Manual C50 to C59 swap
10-13-2014, 05:00 PM
#1
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Denton
Posts: 117
Manual C50 to C59 swap
To start things off, I have a 2009 xd, 5 speed manual, just hit 82k the other week. Started to hear a light rattle at about 65k, so warranty is already gone at this point. After deducing the rattle is either axle or trans related, had a good friend who's a mechanic listen to it while we had it on a lift, trans is going out. Time for research and shopping.
So finding a factory c50 for the xd in a manual transmission is near impossible, and stupid expensive. So to save some time searching, but more importantly money because I am getting married soon, I did lots of research on other c5x transmissions in hopes to find a used one that will bolt on and won't cost me a first born child.
After being extremely fortunate in most of this escapade, I found the transmission I was going to use. After talking to a parts guy at my local Toyota dealership, he confirmed some engine and trans pairings in a few different model cars. I ended up purchasing a C59 from a 2010 corolla that had a 2zr engine (same one we have) with only 34k on it.
Now that all the background info is out of the way, time for the nitty gritty.
Pretty strait forward on trans swap, there was only a few things that were different. Start out with removing the battery, intake, battery bracket, all the little metal stuff that's above the trans, leave the trans mount all hooked up until you can get a jack under it. Remove wheels, axles, set them off to the side, and go ahead and drain the trans fluid. Mine had metal bits in it, so it was shiny, very bad. Remove grounding wire, shift link cables, starter, and anything else that might connect between the car and trans. Now there are two trans mounts, looking at the front of the car, one on the right side under the battery, and one on the rear of the trans. side one is easy to remove, but remove the rear first. It will drop a little once they're both out. Unbolt the bell housing from the engine, and start to pull out. and voila! with air tools and a good friend, the trans is out in an hour.
Swap over parts from the old trans to the new if the new one has rusty parts, or if it's missing parts. Mine came from shoreline up north, so lost of rust on smaller parts. the other thing you will need to swap is the back plate of the trans. The C59 from the corolla did not have a trans mount on the side of the car, just front and back. When you look at the back plates of the two, you will see where the mount connects to on our car. Just unbolt, clear the old sealant, lay down some new sealant, and put the plate on the new trans. You can also swap the counter weights if you want, but it shouldn't change much of a feel on shifting.
Prep the trans to put back in the car. This is optimal time to change the clutch or flywheel if you want, mine were just fine and not in the budget, so they stayed stock. The bell housings are nearly the same, bolting onto the engine is the same, because it's the same engine in both cars, but the rear motor mount is the only thing that's different. I'll upload pictures later. Essentially, a small amount of fabrication has to be done to bold the rear trans mount in place. I used a piece of metal that used one of the bellhousing bolts as the mounting point, and bolted that onto the trans mount. Took an outside view of an engineer that was a friend of the shops owner, and the kindness of his heart to not ask for anything in return, he was just happy to help.
Once we bolted that last mount together with the adapter, that bad boy didn't wiggle a millimeter. Placed the battery in and bolted it up, so we could turn the car over and test to make sure it worked. Test went fine, so everything went back together.
Took about 6 hours, but that's with air tools, some pizza, a couple of beers, and joking around with an old friend. Gears are shorter in the c59, at least 1st and 2nd are, 3 feels about the same, but cruising in 5th is like nothing ever happened, maybe 100-200 rpm more at 70 in 5th.
Sad that a trans was going bad after only 60k or so, but thankfully I had some of the best help I could have asked for on this project. Not sure about some of the 6 speeds would match up, but one day I might swap one of the c6X trans.
So finding a factory c50 for the xd in a manual transmission is near impossible, and stupid expensive. So to save some time searching, but more importantly money because I am getting married soon, I did lots of research on other c5x transmissions in hopes to find a used one that will bolt on and won't cost me a first born child.
After being extremely fortunate in most of this escapade, I found the transmission I was going to use. After talking to a parts guy at my local Toyota dealership, he confirmed some engine and trans pairings in a few different model cars. I ended up purchasing a C59 from a 2010 corolla that had a 2zr engine (same one we have) with only 34k on it.
Now that all the background info is out of the way, time for the nitty gritty.
Pretty strait forward on trans swap, there was only a few things that were different. Start out with removing the battery, intake, battery bracket, all the little metal stuff that's above the trans, leave the trans mount all hooked up until you can get a jack under it. Remove wheels, axles, set them off to the side, and go ahead and drain the trans fluid. Mine had metal bits in it, so it was shiny, very bad. Remove grounding wire, shift link cables, starter, and anything else that might connect between the car and trans. Now there are two trans mounts, looking at the front of the car, one on the right side under the battery, and one on the rear of the trans. side one is easy to remove, but remove the rear first. It will drop a little once they're both out. Unbolt the bell housing from the engine, and start to pull out. and voila! with air tools and a good friend, the trans is out in an hour.
Swap over parts from the old trans to the new if the new one has rusty parts, or if it's missing parts. Mine came from shoreline up north, so lost of rust on smaller parts. the other thing you will need to swap is the back plate of the trans. The C59 from the corolla did not have a trans mount on the side of the car, just front and back. When you look at the back plates of the two, you will see where the mount connects to on our car. Just unbolt, clear the old sealant, lay down some new sealant, and put the plate on the new trans. You can also swap the counter weights if you want, but it shouldn't change much of a feel on shifting.
Prep the trans to put back in the car. This is optimal time to change the clutch or flywheel if you want, mine were just fine and not in the budget, so they stayed stock. The bell housings are nearly the same, bolting onto the engine is the same, because it's the same engine in both cars, but the rear motor mount is the only thing that's different. I'll upload pictures later. Essentially, a small amount of fabrication has to be done to bold the rear trans mount in place. I used a piece of metal that used one of the bellhousing bolts as the mounting point, and bolted that onto the trans mount. Took an outside view of an engineer that was a friend of the shops owner, and the kindness of his heart to not ask for anything in return, he was just happy to help.
Once we bolted that last mount together with the adapter, that bad boy didn't wiggle a millimeter. Placed the battery in and bolted it up, so we could turn the car over and test to make sure it worked. Test went fine, so everything went back together.
Took about 6 hours, but that's with air tools, some pizza, a couple of beers, and joking around with an old friend. Gears are shorter in the c59, at least 1st and 2nd are, 3 feels about the same, but cruising in 5th is like nothing ever happened, maybe 100-200 rpm more at 70 in 5th.
Sad that a trans was going bad after only 60k or so, but thankfully I had some of the best help I could have asked for on this project. Not sure about some of the 6 speeds would match up, but one day I might swap one of the c6X trans.
01-23-2022, 04:43 PM
#2
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Maryland
Posts: 15
To start things off, I have a 2009 xd, 5 speed manual, just hit 82k the other week. Started to hear a light rattle at about 65k, so warranty is already gone at this point. After deducing the rattle is either axle or trans related, had a good friend who's a mechanic listen to it while we had it on a lift, trans is going out. Time for research and shopping.
So finding a factory c50 for the xd in a manual transmission is near impossible, and stupid expensive. So to save some time searching, but more importantly money because I am getting married soon, I did lots of research on other c5x transmissions in hopes to find a used one that will bolt on and won't cost me a first born child.
After being extremely fortunate in most of this escapade, I found the transmission I was going to use. After talking to a parts guy at my local Toyota dealership, he confirmed some engine and trans pairings in a few different model cars. I ended up purchasing a C59 from a 2010 corolla that had a 2zr engine (same one we have) with only 34k on it.
Now that all the background info is out of the way, time for the nitty gritty.
Pretty strait forward on trans swap, there was only a few things that were different. Start out with removing the battery, intake, battery bracket, all the little metal stuff that's above the trans, leave the trans mount all hooked up until you can get a jack under it. Remove wheels, axles, set them off to the side, and go ahead and drain the trans fluid. Mine had metal bits in it, so it was shiny, very bad. Remove grounding wire, shift link cables, starter, and anything else that might connect between the car and trans. Now there are two trans mounts, looking at the front of the car, one on the right side under the battery, and one on the rear of the trans. side one is easy to remove, but remove the rear first. It will drop a little once they're both out. Unbolt the bell housing from the engine, and start to pull out. and voila! with air tools and a good friend, the trans is out in an hour.
Swap over parts from the old trans to the new if the new one has rusty parts, or if it's missing parts. Mine came from shoreline up north, so lost of rust on smaller parts. the other thing you will need to swap is the back plate of the trans. The C59 from the corolla did not have a trans mount on the side of the car, just front and back. When you look at the back plates of the two, you will see where the mount connects to on our car. Just unbolt, clear the old sealant, lay down some new sealant, and put the plate on the new trans. You can also swap the counter weights if you want, but it shouldn't change much of a feel on shifting.
Prep the trans to put back in the car. This is optimal time to change the clutch or flywheel if you want, mine were just fine and not in the budget, so they stayed stock. The bell housings are nearly the same, bolting onto the engine is the same, because it's the same engine in both cars, but the rear motor mount is the only thing that's different. I'll upload pictures later. Essentially, a small amount of fabrication has to be done to bold the rear trans mount in place. I used a piece of metal that used one of the bellhousing bolts as the mounting point, and bolted that onto the trans mount. Took an outside view of an engineer that was a friend of the shops owner, and the kindness of his heart to not ask for anything in return, he was just happy to help.
Once we bolted that last mount together with the adapter, that bad boy didn't wiggle a millimeter. Placed the battery in and bolted it up, so we could turn the car over and test to make sure it worked. Test went fine, so everything went back together.
Took about 6 hours, but that's with air tools, some pizza, a couple of beers, and joking around with an old friend. Gears are shorter in the c59, at least 1st and 2nd are, 3 feels about the same, but cruising in 5th is like nothing ever happened, maybe 100-200 rpm more at 70 in 5th.
Sad that a trans was going bad after only 60k or so, but thankfully I had some of the best help I could have asked for on this project. Not sure about some of the 6 speeds would match up, but one day I might swap one of the c6X trans.
So finding a factory c50 for the xd in a manual transmission is near impossible, and stupid expensive. So to save some time searching, but more importantly money because I am getting married soon, I did lots of research on other c5x transmissions in hopes to find a used one that will bolt on and won't cost me a first born child.
After being extremely fortunate in most of this escapade, I found the transmission I was going to use. After talking to a parts guy at my local Toyota dealership, he confirmed some engine and trans pairings in a few different model cars. I ended up purchasing a C59 from a 2010 corolla that had a 2zr engine (same one we have) with only 34k on it.
Now that all the background info is out of the way, time for the nitty gritty.
Pretty strait forward on trans swap, there was only a few things that were different. Start out with removing the battery, intake, battery bracket, all the little metal stuff that's above the trans, leave the trans mount all hooked up until you can get a jack under it. Remove wheels, axles, set them off to the side, and go ahead and drain the trans fluid. Mine had metal bits in it, so it was shiny, very bad. Remove grounding wire, shift link cables, starter, and anything else that might connect between the car and trans. Now there are two trans mounts, looking at the front of the car, one on the right side under the battery, and one on the rear of the trans. side one is easy to remove, but remove the rear first. It will drop a little once they're both out. Unbolt the bell housing from the engine, and start to pull out. and voila! with air tools and a good friend, the trans is out in an hour.
Swap over parts from the old trans to the new if the new one has rusty parts, or if it's missing parts. Mine came from shoreline up north, so lost of rust on smaller parts. the other thing you will need to swap is the back plate of the trans. The C59 from the corolla did not have a trans mount on the side of the car, just front and back. When you look at the back plates of the two, you will see where the mount connects to on our car. Just unbolt, clear the old sealant, lay down some new sealant, and put the plate on the new trans. You can also swap the counter weights if you want, but it shouldn't change much of a feel on shifting.
Prep the trans to put back in the car. This is optimal time to change the clutch or flywheel if you want, mine were just fine and not in the budget, so they stayed stock. The bell housings are nearly the same, bolting onto the engine is the same, because it's the same engine in both cars, but the rear motor mount is the only thing that's different. I'll upload pictures later. Essentially, a small amount of fabrication has to be done to bold the rear trans mount in place. I used a piece of metal that used one of the bellhousing bolts as the mounting point, and bolted that onto the trans mount. Took an outside view of an engineer that was a friend of the shops owner, and the kindness of his heart to not ask for anything in return, he was just happy to help.
Once we bolted that last mount together with the adapter, that bad boy didn't wiggle a millimeter. Placed the battery in and bolted it up, so we could turn the car over and test to make sure it worked. Test went fine, so everything went back together.
Took about 6 hours, but that's with air tools, some pizza, a couple of beers, and joking around with an old friend. Gears are shorter in the c59, at least 1st and 2nd are, 3 feels about the same, but cruising in 5th is like nothing ever happened, maybe 100-200 rpm more at 70 in 5th.
Sad that a trans was going bad after only 60k or so, but thankfully I had some of the best help I could have asked for on this project. Not sure about some of the 6 speeds would match up, but one day I might swap one of the c6X trans.
i know this is digging up an old post from the grave, but i'd love to see the pics of how the rear transmission mount adapter was bolted to the car's frame. i almost bought a corolla trans from canada that was identical in all other aspects, but balked because of the different rear mount. then, i lucked into a local xd manual trans for $300, w/90k on it (my car has 140k), so hopefully this will work, but if it doesn't the corolla trans swap seems the way to go. typically, everyone wants $1300 or more for these xd manual transmissions.
thanks,
doug s.
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