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Started progress on my 5-speed swap today. I have so far pulled the engine and transmission. It feels good to get started and I can hardly wait to be rowing my own gears. Also, the fact that I'll be driving my parents' minivan to work in the meantime makes me anxious to get this done, lol.
I pulled the engine and transmission together as I have a lot of extra work I want to do at the same time. I took some photos of the progress, but this is not meant to be a DIY. I just wanted to share my project with others.
Firstly, I would like to thank Biketsai for his awesome writeup which has motivated me to do this. Truly an inspiration.
Here we go with the pics:
Drove it in, for the last time in "D":

On the lift, bumper off:

Core support off:

Up in the air for driveshaft, trans mounts, axles, shifter cable, bottom cat nut, and some starter wiring.
I was snapping the pics, so I didn't make into the shots. But that is my twin brother, so you can use your imagination. (I'm the better looking twin)

Ready to be plucked:

Little bit:

Little bit more:

And it's out:

Empty bay:

Pile of plastic parts (so many) and the front end:

Success:

^Yes, that is some kind of mouse nest on top of my front diff. The horror.
So that was all the progress for today. We started around 2pm, and got it out around 6:30. Working slow and steady. We didn't drop or loosen the subframe, didn't drop any control arms, and didn't touch the exhaust, other than unbolt the cat from the turbo. Everything went pretty smoothly. I discharged the A/C previously so I could just remove the A/C condenser instead of having it in the way, but the line connections would not let go, so I left it alone. It wasn't so annoying anyway. Also, I didn't realize my tranny cooler lines were quite so rusty. One of them would not budge at all. The nut wouldn't spin around the line. I ended up just cutting the line. That was a good moment, as there was no going back after that. 5MT or nothing.
Next thing to do is separate the engine and trans. Hopefully I'll get some time in the next few days.
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