Just finished putting in the 6-speed tonight. Everything major seems to be working. The only thing i have to do now is figure out why my speedometer isn't working :-| The only two wires I was worried about had the same color and connector, or so I thought. Oh well, I guess I'll work on that some other day.

 

connected the speedometer cable? I figure Mazda probably left it in the same position as the 5 speed, passenger side rear of tranny.

 

you do it with the motor in? how long did it take you? I am doing mine this afternoon.

 

speedo cable is exactly the same as the 5 speed, it should just screw on where the old one did. Its cable driven so you cant wire it wrong.

Dann

 

It took me about 6 hours by myself to swap in my 6speed on a leasiurely Sunday afternoon. Then again I have swapped out transmissions well over a dozen times so I have a bit of experience.

 

It takes about 4 hours if you do it by yourself. Or 6 hours on a sunday :-)

 

The cable is in and connected. It was the one that came with the transmission. I guess I'll just have to put the one in from my 5-speed. Even though I don't think it will give me the correct speed.

 

Did I mention I am using a lift

 

Thats cheating.

I have actually only used a lift once to do a clutch swap. I found it slightly harder then just doing it on jack stands. Mostly because I know exactly where to lay on my back to get every bolt, on the lift the height differences threw things off.

 

It will give you the correct speed. The sensors are matched to the available rearends, as those do finally determinate your speed.

Keeping the sensor that came with the sixspeed will lead to a higher indicated than actual speed.

If you have a 4.3 rearend, then use a 4.3 speedsensor
If you have a 4.1 rearend, then use a 4.1 speedsensor

 

Does this mean with my 5 speed and 3.6 rear end i can get the proper speed sensor?

For some reason i thought that the 6 speed sensors were different!

 

Just finished up my swap. From putting my car on the lift to taking it off was 3.5 hours... this includes helping my buddy on and off with his project.

i love how the car feels with the 6 speed!

YAY for a lift

 

Pull the speedo gear assembly out of the 5-speed (one 10mm bolt iirc), and put it in the 6-speed. Simple process even with the tranny in the car...connect cable, and go! Speedo gear assemblies are 100% interchangeable, and unless you did indeed change the gear ratio at the differential, your speedo will not miss a beat!

 

Did you check if it was still plugged into the back of your cluster...i drove a whole year with no speedo and thats all it was...fail.

 

The one from the 5-speed won't even touch the gears. I have an electronic speedo that supposedly works with that trans which is brand new and you can have for the small price of 1 beer.

lemme know

 

They are interchangable only 5 speeds to 5 speeds and 6 speeds to 6 speeds. The 5-speed gears are backwards compared to the 6-speed. They are also different colors which makes them completely different and unusable (I thought the same thing BTW: before I was properly corrected)

Yes, I did that yesterday; and it was plugged in. :-| (that would have been an awesome fix)

Hell to the yeah!! Consider it bought and paid for

 

Check the wiring on the sensor itself as well. I had pulled the wires out of mine like an idiot when I replaced my engine using an engine lift, just resoldered everything back up again.

 

Not sure when I'm going to have time to check it out again. I think next time I'm going to be under the car it will be with Hustlers electronic speedo (Not the swimming version)

 

The gears may not swap but you can use either complete speed sensor. Use which ever sensor was already in the car like fooger said. No need to swap the gears attached to the sensor.

 

+1

I pulled the speed sensor out of my 1999 5 speed and shoved it in the 2001+ 6 speed box without issue.