Z32 TT tranny Swap..

Holy wow! It bolts right up? That looks super easy… now all you need is to have an 87-89T Z31 driveshaft lengthened and the install is complete.

This is getting stickied like woah.

the shifter doesn't bolt up, But I used a 35x35mm steel cube, drilled a hole in it and welded it to the bottom end of the T5 shifter..
The 87-89T shaft is nowhere to be found, so I'm going to start with the front end of the Z32 driveshaft, and build a custom shaft from there..

Wait a second, I thought the input shaft of the tranny was different for the TT trannys and for the z31 trannys? Meaning, I thought you couldn't put a T5 tranny or a NA tranny OR an 87-89 tranny into a z32 and vice versa.

Turns out not so much huh, they are ALL interchangeable. This is VERY good info! Thank you!

So they basically didn't run the output shaft out hella far and just ran a linkage to the shifter? My buddys E30 is like that, stubby little trans

The Z31 and Z32 both n/a and turbo and twin turbo all have the same input shaft. When I did my clutch change last summer I slipped my clutch disc onto my buddies Z32 trans and it fit perfectly.

What suprises me is that the trans bolted up to the engine!? I never measured but from eyeballing it there should have been at least 2 bolts that wouldn't line up. 1 on the top right and 1 on the bottem right where the starter should go on the Z31 trans.

I haven't put up all the bolts to the block, just a few of them to keep it in place. But what suprised me was that the shifter ended up in basically the same spot as stock. I've been asking about this swap for almost a year now, and more then a few times I've been told that the shifter will end up in to far back in the car.

Howcome Stinky's attempt failed. Differences between Us-spec and Euro trannies? N/A And TT? 2+2 and 2seaters?

Oh, yes, the Tranny mount(edit: Crossmember) will not bolt on either. But it's seems to be pretty easy to make the T5 tranny mount fit… :P

It wasnt so much that I couldnt put the trans in but I was trying to get the shifter closer to the stock location. Granted the few inches it sits back doesnt seem so be such a problem when i see it in your car.

I wonder if having the shifter mounted directly to the frame rather then to the transmission itself will cause any issues? Are you using stiff or solid motor mounts?

I still haven't got pics from my friend but we have now one tranny swap done in here. I have been trying to remember to write this text for month now

I'll try to translate text that he send me. Techspec english is still little hard.

Changed to RS5R30A an FS5R30A tranny frontshell.

You have to make custom flywheel if you want to use Z32 starter.
Or modify tranny housing? for Z31 starter

Clutchfork (?) was from RS5R tranny. Over 1mm thicker stuff

Pressure bearing (Clutch Release Bearing?) is from Z31


Oh and Z32 pressure plate shell is 1.5mm thicker than Z31.

I'm working on putting a Z32 5-speed in an Infiniti M30 I picked up. I'm about 99% sure that the 89-91 SE 5-speed Maxima flywheel will work with the Z32 N.A. or modified TT tranny. Since the Maxima uses a 240 mm setup, the TT bell housing would have to shaved down a bit where the starter mounts but other than that, I think it should work.

The Maxima flywheel is a little thinner than the N.A. Z32 and the ring gear location is different, but it also mounts to the crank a little different so the ring gear is actually only 1 mm off. The friction surface of the Maxima's flywheel is about 4 mm inward (to the engine) than the Z flywheel but I think the throw out bearing and such will handle it. I'll be testing it soon and am pretty confident that it will work out so this will make it a very easy swap as far as the flywheel goes.

I also have been using Z31 clutches on the Maxima flywheel so you don't have to give up yours or the Z31 options either.

Everything is bolted up. I'm going to throw a starter on tomorrow and make sure it engages properly… I don't really have any doubts that it will though. I have a bunch of pictures from a post on an M30 board, most of the stuff I got I would recommend in the Z31 as well so I'll copy it here:

Alright.... here we go:

Cheapo ebay short throw shifter. Did have to slightly file the inside of the hole to get the bushings in. The cheap shifters like this tend to be know for not having round holes… yeah, its weird. It did come with nyloc nuts, which was a very nice touch. I actually used one of the nuts for the shifter to linkage bolt so that I could tighten it somewhat loosely and not worry about the nut backing off. This makes for butter smooth shifting.



SPL Parts brass shifter bushings… highly recommended. These got ate up a bit from when I removed them from my old shifter.






Here's the solid shifter bracket. Like I said above, I love this thing. It feels so much better than the Z32's setup ever did, regardless of the STS. This one also includes nyloc nuts. I need to call Mazworx sometime as my particular bracket isn't parallel with itself. I'm not sure if that's how they design it or they just didn't get it welded up right. It could sit a little lower but it doesn't appear to affect the shifting in any bad way at all. As you can tell in these pictures… my garage is an absolute MESS. :lol:












89-91 Maxima SE Fidanza flywheel with Z31 Spec Stage 3 6-puck clutch (most definitely overkill, over over over over kill, but I had it laying around and didn't want to buy another clutch… probably should have though :lol: It will handle upwards of 515 ft. lb. torque.)




I used the stock auto tranny metal covers/spacers that go between the engine and tranny, worked perfectly. One thing I did want to change was the brackets that the lower portion of the tranny bolts to. The auto tranny has threaded holes along the bottom whereas the 5-speed has a mix of threaded and bolt through (bracket has one hole and one hole with a nut welded on). The driver's side bolted up perfectly but for some reason the passenger's side Z32 bracket was some funky design and it wouldn't fit. Nothing to worry about though, just use a long bolt with a washer, lock washer, and a nut and you're good to go. This step is not required, just makes bolting the bottom on a tiny bit easier in my opinion. If you can get a Z32 driver's side bracket I'd definitely do it, if not just use some use a nut and bolt combo with lock washers. (sorry for the blurry picture)




And finally pictures of what it looks like inside. It appears to sit quite close to the driver's side but with the STS doesn't interfere with the hand brake and is actually quicker comfortable. Any further to the right and 5th would feel a bit far away to me (I believe this is mostly due to seating position, in the Z they have everything pretty close to you… if you sit in one or have sat in one I think you'll get what I mean :lol.















This is something I wanted to ask about here though.



Do any of you happen to have a picture of or happen to know if that is similar to the Z31 sensors? The M has a 3.92 differential and I'd like to use one of the 88-89 N.A. 19 tooth gears if it will work on this sensor.

Got delayed on some other things in the car so I haven't had a chance to check the starter yet but did test the clutch today and it looks like the Maxima flywheel/clutch setup will disengage properly (there was a little concern as the pressure plate didn't appear to stick out quite as far as the Z32 setup but it appears that it will work just fine). I'm 99% sure it will be running tomorrow so I'll let you guys know if the starter meshes properly and such. If anything, you would only need a 1 mm spacer of some sort to keep the starter gear from going too far but I don't think that will be an issue at all, just throwing out all of the possibilities.

Clutch disengages perfectly and the starter engages perfectly… going to get a driveshaft tomorrow and go drive roughly 700 miles to Indiana… kind of scary having a long trip as the first drive on the swap. :lol:

Startup video: http://www.machzracing.com/M30/Videos/startup.mov

So there you go… if you guys want a Z32 5-speed just use the 89-91 Maxima flywheel (I'm using a Fidanza) and either a Maxima or early Z31 aftermarket clutch (I'm using the M30 starter but you can likely use the Z32 starter as well). Good luck!

There aren't many 6-speeds out there that would match up well with the VG in my opinion. The T56 would probably be good but you have to be careful with the differential choice. The GM T56's have a .50:1 6th while the Ford Cobra and I believe the Viper use a .68:1 if I remember correctly. There's not really any good reason to have a 6-speed on our cars as most are boosted… most boosted cars like wide gearing, which most 6-speeds don't have. The 350Z 6-speed actually has a higher ratio 6th gear than the 5th gear of the Z32 5-speed (.79:1 vs. .75:1 respectively). Luckily it has a 3.54 differential, otherwise it would have a pretty high cruising rpm and likely worse fuel economy. The 350Z 6-speed is actually considered weaker than the Z32 5-speed as well.

With the right differential you can get a nice wide ratio with a 6-speed but most people don't think about that and don't have good gearing with the turbo setup.

Update on the swap: Put nearly 2,000+ miles on it and so far its been absolutely perfect. The only problem is the solid shift bracket… makes for excellent shifter feel but it allows you to hear every single noise the transmission makes… I think my tranny has a bad bearing so its really bad. :lol: I'm going to try some little pieces of rubber between the mount and tranny to see if that helps at all.

just some back up to machz, thanks to his info, im running the same set up in my m30 that he pioneered.

1991 m30
1990 maxima flywheel
1988 300zx pilot bushing
1991 300zx n/a trans, shifter(mounted on mazworx bracket), and throwout bearing
1991 m30 starter
jdm spec rwd sr20det clutch disc and pressure plate

been running good for about 2 months and 2500 miles so far.


interesting note, i am using a clutch setup meant for a rwd sr20det. so that will open up a lot of possiblilties, due to the popularity of the sr20 swap in 240sx's and such.