LUVTruck.com

a have a 79 luv and i was wonderning if any body could help me make it 4x4 plese help i looked everywhere.

for a strait axle swap your going to be doing a lot of research in advance, pretty much the axles to use would be a D44 out of a '70's Wagoneer or a strait front axle out of a Toyota.

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'80 Luv 4x4, 3" BL, 1.5" SL, 32/36, 2.25" exhaust...and fuzzy dice.
'95 Toyota 4Runner Limited 5-Speed.

If you are seriously going to go straught axel there is alot of work involved. I was/am going to do my LUV if I ever could have gotten the time. I have a Dana 44 front and 12 bolt rear out of a 73 Blazer, ARB airlockers with pump, 410 gears, rebuilt 2 years ago by 4 wheel supply in Pheonix AZ. I also have a NP 205 that was rebuilt 2 years ago. I have a 305 that needs to be rebuilt, and a TH350 that is freshly rebuilt with RedLine clutches and kevlar band, low stall torgue converter. I was going to pick up a PSC hydrolic assist steering setup to make turning easy. A Klune-V underdrive was on the wishlist for getting a low crawl ratio. This stuff would make a killer truck. I am considering selling all of my stuff.
Have fun,

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79 4x4 LUV

if i were to do it, i'd use toyota running gear front and rear. they're about the same width as a luv axle, ring and pinion is actually a bit stronger than a dana 44 in offroad use(despite the fact that the d44 has a slightly larger ring gear) and they have a nice dropout third member like a 9". oh, and the 1.3" 30 spline axles are nothing to turn your nose up at

i'd use a chev 3.1 or 3.4 v6(small and cheap, plenty of go juice for an oversized go kart like a luv) or hey, even a toyota 22R or 20R if you're a 4 banger guy. then mate a toyota tranny up to it(you can bolt one behind a 60* v6 like the 3.1 with a dodge dakota 2.5l bellhousing from a '96-99 truck, has the 60* chevy block pattern and toyota R151F/NV3550 tranny pattern). however toy axles have the same drop as the luv t-case so you could still use the luv drivetrain if you wanted. however the toy transfer cases can be doubled up with a $300 adapter and there's also 4.7:1 low gears available!

i've heard the luv's front end is too short to run leaf springs without extending the frame or building a bumper. to make it look good(and work great as well) i think the very best solution would be to build a link suspension consisting of a lower link on each side of the axle running along the frame, and one upper link on top of the axle pumpkin, a panhard bar running parallel to the top of the axle and drag link for stability, and using coilover shocks to save space. something like this(this setup is on a flatfender jeep):

Or if you wanted to stay true to the Isuzu way you could grab a MUA5 tranny out of a '89-91 Trooper that came with the v6 (chevy 60*) and drop that in and then add Tera Low 4.1 gears to the t-case. axle wise i would swap in a isuzu 12 bolt with 5.38 gears in the rear and then at the same time do a spring over conversion. i would then put in a 'Yota front with the same gears, and then have it all nice a sprung by 'Yota leafs up front. as far as the engine goes any 60* Chevy V6 would work and that also includes the later isuzu 3.2 and 3.5 V6's

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'80 Luv 4x4, 3" BL, 1.5" SL, 32/36, 2.25" exhaust...and fuzzy dice.
'95 Toyota 4Runner Limited 5-Speed.

nah the 3.2 and 3.5s are overhead cam engines if im not mistaken.

i'd rather still do the toy rear end, since gears are a helluva lot cheaper, as well as the toyota transfer case gears($400 for a set i think). who cares as long as it still looks like a luv?

the toyotas have an 8" ring gear where as the dana 44 has either a 8" ring gear pre 80 or a 8.5" ring gear post 80. The benefit of the Toy axels is that they are third member axles. So when alot of stress is applied to the pinion it wont climb up the ring gear and strip teeth. Thats wht the ford 9" is such a great axel. I also would go for the Toyota stuff, honestly its stronger than Isuzu stuff. As far as motor, i would probly still run a 22re, LC Engineering sells HOT 22rs and REs

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

yes the 3.2(the first ones were SOHC) and 3.5(DOHC) are overhead cam engines but they still have the same bolt pattern as the Chevy 60* V6 motors, in fact the Northstar V8's and the Aurora V8 have the same bolt pattern. i wouls go with a 'Yota front but for the rear i would still like to swap in a Isuzu 12 bolt as opposed to a 'Yota rear, main reason being the factory disk brakes, that and I like Isuzu.

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'80 Luv 4x4, 3" BL, 1.5" SL, 32/36, 2.25" exhaust...and fuzzy dice.
'95 Toyota 4Runner Limited 5-Speed.

all d44s have an 8.5" ring gear, but the strength between that and a toyota R&P is pretty minimal. LC is a good place for toy engine parts, but building a nice little 22R mill isn't hard at all and can be done cheaper than any run of the mill chevy 350(beat $215 for a master kit with pistons, rings, bearings etc).

as far as the third member thing, that only means that the section with the gears drops out of the axle housing as opposed to a dana style axle. however toyotas and the 9" are similar in the fact that they have an adjustable carrier bearing preload and backlash, but the 9" has a 3rd bearing on the end of the pinion gear. the reason the 9" is so popular is that it's cheap, axles are everywhere, and the pinion gear is HUGE!

there's a high pinion 3rd member available for toyota axles(its actually the factory 3rd from a front axle of a 90s land cruiser) which is good for strength in the front end(gears run on the "drive" side while going forward) and ground clearance

i wasn't aware the isuzu 12 bolt had disk brakes, but that's cool. i think i'd rather hunt for one of their d44s from an amigo though, as i've seen the price of gearsets for isuzu axles toy rear ends can be converted to disks though...

eyah that is one downside to the Isuzu axles, gear sets will cost you an arm and a leg! I hadn't though about the D44 in the later amigo and Rodeo. They would be the right size and I think the ones on the amigos are leaf sprung too , and i'm pretty sure they have disk rears too, but don't quot me on that I may be wrong. The appeal of a 'Yota engine is great, they're easy to build and cheap to come by.

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'80 Luv 4x4, 3" BL, 1.5" SL, 32/36, 2.25" exhaust...and fuzzy dice.
'95 Toyota 4Runner Limited 5-Speed.