saltytheseadog Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 I would like to convert a 2WD 92 Loyale wagon to 4WD. The donor car is a 1987 4WD dual range Wagon. The donor car is almost beat to death from working as a log skidder in the bush but the drive train is good. Right away I see that the 2WD frame has no provision to mount the rear differential support arm. The good news is that because it never leaves 4WD lo range there is no requirement for a shift lever. Has anyone made this conversion or heard of it being done ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_freddo Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Been done before. May need to add captive nuts to hold the moustache bar mounts to the body. Other than that it’s a bolt in operation from what I’ve seen. If you’ve got the donor it wouldn’t be hard to work out what’s different between the two. The whole rear K frame needs to be swapped in and if you’re not running a lift you might need to swap fuel tanks if there’s no “dent” for the rear diff to sit in. Cheers Bennie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 Been done many times. Swap the whole rear suspension in. I drilled and tapped into the frame rails for the rear diff rear crossmember. Carrier bearing mount for the driveshaft will need to be fabricated. I just bent a couple pieces of flat stock, bolted them through the tunnel. It was pretty poorly done, but I was young and dumb, and it worked. I later had a 1 piece shaft made. Everything else pretty much bolts in. Shift linkage, axles, clutch. Center console is different between a Loyale and GL, so it might not look pretty unless you swap the entire console. But it'll work. That car was EJ22 swapped at the same time, and probably lasted another 75k miles, with multiple different drivetrain combinations, until at least 3 owners after me was drunk and went straight through a "T" intersection at 60+mph. Hit hard enough to kink the roof, but the drivetrain was fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saltytheseadog Posted March 24 Author Share Posted March 24 Thanks, I was looking at the 2WD frame where the Differential cross member ( mustache bar) bolts on. There appears to be two dimples rather close together one is an outty and the other an inny. Could one of these be the position of that bolt (is it one bolt that holds it?) . Is there enough meat there to tap or do you have to bolt right though to the inner deck. There will be no shifting between Lo Hi or 2WD to 4WD so that control linkage is not required. Max speed is about 10 . I was looking at the crossmember of the 2WD and it looks pretty good. The one in the donor car I had to make up with help from a friend with a pipe bender to replace the rusted out one that was is there. It works for the low speed application but one wheels canted out a bit. Is the only difference the rear differential carrier or are the swing arms different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 Trailing arms and brakes are all different. You could probably use the 4WD trailing arms on the 2WD Crossmember, and then just weld on the 2 tabs for the forward diff mount. 2 bolts on either side for the mustache bar mounts. Yes, there are dimples in the right spot. I'm sure the factory 4WD cars had a captive nut there. But there seemed to be a decent amount of steel, so I tapped them and bolted it in. Probably not correct....but I beat the hell out of that car for many years (ice racing and autocrossing, as well as pizza delivery, daily driving, and even some offroading later in it's life), and had zero issues with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saltytheseadog Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 Thanks I'm just prepping the 2WD before I move it to the bush camp. A couple of holes cut in the body where the back seat used to be reveals the captured nuts of the crossmember so I can put some heat on them before I try to remove them. The other crossmember nuts were well exposed from the rust in that area. If subaru leaked as much oil at the back as they do at the front they would last forever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_freddo Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 (edited) If it’s not going about 10 then weld the moustache bar mounts to the chassis rails. Same for the front mount on the rear diff. Fab up a bracket or even use two tabs that pick up the one bolt front mount above the diff. Tip: the hole on one side is larger than the other. 4wd swing arms will swap right in. Bit of a bastard if you don’t want to remove the three retainer bolts on the outer arm. These will mess with toe in and camber. If our bush not necessary to stress about them. Cheers Bennie Edited Wednesday at 07:36 AM by el_freddo Clearing up a confusing comment for intended msg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saltytheseadog Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 I think I'll stick with bolts , my welding isn't that good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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