[Jeff1400]

Hi ya'll

Bit of an introduction first.
My son David and myself have embarked on a project. It'll be his when when were done.
Picked up a 91 vitara soft top auto nice and cheap. Not with out problems as would be expected.
Head was off, has been for a few years.
Gearbox (auto) was out due to a problem in it.
Bell housing missing.
No exhaust manifold and other little things.

We did some homework and can see it will take a bit but will come out the other end with a mechanically sound nice little car.
Going to go the manual swap.
A few reasons. I prefer manuals, I want him to learn how to drive manuals. I don't like autos, never have and probably never will. Old school I guess.

First job when we got home was give her a wash to see what we had, pulled all the parts out of the back and put em in the shed.
Then we whipped the engine out, put it on the stand strip it.
Found a little crack in the block, explains why the head was off. Old owner thought a head gasket had gone as it had been leaking coolant into the oil. And sucking oil back into water I guess.
In the head water galleries there was plenty of dried up crap like someone has tried to stop a leak with an additive. All it did was block a few holes.
Bit of a ring around and we will be metal stitching the crack. It's not structural so just to seal and stabilise it.
I have seen this done before, but this time I will be doing it.

Well we are well under way with the gearbox swap.
Picked up a manual box, transfer, peddle box and flywheel.
Input shaft was worn where spigot bearing runs, so that's now out and I will sleeve it at work. (Fitter machinist in maintenance)
Putting the peddle box in now. I know of the clutch switch. Is it just for starting?? Like an auto needs to be in park? Can't see any other reason. But as the wiring harness doesn't have the plug I'll modify the one from the gearbox.

Well that's it for now.

I'll update this thread with a few pics as we go.
3 pedals.

[Jeff1400]

Little crack. Wasn't leaking much outside. But you can see where it was leaking into the oil from inside the engine.

[Scrawny]

I did the same gearbox swap last year and couldn't find any reason for the clutch pedal switch. I didn't bother doing anything with it and never had an issue.

Good luck with the pedal box swap too

[weelz]

The clutch switch could be handy if you ever fit cruise control.
Regards,
Weelz.

[Jeff1400]

I will try to wire it in. But not too hard. Also there is a small clear hose coming through the firewall and up behind the speedo cluster. Any one know what that is for??

[Jeff1400]

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The peddle box was a bit of a head scratch. But once I got the dash off I was quite surprised at how easy it is.
First dash I have ever pulled out and now not very scary at all. In fact when we put the alarm immobiliser in, the dash will be out so all the wires and modules can be well sorted, neat and tidy. It will be the at that same time the stereo will be sorted. Very happy about that.

The Gearbox we picked up had wear on the input shaft where the spigot bearing runs, so out it came and I repaired that at work. That went back in tonight. Box looks nice inside. Tough looking box.

[Jeff1400]

A bit of an update on this rebuild.
Pulled the rear brakes. And the drums were well worn. Massive ridge that pulled the shoes out and broke the retainers. No biggie. Just need drums, shoes ,seal kits and some hardware.
Brought a kit from locknstitch to fix the crack in the block. Very happy with the result.

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This is the basic kit. Drill, tap, spot facer, cutting fluid, sealant and aluminium locknstitch screws.
The screws are cheap. The drill is cheap but the rest is pricey. But I have them now. And it's tax deductible.

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First hole. Spot faced ready to tap. The smaller holes were exploration holes to work out the length of screws needed.

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This is the first screw installed. The head snaps off when the correct torque is reached.

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And fast forward to the end. Hit the excess with the die grinder and a burr and peen over the last bit to help seal up the head. The sealant is special in that it is a heat transfer type. Unlike loctite. And goes off very quick.

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The locknstitch website has all sorts of claims. Hope they are correct. But I'm happy with how it all went.
The threads are unlike any thread I have seen. More like hacksaw teeth in profile, so as they claim it pulls the metal together and under the head it has a sharp edge to dig into the spot face counterbore. Add the sealant in there and I am confident it will work.

Refitted the crank , pistons, oil pump and rear main. Waiting for a few more parts to come in before the next round of work.

Jeff.

[Jeff1400]

Well now it's rear brake time. And as usual a spanner has been thrown in the works with this too.
Brake shoes turned up. And they are different.
Check the web site, check the different models and the diagrams for the different vitara models and none match ????

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Ugly rusted ones came out. Clean ones in plastic are the new ones that are different. Are my original ones what you guys are used to seeing??

[Jeff1400]

They look good until you get to the bottom spring hole

[jason_sgt]

They look about right for a Vit that's had a rough life of sitting idol in a shed. Good little banga for a first car. Is this going to be an off road rig?

And Welcome to AZ!

Cheers

[Jeff1400]

First off it's just going to be stock--ish. And if he want to lift it or bigger tyres it's up to him.
Found the correct shoes for it. N1683. They gave me N1691. So another few days waiting.
But still waiting for the head cleanup and the extractors and pipe.

[Jeff1400]

Fitted the new shoes to the rear today. New seal kits in the slaves. Just waiting for the drums. Super cheap might be cheap, but Christ they are slow, been waiting for a clutch and drums for over 3 weeks now. Not happy.
Cleaning up the transfer, must of had a leak in this one(from the wreckers) so I'm splitting the cases and redoing the gasket sealant.
That brings me to my next question. The auto runs different diff ratio to the manual. Ratios have been mentioned on another thread but I'm not phased about that just yet. But I am wanting to keep the speedo reading close to correct.
So, seeing as I have a manual and the auto transfer cases, I want to run the manual one, would the speedo drive in the manual one be different to the auto one?? Was thinking about pulling the auto one out to check, and if so I will switch them out. Then diff ratio and speedo ratio would be the same?? So speedo should be ok yeah??

[Jeff1400]

Ok. Sorted.
Moved the speedo drives from the original autos transfer case to the new manual one. So now the original auto diffs and the manual will still read the correct speed.

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The blue is from the auto, white the manual. If I had left it the speedo would have read way to fast for the actual speed.

[Jeff1400]

Well a lot has gone on since my last write up.

She's running nicely. New tyres tomorrow then inspection and hopefully rego before the weekend.
This cheap project has been anything but.

So far it's got.

New valve stem seals. Head skim. All new gaskets and seals.
New water pump and timing belt.
New engine mounts. New clutch with a second hand flywheel, manual gearbox and transfer case.
Manual centre console with new stick rubbers. Modified gear stick hole to suit the manual. Second hand pedal box, clutch pedal and cable. Clutch cable bracket at rear of engine. And wiring mods to suit the manual from the auto that it once was.
New rear drums, shoes and slave cylinders.
New extractors, hi flo cat, 2" muffler and pipe welded up by me.
New stereo, speakers and immobiliser. New glove box.
New coil, leads, dizzy cap and rotor button. New plugs.
Repaired the roof frame, replaced the plastic clips and saved the soft top. But it might get swapped soon.
I stripped the carbie and cleaned out all the jets and ports. They were all blocked after sitting for so long.
The suction line from the fuel tank was blocked. I pulled the fuel tank and cleaned the crud out of there.

All new fluids and filters.

It's starts and runs well. Sounds great with the pipe and sports muffler. Not loud. But nice.

I have learnt a lot from this build. Mostly that a cheap build is not always cheap. But fun.

Will post up pics when she's all ready. And then some trips with its big brother. A 120 3.0L turbo diesel prado.

[Jeff1400]

Well it didn't pass inspection.

Cv joint boot torn.
So now just waiting on some new boots.
Cv's / shafts came out nice. So when the boots turn up that should be it. Clean up, grease and install.

Hopefully this week end all will be good.

Jeff.

[DarkHorse]

Wow, if a CV boot is all they were worried about you've done pretty well! That's a walk in the park compared to what you've already done.

Pics are missing...

[4x4ewok]

Just done the same conversion on mine and I'm wondering how you went about changing the speedo drives over? Was it a big job? And did it make much difference ? I was going to change the diff's over but have since discovered that the ones that were in the back of donor are the wrong diff's.

[Scrawny]

I never bothered to change speedo drives. Mine wasn't that far out so I didn't bother.

[Jeff1400]

Sorry, no pics. Although I did think about it. Does that count?

I can't tell you how far out the speedo was as I didn't even try it first. I just went on the assumption that the manual and auto dif ratios are different, the speedo would be out with the manual transfer linked up to the auto diffs.
I have only driven it to the inspection station and back so far and didn't take a gps. I'm taking it tomorrow now I have all the work done, I'll take the tomtom and see if it's out now or not. 205/70/15 Bridgestone deuler A/T D697.

As for changing the speedo drives, the transfer case has to be split. Not sure how easy that would be in the car.
Remove rear tail shaft, drain oil, maybe remove cross member, either lift out transfer gear lever or drop the box enough to remove the back of the transfer case, remove snap ring and slide the plastic gear off and swap. It would be awkward in the car. Much easier on the bench.
The gears are a matched set so the other part would need to be swapped too. But that's the easy part.

[atari4x4]

interesting post about the speedo drives, was having thoughts of swapping the one out of my manual SV into the auto SV but if i have to split the case i won't bother for now.

thanks for posting.

[4x4ewok]

Thanks for the info, sounds like that one is going into the too hard basket.

Now I am going to have to go looking for what could be causing my speedo to be so far out (it reading 20Km/H slower than what I am actually doing, with 235/75r15 tyres.) from what I have read it shouldn't be that far out and reading faster if anything.

[jdk81]

manual should have 5.12 diff gears, you have 4.625 diff gears.
The speed pick up is on the manual box on the transfer?

You have 235/75R15 = 28.9" tyres (approx 10% tyre change)
Using 4.625 diffs instead of 5.12 diffs (10% diff gear change)

So that explains why it is reading 20% slower, than you are actually doing.