well, unless anyone has anything better to offer me, tomorrow i think i am going to buy a 79 body for my swap. for the most part it seems to be in good condition (small dent on the back of the car, driver side). i did not see any rust..

the plan is to swap my interior into it, and then swap the drive line... if anyone has any suggestions. by all means, through them out at me... otherwise, hopefully soon i will have my seven back on the road.

 

good luck, and take lots of pictures for us

--matt

 

I suppose this means i should clear my coming up weekends, right jon?



j/k

While we are at it, any one have a link to a write up on pulling the engine/tranny from a first gen...

 

Dyre just take a peak in your Haynes, Who da thought that book might actually be useful

 

the car that i will be getting already has an engine in it (12a, low compression, running on one rotor) so i figure between the haynes, taking pictures, and removing that one first, we should be in good shape.
it is just nice to get all the imput that we can before hand. basically, from first hand experience, what to watch out for and suggestion type of things..

 

I gotcha, Ive never taken an engine out but I have taken the transmission off and once thats off, there isnt much really holding the engine in... Pretty much after the trannys out the only thing holding the engine is the two front Motor Mounts and some misc. wiring and stuff. Oil Cooler lines if you have a FM Oil Cooler should also be watched out for.

 

how easy is it to take the tranny out..
i was thinking that if easy enough, i would just swap the entire driveline as a whole. advantage being that since i have the rx-4 engine in there, i know that all of the mounts between stuff will fit with mine. since i donot know if any of the mounts were changed, i donot know how easily it will fit with different components..

 

Its not easy but its not really hard, its just awkward if your doing it alone, you gotta take off parts of the exhaust, than take off some heatshielding, pop out the driveshaft, unbolt the xmember for the tranny and support the tranny with a jack underneath the oilpan and also put a jack under the oil pan of the engine, (disconnect all wires and pop starter out) now unbolt the tranny from the engine, when all bolts are undone slide the tranny rearward and lower it at the same time till its on the floor...

I think thats about the gist of it.

 

so it sounds like then that the tranny and engine should be taken out seperatly...
i have never done anything like this before, so i am imagining that i am heading into a bit of trouble. . i will having a couple people helping me out on this, so i hope that it will be doable..
what is the risk of a fatil screw up ?

 

now ofcourse, to complecate things, this swap is going to require a couple of obligitory mods. i am thinking new exhaust (to get rid of those bleeding thermal reactors), and possibly if the money is there some new suspension..and definatly adding in some storage bins. how hard is it to get them to fit into a 79 shell (since they origionally did not come with any)??

what is the consensus on exhaust? this will be a '79 body, with either '79 or'80 tranny, and a 79 13b (street ported) rx4 engine.

anything else that i should straight up look into doing?

 

Oh its possible to take out the engine and the tranny together, Its all described very well in the haynes and since its done on a 79 it should be especialy helpful for ya so for $11 go out and nab one, itll help you with disassembly.

 

already have one.. just figured, the more references the better..
thanks

 

well. just went out and got the donor car. so the car swaping fun starts saturday. wish me luck..

again, any last minute suggestions, warnings, or what nots, feel free..........

 

Done the engine/tranny out and in several times. It is easier to line up and bolt the tranny to the engine on your garage floor than in a two step manner.

Anyway, the primary thing is you have to remove everything in front of the engine (radiator, etc) and remove the hood.

Remove as much as you can off the engine block first including the exhause manifold. Then put support under the tranny and unbold the bracing. Then remove the nuts from the engine mounts. Then, with the cherry picker (engine lift you can rent) arm as close to the engine as you can, hook the chain to the loop hook-ups on the front and back of the block. Then take up the slack on the cherry picker chain, then remove the supports under the tranny, crank and lift with a friend there to help guide it out.

To put it back in, just read what I just said backward. :-)

Make sure you have plenty of room between the front of the car and behind the cherry picker to guide all the way out. Otherwise your going to say bad words.

 

hozzmanrx7
are you in l.a.?you would not happen to want to take a run up to bakersfield to give me a hand, would you?

hopefully i will find it as easy as you are describing, otherwise i may be in for a bit of trouble, and a lot of swering.