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AWD Conversion/Swap Guys Enter Here - Advanced. [Merged 2-07]

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Since you're going 95 to 95 the only thing you will have to swap in addition to the fuel wiring, is the TCU. The awd,fwd have different gearing so the fwd tcu used with an awd tranny will put the car in "limp" mode.
I have heard this from experienced people. You may already be aware of it, just thought id throw it out there.
Oh, also, i think the ebrake assembly needs to be swapped. The fwd is slightly shorter or longer.

All the other stuff is obvious. Im doing essentially the same thing. Taking my nice clean 97 fwd and using a 95 as the donor. Good luck and i hope the god damn weather is better where you are. Im goin crazy with this shit.

Are you going to rivet your d shaft mounts in or spot weld? Im on the fence. Rivets would be easy to drill out(if you uckf up) and you dont have to worry about removing interior carpet from the heat. But weld would look better and be like stock.
 
The "hardest" part in my opinion was mounting the driveshaft carrier brackets. It wasn't really that hard, but the rest was super easy, could have been done in a weekend if I wasn't sand-blasting and repainting everything and ordering a few last second bushings and what not. The gas tank stuff can be interesting too when dealing with ~20 year old cars.



FYI: Make sure if you do weld in the driveshaft brackets, to pull back or remove your carpet. It will catch on fire while welding those in place.
 
Hey guys just started my swap, have both rear ends and fuel tanks removed. Now the awd donor car the bushings in the knuckles are toast. I was thinking I could just use the fwd knuckles, they look exactly the same. Reading on vfaq it says you must use the awd knuckles. I have looked at them both for an hour and can't tell a difference. Other problem is the donor car is extremely rusted, so the axles are literally welded to the hubs. I'm needing new hubs and axles now. Can anybody give me a clear 100% sure answer if knuckles are indeed different?
 
Here's your difference. One has a wider diameter than the other.

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^^^^ Bingo, otherwise none of us would worry about the 2ga clearance. We'd just pull em of 2gb fwds! Wouldnt that be nice.....

The difference isnt all that big is it? I know you can fit slightly wider tires on a 2gb but we're talking like 4mm or something along those lines?
 
It's not about fitting a wider tire. See the hole in the center? The axle has to bolt up and well, it just won't work. I was gonna do the same thing and keep the fwd knuckles cause the dust shields were in better shape. It wouldn't work though so I had to hammer out the dust shields instead. I did a lot of parts swapping for nothing.

Yeah I looked closer def different. Guess I'll just replace the bushings. Bitchy thing is the axles are pretty much welded in so pressing out old bushings will be tricky.

Let it sit over night in some PB Blaster. See if that helps any.
 
Can anybody give me a little better explanation on the awd gas tank bolts. Did you guys cut inside the car to drop the bolts down for the straps? For front and back? Really the only part I'm a bit confused on. Installing all this tomorrow, so hoping to get an answer soon. Thanks
 
You can run a screw driver up thru thru hole and make a mark on the sheet metal under the rear seat, then drill a hole and drop the bolt.

I did this.

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I welded the heads on top, but you can use a nut to hold the bolt and then another nut with a washer for the tank strap
 
I also put the hole underneat (rectangular holes, using dremil tool), on the vertical surfance just above the new stud. I used stainless bolts and put a 1/4" ratchet onto bolt to keep it in place, I then used a thin jam nut to keep it in place. But both methods are pretty easy, just pick the one you like more. Personally, I do not like to drill big holes through my floor pan ;)
 
One more way is to use a piece of thin wire and make a loop big enough to go around the shank of the bolt just under the head (squeeze it tight on the shank) and fish it in the holes that are already there. (gofers pics show the holes on the sides of the rail pretty good) Once you get the bolt fished inside the frame rail you can bend the wire and maneuver it around till you get the bolt to go in the hole. Pull the bolt down and hang on to it and at the same time pull your fish wire out. A little patience to do it but really doesn't take long at all.

Once they are in there you can spot weld them in. I just drilled a small hole next to the head of the bolt and spot welded them in. That metal is really thin there so watch you don't blow holes with the welder. :thumb:
 
I would very much appreciate that Cory!

So I've been talking to a member on the link forum, I started a thread over there and a very nice member named Savo has been helping me, he's done multiple Awd swaps on spyders and I'm sure his method works great. My question to all of you is, why couldn't I just wire the fuel pump and sending unit wires with this diagram

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He's already showed me the exact wires I need from my gst connector which are these

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I don't see a reason this wouldn't work but someone else might. Please chime in with your opinions.

So let me get this straight, all the diagrams that say "FWD 3-pin plug", actually has 14 pins on your car?

My '96 Spyder GST (w/out ABS), this plugs has 7 pins! I do see the Black, Yellow/Blue and Yellow wires among those seven and I am assuming that they are what I am supposed to use.
 
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if you look at his picture of the fuel tank bolts welded in, up and to the right of the bolt is a larger hole, i used a magnet and fished all of my bolts for the new tank bolts into the new locations. i didnt have to cut anywhere to install the strap bolts. i am ready to install th rear subframe now. the most pita part was drilling all the spot welds in the driveline support brackets out, even using a nice spot weld cutter it was a pain. i am wondering if i need to swap the rear drag links from the awd car to the fwd car. they look nearly identical. i haven't had a chance to install the rear end yet to see since i broke 2 upper control arm bolts off on the new car when removing them, then broke off 2 snapon extractors in them, looks like i will be drilling and re-tapping them suckers.
 
Has anyone else just welded the bolts for the AWD gas tank right to the chassis? I'm in the process of doing the swap right now and my friend who is doing the swap with me suggested we just do that so we don't have to do any drilling for the gas tank installation part of the swap.
 
Just finished my awd swap finally. Ran into some problems along the way, finding driveshaft brackets and a driveshaft, and finding an intermediate shaft, but it is done. I just tested it the other day before my new/used engine decided to seize up and everything worked perfectly. I had some pictures of the whole swap I was doing but unfortunately I had it all saved on a sd card that I lost.

Besides the engine locking up, I also need to find out how much to space the intermediate shaft carrier bearing since I dont have an ac bracket and for some reason my starter is grinding my flywheel. I have an awd starter and flywheel in it and also a awd starter plate, but it seems like the starter isn't engaging the flywheel properly. I bought 2 brand new starters and both times it did the same thing.

Also

I dont have an ebrake but I can live without that for a while.
 
When you installed the starter did you feel it touch the flywheel? There's spacers made by Mitsubishi for the intermediate shaft I think Maperformance has them listed in there site.
 
Just finished my awd swap finally. Ran into some problems along the way, finding driveshaft brackets and a driveshaft, and finding an intermediate shaft, but it is done. I just tested it the other day before my new/used engine decided to seize up and everything worked perfectly. I had some pictures of the whole swap I was doing but unfortunately I had it all saved on a sd card that I lost.

Besides the engine locking up, I also need to find out how much to space the intermediate shaft carrier bearing since I dont have an ac bracket and for some reason my starter is grinding my flywheel. I have an awd starter and flywheel in it and also a awd starter plate, but it seems like the starter isn't engaging the flywheel properly. I bought 2 brand new starters and both times it did the same thing.

Also

I dont have an ebrake but I can live without that for a while.


:cry: your woes scare me I am doing a swap soon. I have 3 cars and one clean shell and this horror story about the motor locking up is making me want to cry
 
The gas tank bolts were incredibly easy. For those who may be able to use this for reference in the future, what I did was wrap a piece of solder around the bolt, put the bolt into the larger holes next to the holes the bolts actually need to go in and then fished them through right to the holes they need to be in and pulled them out by hand. From there you can hold onto the bolt and tug on the solder and it will come off the bolt.
The solder worked perfectly because it was so flexible that you could wrap it around the bolt tight and while fishing it through it would form to the angles you needed. It was so simple, and it required zero cutting. After I did that I tack welded the bolts to the chassis so they will not move when I bolt on the tank straps (or you can use the double nut method like others have done)

Here's a picture of how I wrapped the bolts before fishing them through for reference..

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Gas tank bolts in but not tack welded yet in this picture..

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Now here's where I think I may have shot myself in the foot.
I remember reading at the beginning of this thread when it came to the rear drive shaft carrier bracket that you would "just know" where it went because it fits. Well I ended up finding what I thought was the correct spot because it seemingly fit perfect. There is no side to side or front to back movement when you place the bracket here so I tacked it into place.
I got home from the garage tonight and then checked this thread again. I see some pictures where the bracket it placed further to the rear of the car than where I placed mine..more specifically Paul Volks picture. It seems that he placed his right to the edge and mine is maybe an inch further forward towards the drive shaft tunnel.
Now I'm a little worried and kicking myself in the a$$ at the same time because I may be stuck grinding away all my spot welds to relocate the bracket.

I'm pretty sure I screwed myself here, but can anyone that has already done the swap verify that I have the bracket placed too far toward the front of the car?

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I thought that same thing and it is to far forward. You need to bring it back about an inch or so. Hook up your driveline and you'll be able to tell exactly where it goes.
 
I'm pretty sure I screwed myself here, but can anyone that has already done the swap verify that I have the bracket placed too far toward the front of the car?

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:dsm:
 
I went a little different route on my gas tank bolts. I used 3/8 nutserts in the holes the bolts would go in and then ran the bolts in from the bottom. No having to fish bolts in or cut anything.
 
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