PHASE 1 (Instrument cluster removal, alteration and replacement)

This is behind the dash piece that had the mirror adjustment switch.

These 2 screws are just above where the A/C control head sits.

This screw is to the right of the steering wheel behind that little dash piece.

This screw is above and right of the fuse panel.

Once you have all those out the knee bolster has to come off.  Its pictured here and the screws are pointed out with arrows.  Once the screws are removed it comes off.  Be sure to unclip the wire for the trunk pop. 

Now there is one more screw that needs to come out.  See picture.  This is right below the driver’s side vent. 

Once these are out the part around the instrument cluster just pops out.  Start at the two middle vents and just pull out easily.  Be sure to unplug the travel computer from the back.  Once the vent section pops out just work your way towards the driver’s side vent.  It all pops out.  Be careful.  
Start here…

Work your way to the middle…

Ending at the driver’s side vent should leave you holding the long plastic piece that surrounded the instrument cluster.  It should now look like this:

Now you have 4 screws to take out (Noted below with yellow arrows.  There are two more on the left side of the cluster in the same location). 

Grab the instrument cluster by the sides and pull straight out.  Now close the doors, lock it up and go inside where you can work on a table. 

If you happen to have a perfectly good auto stick cluster that is in good shape and has ABS or doesn’t have ABS (Whichever matches your car) then you can just stick the auto stick cluster in the car and go on to phase 2.  If you are like most people and have 2 clusters and want to use your own but convert it to Auto stick then go on to the nest step. 

Take the cluster and set it on a table and look at the backside.  Take out the screws pointed out in this picture by yellow starbursts.  These come out with the T-15 torx driver.

Remove the brown cardboard and you will see more screws.  Remove these marked by yellow dots. In the bottom left corner you will see a small red plug.  This needs to be CAREFULLY unplugged.  You don’t need tools, it should unplug easily.  Pull straight out.

With all the screws out the only thing hold the circuit board in is the 4 pins that poke through the board behind each gauge.  These are pressure fit.  Stick your fingers in the holes of the vacant bulb holes and gently pull the circuit board off the gauge pins.  Once off you should take this circuit board and swap it with your Auto stick clusters circuit board.  Don’t put it back on this cluster yet.   

Look at the front of your cluster.  In this picture here you will see 6 screws marked by yellow starbursts.  Take them out and the from of the assembly comes off.  Be VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS PIECE!  It’s very expensive!

Once the screws are out the clear plastic piece and black side panel piece will come off (set aside) leaving on the bare black and white gauge face panel.  Take the gauge panel off the white plastic piece and look at the back.  You will find a small circuit board with 2 torx screws in it.  Remove the 2 screws and take the board of the gauge panel.  Careful, it’s a gas filled tube.   

Now you have take the cluster as far apart as is needed.  Take your autostick cluster and take the big circuit board and the little board that has the gas filled tube and put them in your cluster and reassemble it using these directions in reverse.  Put the cluster in the car.  Do not reassemble the dash yet. 

PHASE 2 (Floor Shifter removal, and replacement) 

First make sure the car is on a level surface and pull the park brake as far up as it will go.  Now place the shifter in the neutral position. 

On the front of the shift handle (pointed out with a yellow arrow) there is a small allen set screw.

I have no clue what size it is.  Back it out but do not take it all the way off.  Just enough to pull shift knob up and off the shifter.  Once the knob is off pull up gently on the shifter bezel on the left side and pull it over the shifter handle.  Don’t pull too hard, as there is a plug underneath that is connected to the bezel and the shifter.  See pictures:

Unplug the switch in this picture.

Set the shift bezel aside.  It won’t go back on, the one from the auto stick car will.
Now take out the screws in these two pictures.  They are marked by yellow dots.

This picture is inside the console between the drivers and passenger seats.

Now grab a hold of the center console and pull up and out (careful with the e-brake handle) as noted in this picture:

Now you should have uninhibited access to the floor shifter.  Make sure the e-brake stays up and the shifter stays in neutral.   

Remove the nut in this picture.  It’s hard to see in this picture but on a non auto stick car you can see it very well with the car in neutral.  If you have to shift to park to get this to line up with the hole make sure that you do not move the cable while its off and make sure the shifter handle is in the exact same place when you reconnect it.  This is going to be hard to do since your about to replace this shifter.  Its best to keep it in neutral or park.

In this next picture you will see 3 arrows.  The two at the right of the picture have metal clips that hold them on.  Remove those clips.  Be careful not to move the shift cable.  The other one is spring loaded and will not hurt to move around.  It’s the brake safety cable.  In the same hole as posted in the above picture the shift cable is attached to a silver stud.  This will pop right off.  Stick a wide flat head screwdriver down in the hole and just pop the cable off the silver stud.

Now you can remove the shifter.  Remove the 2 nuts pointed at in the following picture.  The two arrows on the right are to help show you where these nuts are located in respect to the car.

Now remove these two.

Now carefully remove the floor shifter from the floorboard and put the new shifter in using these instructions in reverse order.  Do not put the console back in place yet.  Just install the floor shifter. 

Phase 3 (Wiring harness installation) 

On the back side of an auto stick floor shifter there is a small hole.  The auto stick switch plug harness plugs into this hole.  See Below.

Loosen one of the shifter bolts that hold the shifter to the floor and attach the black ground wire from the harness to the bolt and tighten it back up. 

Plug the 4 pin (white plug) end of the harness I sell into the shifter.  Run the harness along the floor towards the front of the car and up near the fuse block near the drivers door.  Follow the yellow lines in these pictures.



You should end up near the fuse box with what will seem to be a lot of excess harness.  That’s ok.  Only part of it stays here at the fuse block.

The harness have 3 wires.  Red, Green and Yellow.  Black is the ground and attaches to the floor shifter.  The red attaches to one plug harness at the fuse block and the green and yellow attach to another plug under the dash.  Lets do the hard one first.

Each of these wires has a blade connector on the end that has been soldered on.  Do not cut them to shorten the harness. 

The fuse block is held into place with three Phillips head screws.  See picture:

This picture is from the floorboard looking up at the fuse block.

This one is looking at the inside of the fuse block.

Take these three screws out.  Then unplug this wire harness plug under the fuses so you can move the fuse block out of the way.

Maneuver the fuse block down as far as it will go without forcing it.  Like so:

In the same picture if you look closely you will see a black plug (2001 cars have black 14 pin plugs and 2002-2004 have a white 16 pin plugs) behind where the fuse block was sitting.  It’s pointed out here.  I brightened it up to make it easier to see.

This plug is attached to the side of the car with a plastic pushpin on its backside.  Just pull the plug off the wall of the car.  Once off try to maneuver it close to the floorboard of the car.  You need to be able to unplug it easily.  Move it down below the removed fuse block like so:

This is called the C121 plug.  This plug has two halves.  One half has a lot of wires in it and the other half  has less wires.  One half has a yellow and a green wire.  These are the wires you attach the power tap to.  Make sure it gets a good connection.  If you have a 2002-2004 Stratus then your C121 plug may be white and have 4 big terminals in the middle.  Not to worry, it’s the same plug.  Look for the same color wires.  Here is a picture showing the yellow and green wires.

Once the power taps are installed you can reattach the plug, place it back where it was attached to the wall of the car.  The red wire from the auto stick harness needs to remain where you can reach it.  It plugs in somewhere else.  Put the fuse block back in place and secure.   

With the fuse block back in place you can now attach the last remaining part of the Auto-Stick feature.  The power.  The red wire is the power lead.  Do not connect this to just any old 12 volt source. 

In the picture below you will see a gray plug that looks similar to the black (or white) on that you tapped the green and yellow wires into.  See Picture:

This one is attached to the fuse block bracket with one of these push pins.  Pull it off.  One side of the plug has a red wire with a white stripe.  It should be in one of the 4 corner slots.  It’s pointed out in this next picture.

Tap this red w/white stripe wire to the red wire of the auto stick harness.

Reattach the plug to the fuse block bracket.  Put the dash and console back together using these instructions in reverse order. 

Once you know for sure everything is back together, reconnect your ground cable to your battery. 

Get in the car and turn the key on.  Look at your gauges and make sure you see PRNDL1234 under the mileage like so:

If the display lights up correctly, apply the brake and start the car.  Once its running (With your foot still on the brake) Put the car in D and make sure you feel the transmission kick in.  Now shift on down to Auto-Stick.  Your display should move to “1”.  If it does, push the shifter to the right (Foot still on brake).  It should cycle to “2” and you should feel the transmission change gears.  Now try “3”.  You won’t be able to get it to go to “4” unless you are moving.  

If anything is not working like it should go back through these instructions and make sure everything is correct.  I had the use of a Factory Service manual and a few really smart friends.  My car is suffering absolutely no side effects from this conversion except being more fun to drive.  If yours isn’t working then you need to go back through this.