sedan-wagon swapsies

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:53 pm

firstly sorry to the fellow who was really keen in my wagon.

i have a rough L touring wagon that is ej powered but rough (gf doesnt like it) and a L sedan ea82t that isnt perfect (body wise) but is 100% better than my wagon......

now i was going to sell the wagon and ej20g the sedan, but now im thinking ej22+3" lift and maybe 14's with 27" tyres on the sedan would be the way to go(still hit the beach every now and then). since everything engine wise is simple unhook/rehook in to the new car im thinking 3 days would be all i would need. also turbos are new to me and with a NA i know kind of what im doing when turning the spanners.

but my question to you's is will my current drive line in the wagon bolt straight up into the sedan, the EA82 service manual said only between some models there is only 5mm differance in the wheelbase?

if it is possiable its a win win win, gf wont need to hide within my car and ill still have a multi-purpose ej powered subi with better paint

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:15 pm

should be an easy swap. If the sedan is 2wd you need to make some brackets up to mount the centre bearing of the tailshaft and some more brackets for inside the boot for the bolts to mount the 4x4 rear end. If it's 4x4 already then it should be a very very easy swap.

........but seriously man, it would be WAY better to just fix up the paint on the wagon. Even an entire respray (cheap one) would be under 500 bucks which you will probably end up spending on new oil, filters, coolant and stuff you will end up doing whilst swapping. Wagons are just simply far more practical as an offroader - they have a decent boot. I've taken my sedan camping (just the two of us) and I severely missed the wagon. Would also be heaps easier to tidy the wagon up than do a whole swap.

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 6:58 am

yeah but i like the sedan shape and its allready 4wd so a very very easy swap it will be.

i've just brought a house so i can only keep one car...so the wagon just has to go

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 8:33 am

oh well sounds like a downgrade to me - deleting practicality only. But I suppose if the wagon really is that bad looking, I guess it's likely got rust too which gets expensive to fix properly.

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 12:32 pm

its mainly all the clear cracking off+there is only a little rust in the rear lower quaters+all dinged up sil panels+bonnet with dings+tourning wagon has a lot of extra plastics which for one reason or another fall off often

add to that a really like sedans better and that everyones got wagon's or brumby's

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 12:53 pm

here's an idea. do up the sedan as you plan, and cut your old wagon in half. convert the rear of it into a trailer. then you can hitch it up when you feel you need the boot space back

I still want to see it done! Still got the rear of my old wagon sitting in my yard waiting for me to do it hehe.

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 9:41 pm

like leave the roof on,side and rear windows in? could be cool a trailer with irs then turn the front into a couchor bbq for the shed.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:07 am

lol I should have thought of the front end idea before I chucked it out.
Yeah the rear I originally thought of cutting it down low (no roof or windows) because it's pretty much the exact same size as a 6x4 trailer, however not really because the wheel arches are inside rather than outside. So now I'd prefer to keep the roof and windows intact, maybe put a mattress inside for a kindof camper. Would be a pretty classy trailer with some of it's features...55L tank for water or extra fuel, brakes, IRS, nice looking tail lights (use the existing stock ones) ...electric windows

I've already gone as far as acquiring a 2wd rear end for mine, but I may have to re-think that, it's possible that licensing requirements will stipulate a solid rear axel, not 100% sure about that yet.

Phizinza · Post by **Phizinza** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 7:25 am

If the diff ratio is different (you having a Liberty box it should be 3.9 and the rear diff in your "RX" should be 3.7) that might be the hardest part of the job. Those diff stubs get stuck really hard sometimes. Other times they just fall off.

You'll need to swap the driveshafts too.

And the wiring, depending on how much integration the person done with the loom it could be quick and easy or a "interesting" swapping it over. All very do able, but I'd put a week to the job or 3 solid full days.

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 9:21 am

i did the loom so its a simple three wires to disconnect i did every thing on my car (can't blame anyone else that way). you are spot on about the diffs, was going to just swap the whole rear over but leave the disks.

if the 3.7 diff is lsd, i guess i'll be off to u-pullit for required bits to make it 3.9.

whatcharterboat · Post by **whatcharterboat** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:13 pm

should be an easy swap. If the sedan is 2wd you need to make some brackets up to mount the centre bearing of the tailshaft and some more brackets for inside the boot for the bolts to mount the 4x4 rear end. If it's 4x4 already then it should be a very very easy swap.

Has anyone here actually done this before? Were there any other complications?

shuffbag > I'm in exactly the same position as you in that I really like the sedans but unfortunately my sedan is a 2wd (and an auto). I'm hoping to cut the centre tail shaft brackets off my old 4wd wagon and transfer them to the sedan and somehow get some threaded plates in for the rear diff bracket.

Swap everything else over and then fit my 27" muddies without a lift kit. That's the plan anyway.

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:25 am

whatcharterboat wrote:Has anyone here actually done this before? Were there any other complications?

shuffbag > I'm in exactly the same position as you in that I really like the sedans but unfortunately my sedan is a 2wd (and an auto). I'm hoping to cut the centre tail shaft brackets off my old 4wd wagon and transfer them to the sedan and somehow get some threaded plates in for the rear diff bracket.

Swap everything else over and then fit my 27" muddies without a lift kit. That's the plan anyway.

It has been done a lot of times here, But I haven't done that kind of task before - There is a few threads here... I recall if you had Automatic and if you wanted 4wd and manual transmission, the transmission tunnel is narrower on automatic Leones.

Also I recall its pretty much straight forward swap.
Cheers
AP

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:58 am

mines all in the sedan but i have a 3" lift, just starter props now (see other thread)

whatcharterboat · Post by **whatcharterboat** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:56 pm

the transmission tunnel is narrower on automatic Leones.

How much lower? Low enough to be a problem? I'll keep looking through the old threads too. Of course it would be so much easier with a 4wd sedan to start with but this one came up and it was so clean for the money and all my running gear in the wagon is fairly new too.

Thanks again for your replies.
John

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:47 pm

Oh, so L series autos and manuals have different tran tunnels? Rumour was that auto 4WD MY had larger tunnel than others. BVC. Would not surprise me, just to add more things between MY and L to be totally the opposite!

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:33 pm

It's narrower, not lower.
It shouldn't make any difference or cause you any issue.

I found my RX Turbo sedan's tunnel was the narrow version (as compaired to my L series touring wagon). Both cars were 5spd dual range from factory. It did affect me because I was constructing a custom crossmember for mounting an EJ gearbox, but this isn't required if you are sticking to everything L series.

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:23 am

AndrewT wrote:It's narrower, not lower.
It shouldn't make any difference or cause you any issue.

I found my RX Turbo sedan's tunnel was the narrow version (as compaired to my L series touring wagon). Both cars were 5spd dual range from factory. It did affect me because I was constructing a custom crossmember for mounting an EJ gearbox, but this isn't required if you are sticking to everything L series.

Ah yeah thats right... that when people get into trouble...
isn't EJ Automatic wider than EJ's manual hence doesnt fit in L series - is that correct?
Cheers
AP

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 8:56 am

that I'm not 100% sure about. Only people I know running EJ auto's in L series have a lift kit of some sort which can only help. I know the EJ autos are massive bastards!

*edit, sorry shuffle this is pretty off-topic :P

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 5:43 pm

and you gotta ask why not the same width tunnel throughout the series. As Fuji musta planned a car was gonna be auto or manual from the stge of the floor pressing...

shuffbag · Post by **shuffbag** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:26 pm

hahaha well not really.....

my love for the sedan shape is not the same type of love others give it,
every thing swap easy as, looked good so good in fact that a man on a motorbike pulled me over to have a closer look (and this was the first drive in it).

now i have a really really nice yellow sticker to go along with it. if only i had a 2" lift, not a 3"

-exhaust to loud
-suspension to high

this car was just my previous wagon which i had no proplems with untill my swap minus wheels that stick 1/4 out the gaurd. 13" wheels left heaps of room under my gaurds which i think made it stand out a bit more that the 15" i had previously.

i have a copy of the current "vehicle insection techniques" and under section 17-1 (17 being "suspension" & -1 being "adjusting") it states,

raising suspension is not recommended because of crnering instability, however, there are no regulations to cover this, so do not defect unless other safety factors prevail.

that is word for word from the book so i guess it explaines why the exhaust was tacked on th defect aswell.
has any one fought a defect and if so what was your out come?