My project is home!!

[Isles4evr]

My project is home!! (2x4 to 4x4 swap)

Well I drove (trailered) my project home at about 5am sat. morning after a 21 hour drive to NJ and back to pick it up. The trip should have only taken about 14 but with traffic and all it took a whole lot longer. Anyway, it is my donor truck for my 4wd swap. It is a 1991 XLT with 3.55 gears, warn man. hubs, nice interior... without saying the truck is a whole lot nicer than my XL. I would love to just keep this one and build it up, but do to the body damage, tranny stuck in reverse, and my XL's engine haveing less then 40K on it I am going to make the swap. The idea is to pull out:
Front and rear axles and driveshafts
Swap tranny output shaft
Front suspension, brakes
Transfer case
Shift computer
front seats
dash
misc other parts that are broken on mine

I pulled out the interior today and then pullout the shift computer, then pulled the tcase skid plate, and front and rear driveshafts. Tommorow after work I'll pull the tcase and tranny. Then I'll take the tranny up to work and me and another guy there are gona pull the output shaft out since my knowledge of the tranny isn't enough to do that. I should have pics up tomorrow, along with another progress report. I will aslo be parting out the rest of the truck, so you can email me or wait until i post in the for sale forum.

Chris

 

[Kris Guilbeaux]

I am Glad I inspired some one...

Good luck with your Swap. Since I am Converting another 2wd Explorer to 4x4 over this summer...

Maybe one day I will buy a 4x4 instead of making my own...

 

[Isles4evr]

Haha yeah I hear ya. My friends all still think I am nuts and that I should buy a 4x4 off thje bat, but I say that it wouldn;t be as fun as putting 4wd on it. Oh well...

Chris

 

[Isles4evr]

Well got the rear axle out, the fluid is draining now. Finished up wiring the shift computer and push button switch. Picked up my new gasket and amziol (sp?) full synthetic gear oil today, just gona go pick up some sealent, new drum brake springs, and a new diff cover tomorrow and I should have the rear diff in on firday when I have a day off of work. One question for Kris though... what type of sockett did you use for the front drive shaft? I know it is an 8mm 12 point, but the one I have won't fit in the space between u-joints, and I snapped the 8mm wrench I used to take it off with (that is what I get for buying cheep tools). But anyway it is comming along smoothly.

Chris

 

[Isles4evr]

Got my pictures up of the project truck, here they are....

Finished up the differental today, new seal, fluid, and undercoated, pulled the tcase, and most of the tranny... just didn't have a long enough extension to get the top bolts. The rear diff should go in tomorrow along with the rest of the tranny comming out.

 

[Isles4evr]

Here is the rear diff finished and the tcase out and ready for preping...

 

[Isles4evr]

Well rear axle went in my truck today. Took about 7hrs to pull my old one out and put the new one it, along with new shoes. Everything went smoothly except for the brakes... damn I hate drums. I need to re-bleed the cylenders becuase the brakes still feel soft, so I will do that tomorrow at work. Tomorrow I should finish pulling the tranny out and run that upto the shop to have the output shaft pulled. Those 3.55 gears sure are a hell of a lot nicer than my 3.08's!! That's it for now though...

Chris

 

[Isles4evr]

I got the tranny out. Question for Kris... when you had the output shaft swapped, was it a direct swap or did any other part of the tranny have to be changed or swapped out?

Chris

 

[Kris Guilbeaux]

Is the Transmission an Auto or 5-speed. On a 5-speed I know for a fact it is a direct swap but on an Auto I am Not sure. The tranny oil pan is different as well as the output shaft and tail housing.

Kris

 

[Isles4evr]

it is an auto tranny. I can tell the tail housing is different because there has to be a place to bolt it up to the tcase. I imagin the pan should just bolt up to my tranny, but I guess I should take a look at it closer. The problem is that the 4wd tranny I have is stuck in reverse. I might just call around and see what the price would be to rebuild it an djust do a direct tranny swap. What do you think about this route?

Chris

 

[Kris Guilbeaux]

I you get a shop to swap the output shaft anyway. Tell them that you have a bad 4x4 tranny and good 2wd and see if they can make one good 4x4 tranny fr you. Dont tell them you are converting a truck to 4x4 they dont like to hear that most of the time.

 

[Isles4evr]

Alright that sounds good. I was wondering though, is it possible that the output shafts would be the same on the auto tranny, and all I would have to swap is the tail housing? What was the difference in them, lenght, number of teeth? I might just pull my drive shaft out tomorrow to see if there is a difference in the two shafts. And thanks Kris... you have been a help since I thought of this crazy idea.

 

[Kris Guilbeaux]

I know for a fact that they will not be the Same. A 2wd output shaft will have more teeth and you will not be able to get the tail housing over the spot where the internal speedo gear goes. And since the Auto uses the same drive shaft on 2wd autos and manuals and the t-case are the same on an auto and maunal on 4x4 Explorers. So you have to change the output shaft.

 

[Isles4evr]

Well damn, that is upsetting. I know a guy who might be able to do the work for me, but once again this project is nickle and diming me. Oh well. Thanks though Kris.

Chris

 

[Isles4evr]

Talked to the tranny shop today and they said to swap shafts, housing and pan, along with new gaskets, seals, tranny flush, new filter, intall tcase, rear dirve shaft, skidplate and tranny support would run me $300. So I am taking my truck up there on next monday to have all of that done, and 2weekends from now the front end should be on it's way.

 

[Isles4evr]

Well I should (hope) have my truck back tomorrow from the tranny shop. They completly rebuilt mine with the new shaft, because my bands and clutches were shot so I say screw it and do it. They cut me a hell of a deal for all the work they are doing though, so it is kinda hard to pass up a deal like that. When I get it home all that is left is the front axle. I pulled the donor truck out yesterday, cleaned up the garage a bit and backed it in for easier access to the front end. The front axle is almost all the way out. Just need to get a pitman arm puller from work and then finish the rest of the bolts on the drop down brackets, let the fluid drain, clean in up a bit, blah blah blah. Then I am starting the front end swap on friday.... if I feel up to it and if my truck is back, I will drill out the necessary rivits in m frams to fit the bracket. Time for new rotors also, something else I hadn't expected. Talk about nickle and diming!

Chris

 

[Isles4evr]

Front axle is on the ground. Tranny wasn;t finished today, it should be early tomorrow morning, so that gives me time to take care of a few things around the house before I move onto working on the rig. As soon as I get a call from the tranny shop I am taking it up to work to knock out the rivits for the drop bracket, then comming home to install my front end. Closer and closer to the end of the project!!

Chris

 

[Isles4evr]

Finally got my rig back today. I had to run all around today to get a shop to cut my drive shaft down about 5" becuase stupid me didn;t realize that there would be that much of a difference in the shaft size between a 2dr and 4dr. But anyway all that is left is the front end. I tried to get the rivits out today, last minute at work but it didn;t work to well. So hopefully we wont be too busy tomorrow so I can get it on a rack and knock them out. Then maybe, if I am feeling lucky, I will attemt the front end on sunday. I am going out of town mon-fri so I don;t know if i want to attempt it or not. Pics will come soon.

Chris

 

[Isles4evr]

Axle is in! Finally. All I have to do tomorrow is install the front drive shaft, align it and put new rotors on. Then I will make sure evrything is working, and to the trails I go!

 

[Kris Guilbeaux]

see, I told you it wasn't hard