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Automatic to manual conversion....it's complicated


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A forum member had a project to put a Focus ST drivetrain into a TC. He posted about the progress then there was nothing. Last we knew the drivetrain was installed and computer programming was next.

 

Here are some detailed posts on the complexity of changing all the computers to accept an automatic to manual transmission swap. I understand about half of it 

 

https://forscan.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=22897

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I feel like in theory it shouldn't be that hard, but I'm sure in practice it's a gigantic pain in the ass.

 

It looks like the most (only?) straightforward method* is to start by installing the donor PCM along with the trans, then code it to your original VIN. The problem being that Forscan hasn't always been capable of that, and only more recently are people talking about "maybe" you can do it with the latest beta version. Without that capability in Forscan, you would need Ford software and possibly hardware, each of which is catastrophically expensive. I'm also not clear on how PATS/keys factor into it. Does the VIN recoding sort that, or is it a separate process? If you only ever had one key (and for 1st-Gens, Ford literally will not make more Tibbe keys; what up, 10-year support cutoff), does that preclude PCM replacement?

 

*To instead reprogram the auto PCM to manual is definitely Ford equipment territory. The absolute easiest method would be to buy a new PCM for a Euro. TC and have the seller do the VIN assignment for you, but that depends on your final drivetrain arrangement being available in the first place. For 1st-Gens, for example--and if I'm reading Wikipedia right--all Euros. used the 1.8L Diesel, so the 2.0 Duratec/Manual combo doesn't exist at all.

 

In any event, I'd be curious to take a crack at it myself, but as I saw IIRC Fifty150 had posted in one of the swap topics, it's not reasonable for most folks to do the mechanical side of the swap and sit there with your van indefinitely out of service while you "try your best" at the programming side.

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