2000 Limited 4x4 Manual Transmission Conversion

[audiness]

This thread is to document my 2000 Limited 4X4 e-locker Automatic to manual conversion. I will be swapping a manual transmission from a 1999 SR5 4x4. I hope to keep the Limited digital climate control and limited rear e-locker working with this build.

Background: I have had this 4Runner for 10 years now. I bought it with 100k miles and it has about 160k miles now. It is not my daily driver, this is a weekend / adventure rig.

The story: I have daydreamed about doing this swap for a long time. i Know the only way to do this job 100% is to have a donor truck. I also know there are some nuances in the 99/00 model years, so my donor truck needed to be a 1999 or 2000 4x4. I started looking for a donor truck, and after about 6 months of looking, i finally found a low mile rust-free one for a somewhat reasonable price.

The Plan: I bought a wrecked 1999 SR5 from Copart for $1900. Shipping from TX to SC and ripoff storage fees from Copart cost most nearly $1000. So now with taxes, I am over $3k, and that doesn't included all the parts I will need. I actually drove the donor truck about 5 miles from where i picked it up to my house. other than broken glass flying all over the place, it drove fine. Once I got it home and had a bit of fun with it, I pulled the engine from the donor truck (which still ran perfectly) engine wiring harness, ECU, transmission, pedals, lines, and all the interior bits that I needed to do the swap.

I sold off some parts including the engine, wheels, and other misc from the donor truck and made back almost $1000. The donor truck was then sent to the scrapyard.

Over the past few months, I began to acquire all the new OEM parts i would need: New OEM Flywheel, Clutch, Pressure plate, slave cylinder, lots of gaskets, flywheel bolts, etc. I only use 100% Toyota OEM parts. Do it right, do it once. finally ready to begin!

I plan to use the SR5 transfer case and give up on the pushbutton selectable transfer case that's on my 2000 Limited. I think the more manual the better.

 

[audiness]

Started by laying out all the parts and trying to get a sense of where to start. I decided to start with the Brake Pedal, clutch Pedal, and Clutch Master Cylinder install. I created a template to try and get the holes drilled in the firewall in the right place.

 

[audiness]

The most nerve wracking part is done, i now have an appropriately sized hole in my firewall , and we now have 3 pedals boys!

 

[audiness]

Got the wiring harness out. The manual harness is on the left, auto on the right. They are identical except for the transmission plugs.

 

[audiness]

prepping for the auto trans to come out !

 

[audiness]

Something that is causing the project to take much longer than expected.
I am replacing many coolant, PCV, and Vacuum lines in the engine bay. much easier now while the intake manifold is off. Also replaced the heater valve, although the 21 year old one was in surprisingly good condition. Thankfully all these OEM parts are still available, and I was able to take advantage of a March promotion for 25% off OEM parts from Southeast Toyota Dealers.

this is a lower-mileage truck ~160k miles. Cheapish-insurance down the road

 

[jkeith.w]

subscribed! I just got a 2wd 2000; am planning to do the same!

 

[Bad Luck]

Have you got a plan on how to get around the immobilizer on the 2000 Limited 4Runner? If you swap ecu's the immobilizer codes won't match up and you won't be able to start it. I haven't seen any good solutions to getting around that yet.

EDIT: I thought the transponder key amplifier did more than it actually did. Phattyduck is right about swapping ecu's won't be an issue.

 

[G_Raw]

Suggested solution to the above. Pull the light bulb from the dash cluster for neutral. Then splice all trans auto trans wires in harness to stock ECU to neutral signal. This way the ECU will always think the vehicle is in neutral and will not try to run shift points for you. It will not affect idling. And since you are manually shifting it obviously shifts when you do. This will avoid the ECU issue and check engine light issue. Obviously you remove the neutral bulb from dash cluster cause that would be irritating to stare at all the time.

Then you can either be upfront with someone or sell off the Manual ECU to someone who doesn't know what their doing with their conversion and they'll have to cross the bridge of paying someone to reflash that thing when the realize the issue...

 

[phattyduck]

Have you got a plan on how to get around the immobilizer on the 2000 Limited 4Runner? If you swap ecu's the immobilizer codes won't match up and you won't be able to start it. I haven't seen any good solutions to getting around that yet.

The ECU contains the immobilizer function. Non-immobilizer ECU = no immobilizer. It will start right up.

-Charlie

 

[RandyBobandy]

Suggested solution to the above. Pull the light bulb from the dash cluster for neutral. Then splice all trans auto trans wires in harness to stock ECU to neutral signal. This way the ECU will always think the vehicle is in neutral and will not try to run shift points for you. It will not affect idling. And since you are manually shifting it obviously shifts when you do. This will avoid the ECU issue and check engine light issue. Obviously you remove the neutral bulb from dash cluster cause that would be irritating to stare at all the time.

Then you can either be upfront with someone or sell off the Manual ECU to someone who doesn't know what their doing with their conversion and they'll have to cross the bridge of paying someone to reflash that thing when the realize the issue...

It’s still going to throw codes from the missing shift solenoids if the auto ecu is used. The manual ecu won’t have an immobilizer function so it won’t be an issue, plus these ecus can’t be reflashed at all

 

[Bad Luck]

The ECU contains the immobilizer function. Non-immobilizer ECU = no immobilizer. It will start right up.

-Charlie

You're right. I had to consult my 2000 EWD. For some reason I thought the transponder key amplifier did more than it actually did. I was probably thinking about replacing the ignition cylinder on my Limited.

 

[phattyduck]

plus these ecus can’t be reflashed at all

It is possible to reflash the immobilizer, but it generally requires soldering to do it.

-Charlie

 

[Doc2012]

subscribed! I just got a 2wd 2000; am planning to do the same!

Dude; doing the same; and you’re fairly close.

Let me know if you need help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[audiness]

Thanks for the support guys, i know I will run into issues doing this. with the cutting and welding, I consider this a one-way mod - so no going back. I will, one way or another, overcome any issues i encounter. I will post here for anyone else who does this in the future.

 

[audiness]

update. I am making progress, but slowly. I only get a few hours per week to work on the truck. I can't wait to get this project completed.

Got the driveshafts out. note the dirtier driveshafts on the right are the auto trans ones. They are indeed different lengths. The auto trans front one is slightly shorter, the front one is slightly longer.
this is one of the reasons i bought the entire parts truck... it would be so hard to source these.

 

[audiness]

The old Auto trans is out! this beast was much heavier and harder to get out than I thought. I used a harbor freight trans jack to safely lower this thing out. I don't know how people do this with just a regular jack. Another thing that was annoying was with the trans on the trans jack, it was too tall to just wheel it out from under the truck. so I had to walk the trans off the jack onto some boards, and then slide the trans out from under the truck.

My auto trans is for sale in the classifieds section. Only 159k miles and shifts perfectly. i have a video of it shifting before it took it out that I can send to the buyer if interested. PM me if interested
FS: 1999 or 2000 Automatic Transmission and Transfer case - Charleston,SC

 

[phattyduck]

The old Auto trans is out! this beast was much heavier and harder to get out than I thought. I used a harbor freight trans jack to safely lower this thing out. I don't know how people do this with just a regular jack.

Jesus. I hope people don't try it with just a regular jack!

At that point, you would separate the transfer case off first - but it would still be heavy/dangerous. I did it with a buddy, a lift and a trans jack...

-Charlie

 

[St Runner]

Committed! Its a weird feeling to pull a perfectly good transmission out but I have never regretted putting a manual back in it. Also had a parts truck, I don't know how you do it without. I did mine with just a couple of regular jacks. If you pull off the transmission mount and bolt it too the jack then bolt it back to the transmission it keeps it from rolling side to side. Then another jack near the bell housing to hold it front to back and also allows you to fine tune the angle when putting it back. I also had to wrestle it off the jack to get it out from underneath

 

[mymalade]

Thanks for documenting this, I love threads like this.

I also have a question: looks like you removed everything along the firewall to install the clutch pedal. Waa it difficult to get all of that stuff out? Is the evap pressurized at all? I need to do the same but to get in there to clean, it's absolutely disgusting and caked with dirt.

Also, I'm surprised the factory wouldn't have stamped the location for the clutch pedal running through the firewall.