[E46 WOT]

You do not need to remove your transmission or remove the bell housing for machining to convert your SMG car to a 6sp Manual… (HACK!)



Extremely abbreviated conversion:
1. Buy a self-centering shifter like one of the 2 listed below, RTD or CAE. You DO NOT NEED to weld or rivet anything under the car in the transmission tunnel to use this or machine the bell housing or tap the transmission for the gear identification switch. Or remove the transmission at all!
2. Buy a manual slave cylinder 21526785966, 3rd pedal/assembly (various parts), selector rod 25112228711, gear selector rod coupler 25111222688, clutch master cylinder 21526773670, and clutch position sensor 61319122700, the lines off that to go to the slave (various parts), the pigtail harness (or clutch switch adapter lead) 61116911072, and you’re pretty much good. Utilize realoem.com and/or the M3forum’s thread for the little extra parts I didn’t list out. http://m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=444126
3. Get a tuner to convert your DME from SMG to Manual, I used EPIC Motorsports out of Miami, Randy Mueller emailed me a file I just uploaded using the Engine Calibration Interface I have from my tune he did for me.
4. No more SMG! Sell parts removed to recoup some or all of your cost.



Extremely overly communicated conversion:
You also don’t need to wait for your pump to fail to plan this conversion! All you need is a self-centering shifter like the RTD Page Not Found » Home or get the very established CAE which you can get thru the very accomplished Spec E46 race Chad Morehead CAE Ultra Shifter - BMW E30 / E36 / E46 - Morehead Speed Works Both will solve needing to remove the transmission and machine the pins to define the travel of the shifter because the shifter itself defines top-dead-center for 3rd/4th gear and does all the controlling of the play for you. NO MACHING THE TRANSMISSION OR PULLING IT!!!!! *You certainly CAN pull the trans and that will give you more working room, a chance to change your clutch, flywheel if necessary, fork pivot (those can heat cycle out and go bad) throwout bearing, and rear main seal. You also don’t HAVE to tap the trans for the Gear Identification Switch to get the car running. It may impact cruise control and or the reverse lights. If you do drop the trans I recommend using a piece of cardboard to keep track of what bolts you pulled and their position so you know for re-installation. I used a IDPA target to keep track as I removed them. Very helpful to not worry about losing a bolt or wondering if you missed one etc.



My brief background is: I was going to dyno my car for the first time now that I got my EPIC Motorsports race tune and installed LinesRacing ebay headers. On the dyno a pop happened while getting ratcheted down and I proceeded to dyno 0whp as all the yellow dash lights on the right came one:



Because my slave cylinder rod’s delrin end had heat cycled out and gradually worn thru the fork and punctured thru and burst the seal inside the slave so all the hydraulic fluid bled out thru the slave down the bell housing and the fork briefly wore down the pressure plate.







So faced with pulling the transmission and replace the fork and slave (and maybe clutch if damaged, but was not needed) I decided now was the Manual conversion moment.
There’s the Ultimate SMG Conversion Thread from M3Forums http://m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=444126 and that is super helpful but it lacked some details (for my personality type) that I will attempt to fill in as well as point out the good news: No removal of the Transmission or Machining the bellhousing is needed to convert!!!
So presuppositions: You have to know what you’re doing or have a really good friend who is to walk with you on this. Also have all the parts you need ahead of time to prevent multiple days with your car immobile (particularly since most of us do these over a weekend). Please feel free to look me up on facebook https://www.facebook.com/public/Mike-Sharrett and msg me and I will gladly help if I can. I’m Mike Sharrett currently living in Lynchburg, VA employed by the most badass Wall Street firm, Merrill Lynch, and I’ll likely have a profile pic of my son or me and my son and my wall pic will be my car on a racetrack or me doing a shooting competition. If you have access to a lift I recommend buying as much beer as necessary to let your friend use it and if there isn’t a transmission jack or tall tower jack consider buying those from Northern Tool a $200 total rental fee for your friend’s lift usage. I bought an engine brace too in this picture which wasn’t necessary for this job but helps when you do rod bears, oil pan gasket, motor mounts, anything that takes the front subframe off.



I did all my work on my lift in my garage but it is do-able on jack stands if you’re insanely patient. I also had to pull my trans because of the fork needing replacement.
With the car in the air remove the driver’s side front wheel. Under the car, drop the catback exhaust, and take off the drive shaft so you’ll be able to lower the transmission. Remove the skid/reinforcement plate too (16mm bolts). As for underpanels (remove any in the way), see other DIY for that because if you can’t figure that out, ABORT.



Remove the hydraulic line going into the slave cylinder with an 11mm wrench. Unscrew any brackets that hold hydraulic lines along the trans. Unplug all sensors to the trans and move them out of the way. Use a 5mm ( I think) allen wrench to remove the brackets or any hydraulic lines so you can get ready to rid your car of everything SMG.



Remove the airbox, intake box, associated breather tubes, smg reservoir fluid tube, everything to get to like you’re going to remove the starter. Don’t forget the really small breather tube under the intake box by like cylinder 4 or 5, you don’t want to break that.



I have reused my throttle body boot clips like 9 times so don’t worry about buying new ones if you can get them off using long pliers. Once your intake box is our remove the 4 lines from your SMG pump with an 11mm wrench. I used a grinder to thin the outer edges of the open end of my wrench to make it thinner and more nimble to undo the lines. Feel free to bend the air box bracket out of the way or remove it with a 13mm socket to get it out of the way. Work the lines from left to right, or passenger to driver side. Each one removed will allow more room for the next, and feel free to push them out of the way with force or zip tie them out of the way, there’s play in their length and the brackets that held them should be removed.





Once the 4 lines are removed, remove the 10mm bolt that holds the pump in it’s place that is under it, access from the driver’s side front wheel well (take that wheel off), and while you’re there unscrew the big (2” maybe? 1.5” at least) electronic wiring harness plug that goes to the pump, just unscrew until it separates, there’s a 12 oclock north hole in the bracket the pump-side plug sits in that will hold the other end in place.

 

[E46 WOT]

With the lines removed, remove the bracket screw that holds the pump in place under the pump accessed from the wheel well and remove the pump. You might remove the bracket that holds the pump in the engine bay at the same time or separately after, I can***8217;t remember now.
Position your jack, tower or floor, under the end of your transmission. With the end of the trans there is a flat spot in front of the guibo, supported by the jack and with the jack able to go down, remove the transmission mount, 4 13mm bolts to the body and the 2 13mm nuts inside the mount as well as the 2 on top of the mounts, take a picture of the dampner that sits in there as to how the orientation is for reassembly.





Now that the trans is supported by the jack, lower it and let the engine and trans tilt down giving you more room to disassemble the GPS. Basically lower until it won***8217;t any more (that means you motor mounts for the engine won***8217;t tilt past there so support it with the jack just above that point). Remove the 13mm bolt up top of the trans that runs across. This may require penetrate spray like WD40 or just brute force, but KNOW that what you are removing is not being used again and won***8217;t matter ever again so get that bold out at all costs!!!!
Next remove the two 10mm bolts that go in from the rear, and now you get to mess with the connector between the GPS and the trans. There are two circular clips that keep two pins in that connect the rod into the trans to the gear position sensor hydraulic unit. To be frank, rip those rings off, show no mercy. You should order a new one anyway for the parts for the conversion so don***8217;t worry about saving those for resale. Use a Harbor Freight orange handle pick-set to pry those rings off, or plyers, or whatever gets them out of the way so you can separate that connector from the trans side bolt/selector. You***8217;ll likely need to get both rings off so you can punch out one of the pins they secure to be able to remove the SMG hydraulic part to then get the other pin out to remove the connector because that part WILL NOT BE USED AGAIN. Once the 13mm top bolt, the two rear 10mm bolts are removed, and you***8217;ve disconnected both pins from the coupler between the GPS and the trans gear selector internal rod thingy you should be able to remove the GPS and the 3 lines attached to it since they are disconnected from the SMG pump and the 4th line is separated from the slave and the pump.
Now connect the transmission rod to the manual rod selector connector using the clip with the rod on the DRIVER***8217;S side of the trans (notice the vehicle orientation on the real oem diagram I didn***8217;t the first time, D***8217;oh!). http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=BL93-USA-09-2004-E46-BMW-M3&diagId=25_0375 So ignore the pics that show passenger side***8230;
Manual coupler connected to the trans pic, that has the pin retained by the new ring clip:





With selector rod connected note there is nothing being used up where the 13mm bolt went holding the GPS in position, but it should be on the driver***8217;s side!!!





Go ahead and jack the trans back up into place and put the trans mount back on to support it as you are done dealing with the transmission.
Go up in the car and pop the SMG shifter knob off by simply pulling straight up, it comes right off with some good force. Then pop the gray trim that has the silver ring and shift boot attached up by simply prying up from the bottom side by the shift-speed selector and remove. Then unscrew the two phillips head screws and left up the piece that holds the window switches and disconnect the shift selector module, and both window switch pieces to remove. Now simply pry out the right and left edge of the ***8220;sun glasses***8221; flip up compartment, that just clips in, for removal. That will reveal 2 phillips screws up top to remove and remove the 2 down low that the window switch trim piece revealed. There is no need to disconnect any of the DSC or heated seat sensors, just move that piece out of the way towards the passenger side. This should allow you, with extensions and knuckles if necessary (recommend ¼***8221; ratchet hardware) to remove the 3 10mm nuts holding the SMG shifter to the car, unplug the 2 connections before removal.
Now it***8217;s time to cut a hole for your shifter! The most common way would be to use a 3***8221; hole saw bit and cut a nice clean hole. I didn***8217;t have one and drilled like thirty 5/32***8221; holes and then saw-zawed thru those and made my own hole. The shifter is going to cover is so I didn***8217;t care what it looked like.











Mount the RTD or CAE shifter into the hole and use the 3 10mm nuts removed to loosely but almost securely mount it to the existing studs. You may play with the front to rear orientation for adjustment before you lock it down.
Go back under the car and connect the selector rod to the shifter with the yellow plastic spacers and the clip. If only one yellow spacer fits, just use it on one side, I***8217;d say the rod side.



I don***8217;t know about the CAE shifter but the RTD has a top dead center adjustment screw for you to change the orientation of the shifter when it***8217;s in ***8220;neutral***8221; upright which is between 3rd and 4th. I had to adjust mine to get an accurate fitment by loosening the set screw and finding the position of the shifter that went into 3rd and 4th with no effort. Then I tightened the set screw and was able to find 1st/2nd and 5th/6th with no clunks or grinds. Keep in mind that if you install the shifter before finishing and bleeding the clutch pedal install you will be shifting gears without the synchros moving or without the clutch separating the drivetrain and it might sound scary but I assure you it won***8217;t be like that once the clutch pedal is bled and/or the car is running. Use the 3 studs that you pulled the SMG shifter off and their 10mm nuts to install and secure the new self centering shifter.





Remove the SMG slave, install the manual slave, it may have a gap in the fitment, no worries, there are holes in the bell housing below the RMS (that***8217;s where all my fluid leaked out leading to this) it will be ok!



Obtain a clutch/brake pedal set, I found a used set up from a race car friend parting out a build and there are many on ebay, but if you need the brand new gig use realoem.com and source the parts from FCP or ECS etc.



For the CMC you***8217;ll want a new one, because why introduce a used one for a point of failure with all that you***8217;re going thru? Feed the brake fluid tube up thru the hole that***8217;s already there in the firewall, it will naturally lead the tube up past the BMC and to the brake fluid reservoir. You will have to cut away some material, don***8217;t care about it, no one will ever see how it looks.

 

[E46 WOT]

On the side of the reservoir there will be a tube with a nipple then a melted piece.



Put a hose clamp on the hose so you already have it on there for when you rush it on to the nipple. DON***8217;T OPEN THE TOP OF THE BRAKE FLUID RESEVOIR, keep the lid on so there***8217;s not an open flow, or lack of vacuum, to just let all your reservoir fluid out. You***8217;ll cut the melted piece off and put on the new hose for the cmc. I put a bunch of paper towels shoved underneath and around and clipped the piece past the nipple off with cutters and then immediately put the new hose on which will stop the leak.
For the CMC you***8217;ll also need the clutch position switch with is confusingly the same part number but two very different pictures on realoem.com as you***8217;ll see here:
Box looking switch diagram, part #12: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=BL93-USA-09-2004-E46-BMW-M3&diagId=35_0186
Actual part that comes in the mail diagram, part #24: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=BL93-USA-09-2004-E46-BMW-M3&diagId=21_0094#61319122700
Here it is in person, it slides into the side of the CMC





Here***8217;s why the first diagram is misleading the pedal bracket totally looks like it wants the box switch, maybe different years? Different models like non-M? none the less order that part number and you get the above picture.



You will take the pigtail #25 in this diagram http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=BL93-USA-09-2004-E46-BMW-M3&diagId=21_0094#61319122700 and cut off the two 2 wire clips and have 4 wires to work with.


Follow the instructions in the ultimate SMG Conversion thread but I***8217;ll add some things I felt were lacking or at least were helpful learning moments for me. The pigtail clips into the clutch master cylinder on the side, unlike the realoem diagram that shows a box like clip/sensor. The brown/black stripe wire goes to splice into the same color wire on the brake pedal sensor as a ground. The yellow/purple stripe wire goes to splice into the same color wire on the brake pedal sensor as well.
The blue/black wire goes to the ***8220;#8 pin***8221; on the EWS. Yeah, WTF does that mean to us non-electrical engineers? Here is the EWS module:



Here is the wiring harness plug unplugged:



This is pin # 8 and it even says so on the outside of the black plastic clip in that corner:



The Comprehensive thread also addresses the blue and brown wire for cruise control retention, I haven***8217;t done that yet. Follow those directions in the other thread.
You will also need to run the hard line off the cmc thru a hole in the firewall you can see and access from underneath the car. I suggest feeding in the line from underneath then going above to pull it/position it up behind the carpet to the cmc for connection. It should come up here:



It***8217;s a quick disconnect format so just take the plastic cap off and snap it in. I found that it was easier to remove the gas pedal from its bracket, but still left it connected, to pull the carpet back to make pushing the line in and positioning it easier. I suggest pushing the line up from under the car to where only the end of the black connector is outside the chassis, then come inside the car and maneuver/bend things around to fit the contour of the firewall to mate up to the cmc.
Now, remove the driver side seat to make your life easier which will require a reconnection of your negative battery terminal. Use the handle on the side of the seat like you were going to let a passenger into the rear seat to fold the seat up forward, then using the electronics, move the seat fwd enough to get to the rear 16mm screws for the back of the bracket and remove them. Next move your driver seat towards the back until you see the front two 16mm nuts to unscrew and remove them. Now disconnect your battery. Next after those are out tilt the whole seat towards the back seat and use a flathead screw driver to remove the wiring harness from the seat . It***8217;s only one connection with a yellow frame and a black locking piece to secure the plug so just pry the black thin piece towards the trans tunnel to free the wiring out, then remove the seat. If that wasn***8217;t clear youtube e46 power seat removal.
The EWS is a white box with green printing on it above where the dead pedal is in the footwell.



You***8217;ll need to channel you***8217;re best T-REX impression to be able to get to this unit and press the tiny button with a screw driver or plyers to unplug the wires/plug from the EWS. With the seat out you should be able to ***8220;comfortably***8221; lay down to do the tightest part of wiring you***8217;ll have to do for this project.





Take the wire from the CMC pigtail and using a female dme pin



Install in Pin 8 which is labeled on the plug as the upper corner. You can take the plug ***8220;apart***8221; by depressing a tab on the pin #8 side and pulling the inside of the plug out from the outside. The two parts should be evident and I used an orange handled pick to raise the tab and then pull into the center to pull the middle out. This isn***8217;t necessary but it gives you a bit more room to handle the plug/wire assembly so consider this optional. This is what wasted most of my time was just getting that pin in with a wire in it. The pin is pretty frail as you***8217;ll gather and if you solder your wire to it make sure it is minimal diameter as you don***8217;t want to get the pin started into the plug and then try to back it out as it is a nightmare. ***8211;That***8217;s why I have two broken pins, with a wire shoved up in there serving as my clutch position sensor to the EWS and possibly why I had to wire push button starter to complete my build. All that wire and pin need to do is make contact with the EWS pin and if you want to get a better idea of what you***8217;re dealing with, take an extension with a 10mm socket on it and remove the two plastic nuts holding the EWS to the car and remove and observe how small those pins are.
I did not connect the cruise control wire as of writing this but I intend to and that***8217;s covered in the ultimate smg thread I linked.
I turned out to have an EWS or ignition issue of either not receiving the ignition signal from the key being turned (but sensing the key is there) or more likely not sending the starter the signal to start from the EWS (I screwed up wiring the EWS splice a few times) so I decided to go direct to the starter for a push button start. I wired a wire to the 13mm positive bolt and a wire to the 10mm negative bolt

 

[E46 WOT]

brought them both thru the firewall where the cmc line went to the brake fluid reservoir and tied them behind the pedals, fed them inside the trans tunnel interior







And wired them to a switch I put where the smg shift ferocity selector button went using my first Comp License as the mounting plate with rivets (because I don***8217;t care about ***8220;clean***8221; interior or exterior looks- Does it work? ***8211;I***8217;m good.)





Bleed the slave using a friend or powerbleeder. Start by manually pressing the clutch and you can hear/see fluid very gradually go down in the brake reservoir. Once you have pressed it a bunch (sorry no number just a judgment call of no change of fluid moving down) use a (7mm?) wrench to open the bleed screw on the slave under the trans in conjunction with a friend or power bleeder putting pressure on the clutch repeatedly. Ideally you have a tube on the nipple after the wrench going into a container like you would when you bleed brakes. Bleed like you would brakes and until you observe no air bubbles coming out and just fluid getting by as you barely crack the screw open. Once you***8217;ve bled it pump the clutch pedal a bunch and top off your brake fluid as needed to the appropriate level.
Reconnect the front two sensors on the driverside of the trans by the slave and the furthest back on the driverside by the end of the trans that***8217;s the reverse sensor. You***8217;ll have 3 sensors left over, one from the smg slave cylinder and two from the GPS, I bundled them, put a nitrile glove around them, and zip-tied them out of the way with the old big round smg pump wiring harness, also in a glove for potential water resistance.
So, you should have a 3rd pedal now with good feel, slave attached and bled, shifter connected able to freely go into all gears, and a tune changing your DME to manual. Having your dash coded to manual is optional. I haven***8217;t yet, so my yellow cog stays on
I hope this can help debunk some of the scariness of doing the E46 M3 SMG Manual Conversion for anyone on the fence, debating selling due to an SMG issue, or accelerate someone getting to convert for a lot less labor and a lot cheaper!

 

[E46 WOT]

1.) Before you start/finish, you***8217;ll want to flush the living daylights out of the gearbox, not just change the fluid. This is a big treat for your car and you***8217;ll never regret getting everything sorted and fresh once it***8217;s all back together.

2.) The CAE shifter is worth every extra penny. It***8217;s a lot better quality, better adjustability, easier to acquire, and has a warranty. However the downside is the interior bits in front of it will need trimmed, unlike the RTD.
a.) For Street cars, You***8217;re going to want to close off the hole in the trans tunnel for NVH. The upper Insulator boot from an NA/NB Miata fits extremely well with little modification, and also insulates the shifter base itself from vibration.
b.)Definitely agree, a 3***8221; Harbor freight hole saw is worth every bit of $15 on this project.

3.) You can retain the SMG Clutch Slave Cylinder and just Ebay the CPS to get $100 back. They***8217;re both the same, internally. However the lines require a little bending.
a.) For the CMS, I like the E39 M5 rev1 part, but doubt they can be found new. Thats also 100% a matter of preference.
b.) The incorrect duplicate part #61319122700 CPS, Is for a bunch of E36/E39/ 99-00 E46 models. It***8217;s hard to get that one on accident. It may be revised to the newer style along with the CMS. Don***8217;t quote me on that, though.
c.) Solder Seal Shrink Wrap Wire Connectors will change the way you look at wiring forever. If you haven***8217;t heard of them, go ahead and order a 200 pack.
d.) The ECS performance Clutch pedal kit 35311163870KT2 along with 35112229128 and whatever brake pedal situation you desire.

 

[E46 WOT]

Last one to be safe

 

[Dan1983]

Awesome job! You're making this swap much more tempting than it already was for me.

 

[E46 WOT]

Awesome job! You're making this swap much more tempting than it already was for me.

Thank you! Reading the former thread I was pretty overwhelmed and I've done rod bearings, clutch and rms before, subframe reinforcement (other thread coming sometime soon), diff bushings, I mean just about everything. But machining the bell housing and some of the steps just weren't as intuitive for me and when my slave burst in half the guy I bought a replacement SMG pump from had just had the conversion done and then he connected me with Jesse who did the conversion and when he let me know the self centering shifter solved the inter-trans work I decided to document my swap and simplify it.

 

[UncleShrek]

What is the labor cost for this conversion??
How has the swap performed on road? Any issues??

 

[E46 WOT]

What is the labor cost for this conversion??
How has the swap performed on road? Any issues??

I did all the labor myself so I can't speculate on that. I'd imagine a shop would charge you a combo of changing your clutch, replacing your pedal assembly, installing a short shifter, and whatever tuner you choose to convert your DME to manual from SMG? I know someone that paid someone to do it in a different state and they paid $2,000 for the labor. Since you don't need to pull the transmission this way (even though I had to for my fork replacement) it could be as simple as half the labor of changing the clutch since you just need to remove the hydraulics and can retain the slave cylinder but you'll still need the shop to remove the exhaust, drive shaft, transmission mounts, and lower the trans to remove the GPS.

Performed perfectly on the road the last month! No issues at all. Just like it was always a 3-pedal. No codes thrown. I might be at an open track day event at CMP January 13th for a track review too.

*I was hoping the point of this DIY thread would be to help members of the forum do it themselves. But I guess it could be a loose guide for a shop to do instead. Just thought about that in my answer.

 

[killa_e46]

This is an awesome DIY, I like that you found a way around having to not machine the bell housing.

 

[E46 WOT]

This is an awesome DIY, I like that you found a way around having to not machine the bell housing.

Thanks! That was the difference between staying SMG with new hydraulics or doing the swap. I suspect machining the bell housing is a deterrent for a lot of folks so I made sure to document and create this DIY

 

[blance18]

I’ll definitely be going this route once I get my maintenance, vanos, rod bearings and subframe up to date. Money saved on the bell housing can be spent on a full CAE shifter for full race car effect.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jakedademon]

I'm doing this now. This may need to be corrected but getting the dowel pin out of the smg actuator is extremely difficult with the transmission installed. I'm about to cut the shift rod on the actuator straight through because without special tool 230240 or making your own, it's not worth it. The time would be better spent just pulling the transmission. IMO it's still a viable option but with a heading like "without pulling the transmission" is misleading. Reselling the actuator to recoup will not be an option for me. I can't even locate a site to purchase that tool. I did this RTD option despite already owning an OEM 6 speed bellhousing because of not having to pull the transmission. Already wasted enough time to have just pulled it. Not a bad write up and I'm happy with the rtd idea even still, but a write up centered around not pulling the trans, by someone that pulled the trans...kinda sucks that I didn't follow my gut and research this smg actuator step. I knew better. Thanks for the write up and getting the word out about the RTD shifting tech.

 

[rjskalet]

I am curious since it was mentioned. Did you retain reverse lights and cruise control going about it the way you did? I am assuming so since you didn't get any error codes.

 

[E46 WOT]

I’ll definitely be going this route once I get my maintenance, vanos, rod bearings and subframe up to date. Money saved on the bell housing can be spent on a full CAE shifter for full race car effect.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If I had planned enough in advance I would've gotten CAE

 

[E46 WOT]

I'm doing this now. This may need to be corrected but getting the dowel pin out of the smg actuator is extremely difficult with the transmission installed. I'm about to cut the shift rod on the actuator straight through because without special tool 230240 or making your own, it's not worth it. The time would be better spent just pulling the transmission. IMO it's still a viable option but with a heading like "without pulling the transmission" is misleading. Reselling the actuator to recoup will not be an option for me. I can't even locate a site to purchase that tool. I did this RTD option despite already owning an OEM 6 speed bellhousing because of not having to pull the transmission. Already wasted enough time to have just pulled it. Not a bad write up and I'm happy with the rtd idea even still, but a write up centered around not pulling the trans, by someone that pulled the trans...kinda sucks that I didn't follow my gut and research this smg actuator step. I knew better. Thanks for the write up and getting the word out about the RTD shifting tech.

I'll edit that wording because I agree that's not an easy task to get that dowel out even with the trans mounts off and tilting the trans down.

Side idea, would it have been easier to get to after drilling the hole for the new shifter??

 

[E46 WOT]

I am curious since it was mentioned. Did you retain reverse lights and cruise control going about it the way you did? I am assuming so since you didn't get any error codes.

Reverse lights still work but I haven't taken time to figure out cruise control yet.

 

[Jakedademon]

I'll edit that wording because I agree that's not an easy task to get that dowel out even with the trans mounts off and tilting the trans down.

Side idea, would it have been easier to get to after drilling the hole for the new shifter??

I had already cut the hole. I used a torch and bent a punch, and it was as close as I could get it to the right angle needed to knock the pin out. The horizontal pin didnt budge. I was very hard to remove even after I got the actuator out. I took my dremel cutting wheel to the actuator shaft and cut it clean in half. The vertical pin was a pain, but certainly moved much easier, and was almost out, but it wouldnt clear the top mount portion of the actuator. It fell right out after that. I finished everything except the wiring for the clutch switch for cruise control, and drove it about 80 miles today. The only real issue I noticed is that there is a clicking noise that is made when I come "off" the throttle in 5th and 6th gear. Like a single tap that is certainly not present in the other gears. It will tap every time I come off throttle. Its something that you can feel in the shifter, so it has to be something moving when unloading the trans. I dont know if my centering is off, but it shifts fine as it is. The adjustment is all the way left. Do you experience this as well?

 

[E46 WOT]

I had already cut the hole. I used a torch and bent a punch, and it was as close as I could get it to the right angle needed to knock the pin out. The horizontal pin didnt budge. I was very hard to remove even after I got the actuator out. I took my dremel cutting wheel to the actuator shaft and cut it clean in half. The vertical pin was a pain, but certainly moved much easier, and was almost out, but it wouldnt clear the top mount portion of the actuator. It fell right out after that. I finished everything except the wiring for the clutch switch for cruise control, and drove it about 80 miles today. The only real issue I noticed is that there is a clicking noise that is made when I come "off" the throttle in 5th and 6th gear. Like a single tap that is certainly not present in the other gears. It will tap every time I come off throttle. Its something that you can feel in the shifter, so it has to be something moving when unloading the trans. I dont know if my centering is off, but it shifts fine as it is. The adjustment is all the way left. Do you experience this as well?

Sorry, I didn't have notifications on and just saw your pm. For the future find me on facebook and message me Mike Sharrett I work for Merrill Lynch and usually have a profile pic of my son and I and a back ground photo of either my car on track or me at a shooting competition.

I don't have what you're experiencing. In my experience however being in 5th and 6th can expose issues in the drive train that the lower gears don't show. For example my clutch started slipping in 4th and 5th above 6krpm on the track but get no slippage around town or redlining 2nd even. Turns out my flywheel is worn out and is lose so I've got my transmission off again lol. Gunna tap the gear position sensor this time.

Anyway you might be hearing a lose front diff mount bolt? that would be felt in the shifter. I don't know how else to speculate though I'm sorry.