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This thread is an instruction for how to swap your old crappy cable clutch to a nice smooth easy hydraulic clutch
First off I'd like to thank I'd like to thank Coalition SE-L and myprojectB13 for the B15/P11 writeups, Slow96R for the tips, and Yahnozha on G20.net for his writeup on P11 auto to manual swap. some good pics there even *** my swap was B14 non-LSD manual to B15 LSD manual
the cost for this swap is about $450 for all the parts, about as much as my B15 tranny, but if you consider the cost of the clutch cables ($125) and how often I have broken them (I was on my third) it will eventually be less costly to have the hydr clutch.
Here is a rundown of the parts
All the part numbers are from a 99-02 P11 G20. It doesn't matter what version of manual transmission it had in it, they all reference the same parts.
I avoided purchasing the lines from the dealership *** 1. I didn't know if they fit, and 2. the total cost is about $120... way more than I even paid for my stainless lines
Clevis pin (5/16"dia x 1"L ?) and hairpin cotter pin $2
23" brake hose with 10mm inverted flare fittings $35 (master cyl to dampener) *approximate length of the hose NOT total length
6 inch brake hose w/ 10mm banjo and 10mm inv flare fittings $35 (dampener to slave cyl)
short self tapping screws (4qty #8 and 3qty #12) <$1
2"x5" piece of sheet metal (18ga min thickness) $?
take a rough measurement of what length lines you will need and Take your M/C, Dampener, and slave cyl to the hose shop so you can make sure they have the right fittings.
you may also need an extra bolt for the clutch pedal. My cable clutch pedal had two bolts spot welded into place to go thru the firewall, where the hydro clutch pedal only had one welded on. I don't know if this is a mfg defect or they just didn't put the second one on to make it easier to install. probably the latter
if you are going to do this swap on a P10/B14/B13 transmission:
You will have to pull the trans...here's why
you will need the slave arm off of a P11/B15 and about a 3/8" spacer to space out the slave cylinder from the mounting point on the trans. You may be able to get this from the dealer. can someone confirm this dimension?
id suggest you also pull the battery and tray and push the wires out of the way, it makes things alot easier
remove the clutch cable and bracket mounted to the tranny. There are instructions on how to do this in the tech info section of this forum
to do this you would have had to pull the cruise control unit.
first remove the pigtail bracket shown below, you will use this later, but right now it will be in the way of the install and where the dampener will go
you will also need to bend this harness bracket up to make room for the slave cylinder ( this is behind the thermostat which you can see in the upper left of the pic)
remove the clutch pedal (there are instructions on how to do this in the tech info section of this forum) don't forget that bolt way up in there
you can now see the hole in the firewall where the master cylinder will come thru
The master cylinder installs from the footwell and the hole shape is different than the existing hole
You will also notice that since the M/C installs from the inside, it will push the pedal closer to you making it stick out from the plane of the brake pedal DAMMIT!!!!
not really... when you cut away the sound insulation, you will see that Nissan had to put in a spacer to bring the cable clutch pedal out. Its almost as if this car was meant to have a hydro clutch, but in the interest of cost cutting they went with cable!!!! Anyway, remove this with a chisel or cutoff tool
Below you can see the hole in the firewall with the bracket removed. I also took the gasket from the M/C to make an outline of the cutout shape(in yellow)
Be sure that the gasket is in the right position when making the outline, or you could end up screwing yourself royally. TIME FOR THE SAWZALL AND ROTARY TOOL!!!!
cut out the shape and test fit until it fits right. make sure to remove any burrs too.
You will need to swap the switches from your old pedal to the new one. I took the time at this point to lube them as they were squeaky. It doesn't matter which one goes where because they are the same switch, but i didn't mix them up just in case Don't bother fully adjusting them yet, as you will have to do it again after the install
here is the M/C installed. you can see that bolt that I had to buy hiding behind the M/C. Of course on the other side of the firewall is the pedal. THis is where that 5/16" (?) clevis pin comes into play. use it to connect the pedal to the M/C. Now it is ready for the line and the reservoir.
Here is the dampener. Its bracket has two bolt holes. I used one of the existing bolt holes from that pigtail bracket we removed earlier and then just used one of the large self tapping screws for the lower bolt. I angled it to clear the transmission. the fittings available at the hose shop only had these long ameriacn inverted flare fittings, so I had to go with 5/16" inverted flare and an adaptor (the purple things in the pic) to go from 5/16 to 10mm inverted flare. I also went with stainless line, so it cost more there too, but it protects it from all of the sharp bracket edges it encounters and it looks sweet! don't forget to connect all of those sweet hoses!!!!
Back to the pigtail bracket... to install it back in, you will need to either put a notch in the bracket (see the lower right had corner of the bracket) or remove that part of it. The lower right hand corner of the bracket pictured has a bolt hole in it. this can be bolted in the same hole as the top dampener bracket hole
Here is the reservoir. I bolted it straight up to the weld seam on the firewall with one self tapping screw. I only used one becasue the outer bolt would prolly go right thru the reservoir hose. I'll fix this issue in the future.
Below, you can also see the cruise control unit. what I did was removed the two brackets from the control unit and made my own out of the 2x5" piece of sheetmetal. the unit is still tucked in the same corner but now fits above the weld seam on the firewall, instead of below. I left out the rubber grommets from the old bracket just *** of time constraints, but I'd recommend putting them in. My job looks ghetto, but I only had thanksgiving weekend to complete this and the B15 tranny swap, so cut me some slack.
now all you have to do is bleed the system, just like your brakes, except you will want to start at the dampener, then the slave.
I used DOT5 (rather than DOT3) brake fluid for that added clutch engaging performance!!!
just for reference, here are some pics of my B15 tranny swap
B15 w/LSD tranny on the left, B14 no-LSD on the right
Non LSD drivers axle on top, LSD Axle on bottom. the trans spindles are on the right. Note the longer spindle on the LSD axle. Also, the LSD axle is about 2 inches shorter from axle seal to axle seal.
Shift support rod grinding
Instead of having to take the trans out each time to get the fit right, i just disconnected the linkages. this requires you to jack up the engine and loosen the bolt on the motor mount next to the stabilizer rod to get it out *** the bolt prevents the rod from coming out all the way.
anyway, I installed and pulled the linkages 10-12 times before i got them ground down enough. like myprojectB13 says, this is the hardest part. you have to grind a ton to get the two to clear each other
i had to put about a .25" step in thshift support rod bracket
you can see i even ground down the bolt on the shift rod. for reference the two sides of the clevis on the shift rod were the same dimension before grinding,
Id say i ground about 3/16" off the shift rod
these are also located on the transmission swap thread in the tech info forum
For the reverse and neutral sensors, I just clipped the pigtails off my old transmission and soldered them to the connector prongs on the sensors in the B15 transmission. Everything works like a charm!!!
The housing itsself looks as if it is really a dampener, a diaphram with a spring, most likely to dampen any hammer effects or reverberations of the fluid.
I was told the same thing by many people i consulted on this, but I decided that if the oem deemed it necessary, I probably should.
Note that on other applications, there is alot more room for a m/c than our cars have and some type of dampening device is built into the m/c. When I was gathering the info for the swap, I came upon the advice not to use a B15 M/C because it was too big for the space provided.
Granted the slave cylinder is the same part no, and ther is no dampener for the B15 setup, the clutch and pp are the same and the transmission numbers are the same and for the same application. Not to mention the bor on the m/c are the same iirc. so the only logic is that the m/c and dampener are integrated into one unit.
I don't know how much those m/cs cost, but definitely less than ~$200 i spent for the parts individually. I'd be interested if if would bolt up directly like this one and also fit in the space available.
anyway, yes I would definitely want to go with a dampener
note however that these parts aren't easy to get ahold of at the dealerships
Thanks for the quick reply. I am actually in the middle of some conversion work on my p10 that includes this switch from a cable to hydraulic tranny set-up and was surprised to see someone on the forum doing the same thing. Before reading your thread I had actually gathered all the necessary parts for the conversion and had a very hard time sourcing the parts that i have to say the least! I was undecided if I wanted to go through the trouble of finding the dampener which is why I posted the thread initially asking about its importance. I decided wanted to include it in my set-up, but after calling my guy at the dealer, found out it was on back-order. So at this point I think I may just do my setup without it, unless i somehow manage to get my hands on one. You wouldn't happen to have a spare would you? I am a pretty particular when it comes to work on my car, so I would rather have it. I do have a spare p11 M/C incase mine gets damaged from not running a dampener, or maybe u'd be interested in a trade for a dampener??
I am considering doing this on my p10 I currently have access to pull all the parts I want from a b15. Im wondering what I should pull from it, what I will still have to buy and where to get it from.
I dont think the m/c from a b15 will fit a p10. I have never examined a b15 m/c, but from what I understand it is larger than a p11 m/c, which fits in a p10 just perfectly, with little room to spare. The p11 m/c seems to be designed to fit a tight space constraint shared with the p10. There is a tight angle b/w the firewall and the strut tower where the m/c has to fit, and the p11 m/c is just small enough ( length-wise) and is angled at the tip just right to allow for enough clearance. It took me a while to find a m/c that would fit my p10, so when i finaly tried the p11 it was very satisfying.
I can pick up the entire clutch system from the b15 (mc, slave, hoses, pedal... everything) and the Passanger side axle for $40. Do you think I should and if it doesn't work just sell it? If so... what is the value of a setup like that?
Like my list in the first post says, the slave its self is about $50 and they are essentially the same between B15 and P11 (I have a spare one if anyone is interested in buying it). So buying everything simply for the slave cyl is worth it. if anything else you get is useful, its just bonus!
Hell, you could sell all the parts that you don't use.
PS make sure you get the little aluminum spacer for mounting the slave to the tranny.
COME TO THINK OF IT>>>
there is one other (major) issue with swapping a hydro into a cable clutch.... the slave arm... you will need one off a P11 or B15, and recall it has the shoulder on the lower pivot (inside the bell housing, see my post about it above). you will need to install a bushing into the bellhousing pivot socket. That bushing will almost certainly have to be custom machined. not expensive, but inconvenient. I'd almost just buy the tranny out of the B15 also if I were you.
as for the B15 M/C, From what the rumors say, it is too big (*** the dampener is integrated into it?), just like P10turbo and I said above.
But if you get all that junk off the B15, you can confirm whether the rumor is true or not for everyone.
@ P10Turbo:
I did some crazy stuff to get my parts too
For the dampener,I didn't want to risk going without either so I spend a week making phone calls
I ended up calling www.infiniti-parts.com. They didn't have one in stock, but they did a national search and found one at a FL dealership. My dealer did the same for me a couple days earlier and (supposedly) found nothing, so you might want to call them, they seem to be alot more accomodating.
98SER: Do you recall what dealership it was in Fl? I live in SFL, so I would check to see if by chance they have anymore. The dealership I ordered mine form has it on back order, and I had to wait over a just month to get an ETA, which I just got today. The ETA they gave me is February 22!
I think I can use the pedal and slave but nothing else. Will a p11 mc match up to the b15 pedal?
The trans I am putting in is from a b15 so the slave arm will not need to modified to accept the clutch. A big part of why Im considering this is because I want to easily be able to swap my det engine and trans into a p11 someday without too much extra screwing around (with the transmission).
Im picking up the parts tonight and I will definately know by the end of the weekend if there is enough space for the b15 mc.
I can now confirm that the b15 mc WILL NOT fit in a p10. I currently am attempting to sell or trade my "extra" b15 mc. I'm looking for a p10 mc and dampener.
Last edited by SR20DET_G20; 01-15-2007 at 09:59 PM.
couple questions for anyone still watching this thread. I just did the p11 transmission swap into my b13 and i bled the crap out of the system, but the clutch still wont disengage. I can push the shifter like it was going into first and it will slowly creep forward and i can put it in first and start it and it will move. My question is how can I tell if the master cylinder is bad? I know the slave is good because i got it new from nissan. Also the P11 clutch pedal mounts to the chassis in a different place than the b13, what did yopu guys do for the top bolt mounting point?
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Don't bother fully adjusting them yet, as you will have to do it again after the install
) found nothing, so you might want to call them, they seem to be alot more accomodating.
