knoerenb

Hi everyone.

So first I'll give you a little background.

My friend has a 1989 Yota with the 22RE motor and auto transmission. Somehow, he hit a deer, which busted his radiator and he ended up busting either his block or head due to lack of coolant. So now, he has a 1989 parts truck, with the 22RE and manual transmission. He wants to do a full swap (engine and transmission).

Now, we have already removed the broken engine and auto transmission from his truck. We are now ready to remove the engine and transmission from the donor truck, but we have some questions.

1. Which wiring harness and ECU should we use? From donor truck?

2. Assuming we would use the harness and ECU from the donor truck...he wants to keep his air conditioning, but the donor truck does not have AC. How will we go about wiring this up?

I've been doing a lot of reading but I have yet to come across someone who has done this exact swap. This is our first engine/trans swap, so the more detail, the better.


Thanks in advance.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

If they are both 1989 engines and you want to keep the AC I would use the harness with the AC. If the radiator took a hit I am sure you also need a new condenser then depending how long the system has been open to the air. Getting the AC working could be expensive.

You might want to look real close at the production dates

Not having the Electrical manual for 1989 I was looking at the one for 1988 as far as I can tell from that the ECU is the same just for the auto trans it has pins used to go to the ETC unit.

As I don`t have both units in hand there is no way to be sure.

The only real difference would be the auto transmission so the Manual ECU should plug right into the harness .All the sensors should plug right in.

Just remember about the neutral safety switch and clutch cancel switch enough to drive one crazy trying to figure why it will not crank

It is good to have a parts truck close at hand for all those little things .

It is much better to run the clutch line while the engine is out

Good luck doing a swap to another engine is much more interesting.

knoerenb

I'm thinking we will use the wiring and ECU from the donor truck. This way we wont have to remove all of the wiring off the donor engine. I think this will make things a lot easier, especially since wiring isn't really something I'm good at. I consider the AC a luxury so I guess my friend can live without it for a while.

knoerenb

update:

About got the manual transmission out of the donor truck. We have all the bolts out that mount the transmission to the motor, but the transmission still seems to be caught up somewhere around the top side. We got the two bolts that are on the top out. I'm thinking it just needs a little persuasion. Any tips?

Secondly, the main wiring harness and computer is completely out of the auto truck. We got the wiring harness from the donor truck through the firewall so that it is ready to come out with the engine.

Since we are using the donor trucks ECU and wiring harness, what wiring issues need to be addressed and how? back up lights? Clutch start cancel? Neutral safety switch?

I know where the clutch start cancel button is located, so I think I can trace that.

Where is the neutral saftey switch at?

Should I simply trace these wires on the donor truck, see how they are wired, and then wire them into the other truck the same way?

Thanks!

knoerenb

Auto ECU


Manual ECU


Comparison


Sorry if the first two are up side down. I flipped them in photobucket but they aren't linking right...

knoerenb

any ideas?

knoerenb

Thanks alot guys. Such a wealth of information here. I am not really into Toyota trucks or anything. I am just trying to help my friend who is less mechanically inclined.

All i know is that in a few months when I graduate from college, Ill be getting a real truck. Not one of these POS panzy Toyotas.

Thanks wyoming9, you are the only one out of 200+ people to even respond.

technojunkie

GREAT!!!! That leaves a perfectly good yota truck to be picked up by one of us who can appreciate it.


BTW, the members of this forum aren't your personal advisors. You're doing something that hasn't been documented here so few if any folks have useful advice to give. Most of us would rather wait for the 1 or 2 knowledgeable individuals to provide assistance rather than muddy up threads with useless advice. Sometimes that takes more than a couple days.

masmith73

knoerenb,

I'll take a stab and say that the ECU on the right is from the donor transmission (looks like mine, '93 22re, no AC, standard tranny, CA emissions). Since the pin configurations are so different I'd say that you would be opening up a barrel of monkeys trying to mate the existing ecu to the new engine. If any one of the sensors from the donor engine sends a signal that the ECU isn't expecting, the engine swap may be the least of your problems. Save the AC for another project. Just my two cents and that's probably all that it's worth.

Also, please be patient - we're all volunteers here. If you need more definitive advice on such a short time frame and for such open-ended questions, you should probably pay a mechanic to get it.

If this all works out (and I hope for you that it does) your friend is going to owe you big time. So if you get a later model Chevy when you graduate keep his number handy. He can give you a lift to and from your mechanic in his POS panzy Toyota.

Good luck.

knoerenb

Thanks for the replies guys.

My questions are actually quite specific, regarding the Clutch start cancel button and the neutral safety.

I don't really think Toyotas are POS's, but I did get your attention. You're right about Toyota's... The Japanese had much better quality systems in place back in the late 70's, 80's , and 90's. The Toyota Production System was far superior to anything in the American automobile industry.

The American auto industry has improved drastically over the past ten years. Today, I would put a new Ford or Chevy up against a Toyota anytime. Most US based automakers have in fact adopted (in some form or another) the Toyota Production System.

Personally, I am about to enter the job market with a bachelor's degree from a highly renowned state school, with an engineering degree. I have had 3 internships with 3 highly renowned American manufacturing companies. I can assure you that manufacturing here in the US is on a comeback, and I will do all I can to ensure it.

I do prefer trucks with a little more power... just saying. But, to each his own! And I will most likely be buying a new Ford Fx4.

Oh and I don't have a mechanic. I do everything myself. At 22 years old, I just haven't had to completely replace an engine or transmission, let alone do a transmission auto to manual swap. But, if I don't do it, I won't learn it.

Guerrero_93

im new to toyota trucks. i had mine for a year now. its a good little truck. but i want to switch to a manual trans. do u know what i need to do this swap.

knoerenb

well I am no expert by any means, but you need...


1. Manual Transmission
2. Petal assembly from a manual yota truck or SUV
3. Slave cylinder w/ a line to your clutch cylinder
3. Possibly a longer driveshaft. The auto transmission's driveshaft is usually too short to be used with the manual.
4. Clutch kit for your motor. (flywheel, pilot bearing, throwout bearing, clutch plate, etc.)

That is all I can think of right now. I know you will have to make some electrical changes as well, but I can't get a straight answer from anyone as to what I need to do. Luckily, I have a donor truck, so I am taking the engine harness and body harness from it, along with the ECU.

justin_4runner

as for swapping harness u don't really need to do that, all u do is find where ur reverse signal comes off the manual trans and wire that to the park neutral switch and just do a jumper to make it think its in park all the time and u are done, that's how mine is done, now if u want to swap the harness u can, now i could be wrong but i think that the harness for the trans is not connected to the engine and body harness... so u should be able to use the original harness with the a/c to it, if im wrong look over the donor harness and see if the a/c connections are on that harness too. just cause some don't have a/c they where still wired for it.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

The thing about about AC is it will be some what at least to me of a major project to change out the heater Box to one that has room for the evap coil

justin_4runner

i thought the one that the good motor and trans was going in had a/c already... if not then yeah have fun u will have to pull the box and replace it with an evap coil and all the other pluming and hoses, not fun at all....

knoerenb

No the truck we are fixing had AC from the start. Also, we did find that there was a connection for AC on the NON-AC truck's harness.

We already pulled both harnesses, so we are just going to use them. Now that we know how to take out the dash and everything, it should be fairly easy.

Hadmatt54

I just saw this thread today, so I'll try and answer what I can.
80's Toyotas had common wiring harnesses. By that I mean if your truck did not have air conditioning the wires for the air conditioning were still in the harness. My 89 4Runner was that way, but the 89 pick-up you are working on was the first year of a new model, You may be lucky and your donor truck may have the wiring necessary for this, but you may not, because later on in the 90's Toyota started installing application and accessory specific harnesses.
If you unfamiliar with wiring and want to be sure that the swap will be correct and work properly the first time you turn the key the easiest thing to do is to dismantle the donor vehicle dash, label each connector with a piece of masking tape and a sharpie, remove the dash harness, disassemble the dash of the other vehicle and install matching dash, engine harness and ECU from the donor vehicle into your friends truck. This will add about a day to your job, but when you are done It will be correct.
Someone mentioned above about the clutch pedal setup, but the biggest obstacle will be installing the clutch master cylinder (holes will need to be cut through the firewall in the correct location) and the bracket for the line feeding the clutch slave cylinder will need to be removed from the donor and welded to your friends truck in the proper location. This needs to be done before you install the new engine. As far as drive shaft lengths, if both trucks are the same wheelbase, the driveline from the donor should bolt into the other truck with no modifications. The hole in the transmission tunnel is different between the auto and manual, so you will have to use the donor trucK as a template and cut the auto one to fit for the manual.
I can't think of any thing else at the moment, but I'll watch to see if you have more questions.

knoerenb

We did exactly as you said. Took basically all the wiring out of the dash of the donor truck, and just this evening, got it installed in the other truck. Also got the clutch/brake pedal assembly from the donor truck mounted, along with the slave cylinder.

Things are really starting to come together now. As far as prep work, all we need to do is run the slave cylinder hydraulic line, and cut the transmission tunnel for the manual trans.

Probably anothercouple hours in prep work on the motor/trans. Need to put new fluid in the trans and transfer case. Also replace throwout bearing, pilot bushing, flywheel, and clutch assembly.

Only have a couple questions...

On the ignition (on the interior where you use the key) there is a connector with two blue wires. The manual harness has no male connector to connect to the female connector on the ignition (obviously the auto harness had a connector here). What are these wires for? and do we need to do anything with them?

Secondly, as we get closer to installing the motor/trans, is it possible to mate the motor and trans before installation, and then put them both in though the engine bay? It looks like it may work if we remove the swap bar. We actually have a pit, so clearance on the bottom side is not an issue. I guess the main issue is that I'm not sure if the transfer case will fit between the tunnel and the front axle.

justin_4runner

im thinking those two wires are for the power down to the gear shifter. so it wont move when no power or foot on brake.

u can get them both in but it is a tight fit, when i did it i ended up fighting with the harmonic balancer when trying to get it into place, also having to turn the motor and trans as it goes in. might be easyer to just drop in the motor and then put in trans,

knoerenb

Any body else have a clue what the two blue wires are??

Anyone have any experience installing the engine and trans through the engine bay? Is it easier that doing them separate?