"Terrible Tom" <SilverEightynine@aol.com> wrote in message
news:413368C5.7080106@aol.com...
>
> Not possible - as I found this out the hard way trying to get Christine
> ready for this past BBQ. I have been learning all of this stuff the
> hard way it seems LOL. The transmissions guts are the same between a
> 2wd and a 4x4. (assuming we are talking about the same model here - a
> 46RH/RE) Yes you can swap tail/OD housings. But the front of the
> transmission is different. The bellhousing is different. There is an
> engine/tranny/front axle brace/bracket, that interconnects all three
> componants on the 4x4 Dakota. On the 2wd there is no such brace. I can
> get pics later of the two trannys to illustrate what I am talking about
> here.
Well, if he's already got a 4x4 and swapping it onto a 2wd frame, I'd think
his trans would have this piece on it already because it's probably just a
brace on the trans case or engine anyway. Why wouldn't he just be able to
pull the engine/trans as a unit and install it as a unit? The starter
shouldn't bolt to anything other than the engine. I can see where you may
have ran into an issue trying to use a totally different trans, but his are
already put together. So, this logic applied, wouldn't he have some of the
same issues you had if he were to try and bolt up a 2wd transmission??
It just doesn't make sense that dodge would cast two seperate engine blocks
and trans bellhousings - one for 2wd and another for 4wd. I could see that
maybe there is some misc bracketry that might be different between the two,
but they should bolt together. I know this is apples to oranges but the
turbo 400 that I had in my Camaro was from a 4x4 dump truck and all I had to
do was change the tailshaft. The 396cid motor was from a 70 ElCamino (all
were 2wd) and they bolted right up.
> When I tried to use a 2wd trans in a 4x4 truck, I had no place to mount
> the starter and no place to bolt up that support brace. The physical
> design of the two tranny bellhousings were different. Granted this was
> an A-500 - but the fundimental design of the 2wd vs 4x4 engine/tranny
> mounting is the same all the way up to the Gen III's. I got a good look
> at the underbelly of Mikes truck at the BBQ and there were many changes
> but they were basically the same lay out as mine.
His truck is already a 4x4, so wouldn't he already have the correct trans?
If it does use a different crossmember, I'd assume he could take that from
the original truck. Since you couldn't bolt up a 2wd trans to your 4wd
engine, I think it's a safe bet to assume he'd have some of the same
difficulties going the other way. Granted, it may just be some bracketry,
but he's already got a working combination of all the parts he needs. If it
was me, I'd try it with what I've got first before spending the money on a
new trans that has the potential to not be compatable.
All this being said, I had a revelation.
Why not just swap suspensions? To change the rear, all you'd need to do
would be flip the axle over your springs, and in the front, couldn't you
just swap spindles? I'd bet that the 2wd and 4wd front spindles are about
the same size, the only possible issue I can think of would be the ball
joints being slightly different, but those could be swapped out. You could
even crank the torsion bars to drop the front of the truck down. Granted,
you wouldn't be able to get as low as with a 2wd truck because the control
arms are mounted to the frame differently, but I think that might be able to
be solved as well. On the 4wd, the upper control arm shares a bracket with
the shock mount, whereas on the 2wd, the upper arm is set on top of the
frame. I'd be willing to bet that you could re-engineer the front
suspension completely with parts from a junkyard truck, particularly the
front end.
-- - Josh Lowered 2000 Dakota CC 3.9L All facts have been omitted from this post. www.omg-stfu.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Sep 01 2004 - 00:53:42 EDT