Anyone know what all is required to turn a 4x2 into a 4x4. I bought a showroom perfect 88 wagon. Not a spot of rust, not even a door ding, but it's a 2wd. First 2wd I have owned. The 5 4wd's I owned before this were never this pretty.

Do you have a donor car? Just transfer everything over if you do. Might try a search also, its been a topic in the past.

you will need a carrier bearing mount , it hold the drive line , are you going to go from a a/t to manual ? if so pedal box , the exhaust will be different from a 2wd to a 4wd , i had a donor 4wd manual gl wagon and i put 4wd into a dl wagon , a few things i added was oil pressure gauge + a 4wd light , and found real nice blue gl-10 seats front and back ,

I converted my 88 GL from 2WD to 4WD. Lots of work but oh so worth it! I didnt have the luxury of a donor car sitting next to me but access to a junkyard instead.

 

Starting in the rear you should grab the entire rear main subframe as one assembly. Put jackstands under the main subframe tube so it is secured against the body. This way you can pull all the bolts from subframe to body and not worr yabout it falling on your head. They are tough buggers so have your breaker bar and cheater ready! Remove all bolts holding subframe to body but leave the 1 bolt on each side holding the shock/strut bottom to the outer control arm. Now you can carefully remove the jackstands and your rear main subframe assembly will be hanging by those 2 bolts on the struts. THis will make it easy for you to slowly remove those bolts and let each side drop while you are at a safe distance INstallation is reverse order !_! Only funny thing is your 2WD unibody wont have holes for the rear diff hanger. There are divits where they SHOULD be drilled out. So youll need to drill them out. I didnt even bother with a tap/die set; just used some tiaperd thread tip bolts, hammered them in a 1/4" and tapped self-taped the hole. Still holding strong!

 

Onto the transmission. Grab the whole 5speed dual range, driveshaft (from a wagon!) transmission crossmember, linkages and linkage brackets to the body. Also nab the interior plastic pieces around the 4WD shifters and such; they should all snap into place where your 2WD junk is. Minor triming with a dremel is needed but nothing drastic. I didnt even have to notch anything, just trim some edges a bit. Tranny swap is prolly the easiest part. ONce all the bolts are free the thing still wont fall out (dontforget the 3/16" roll punch and drive out the pins on the inner DOJs on the axles!). I usually have a rope/chain tied to the rear of the tranny aned someone pulling on it while I'm standing on the strut towers with a rope around the tranny and my shoulders. I bounce the trainny while the other dude pulls and she will fall right out. Use a tire or moving blanket for a softer landing I like the moving blanket cuzs then I can just pull on teh blanket to get it out from undrer the car.

 

OH forgot the driveshaft hehe. You wont have holes for your center carier bearing on the driveshaft. Me? I just welded the sucker in. Some people dont like that idea so there are other solutions. You can drill a 5/8" hole on each side upinto the unibody and use big washers and locking nuts with extended bolts. You can weld in some custom brackets and then bolt the bearing housing to the brackets. If you have a large budget you could get your 2 piece shaft made into a single piece shaft for about $300+

 

I'm sure I missed some details but this should get you started!

 

Good luck! And while you are in there; might as well install a BYB 3" lift from PK Davis !_!

Thank for all this info, looks like I need to start looking for a parts car. Maybee one all rotted out or blown motor of such. thanks