87 Tranny Swap/HELLO!

[tokyosnowplow]

Howdy everyone!

I'm new to this, but I gotta say everyone seems pretty helpful (I'm also an old school MOPAR guy). Anyways, I've got an 87 GL wagon w/pushbutton on the fly 4wd and an auto tranny. We love this car and I've put in a 30,000 mile motor at 150,000. (I don't think the prior owner took real good care of the motor).

But the tranny just lost 2nd and 3rd gear. I've got an 88 donor car w/a 5 speed.

Any advice I can get for the swap is greatly appreciated. What all do I need from the donor? How does the 4wd engage? How do I bolt on 50 more HP?

* just kidding on the last one.

[Snowman]

Welcome to the board!

 

The tranny swap is pretty straightforward on these cars. Just get a Chiltons or Haynes manual and dive in.

 

The 4wd is engaged by a vacuum solenoid on the pushbutton cars.

 

If you're interested, it's not a lot of work to convert it to a 5-speed manual tranny that has dual-range 4wd. There's a little bit of extra stuff, but it's really not that much more work and the result is 10X better than the old crappy soob auto tranny. (That's one thing I'll admit Subaru screwed up...their old auto trannies just plain suck.)

[[HTi]Johnson]

Hello. Welcome to the board.

I did this same swap on my 87 gl-10 Turbo.

You'll need:

-a 3.9 rear diff

-Manual rear driveline

-5spd Dual Range tranny

-Manual tranny crossmember

-shift linkage (all of it)

-center console out of manual

-front axles from a manual tranny car (I think, mine was turbo, which is the same)

-Flywheel, flywheel bolts, pressure plate bolts,and clutch pack

-Pedal assembly (for the clutch pedal)

-clutch cable

Did I forget anything anyone?

Oh yeah about 4-6 hours and a keg on tap:drunk:

Oh yeah, as for the 50 extra HP...do an EJ engine swap!! And if you do the swap, you'll have to crimp some wires together in the harness that goes to the automatic shifter. So the car can start. It's the Neutral/In Park switch.

 

Good Luck, feel free to ask questions!

[HTi]Johnson

[tokyosnowplow]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

Is the diff swap and driveline swap necc.? Why?

 

And, is it easier to pull the motor and tranny as one unit, or is it easier to swap the tranny w/ the motor in it?

 

I know it's probably redundant, but my car has passed MANY big American SUV's stuck in the snow on the way to and from Mt. Shasta. Like we say "It does 55mph on dry roads or with 2 feet of snow on the ground"

[Snowman]

The rear differential has a different ratio on the M/T cars (3.9 instead of 3.7), and I believe, but I'm not positive, that the driveshaft is a different length.

 

I don't know if it's possible to pull the engine and tranny at the same time. However, it's really easy to pull them separately.

[tokyosnowplow]

Cool, thanks.

 

So what happens if I leave the AT rear end in there? Does it throw off the ratios that much with the MT, or is it just preferable to swap them? Snowboard season starts soon, and I'd rather not do any work I don't have to. I did last season in a S-10 2wd pickup...what a p.o.s. in the snow, I mean SCARY. Had to have the old lady sit on the tailgate for traction..WEAK!

[Snowman]

I'm not sure if it would fail catastrophically right away if you had different ratios, but it would be difficult to drive and would place an incredible amount of stress on all the driveline components, which would eventually fail.

[Ross]

Plus, the diff and driveshaft are very quick and easy to swap. The whole job wont take much longer if you do it all at once.

 

You can remove engine and tranny at the same time, but you have to remove the front crossmember - which means removing lower control arms and steering rack. Its not hard, but theres no point unless you specifically want the engine out as well.

[jeffast]

you can add 50 hp with flame decals they make your car way faster too

[Snowman]

you can add 50 hp with flame decals they make your car way faster too

 

That's nothing compared to turning it into a "GL Type R" with one of those stickers from Mal-Wart!

[tokyosnowplow]

Thanks for the advice guys. Being a MOPAR sled guy, it seemed that changing from a 3.7 to a 3.9 rear end wouldn't matter too much (compared to 3.0 to 4.19 type swaps I'm used to). I appreciate the time and effort. I'll probably need more help as I start breaking things during the swap.

[zyewdall]

Thanks for the advice guys. Being a MOPAR sled guy, it seemed that changing from a 3.7 to a 3.9 rear end wouldn't matter too much (compared to 3.0 to 4.19 type swaps I'm used to). I appreciate the time and effort. I'll probably need more help as I start breaking things during the swap.

 

The problem will be when the front is at 3.9, and the back is still at 3.7. It won't take long for the front wheels to have turned quite a bit farther than the back ones. Just like having bigger tires on the back of a 4wd pickup won't fly.....

[tokyosnowplow]

Got it! It's a 4 wheel drive thing. I'm learning. Slowly.

 

 

Anybody ever swap out the rear stub axles on an 87 4wd wagon? My splines are worn and the drum works itself loose no matter how tight I get the big nut. Very clacky around corners, but it got me to replace the cv's thinking they were the problem.