand when you remove the front bellhousing

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Swap the bellhousing from the one you have and plug your tranny harness directly at the tranny just under the neutral switch. The differentiel may have different side gear but when you remove the bellhousing it's just there smiling at you.

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You could just swap it like that but there's a couple of bolts on the bellhousing that are not going to fit. For the spider gear, check if your axles fit in the differential before changing them depending on the model and year they may fit directly in it. If not, to remove the spider gear you just have to push on one of the side gears. They are going to turn in the differentiel and fall off then you can remove the spider gear just by pulling on them. When reassambling, you put the two spiders in place then place the two side gears in the same position and turn them back in the differential. Be careful: the side gear can fall when moving the tranny without axles in the diff. Take a piece of cardboard, roll it and put it in where the axle is going to hold the side gear in place so they can't turn.

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Back to me. I sure as heck am not going to do any tranny repairing. I may just end up buying a junk yard tranny form a Ford LX. This means that not even an Escort GT tranny will work.

The 90-94 Protege and 91-95 Escorts have the same basic chassis, and share the 1.8DOHC. That's pretty much it. The 1.9 is only found in the Ford, and is a completely different engine and transmission.

Yes, after many forum questions I now know that that is the case. The Ford engine in the LX is called CVH. It's different from the one on the GT which is what the Proteges have. Annoying after having bought a 91 Escort LX to put my Protege tranny in. Please guys, don't blindly tell people that Escorts of these years are interchangeable with the Proteges after seeing it posted somewhere. You have to find out what specific trims they are too. I imagine even in the GT's there are some things that may not fit, though I doubt there are many.

Oh, and now the timing belt broke on the Escort. If the tranny fit I wouldn't be so pissed. Now I have to fix the belt on a car I can't use the tranny I have in. Well, it seems the Ford trannys are cheap at the junk yards here.