awd conversion, What all do you need? Options

[ROBWOZ1018]

I tried doing a search for awd conversion but got no results...so...For those of you that will know...What is needed to do a 4wd conversion to the sixth gen...Please be detailed...Thanks Rob

[Chrobis]

so guys... its really not as hard as everyone in the past has been talking about, no monster garage fabrication, no welding on the back half of a st205, well sort of.

I was talking to EL prototypes about this. You would need... most of the parts from the rear half of a gt4. You would basicly have to crawl under the car (well have a lift most likely) and drill out all the spot welds of the under body panels, on both the rear of the gt4 and your car. Pop the panels off, weld the gt4 panels in, and start bolting everything in place. That is of course the "correct" way. Is this something you could do in your garage at home, probably not. Will it be cheap for a shop to do, probably not. Is it safely possible, yes.

Some of the parts I can think of are....

Rear underbody panels
Rear differential
st205 gas tank
st205 axcels (did I spell that wrong?)
st205 rear hubs (im guessing)
AWD transmision (st185 or st205, same tranny)
st205 drive shaft
and a bunch of other stuff.

also, worry about your swap first. Its enough of a headache without walking where few have gone before.

Just buy an MR2 Transmision and be happy with it unless you really want to go all out, and spend many times over the price of the car...


Also, the 204 front half of the chasis is pretty similar to the 205, but you have a 200 so im not sure if there is as much "predrilled" holes as in the 204.

This post has been edited by Chrobis: Jan 25, 2005 - 2:40 PM

[Kwanza26]

so guys... its really not as hard as everyone in the past has been talking about, no monster garage fabrication, no welding on the back half of a st205, well sort of.

I was talking to EL prototypes about this. You would need... most of the parts from the rear half of a gt4. You would basicly have to crawl under the car (well have a lift most likely) and drill out all the spot welds of the under body panels, on both the rear of the gt4 and your car. Pop the panels off, weld the gt4 panels in, and start bolting everything in place. That is of course the "correct" way. Is this something you could do in your garage at home, probably not. Will it be cheap for a shop to do, probably not. Is it safely possible, yes.

Some of the parts I can think of are....

Rear underbody panels
Rear differential
st205 gas tank
st205 axcels (did I spell that wrong?)
st205 rear hubs (im guessing)
AWD transmision (st185 or st205, same tranny)
st205 drive shaft
and a bunch of other stuff.

also, worry about your swap first. Its enough of a headache without walking where few have gone before.
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The thing is... you're talking about having someone else do it for you. There's nothing hard about that. If we're gonna be talking actually doing this conversion yourself... it requires a bit of work and honestly speaking, when combined with the engine swap, it is quite hard. Sh!t... basically if you don't have a car lift... it's about 2 to 3 times harder just like that. Also, shops won't do this for cheap like you say. I work in that business, so I can say for sure, I myself won't do this conversion for cheap. That's saying something cause I'm actually a Celica guy who loves these cars and tunes them. Why would some other shop do a mysterious conversion for cheaper than an enthusiast shop? No logic to that really. Also... you don't "HAVE TO" use the ST205 rear-end, which is far more difficult to find. You can just as easily use the ST185 or even the ST165. The rear-ends are almost identical, and the differences are quite minor. You will be required to WELD. Not just weld... but weld sheet metal. That's a trick itself. It's not as simple as drilling out and re-spot welding the trunk pans. Once it's been disassembled... you cannot re-assemble it and re-spot weld it back to factory strength. Gotta weld it all and reinforce.

Punch: If you dad's in the auto body business, then he can definately be of some help... but this swap isn't so much auto body as it is suspension/drivetrain. It's not a matter of getting things working, it's a matter of simply doing it. As far as I'm concerned, if a person is uninformed enough to ask general questions regarding basic parts and basic suspension/drivetrain set-ups, they are already out of their league. This is an undocumented conversion and there is no information aside from opinion and speculation. You gotta do the measurements, you gotta look at the set-ups, you gotta do everything yourself. I myself have gone over this conversion more than I can count, with ST185s and ST165s side by side with my Celica comparing the differences and examining the possibilities. Again, it's not a matter of can or can't do... it's just you do it, or you don't.