2013 M13A auto to manual swap

BigWhiteJimny wrote:

G'day fellas,

I'm on a mission to swap in a manual transmission into my 2013 M13A powered 3rd gen Jimny,
Yes I am aware buying a manual one will be a much better idea however I really can't see myself parting ways with my current Jimny.
So far I'm aware you need to change the diffs out to those from a manual model as they have different ratios, 
I'm mainly looking for just a list of parts I need to gather for this swap,
so far I've got gearbox, t-case, diffs, pedal box, clutch cable and hardware, and obviously the associated interior parts that are different. assuming I will also need a manual model ECU to get it to work properly. 
Are there any other tricky bits that one can expect to need to change out during the swap aswell? and also assuming the manual gearboxes are completely different between M13 and G13 powered models (which sucks as there's 2 complete G13 powered ones being stripped down the road from me) 

Any help is greatly appreciated, cheers!

You don't need to change the diffs, they are the same ratio on all VVT Jimnys.
You do need to change the transfer case, but your automatic one is desirable to anyone running bigger tyres on their VVT Jimny so you shouldn't struggle to do that, and you should profit from the exchange.
There is another option here. The correct gearbox for your car is the R72, which is also the expensive one because early versions had a design flaw and self destructed. If you were to swap to a cheaper R7ME gearbox from an earlier M13A Jimny that would be better suited to the lower gear ratio in your automatic transfer case, so you could keep your transfer case. The only sub-optimal thing then is your diff ratios which would leave things 10% lower than standard. That could easily be offset by running bigger tyres if that's something you would consider, otherwise you would want pre-vvt manual diffs as well. You will need to buy or make up a small bracket for the rear gearbox mount, but that's easily done.
You don't need to do anything with the radiator other than remove the transmission oil cooler hoses.
I'm unsure about the ECU. I can't see why a manual wouldn't work with an auto ECU. The engine fuelling and ignition side of things are all you really need it for, and that's going to work regardless of the gearbox. Same with the wiring harness. Reverse light switch is the only thing you'll be missing, but that's easy enough to work out. You'll have some redundant plugs but they shouldn't cause any harm.
The dash you could swap for a manual one but would be easier to leave the auto one in. The speed pickup is from the transfer case and that's not going to cause any issues.
Obviously you'll need a clutch, possibly a flywheel too.
If you want parts and more advice try contacting James Priestley. He breaks Jimnys, sells new parts and is very knowledgeable about parts compatibility. I don't think he's active in this forum any longer but he's on most of the Jimny Facebook groups.

Busta wrote:

Two comments...

First - the automatic is electronically shifted - depending on the "level of integration", there may or may not be a separate transmission controller, I can't comment on a 2013, but I would not be at all surprised if the ECU also controls the transmission as this was the direction that Suzuki was moving in - either way, if the controller does not see the transmission, it will set error codes.

Second - swapping electronics around is not a simple task and this potentially is the show stopper here - if any one electronic controller has to be replaced, the remainder may need to be reprogrammed to work with the "newcomer" - I believe the UK people would be familiar with what's involved in a "like for like" swap if an ECU fails, the replacement doesn't talk to the original immobilizer unless it's reprogrammed, so the norm is I believe to swap the ECU, immobilizer and keys - well this may go down that same road.

Yes I understand that, but why is an automatic transmission fault on a car that no longer has an automatic transmission a problem? So long as it does not interfere with the performance of the engine it will not affect how the car drives in any way.
Looking at the wiring diagram, the transmission operation appears pretty straight forward. If there are issues I'd bridge the yel/blk and orange wires so the TCM thinks the gearbox is in neutral and I imagine it would be completely satisfied.
A simple preliminary test would be to unplug the connectors on the transmission now and then start the car and see if the engine runs and revs normally. I can't see why it wouldn't.

One thing I did notice when I transferred to full time automatic was that the auto seems to be mapped in a way that puts the torque in lower on the rev range than the manual. By that I mean on flat ground it wants to pull 4th from about 1.8k rpm without unlocking the torque converter on a medium throttle, the manual would never do that cleanly in 5th. It makes me wonder just how different they two ECU's are?

I suspect that is a characteristic of the automatic transmission being a bit smoother and cushioning drivetrain vibrations better rather than a difference in engine mapping.  There's no reason why they would have mapped the engines differently. It's not like they have a lot of headroom to play about with.

The Jimny auto does rely on the torque converter a lot to fill in between gears, having only 4 speeds.  This late lockup contributes to its somewhat challenging fuel consumption in mixed driving, where there are frequent gearchanges.

Buick once made an auto transmission (Dynaflow) with one normal gear* that used the torque converter for all lower speeds.  It was very smooth but fuel consumption was probably measured in gallons per mile.

*there was a manually-selectable lower gear for faster acceleration but it wasn't meant to be used much, and wore out the transmission.