Hello All,

Many remember I bought an automatic 04 WRX for my donor and was planning on figuring out how to get the auto to work in the 818. Others are getting that to work but I abandoned it because of the length of the tranny and issues getting it to work. Because of this, I decided to convert my auto to a standard. Automatic donors are much more plentiful and cheaper to buy and the conversion is not as bad as I thought. Parts you will need:

tranny/diff
full clutch (including fork)
flywheel and bolts
starter
slave cylinder and bracket/spring
pedal box
clutch master cylinder
tranny mount (auto is different than standard)
inner CV joints
all bolts, nuts and washers

I bought all this from a salvage yard for $800 complete. It came with clutch assembly but I decided to buy a new clutch, throw out, pressure plate and pilot bearing before assembling.

The wiring is what made me most nervous. There is plenty of information on the web but you need to weed through it to get accurate information. There are 3 circuits that need to be changed - vehicle speed sensor (VSS), neutral safety switch (NSS) and reverse lights.

For the VSS, the tranny has a 3 wire VSS (signal, gnd and power) whereas the auto had 2 wires. I am in the process of running 3 new wires to the VSS and the signal one connects to either the computer or speedo but must be connected to both. I am just tapping into the wire at the computer (I'll document pin number/wire color in next post).

For the NSS, I want to use that as a clutch safety switch where the clutch must be depressed before car will start. Pretty sure this should be fairly easy as well by fooling the auto computer that the car is in park or neutral when the clutch is depressed. Also need to take into account the 2 wires at the auto shifter. They need to be connected together so key will come out of ignition and fuel pump has power.

Reverse lights should be the simplest. More on that once I have them wired.

More to come,

Henry