Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Converting 2002 GTS Shift Gates?

Does anyone know what's involved with converting the wide shift gates on the '02 GTS to the narrower ones of previous years? Is it possible without having to change too much like the whole transmission? I have no idea...so please help, thanks!

the shift gates are INSIDE the transaxle

since you have an 02, you can just swap in a 00 transaxle.

I know it works because I've done it on my car.

You cant however go from 00 to the wider gates just by swapping the transaxle, you need new cables and shifter housing.

sounds like a lot of work

Thanks, Jason! That sounds like good news if it's just one part.

it is just replace the tranny.

I had to because I blew my 02 tranny drag racing. Found a 00 tranny and wasn't too sure if it would swap in, but I got it for free and 6hours later she was in and working just fine.

The 02 and up years got longer shift cables to compensate for the wider gates, but they seem to work just fine on the 00-01 year transaxle's and I haven't had any problems with them binding up and been on the car for almost 1 year now.

Does that include needing all the gears in the tranny? I might need to replace them anyway once I start racing more often.

its actually the select shafts (3 of them) inside the transaxle itself which give you the (shift gate) feel your talking about.

I'm not positive if you can swap those out without tearing down the entire transalxe and removing all the gears. I think we tried it once when installing my lsd to try to diss assemble the trans, and ended up stopping because we needed a puller set to pull the gears off the input/outputshafts inorder to get the select shafts out.

it would be much easier if you could find a spare tranny 00and then build it(i. e. cone final drive and outputshaft, and new syncros) then install the spare and sell off the one currently in your car to recover the cost, you could most likely sell your used tranny if it was in good condition for about 1-1500

Be careful with the 00 tranny and the 02 linkage, they don't work together.

I had them replaced on my car 3 times, if you work them too ahrd, they will snap.

strange i've had no problems with mine and i lost track of the number of times i beat on it at the race track or street.

Ok, yours snapped. Other people have not snapped theirs. But the important question is if you have a 00 tranny mated with 02 linkage. Yes or No?

i heard the new shift on 03-04 are much better than previous. they made the shifting much smoother. so you don't have to force it in.

So the best would be to go with an 03 or 04 GTS transaxle if I can, right?

that would be a rumor

the 03-04 are wider gates just like the 02's

he wants to eliminate the wider gates and get the closer gates from the 00-01 year

^^ yeah it's slightly faster having them closer and every fraction of a second counts, especially if you don't want to end up powershifting all the time. Also having driven a celica with 01 gates, I like the tight feeling of going in, not the loose feeling. I want to get my car to the point where it is mechanically possible to shift it as fast as I am able to coordinate it. I know...I am high maintenance...even more than my car.