Swapping a 13 speed manual to a X-Y shifted 13 speed?

The auto shifters are so tied into the truck you would be far better off to trade up. The market is literally flooded with them. Over 3/4 of new trucks sold are auto.

I would not wish to buy your maunual truck hacked up to auto.

 

Easiest thing to do is find the same make and year of truck you currently have but with a first or second gen auto shift in it. That way you can swap out the transmission, its wiring harness, tcm and hopefully it has the same engine so you can swap the ECM as well. Its gonna be a big project and lots of $$’s. If the truck is new enough or you wanna ditch the clutch pedal you’ll need to swap out all the air operated clutch components as well.

 

The autos wiring is integrated into not just the engine ECM, but also ABS, and other truck ECU's.

Installation will be easy. Making it operational not so much.

 

Have you started with something simpler. Buy an old beater car or pickup with a manual and get her use to that first.

Jumping into a big truck like that to learn to drive a manual can be very intimidating. If I were you I would keep working with the wife, save yourself alot of money, time and headache.

In the end, like most real truckers, she will have a skill that cannot be forgotten.

 

One of the other main differences in the transmissions, least back when I was in school learning about them in the early 2000’s, is the sliding collar has narrower teeth so the x/y shifter had a better chance on getting the collar fully engaged in the gear during the shifts.

 

In the long run, even if she DESTROYS the manual transmission while learning you'll still be time and money ahead vs converting to an autoshift.