Honda Accord Forum - Honda Accord Enthusiast Forums - need to get rid my auto or beef it up

Ok, here is a write up on the process of changing the tranny from auto to 5 speed standard I did not write this up I believe all the props to the people who did are in there. But changing it is no easy task so yeah.... its almost worth it to have a good shop do it for you and save you a lot of time.

Official auto to 5spd swap guide for 6th gen accords.

NOTE: I did not write this, Kudos to Turbowa on HT for this write up. I felt that it might be nice over here.

Disclaimer: This swap is not a-tell all guide. I’m sure at some point some minor details will be left out. I am by no means an expert or claim to be one in this area. You will need a very good understanding of how the cars electrical system and mechanical systems work. I you don’t stop right now before you get in over your head. This is to be taken as information only and to be used as you see fit. I have completed this swap and now that it will work but I can not control how well you will be able to complete this swap. I do not accept any responsibility nor blame if you burn down, screw up, or and other miss fortune you may have. You can feel free to e-mail or pm me for information. But you will be at your own risk when doing this.

Removing auto tranny:

1: Jack front of the car up and support it with jack stand. (Never crawl under the car with just a jack to support it.)

2: Remove both front tires and plastic under skirting under engine bay.

3: Dis-connect and remove the battery and battery tray. You will also want to remove the radiator coolant over flow and intake tubing. Note: leave air filter in box if still using the stock air box as this will help prevent any thing from falling down in to the lower portion of the box.

4: Drain transmission fluid and dis-connect tranny cooler lines from radiator.

5: Remove big nut on the end of both the pass. and driver side axles. Dis-connect both lower ball joints and separate from lower control arm.

6: Remove axles from transmission and set the pass. side one aside. You will be able to re-use this one later on.

7: Remove both bolts on either side for the radius rods on the lower control arms. At this point you will want to support the engine with a jack and 2x4 under the oil pan. *Very important to have a 2x4 on the jack end so not to crush the oil pan in*. You will just want it to be snug on the pan to ease the pressure of the engine. Now you can remove the bolt from the front motor mount and the remaining bolts for the front sub-frame. Be careful as this may be heavy. Now you can remove the mount from the engine block. ( You will see why later)

8: Dis-connect both wires from starter and remove the 2 starter bolt and remove starter.

9: Remove the support bracket that is bolted to the lower tranny and the bottom of the block. Once this is done all the torque converter bolts are accessible. You will need to remove all of these. There are a lot. You can turn the crank by the crank bolt to get to all the bolts.

10: Then you can remove the cover for the auto shift cable. Once this cover is off you will be able to pull the cable back and access the retaining bolt. There is a lock on it that will need to come off with a flat head screw driver. Once the bolt is off the cable will slide off rather freely.

11: Now go around the tranny and remove all the 17mm bolts that are holding it on the the block except for the middle top 2 under the distributor. Leave these till last. I be leave there are 2 or 3 in the rear mount that need to come out as well. These I think though are 19mm.

12: Dis-connect all electrical connections on the transmission and pull harness out of the way. You may choose to take out the distributor at this time. I left mine in but you may find it easier to remove the harness with this out and removal of the last to bolts. ( Do not remove these bolts yet.

13: Now with another floor jack or cherry picker support the tranny and remove the side tranny mount bolt from the mounting bracket. Once done slowly lower the transmission and engine down some, but not much. Now you should have enough access to the mounting bracket on the frame rail. Remove all 3 bolts and remove bracket.

14: Almost home free. Now remove those 2 last bolts in the engine that are going through the transmission. Lower the engine a little more and the tranny a little more and pull every so slightly forward to clear the rear sub frame.

15: Be VERY CAREFUL at this point the tranny weights a ton. If it falls on you, you WILL get hurt. Very carefully but with some force start to pry the transmission from the engine. When it starts to come off and is free slowly lower the jack under the tranny till the tranny is totally free. It will want to fall of the jack so be careful. And lower it to the ground and remove from under the car. Now you will have a big hole were the tranny once was. Congrats you just removed the tranny.

***KEEP IN MIND THAT THE JACK UNDER THE ENGINE MUST STAY THERE. THERE IS ONLY ONE MOUNT HOLDING THE MOTOR IN. THE JACK IS THE MAIN SOURE OF SUPPORT***

Install of new tranny:

1: You can use either the F22, F23, H22 or H23 manual trannys its really your choose. If you are using any other tranny other then the F23 you will need to take off the fitting for the F23 slave cyl. As this will only work on the F23 tranny.

2: Now that you can see it you want to remove the flex-plate from the engine. Once off you can install your fly wheel. I have the ACT pro-lite. You will need new factory bolts to do this. Then install the clutch of your choose with new factory bolts. I went with the ACT extreme pressure plate and un-sprung 6 puck. 90% of you won’t need this much clamping force. But they all install the same. Make sure you torque the bolts down in a crossing pattern and by hand at first. This way you won’t twist the pressure plate. Put the bolts in hand tight and the only turn each bolt one full turn max each time till its tight. Then with an impact slightly tighten each bolt a little more. To tighten the fly wheel bolts. Start the first few threads by hand and then run them in with an impact gun.

3: Install a new through out bearing into your tranny. Never re-use the one it came with.

4: Re-install the tranny mount bracket to the frame rail on the pass side with the 3 bolts you took out. Now bolt the new 5spd bracket for the tranny on to it.

5: Have a friend or if you feel like getting a hernia install the 5spd on to the engine. I have a cherry pick that I always use. I like my back to much to screw it up doing this. Make sure the tranny is flush with the block or at least with in a ¼” of the block before starting the bolts.

6: Install the top 2 bolts the work your way around the tranny. You can re-attach the auto rear mount to the 5spd tranny with out a problem. I currently have mine this way.

7: Once the bolts for the tranny are all in and the rear mount is hooked up slide the side mount bolt in and tighten it. Pull the wiring harness over the tranny at this point to. It will help later.

8: Install the front sub frame. Start by putting the front motor mount bolt in and then going from there. The radius rods will be done last.

9: Now you can take the jack out from under the engine. The tranny and engine are now one. Sit back and take a brake.

10: Go inside the car after cleaning up some and remove the center console. This will give you access to the shifter assembly. There are 4 bolts holding it down. Remove these and un-do the two plugs.

11: Pull the shifter assembly out. It will still have the shift cable attached to it, that’s fine.

12: Install the new shifter cables on to the shift assembly base of the new 5spdshifter out of the car, its much easier. Then install the shifter assembly and cables in reveres order.Make sure the rubber boot is tight agains