kagekun

Ok well i blew out the transmission in my auto dx. The first gear is a little freaky. What tranny can i swap into a 1gen dx? I was reading groharlems site and i think he mentioned the escorts would fit, i might be wrong, any sugeestions? If i get a tranny from a stick shift car, could i easily convert my auto to a stick?

kagekun

well is the dx and lx tranny interchangable?

zenilder

Well, if you change to a manual gearbox, you might have to swap out the TPS (Throttle Posistion Sensor). The automatics have a four-wire sensor, while the manuals have a three-wire sensor. Swaping to the manual is not that hard if you can bolt the gearbox in. You have to install the shifter linkage as well as the shifter plate. You can put in the shifter with little modification to the center console. You can either keep the plastic console you have and take out the black plate for the auto shifter (you would have to order the boot or put one of the leather boots in). ...Or you can pull the center console from a car in any junkyard.

Course, with swapping the TPS, you still have to worry about the four-wire connector coming from the ECU. You can prolly just grab a book for the wiring diagram. I don't know for sure if the haynes auto repair manual has detailed wiring diagrams or not. You could use the wiring diagram to figure wich wires you would need to use from the four-wire connector and splice them to a three-wire connector.
However, you may be able to get away with leaving the TPS sensor in.
(Not sure if the ECU would bug out because of the TPS. Someone mentioned something to me about the TPSs, about their differences, and I believe you would have to swap them.)

There is also a speed sensor that goes to the tranny. You could simply disconnect that. It sounds like a lot, but it's something you can do on a Saturday.

zenilder

Yes. The DX and LX trannies and gearboxes are interchangable in the sense they bolt up to any of the 1.8 block with no problem. Though, you do have to worry about the fly wheels. They are different sizes between the automatics and manuals.