First off let me say, I have always wanted to put a manual tranny in my MR2. I dont know what I was thinking when I bought my car, maybe I just had to buy the first MR2 I saw. . . I dont know, but I should have bought one with a manual tranny already in it. But this lesson has let me learn alot about my MR2 and its been a good experience. 

After driving with a automatic from August '95 to July '97, I believe it was a blessing in disguise when it started to grind in 1st and reverse. When I heard the grinding I called my Two friends (Chris and Randy) who run a business called Japanese Engine Supply in Kingston, Ontario (where I live). We had talked before about converting it over and the steps we would take, and now, we were actually going to do it. 

You really need a parts car to do this job, and they found one at a local wreckers. We used the tranny,clutch pedal, clutch fluid resivoir, brake pedal,drive axle's,shifter cables, and shifter out of the parts car, and most of the small hardware. In fact the only new peices we used was a toyota clutch, braded clutch line, and a seal that went on the engine on the clutch side. Surprisingly you dont have to replace the center counsell, I used the one from my automatic, because it was in better shape then the parts car. 

The automatic tranny was dropped out and all of its related parts was removed too. This included the drive axle's. Then the Fly wheel was grinded and a new seal was put in that side of the engine. The shifter and cables were installed and the center counsel was put back on. Then the clutch pedal was put on, and we had to drill holes to mount it. The brake pedal from the parts car was installed. This was because the auto brake pedal is too wide to use with a clutch pedal. The clutch fluid resivoir and clutch lines were installed. So now all of the lines and cables are going to the back of the car awaiting to be attached to the tranny. The tranny went in next. All of the cables and lines were attached to the tranny and the clutch line then had to be bled. The tranny fluid was changed at this point too. There was also some wiring changes to get the reverse lights to work. We also by-passed the "saftey start-up" on the clutch so the car starts at any time. There is also some very small wiring in the counsel to do. This is so you dont get an annoying blinking "pwr" light on your dash. 

The first thing I noticed with the manual was the increase in power. Obviously the manual is lighter and has less moving parts. You also have a clutch to play with :) I cant believe I bought an auto. Oh well, I learned my lesson, and now I'm extremely pleased with the reliability and preformance of my car with its manual transmission!

If there is something specific you want to know about this conversion, or you have question about it, please e-mail me and I will be happy to answer it for you. Or at least I can ask Chris or Randy and they can give me the answer.