my mtx tranny swap

[aircougar1]

Great pics John! I hadn't seen all of those yet...

BTW, bensenvill, Do you have a MTX ECU and harness for the swap, or are you splicing into the ATX harness a la How-to??

[bensenvill]

greg I havent put alot of thought into the ecu and harness yet. well actually I havent put in any. I have a pile of spare harnesses, probably have what I need there. I was hoping Jaged's experience would come in handy here [his 3l is a mtx swap with atx harness/ecu]... but if there is a How-to, could you point me to it?

[jaged]

terry i have an extra mtx ecu if you want it. the only thing that i havent gotten yet is the back up lights. i think i found the right wires but i just havent tried it yet

[bensenvill]

anyways, picture time.

week ago of dissasembly


downside of a tranny cooler, is having to detatch it when pulling the radiator.


diverging a bit... heres what the trunk looks like now, much nicer without all the sound deadening and surplus chaulk some ford worker found fun to randomly spread all over my car.


current interior, down to just seats and floormats


heres the front most exhaust heat shield that needs to be removed to swap shifters. notice the horrid exhaust leak I've been battling with... need new exhaust.


mtx pedal assembly. note its been painted with a dozen or so coats of BBQ rustolium. rust be gone!


different angle... question! see those sensor things... theres a spot for a third at the bottom... any idea what that one is for [abs?]


heres the gas pedals... my car is going to be like a drum set with double bass. no, just kidding. the metal one on the left is my atx stock one and the plastic one was from the mtx donor car.


funny production table on the back of the mtx gas pedal. shows part production from 98 to 2007. this one is marked as produced in april/may of 99... ironically the same as my car [build date 5/17/99]. can anyone explain why the difference?


many a year ago when the donor car was stripped, this was the labeled bag.... so whats the sensor for? is that for the lower slot on the pedal assembly shown above?


heres that freakin plastic clip for the brake pedal... no I still havent managed to remove it.


top view


as of last night... radiator, front coolant hard line, and front header are now removed.... along with alot of other things...


bit closer


need to mop up some fluids left from pulling the radiator before I get better underbody shots.


swag


heres the star of the show... its got 27k on it IIRC, but has been laying in storage for ummm a few years now. I still need to get the Torsen installed [and replace the throw out bearing]... is there any thing else I need to keep in mind considering its been sitting for a number of years?


and just like every part on the car. the gas pedal [going to use the metal bracket one unless someone tells me to do otherwise] is receiving its dozen or 2 coats of paint.


heres the hard coolant line that runs in front of the engine. there really wasnt any reason to remove it other than to paint it flat black... mmmmm... flat black.


this is what makes my incredibly drawn out projects possible... organization. also limits me to only removing a few bolts/nuts a day.


It was finally warm enough over the weekend to go attic exploring and finally clear out all those body panels and trim peices stacked around my garage and house. which makes room to remove more stuff now. cant find my damn stereo removal tool so this was as far as I could take it for the moment.

[bensenvill]

sorry guys its all hosted on imageshack, they may take a while to load.

[aircougar1]

Yeah, that grey and black sensor in the bag, needs to go on the bottom of the pedal assembly... I forgot exactly what its for, though...

[LinkMan]

I'm not sure which is which, but IIRC, there are two brake switches - a brake switch which I assume is the brake light switch and maybe the "turn off the cruise control", and a heavy-braking, or hard-braking, switch which purpose I don't know. I've seen them on the wiring diagrams, but don't know what the ECU uses the heavy-braking switch to accomplish.

[kymi]

About those switches. The red one is for clutch and it seems to have 4 pins, so it's ready for cruise (there's 2-pin edition for non-cruise cars). 2 pins are for PCM and other 2 pins for cruise (connects through brake-switch). Green switch should be "emergency release" for cruise, so when you brake hard it disengage quicker. The gray one is brake light switch (also used with cruise, through clutch pedal switch).

[bensenvill]

thank you kymi! I really appreciate technical information like that... anything else cross your mind, I welcome your post.

my car did have cruise control but it has since been removed. I will keep the green switch in there for the time being and remove it later when I am ready to trim down all the wire harnesses of the unnecissaries.


not much of an update concerning the swap but I did finally find my stereo removal tools, so now the dash is about 1/2 pulled out. hopefully have the rest of it out this weekend so the HVAC and firewall stuff can be removed.

[99cougr]

Hey do you guys have like an estemated total cost for everything? and how long did it take you?