beema41 wroteMy primary questions are; Can this be done? Is it worth it? How much should I expect to pay?
I recently converted a 1977 244DL (see my sig) from auto (BW55) to manual (M46). The process is fairly straightforward:
1. From the donor car, take the gearbox, pedal box, speedo cable, flywheel, clutch master, clutch slave, clutch hardline mounting bracket in the engine bay near the passenger-side wheel well, take the propshaft and support plate and take the gearbox crossmember.
2. Remove the old auto gearbox and prop shaft. This is much easier if you just remove the whole engine.
3. Get some degreaser and a scourer and clean away all the pebblecoat from around the new crossmember bolt holes (they'll be fore of the auto gearbox bolt holes). Then turn the bolts in and out to finish cleaning the threads out.
4. Separate the old auto gearbox from the engine. Remove the flexplate, and finally remove the metal bush from the back of the crank (it sticks out, just put some wd40 on it and work it free with a pipe wrench or a bearing puller if you have one)
5. Install the new spigot bearing where that metal bush was
6. BUY A CLUTCH KIT
7. Assemble the clutch kit to the flywheel and bolt it all on.
8. Put the engine and gearbox back together. Now is a good time to replace the the gearbox oil if you haven't already, as it's much more annoying to do it when the gearbox is installed.
9. Replace the old speedo cable with the one from the donor car - once you put the crossmember back this is very difficult to do, so do it now.
10. Install the pedal box and clutch master. Install the clutch slave on the engine.
11. Put engine back in, connect propshaft, baton all hatches, etc etc.
12. Bleed the clutch. The clutch will not release its remaining air without a fight.
@VolvoHordz once told me to disassemble the slave and remove the piston and let gravity pull fluid into the bore, then put the piston back in, and that worked for me. You'll need circlip pliers if that's the case (you'll need them anyway though I think, to remove the slave from its mount on the bellhousing).
13. Do things I forgot to put here
14. Try to start car. Cry because it won't start. Realise you've forgotten to bridge the neutral safety switch circuit. Do that. Start car. Stall it. Start again, drive away happily.
15. Left foot in, right foot in, left foot out, slide it all about.
