I am interested in doing an auto to manual trans conversion. My auto
95Z28 has lost its last battle. Can you tell me the best way to go about this , and also not break my pocket. What is trans can i look for , and should I go with a junkyard find, rebuild, or new.. I understand that any 94-97 year will work in my 95. Is this true?

 

Yes. All LT1 F-Body T56's are identical from 1994-1997.

You need to find a salvage yard that will sell you a complete package of all the parts you need - tranny, shifter, clutch, bell housing, clutch hydraulics, slave cylinder spacer cup, flywheel, cross-member, pedal assembly and console. You will need to rewire the A4 harness to the T56. You will need your PCM flashed with an M6 tune.

Depending on your rear axle ratio (2.73 or 3.23) you may want to goto at least a 3.42:1 rear axle ratio (at least with the 2.73's). Look for the code GU2 (2.73) or GU5 (3.23) on your build code label.

 

Injuneer covered all the basics. Do a search for this swap and you should find a great writeup that I used while doing mine, with pictures and diagrams on where to cut for the clutch master cylinder and shifter hole. Me and a friend did my swap in 1 day. Just keep a lookout on the FS section for a T56 and/or all the included parts you need to do the swap. From my experience 3 years ago, finding a T56 on this board or other online boards is cheaper than salvage yards. I don't know about the current asking price of T56's nowadays, but 3 years ago when they were in high demand, every junkyard wanted at least $2k just for the trans. I found on this board a member parting one out of a wrecked car for $1300 with clutch/trans/every other part to do a complete swap. If you can afford the downtime, just be patient and search the message board FS section every 30 min like I did for a month straight to get a good deal.

 

I sold my original 94 T56, with McLeod Street Twin, Pro 5.0 shifter, ballistic nylon bell-housing blanket, and skip shift eliminator to someone for an A4->M6 swap, for $2,100.