frame swap

[LittleRam50]

so i found a 4wd 88 mighty max parts truck (the entire thing is there) and was wondering if any one has done a chasis swap. Also could i put a 2.0 on the frame if the parts truck is a 2.6?

[Law Dog]

As long as it's a 4X4 your moving the parts over from everything should fit and transfer over, I just swapped a frame on my 88 D50 (tank) and the motor stuff never came into play! 2WD and 4WD are very different.

[LittleRam50]

I wasn't clear. I was gonna use the 2.6 (parts truck) and use my body. I was just curious to know if I were to do a rebuild to DOHC on my current engine (2.0) if I could drop it into the 2.6 frame. my current truck is 2wd

[Law Dog]

Frame should take any motor it came with that year just use the mounts for that motor!

[Law Dog]

You will run into issues with putting in a different tranny as the "humps" are different shapes and I think the shaft bearing mount is not the same from one to another.

[LittleRam50]

Or I could rebuild the 2.6... but I haven't read anything on it for a DOHC

[LittleRam50]

the hump? are you referring to the bellhousing? aren't they removable?

[camoit]

You may want to ask powerram348 and moparJA as they have 4x4

[Law Dog]

If your swapping a motor with a different tranny (an auto and manual tranny) the driveshaft humps are shaped way different.

[LittleRam50]

both trucks are manual. sorry for not mentioning that part.

[Law Dog]

If you wonder what will fit on some items go to car-parts.com like your looking for a part and it will give you fit options that can be helpful that you may not think of. When I did the frame swap all was good until I dropped a new cab on that was from a auto tranny over my stick tranny and had to modify the "hump" so the cab was not rubbing on the trans.

[LittleRam50]

thanks for the info! I'll look into it!

[Andy 2]

I don't think the bell housing is removable on these tranny's. You could probably use both the 2.0 engine and tranny. If it's long enough and will match up to the transfer case you could have 4 wheel drive. If not, you might have to use your 2wd drive short drive shaft and eliminate the 4wd. The hanger bearings on both my trucks are roughly the same distance from the rear end (as near as I can tell with my tape measure). 2wd and 4wd bearings are slightly different but I believe the bore is the same. If you end up converting it to 2wd you might want to swap the rear end also as the 4wd is geared low.

[camoit]

You need to measure the trany bell housing and see if the 2.0 is a wide block or narrow. You must start there. There are 2.0 wide and narrow block. You must know what you have first. http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin/showwiki.php?title=Engine:Engine+type+and+markings

[LittleRam50]

the parts truck is an 88 4wd so I believe its a wide and mine a 2wd 87 is narrow.. I believe. ill measure when I get the truck Saturday hopefully. :)