I have been looking around for a Caravan or Voyager with a standard transmission. I know that there were a few manufactured in the 80s and early 90s, so I started my search. I sure didn’t know how difficult one of these babies would be to find!
Anyway, I have finally found a stick-shift Plymouth Voyager, but not quite what I expected. This van came stock with an automatic, and the owner has replaced it with a stick.
Is this worth consideration? Or would I be looking at a whole lot of headaches?
Don’t walk, RUN away from this vehicle. You’ll have nothing but headaches. Conversions like this were fairly simple 30 years ago, maybe even 25, but these days the computer stuff will drive you crazy. I would not touch this with a ten foot pole. If you can’t find a factory-installed manual, buy an automatic.
Good to know. I didn’t realize that there was so much computerized junk even in a '94. Of course, an automatic is simply 125% out of the question in ANY vehicle unless something horrible were to me physically, and even then I’d be reluctant to buy an automatic. 
My mind wanders too easily in an automatic.
So I guess my search continues. And thanks for the warning.
I used to feel the same way about automatics (I thought they were unreliable and expensive), but now one of my personal cars is automatic, and my company vehicle is automatic. I can’t say too much bad about the automatics. I haven’t had any trouble with them. I still prefer a manual, but the realities of traffic and day-to-day driving conditions are leaning more and more toward automatic transmissions.
I think the Mazda5 is an interesting vehicle, especially considering that it is available with a manual transmission.
Why are you searching for such an old vehicle? I know there are some fascinating things out there, but finding a good one becomes more and more difficult over time.
The manual transmission was available on the Ford Aerostar, but may not have been available after 1990. I don’t know if one of these would be an acceptable alternative for you. These Ford Aerostars with the manual transmission are also rare and may have only been available with the 2.3 liter 4 cyliner engine.
My only other suggestion is to buy a plumber’s plunger, fit a gearshift ball on the handle and put it on the floor where a shifter would be. If you then “shift” in sync with the transmission, this might keep your mind from wandering.
I just have always liked the Chrysler minivans, and they stopped offering manual transmissions in the USA after 94 or 95. 
These vans have always been my favorites.
As far as automatic transmissions, what I’ve had of them have been reliable, because I maintained them. It’s not a reliability issue for me, it’s an issue of enjoyability. I just don’t enjoy driving an automatic! My personal preference, that’s all.
I disagree. In a 94, there’s not going to be any computerized stuff in the manual transmission, and probably only the TCC connector on the automatic and it should make no difference to the computer whether that connection is connected or not. The only real “difficulty” in this conversion is just taking one transmission out and putting a different one in, and then installing the various peripheral stuff like the pedal and gear shift. Now, not that someone couldn’t screw it up, but any halfway decent mechanic or even a skilled amateur should have no problem with this.
As for the specific vehicle, if the OP is an experianced manual transmission driver, they should be able to assertain that the thing drives okay, which is really all that’s important. I still wouldn’t pay too much for the thing, it being a '94 Voyager and all, but I wouldn’t reject it out of hand.
If that year was available with a manual it might not be bad. Are you looking for one of the turboed models? If so, you best find a web site that caters to them. YOu will need it to keep running.