1st OEM 2wd -> 4wd convert

While rolling with a rear locker was great for the last 7 years, I decided to celebrate her 7th birthday (almost to the day) with finishing the 4wd install.

Used a rolled 2006 4wd as a donor.

OEM front end, transfer-case, wiring

Had to shorten and extend both drive shafts, shorten the output shaft, inchworm trans adapter, and modify the existing trans crossmember and had a new y-pipe made.

after a small hick-up this morning with the front diff engagement sticking(wiring), I took her down to the beach and ran some tests in 4hi and 4lo.

super smooth and functions 100% as if I bought her like that.


Pics to follow

 

Good job!

Did you add up a parts cost along the way?

Do you think it would have been cheaper to trade in your truck and buy a comparable truck with 4WD?

 

i'd ballpark it around $2500. It's an avg of $4k more for a 4wd vs 2wd from the dealer.

Like to give a shout-out to this this forum, and Rocksolidtoys for pioneering the FJ swap.

This project has been on going for a little over 3 years, glad its finally done.

 

the whole front end bolts up and requires swapping the wheel hubs out to install the CV axles.

this is the wiring. I just followed the FSM one by one, figured out where each one goes.



the 2wd harness and 4wd harness are different. the nice part was the 4wd wires plugged into the blank spots in the 2wd harness.



this is how it looks with all of the wiring installed. I had to add around 10 wires into the existing mess of wires on the ECU and relay junction panel.



I de-pinned the wires for the rear locker since I maintained the original 2wd locker wiring...saves me the hassle of doing the anytime-locker mod.



this is the custom trans support. I used the oem 4wd support and machined out the center of it and made a new mounting plate. welded it up and painted.



lights are included on all dash clusters, just needed to add the signal wires in the back.



the inchworm trans adapter.



had to measure and cut about this much off of the trans output shaft. It would have been easier to install a 4wd transmission.



the y-pipe now.

 

Great job on the conversion. I hope to do the same. I understandvwhy people say trade it in but another way to think about is, if i wete to sell my truck i would get about 23k for it. Then for me to buy a new one it would cost me about 33k after ttl. Or i could convert the truck that is paid off for about 3k and a little time. Hmm.

 

Glad more people are coming to the conversion side on these newer trucks. People say just to trade it but it is really not that hard to swap and not much cheaper. On top of that you get bragging rights.

 

Would really like to be able to do this in the future.

 

Would love to do a AT to MT on my DCLB!

 

going to give the conversion a try later on this year.