1989 Auto LX into a 1990 5speed Swap Help

[gestiva]

Ok. Here is a little back story of the project....
I met a man who had some festy's. Well, After talking he asked me if I wanted a "free" 93GL! I said sure! I meet him at his house and he explains to me how I can get the GL.
All I got to do is take a Wrecked 89LX auto and swap the
Motor,trans,fender,hood,bumper,headlights,doors onto his 90Lplus 5speed.

I am done redoing the whole car except the "wiring" of the engine/trans.

I removed the intake,injectors,harness,dizzy,TB,alt from the 90 motor.

On the 89 motor the harness,injectors,dizzy,intake,TB are different from the
90 motor.

My question is..... What do I use?!?!?!

Im assuming I use the 90 dizzy and injectors.
and reuse the intake/TB off the 89lx motor since the vaccum ports(extra 2)
are needed for the "auto trans" to work?

Also, under the dash on the 89lx there is a "switch" mounted on the gas pedal
But it wasnt hooked up?!?! The wire was just hanging there.
^What is that switch for? There isnt one on the 5speed car.
Is it the "kickdown"?

Any help will appreciated! and thanks....

Pix below

[gestiva]

Do I just "plug" them? they went to the vaccum advance dizzy. which Im swapping for the 90 dizzy.
Here is the 89lx TB showing the extra vaccum hose.

Here is 89lx top of TB showing the other extra hose port

Here is the switch on the 89lx... Kickdown switch?

[FestYboy]

yeah that's the kickdown. you should have taken everything out of the 90 and put in everything from the 89 (since you have it all out anyway). that means EVERYTHING from the 89 goes into the 90. remember 89 ATX is a different animal than the other EFI cars. i would have just thrown in the engine and left the 5 speed in the 90... but i guess he wanted an ATX car?

[gestiva]

^The guy Im doing the swap for "cant/wont" drive a 5 speed.
This is what is being swapped from the 89lx.
motor
trans
Cross member
fender
hood
bumper
grill
driver door
pedal assembly
shifter console
tach cluster
power mirrors

using off the 90 motor:
harness
sensors
injectors
fuel rail

After talking to Htchback I think I should have the car up and running by morning!

I will then post All the pix of progress... I am quite happy with the way its turning out
(Before and after)

[kartracer46]

Sounds like you got it, Festyboy is right. The complete swap would have been much easier and less time consuming. don't lose track of that 89 stuff, it is getting harder to find and it is an animal all it's own.

[1990new]

Was wondering if this switch had been completed and how all is working out.
Our 1990 and 1992 are 5 speeds.
The 1990 has less than 85,000 original miles on it with a new engine with about 20,000 on it.
At some point down the road (arthritic kees etc.) it may become necessary
for us to either sell one of the Festivas and buy a different automatic, or
convert one of the 5 speeds to an automatic.
Ideal option would be to switch the 1990 to automatic.
At one point I owned a 1989 automatic and I remember it drove pretty good around town. It's pretty flat around here so we could easily live with the decrease in pep and gas mileage for convenience sake.

Would this be something that could be done in a weekend if someone was willing to trade an ATX for an excellent 5 speed? Not sure about doing this..just exploring for options and opinions.

Don't want to hijack this thread but thought I might get the attention of people in the know about this subject. Will start a new thread if any objections.

[gestiva]

I got the car complete and driveable today!!!! He came and picked it up and gave me my 93gl as payment. Will post pix later of the finished project.

^ as for the actual 5speed to Auto swap (NOT TOO HARD!) lol.
Its pretty straight forward now that I have done it and only requires "teeing" a vaccum line, and running a wire for the "kickdown".
Im not sure how many people besides me and Htchback have done a 5speed to Auto swap, But I can make a write up with pix about how to do it.
(Yes it can be done in a weekend)

[htchbck]

^^ I second that, not too hard at all, even putting a auto from a '90 into a carbed '88. Still haven't gotten the reverse lights hooked up (haven't been back UNDER the car since the original swap, but other than that everything is in and working. swapping a later EFI (90+) should be easier even that the ones me and gestiva did, since ours involved either carb or wacky EFI wiring

[blkfordsedan]

Kinda related to this thread........I remember years ago that one of the distributors in particular had a more aggressive advance curve or something, and everyone was looking for them. I think it was the ones out of the '89 or '90 ATX? Any one remember the specifics?

[htchbck]

I think it was the '89 ATX one because its for an EFI car but vacuum advanced? Although my memory could be a little off.

[gestiva]

The dizzy on the 89lx has 2 vaccum lines coming out of it, and individual wires with connectors instead of 3 plug type.

It took alot of work to do the swap considering how long they sat for and the fact (Im not a real mechanic) lol!

[TominMO]

Great job! You earned that 93 GL for sure.

[gestiva]

^I Know I did! lol.... I spent alot of time,sweat,blood,(a few angry tears) etc... on this car, and In return I got a 100% Rust free GL!!!! It needs TONS of interior/suspension work, But the motor runs perfect!

[89newb]

good job man. make that festy proud