which is worth more?

auto alchemist

Registered User
so the time has come for me to get rid of a few of my cars to give me room and money to finish my projects.

one of the cars that is most likely going to be sold is a 5 speed 89 SC with a built engine (built bye Precision) fresh paint, mint interior, etc. the problem is the 5 speed thats in it grinds bad in third, and if you take it close to redline in first and second it wont shift into the next gear until you let the rpms drop a little. Well i also have a parts car that has a perfect shifting auto trans in it with only around 40k on it.

so my question is would the car be worth more with the 5 speed in need of a rebuild or the auto trans that has no issues?

and keep in mind i might drive the car for a few months untill my other SC is up and running (i cant be without a running tbird, i know, i have a problem lol) and when i do sell it, it will be to another tbird/ford guy so i know it doesnt get wrecked and hauled to the shredder or used for parts like most of the SC's i see on craigslist these days.
 
I don't think anyone would give you anything for a 5spd that has been converted to an auto. JMHO.
 
That depends on the auto and why it was done.Done to be cheap=crap, done to be fast=fun!
Alan

what do you mean done to be cheap? it would be easier to leave the 5 speed in the car, i just figured since i have a parts car with EVERYTHING i need to switch to auto, and a strong low mile auto tranny i might be able to get a little more for it since most people prefer cars with working trannies.
 
If it i done for performance purposes thn it is to make the car faster. If i is done to prevent spending money thn it is just stock stuff and will devalue the car.
Alan
 
I think an improerly functiong 5 speed would be a better sell than a stock swaped auto....Try seeing if you can swap teh low mile auto for a working 5 speed...My thoughts
 
why do you say that?

Mainly because I would not buy a car that had been converted. If it's only a $1000-1500 car then it probably doesn't matter either way value wise, but if you think the car might be a $2000-2500 car then if you want any hope of getting that for it, the car would need to have the original trans type in it.

Damon has the right idea. Somebody with an broken auto might want that 40K mile transmission.
 
If it i done for performance purposes thn it is to make the car faster. If i is done to prevent spending money thn it is just stock stuff and will devalue the car.
Alan

the 5 speed is stock stuff too, and considering the condition of it id say the auto is a performance upgrade lol
 
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Mainly because I would not buy a car that had been converted. If it's only a $1000-1500 car then it probably doesn't matter either way value wise, but if you think the car might be a $2000-2500 car then if you want any hope of getting that for it, the car would need to have the original trans type in it.

Damon has the right idea. Somebody with an broken auto might want that 40K mile transmission.

i guess what i should have asked here is what is the average price difference between auto and manual supercoupes?

yeah trading trannies would be a good idea, but the problem is i cant prove to someone else my tranny is in good shape, and same goes for whoever i traded with, and if they screwed me over then i would be stuck with 2 bad trannies.

because of some medical issues i had to quit my job, i just got back on my feet physically (literally) and until i do the same financially i just have to work with what i got. and my thought behind swapping to auto was that if the car didnt have any issues it wouldnt take as long to sell, and if the price difference was minimal i wasnt going to sweat it.
 
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pretty much what i think people are attempting to say here combined with my own feelings toward this is
A: most tranny conversions are not done right, and also do not require but do run better with the auto eec.

B: most people would view the manual higher due to there being so many fewer manuals out there.

if you would convert it your looking at alot more work anyways. it would be better for the sale of the car and your time to just rebuild the current manual, and/or sell it for -$ what the rebuild would cost.
another option is to find someone with a manual that might trade for the auto, install the working manual and then sell it before it messes up.
 
I got a whole rebuild kit for my 5 speed for $325 and redid the thing myself. Wasnt as bad as i thought and relatively inexpensive compared to other options. There will be so many things to change converting to an auto, that is a whole lot of time and effort. Sell it as is and sell your parts car as parts and make out.
 
for what it would cost you to do the swap you would not get it back money wise.

It wouldn't cost me anything, I have an auto parts car, the only thing I would have to buy is some tranny fluid. Like I said before I already have EVERYTHING to swap an auto trans into it just like it was there from the factory. I've done auto to manual swaps and manual to auto swaps before, so this wouldn't be my first time.

This car came to me with a starting to go bad heater core, cracked windsheild, a hacked up dash harness, and an iffy engine harness, and both are going to get replaced with the harnesses from the auto SC anyways, so its not like I don't already have work to do.

Here is a little background for you guys, the previous owner had the engine built bye precision (I have a folder with almost 6k worth of receipts just from them) but then for some reason tried to wire in his own sound system, alarm sysem, guages, ic fan, and for some reason tried to hardwire a radar detector into the dash harness and obviously had no idea what he was doing because most of the electronics in the dash don't work now.
 
This isn't the first time I've fixed a car someone gave up on so I don't mind doing the work, time is one of the things I DO have right now, money isn't.

But if I did manage to find a 5 speed and trade or sell some parts for it is there anyway I can tell a little about the condition of the tranny without taking the thing apart before I buy it?

Because so far the only cheap ones I've found around here all have pretty much the same problem as mine.
 
how about sell the auto and have the 5 speed rebuilt with the money
either that or swap them cause you really seem like thats what you want to do after everyone has said its not worth it
 
Let me put this in slightly different words.

5spds are generally more sought after for someone who wants an original SC because they are rarer and special. You can't buy any other mid sized American coupe with a 5spd of this vintage. The Pontiac GTO is the next closest thing.

Auto's get about equal attention for someone wanting to mod it, but someone wanting to mod the car will want it for the least amount possible. There are many more auto's than 5spds out there so you would be moving the car from an exclusive market into a bigger market pool. More people want autos, but they are more common and you have a lot more price competition.

Someone wanting it for originality sake won't be interested in an auto swap even if they prefer an auto. If the car isn't worth anything as an original survivor 5spd car, then it really is only worth as much as you would pay for it yourself, auto or 5spd being irrelevant.

It is false economy to think that swapping transmissions will save you money. As pointed out above 5spd rebuild kits are not expensive, and most likely it doesn't even need a full rebuild kit. If you want to you can repair the transmission for peanuts. If it were me I'd find another 5spd regardless of condition, use the best parts out of both, install new seals, and put it back together. Total cost probably no more than $150. If you can't afford that then the ultimate value of the car is irrelevant.

Oh ya, and you can check the condition of the syncro's just by removing the top cover.
 
how about sell the auto and have the 5 speed rebuilt with the money
either that or swap them cause you really seem like thats what you want to do after everyone has said its not worth it

Its not that I want to, right now funds don't permit just buying another tranny or rebuilding mine. And in my area 5 speed cars are hard to come bye and junkyards seem to think they are worth a fortune, im not paying 600 bucks for a jy transmission that I don't know the condition of, esp since most 5 speed SC's I do find for sale all have trans problems.
 
Its not that I want to, right now funds don't permit just buying another tranny or rebuilding mine. And in my area 5 speed cars are hard to come bye and junkyards seem to think they are worth a fortune, im not paying 600 bucks for a jy transmission that I don't know the condition of, esp since most 5 speed SC's I do find for sale all have trans problems.

Just get the parts from an F150 M5R2 and put them in. There is a write up on how to do it. Be a lot easier than swapping to an auto IMO. If you want to get rid of the clutch pedal though let me know.
 
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