fuel's Lancer Evo IX GT-A wagon

[fuel]

Also added a sneaky MR badge - when its manual swapped I have an 'Evolution MR' badge ready for the centre console/shifter surround too.

[fuel]

Forgot to mention, I also rebuilt the throttlebody with new shaft seals and idle screw o-ring a few weeks back. Figured it would be worthwhile doing now that it's pushing through a lot more boost than originally. Now I really gotta stop procrastinating and get that box back together!

[fuel]

Starting to get the box back together

Have got the other half of the case on and it seems to shift through the gears fine, but I ran out of daylight at that point to take more pics. Over next few days am going to seal it up properly after doing some more thorough testing and paint up the case.

[Hemi]

44 minutes ago, fuel said:

Starting to get the box back together

Have got the other half of the case on and it seems to shift through the gears fine, but I ran out of daylight at that point to take more pics. Over next few days am going to seal it up properly after doing some more thorough testing and paint up the case.

Are you not on the ground floor, holy moly rebuilding a gearbox on a table outside above ground makes me want to hide. how did you not lose every single detent

[Hemi]

Mint outcome though!

[fuel]

haha yeah doing a ghetto apartment balcony build, it's the only place I could really do it - can't leave all the parts out in the open in the parking garage and don't want the apartment smelling like gear oil haha. I had all the parts organised in either trays or little baggies. I did lose a c-clip that sprung off to under the centre diff right when I got all the shift forks back in, which required me to pull the damn lot back apart again which was fun. But at least it allowed me to double check my work and I felt more confident putting it together the second time round.

[fuel]

so test fitting box the box together and tested shifting with the shifter connected and seems to go through all the gears all good. I just gotta pull the case apart one last time to fit the internal C clip (which you can see the access bung loosely sitting in place) and then RTV seal the case halves together and it's done. I did spray as much of the case as I could with some left over Dupli-colour wheel silver I had left over, but ran out of paint before I could get the whole box done. Need to give the transfer case a touch up too so may as well pick up another can and finish off the job properly.

[mjrstar]

There is a skateboard bearing which is a direct fitment for the shifter ends where they connect to the gearbox.

 

This takes some of the spongy feel out of the gear shift. I did mine in situ with a g-clamp but you could do yours easily prior to installation. 

[fuel]

Is not easy to make out in the pics but I've fitted some torque solutions shifter bushes (just didn't place on the giant e-clips because they gotta come off again):

But good call on the skateboard bearing trick though - last time I was in NZ I ordered a bulk amount off Trademe and fitted them to the VR-4, Diamante & GTO. I had actually replaced the shifter bushes on the VR-4 more than 10 years ago but they seem to have deteriorated some in that time. Also picked up some solid shifter mount bushes and solid driveshaft hanger bearing mount bushes too in the same order.

[fuel]

After what felt like months of working on the wing, it's finally on for good (for now at least). I'm not fully happy with the finish out of the spray can (I think the clear reacted with the base coat in places), and I'll let it cure somewhat before I attack it with wet sanding and polishing - but I'm planning on having the front bumper and side skirts professionally painted at some point so I'll do the wing properly then.

 

Also, I've moved it into its final position powered by the automatic transmission, tomorrow I am going to make a start removing it. I can't keep putting it off basically. A replacement street friendly clutch disc should arrive just in time before refitting too. The clutch disc that came with the 6 speed gearbox is an unsprung 6 puck ACT disc, and I really don't feel like dealing with that in stop-start driving.

[fuel]

Sneak peak of the box and transfer case ready to go

[fuel]

Baby steps - 

Air filter housing, turbo inlet pipe and upper intercooler pipe out, A/T dipstick removed, battery tray removed (but battery still in there for now), and various clips, brackets and electrical connectors removed or disconnected:

 

Centre console removed to see how easy it is to remove the shifter - looks like there some hidden brackets closer towards the firewall which isn't going to be fun to remove. Also these damn bundles of random wiring are coming back to haunt me:

 

 

[440bbm]

insert old mitre10 ad 'shes pretty big job mayte'

pretty cool journey you have gone down with this and the amount of trips back n forth with parts internationally is nothing short of commendable. 

[fuel]

So much room for activities

 

Shifter assembly yeeted, I need to go over it with a vacuum cleaner to get rid of the 20 years old Japanese crumbs and sand etc

[fuel]

Also replacement clutch disc arrived today - is a ACT sprung heavy duty disc (left). Definitely glad I'll be running this and not the unsprung ACT race 6 puck that came with the gearbox 

 

Tomorrow I plan to remove the brake pedal box, remove the front driveshafts, drop the front portion of the exhaust, remove transfer case and if I'm lucky I might even be able to drop the transmission out too. But I'm just trying to do it in manageable chunks for now.

[fuel]

Didn't get as far along today as I had hoped - but I did manage to swap in the manual shifter after cleaning up the 20 year old Japanese crumbs and dirt. I did have a little issue with the centre console mounting bracket interfering with the shifter cable - it seems this bracket is specific to the autos for the 2005 model year, but for the 2006 model year the autos just ran with the same bracket as the manual models. I might be able to find that bracket from a regular plain Jane Lancer at the junk yard - or if I get desperate I could cut a clearance notch into it.

 

The shifter cable firewall flange bracket was a PITA to get buttoned back up to the firewall too - those two bolts were so hard to access going back in.

 

Starting to look more like a manual now

 

[fuel]

Look ma no pedals!

 

Unlike the Diamante this one doesn't have a template pre-cut into one layer of the firewall so I have to be extra careful where I drill through. You can also see it's missing the reinforcement bracket up top for the clutch pedal like the brake pedal has. I'm still hunting around for this bracket, and I may just wait to drill through the firewall until I get this bracket in and fitted.

[fuel]

Putting a list here to keep me on track - 

Engine bay:

• Remove airbox & intake piping
• Remove front bumper & under tray
• Remove cold side intercooler piping & battery tray
• Remove north/south crossmember brace and front transmission mount
• Drain transmission & transfer case
• Remove auto transmission cooler & lines
• Remove starter motor & heat shield
• Fit clutch hydraulic hard line across firewall
• Remove rear transmission roll stopper mount
• Drop front section of exhaust
• Remove front driveshafts
• Disconnect ACD pressure line and let drain out
• Unbolt and slide away transfer case
• Remove flex plate to torque converter mounting bolts
• Remove main transmission mount
• Drop transmission & torque convertor complete
• Remove flex plate
• Remove front section of driveshaft
• Remove transfer case
• Fit flywheel & loctite/torque flywheel bolts
• Fit clutch & pressure plate assembly
• Swap over the ACD piston and bearing assembly from original transfer case to new transfer case
• Refit transfer case (with new seals)
• Refit front section of driveshaft
• Fit manual box
• Bolt up the rear roll stopper and main gearbox mounts
• Slide transfer case onto gearbox
• Reconnect ACD pressure line
• Reinsert intermediate shafts & front axles
• Fill gearbox & transfer case fluids
• Refit starter motor, exhaust & crossmember brace with front roller stopper mount
• Modify existing or replace brake master cylinder reservoir to connect to clutch master fluid inlet
• Bleed clutch pedal
• Refit intake, battery tray & intercooler piping
• Refit front bumper & under tray
• Perform ACD bleed procedure
• Start engine and test through gears
• ???
• Profit
   

Interior:

• Remove centre console & shifter/cable
• Remove brake pedal & gear lockout cable
• Remove key barrel lockout cable
• Refit manual shifter/cables & console 
• Drill holes in firewall, find/attach clutch pedal bracket and fit clutch pedal assembly
• Fit manual brake pedal
• Fit manual console cover (after repainting and applying new stickers)
• Attach clutch pedal bracket to firewall
• Eventually replace auto speedo cluster & dash loom with manual one (they are so expensive, will stick to auto one for the time being)

Wiring:

• Bypass gear selector inhibitor so engine can start 
• Wire up reverse lamps
• Sort out speed sensor situation (manuals have a regular speed sensor on output drive whereas autos calculate speed in the ECU based off individual transmission gear speed sensors)

[fuel]

Small update - I temporarily placed the centre console cover and varis CF knob on to motivate me more haha. I still need to paint the cover, and apply new stickers

 

Also turns out there's a little bump on the firewall with a matching recess in the clutch pedal box I can utilise to locate it somewhat close enough

[fuel]

We now have a clutch pedal!

 

* edit *

Exhaust dropped, flex plate bolts out, couldn't get the front axles out because my crummy pry bar is the wide flat kind and just keeps bending so I gotta go to the hardware store and pick up a better pry bar - hopefully will have some good progress tomorrow.