[TurboMini]

Well I knew when I bought my MKIV I would need to convert it to a manual gearbox. I have a number of car projects on the go and only one day off each week so it takes a while to get around to some of these things. Recently a friend of mine offered me a free R154 if I pulled it myself, so I decided it was time to do the conversion. I did some reading on the world wide web and made up a list of the parts I needed to make it happen. I ordered all the bits from driftmotion.com and the prices were great. I'm just waiting a for a few bits from Marlin crawler.

I put my LandCruiser back together last week finally so I could pull it out of the shop and put the Supra in. By the way, I love the 3B diesel in my LandCruiser, it hasn't been run in 6 months. I bumped the key and it instantly came to life. I missed the rattle of the engine and the whir of the turbo.

The first thing I did is pull the rubber grommet out of the fire wall and the pre cut sections of sound deadening that covered the areas where the pedal box and master cylinder mount. I drilled the indicated holes in the firewall for the master cylinder studs.

The next thing I did is modify a MKIII Supra LHD clutch pedal box to work with a MKIV LHD clutch master cylinder and to mount to stock locations in the MKIV body. I also had to relocate the clutch start switch in the pedal box so it didn't hit the support for the steering column under the dash. I had to heat up and bend both the clutch pedal and brake pedal to reposition them where I want them. Then I welded on the small pedal plates back on both the clutch and brake pedals and then slipped the rubber pads back on.

I made a small spacer from aluminum to space the master cylinder slightly forward so the cap doesn't touch the rubber seal at the back of the hood.

Next it was time to pull the slush box out and related bits.

I had to swap bell housings. The one on the left is for mating a 1JZ/2JZ to a R154, the one on the right is a 7M to R154.

 

[1982 Dragon]

Wow!!!!!!! Nice car, real clean TT.
I want one sooo bad. Real inspiration. The AT are much cheaper, I wish you the best converting it. Maybe someday I will do the same haha.

 

[TurboMini]

The next challenge was that the shifter needed to be moved back to fit through the shifter hole in the floor. I don't mind cutting in to almost any car, but not my old Toyotas. So I test fit the gearbox to see how much it needed to be lengthened. I went with 155mm. So next was to get busy with the TIG and some tools of destruction. I made up some jigs and the seamed to work. When I put things back together, the lengthened shifter housing and internal linkage worked well together and it felt just the same as it did in it's original configuration. Please excuse the welds, the dirty oily cast aluminum was not to excited about the process. But I was when I put the gearbox back in the car and the shifter socket was positioned where it should be in the car. Then I had to modify the shifter lever to be positioned properly and not hit the side of the console or the parking brake handle. I had to open up the hole in the console to shift into 5th and reverse. I'll sort out a shifter boot at a later date.

A proper shifter and the right number of pedals! Now I spend my spare time making engine noises and pretending to drive it.

 

[TurboMini]

Wow!!!!!!! Nice car, real clean TT.
I want one sooo bad. Real inspiration. The AT are much cheaper, I wish you the best converting it. Maybe someday I will do the same haha.

Thanks. Dragon. The autos definitely are cheaper, and I didn't hate the auto as much as I thought I would, it had enough power that it was still plenty of fun. Stay positive and you will end up with one too.

 

[1982 Dragon]

Thanks. Dragon. The autos definitely are cheaper, and I didn't hate the auto as much as I thought I would, it had enough power that it was still plenty of fun. Stay positive and you will end up with one too.

Haha nice. Yea your rig is looking good. You probably can't even tell it was an auto, everything is lined up nice.
Cool JDM car... those are even cheaper. Are they much of a headache doing the paper work and stuff to register/insure them?
I might grab a JDM some day, cheaper car. But I want the TT for sure :naughty::naughty:

 

[TurboMini]

Paper work wasn't too big a deal. It's definitely worth the savings over buying a LHD car.

 

[RedP85]

that is a modded shifter well done !

 

[cj011]

great job.

 

[TDUBZ04]

nice work! i fully understand why you went this route over swapping in a v160...those things are expensive! lol

 

[SilverMk2]

Frankly I would have just bought the parts from Toyota to do it. Moving to other cars section...

 

[TurboMini]

Frankly I would have just bought the parts from Toyota to do it. Moving to other cars section...

You also like Corvettes, so I don't know if I really want to follow your advice. J/K. I used to own a Corvette and was a huge Chevy fan myself. Maybe you could add the part numbers for that shifter for those who would rather buy the part?
I thought about buying the Toyota parts, but I couldn't be sure they would line up with properly without measuring one up. I enjoy the personal satisfaction of building things myself, and I won't improve my own fabrication skills if I buy everything. Besides, Toyota would have had to special order it, it would have been a not refundable part if it was wrong, it would have taken them probably a month to get it, and it would have taken me an hour to go drive down and pick it up. It cost me about $5 in supplies, and it was built and installed in about 3 hours. Same day service!

 

[supra_07]

loving that shifter! great fab work. and a beauty MKIV. now take off eh and drink some brewskis wearing your tugue, i said good day! coming from a fellow canadian got to love the McKenzie brothers. :thumbsup:

 

[DORAGON_2JZ]

You also like Corvettes, so I don't know if I really want to follow your advice. J/K. I used to own a Corvette and was a huge Chevy fan myself. Maybe you could add the part numbers for that shifter for those who would rather buy the part?
I thought about buying the Toyota parts, but I couldn't be sure they would line up with properly without measuring one up. I enjoy the personal satisfaction of building things myself, and I won't improve my own fabrication skills if I buy everything. Besides, Toyota would have had to special order it, it would have been a not refundable part if it was wrong, it would have taken them probably a month to get it, and it would have taken me an hour to go drive down and pick it up. It cost me about $5 in supplies, and it was built and installed in about 3 hours. Same day service!

Each to it´s own... to follow you own path and be successful welding the parts... it is priceless

 

[TurboMini]

I sorted the driveshaft out the other day. I swapped the carrier bearing from the front of the MKIV auto driveshaft onto the front half of the MKIII R154 driveshaft. I slipped the front half into the gearbox and then bolted the sections together.

I started to modify the MKIII transmission cross member thinking it would be easy since the R154 transmission mount bolted to it, and the spacing for the holes where it mounted to the MKIV. But then I decided I'd rather use the aluminum MKIV cross member instead just because I could. I ended up cutting a hole in the centre with a hole saw so the R154 transmission mount could drop down low enough and I could weld a plate on the bottom.

Bolted in.

 

[1982 Dragon]

Cool.

 

[TurboMini]

Two nights ago I prepped the Supra to pull the engine. Last night I pulled it out without any issues. Since my girlfriend is away I have some extra time out in the shop for a few evenings. So I decided to take advantage of this so I pulled her car in and pulled the gearbox and clutch out. The clutch was getting very due, this seamed like a good opportunity to replace it since this is normally her daily driver. Also I plan to use it for a couple days while I do a couple small modifications to my diesel Smart car.

2JZ on stand. Waiting to have an oil leak fixed and see about fitting an external waste gate to fix boost creep issues.

And a pic of a smurf blue MX5 with the gearbox sitting on the floor. Having flywheel machined today.

 

[87toysupratt]

Hey nice info here, I'm doing the same swap at the moment as well but noticed something about your shifter that may be an issue. I've seen a few posts of guys that extended their shifters having issues with gear oil building up in the extention so you may want to have a slight incline to it so it doesnt pool up in there. Also if you plan on using the MK4 shifter bezel your shifter wont line up properly as the hole on the Auto and Manual tunnels are off. On my project I will be going for about 5" and cutting an inch or so forward in my tunnel. Some guys swap in the manual tunnel but I only think its necessary when doing the 6 speed swap for the taller trans.

I plan on using the tt auto rear half with the r154 front but my auto drive shaft doesnt have a bolt together shaft just a slip joint maybe they had those in RHD but not in LHD unless they were N/A. Anyways good luck nice to see another Islander with a supra

 

[TurboMini]

87toysupratt - Where are you located? I'd like to check out your swap sometime.

I've got the shifter bezel and shifter sorted out. I really don't like cutting into my Toyotas if I can help it, which is funny because anything else it doesn't bother me. I've had everything bolted in and it fits fine in the auto tunnel. I'm still waiting on my bits from Marlin Crawler before rebuilding the gearbox before the car goes together.

 

[TurboMini]

I finally got the last of the parts I needed to rebuild my R154. They were the bits from Marlin Crawler, thrust washer, bearing carrier and 1-2 shift fork. I spend thursday evening, friday evening, and saturday afternoon to do the complete job. I took my time and followed the FSM, I measured everything thing and cleaned everything as I went. Here are some of the over 200 photos I took documenting the whole project.
It was pretty straight forward, I bought a 12 ton shop press from Princess auto when they were on sale, I had to widen the base for the larger gears to fit through, and I had to make an adapter for one of my pullers to pull off one bearing. Neither of those were a big deal but everything else was pretty straight forward.

Just getting started.

Casings off.

Disassembled and pressed apart for cleaning, measuring and start replacing bits.

Upgraded Marlin Crawler thrust washer on left, stock one on right.

Thrust washer installed.

Stock bearing carrier on left, Marlin unit on right.

Marlin unit installed.

Marlin 1-2 shift fork on left, stock unit on right.

All the internal bits installed. I enjoyed installing the rods, locking pins and locking balls, I took lots of pictures of that process.

All back together, everything was torqued to spec and I even used my favourite factory Toyota sealant.

Marlin adapter to convert to an electronic signal for the speedometer.

 

[CLToy]

Wow, great pics!