LUVTruck.com

I am pretty new to this sight, and pretty new to owning Luvs.
I see a lot of people using troopers for swaps but I dont see much on Rodeos.
I have an oppertunity to pick up a crashed 1998 Rodeo cheap. I was thinking of putting the engine
transfercase and tranny in my 1980 4x4, will this work? Can I convert it to carb and use my own wiring harness?
Or should I use brain and harness from Rodeo?
sure could use some help guys, I go to pick up the Rodeo today.

I would try to swap wiring harness and everything that goes with it.

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72 luv v-8 owned since 16!
240" rear engine dragster
traded the circle track cars for a blown 496 chevy
[color=#FF8000]
29 dodge 4 dr sedan (project)
84 ranger 2wd "tuff truck" with 350 sbc

If im right your Rodeo was our Frontera. Both LWB and SWB were Frontera's and your SWB was the Amigo wasnt it??? Or the MU in japan.

They had a coil sprung rear end. And they are a bit newer than the Trooper. A bit more 'poofy' for the city folk i suppose. I say that because my mate had one. What a piece of shit, SWB and down here they put a 2L SOHC Opel motor in them, probably a GM family II motor, something like that. Wouldnt pull a sailor off your sister.

Theres quite a few imported MU's here mostly Turbo diesel.

No reason why you couldnt use one. The running gear works, if i rememeber right the front end is slightly different. The Frontera we had here was sort of a part generation in front of the Trooper/pickup platform. The original Frontera in say 93 had the dash etc that the pickup got in 98.


Our Rodeo was any Pickup after 81 when the body style changed. Right through till present day its still called the Rodeo. Hence why people get confused with my logon.


Bob.

_________________
Current project, 1979 KB Isuzu Ute.

Daily driver, '86 Rodeo Spacecab.
Chasing parts for Isuzu Impulse.

there are alot of similarities, but the rodeo here is an SUV (Sport Utility vehicle) Its like the trooper only rounder. this one has a 3.4 v6 with 4 speed auto. It does have the rear suspension you spoke of. However the front suspension is damaged beyond use

Hey rodeobob, I appreciate the imput. I hope to visit your country someday, who knows maybe it will happen...

there are alot of similarities, but the rodeo here is an SUV (Sport Utility vehicle) Its like the trooper only rounder. this one has a 3.4 v6 with 4 speed auto. It does have the rear suspension you spoke of. However the front suspension is damaged beyond use

Hey rodeobob, I appreciate the imput. I hope to visit your country someday, who knows maybe it will happen...

That was the other difference. If i remember right they are not on a seperate chassis like the luv trooper and pickup.


Im not sure how you would go with the V6 and the box logically should be larger so hopefully no tunnel clerance issues.

3.4L???? I thought they were 3.2L and 3.5L Thats the Isuzu V6's.

Have a good look at it and if the price is right i would say go for it.

Bob.

_________________
Current project, 1979 KB Isuzu Ute.

Daily driver, '86 Rodeo Spacecab.
Chasing parts for Isuzu Impulse.

Thanks for the imput again.
So far the price is FREE, the guy could not find the title. He gave me a bill of sale instead.
If he brings me the title within 2 weeks then the price is $200.00 US.
I have not looked it over to close yet, but I am sure you are right on the engine size. I know it is a V6 with 4 speed auto.
I am not really working on this truck yet, I just had the oppertunity to grab up this Rodeo, so I did.
Right now I am in the midst of a 4.3 conversion on one of my 1980 4x4's. I have two of them.
My 1.8 4x4 is my dailey driver while im working on this 4.3
The doner on that one is a 1992 GMC Jimmy. I will finish pulling that motor today.
Im going to switch it over to carborated and start the install.
If you have any help for me on that conversion id luv to hear it.

Why not be brave and go with the EFI???


We dont have many fancy american pickups down here. The ones we do have fetch silly prices.


Im looking for a 292 6cyl Chev for another project i have in the pipeline. I might as well look for rocking horse shit. lol.


Bob.

_________________
Current project, 1979 KB Isuzu Ute.

Daily driver, '86 Rodeo Spacecab.
Chasing parts for Isuzu Impulse.

Hey Rodeobob
All that wireing is way out of my leage. I wish I had the ability to do it myself, or the funds to pay someone else.
I did get the 4.3 engine pulled, degreased, and mounted on the stand today. Now I am trying to find an adapter plate
for the manifold so I can carburate it without replacing the manifold.
I ment to take my camera to the shop today and take pictures of this project as I go, but I forgot it.
I gotta spend tomorrow with the wife, so ill go down sunday and take some.
I tried to put a picture of the Rodeo up for you, but it said the file was to big or some shi....t
Gotta get back to looking for a plate, talk at ya later.

Use image shack for the pic if its too big.

http://www.imageshack.us/index.php

Hit browse, find the pic on your PC then hit the 'host it' button.

Left click the text in the forum tumbnail no1 box and that will highlight it then left click copy and paste it into the window for the post your making.


You say the wiring is beyond your ability. It is beyond anyones until they apply some aptitude. Your obvioulsy smart enough, your having a wifey day today. lol.
If i were you i would get my hands on the relavant (factory) GMC shop manual so you have a wirirng diagram and go nuts. Head down and bum up. Youve got nothing to loose, well i suppose you have, you could loose the EFI. lol.
You have the donor truck, all you need is a soldering iron some solder, some heat shrink and some electrical tape. Use a good brand with the tape, Nitto or 3M or similar, its worth the extra money. Theres plenty of extra wire and conduit etc left in the truck for you to reuse.

I have done a few Impulse loom modifications to have them run stand alone and if you poke along and double check stuff its not that hard. Maybe a little tedious but the result, especially in your case, will be worth it.

What year is the truck??? When you pulled the engine was the engine harness seperate??? Have a look and see, most EFI setups the ECU and the engine have their own harness and there will be only one or two plugs that interface it to the body wiring loom. They do this so that it is easy to put in the different sized motors when the car is made.
Maybe 10 wires maximum. constant (memory) power, Ignition power and postion, on/start. Maybe a speed signal. (Shared) oil and temperature. Signal for tachometer. Fuel pump, there might be one or two more but thats as hard as it gets.

All the charging and lighting you leave to the original Luv loom. I can give you a link that shows how to conver the Luv wiring to use an internnally regulated alternator.

Then all you have to do is get an inline EFI fuel pump and change all your rubber fuel lines to EFI grade.

I think you will find the reward worth the effort.

Plus it will be goor practise for doing the conversion with the Rodeo donor. Theres no hope of finding a carb manifold for that one.


Bob.

_________________
Current project, 1979 KB Isuzu Ute.

Daily driver, '86 Rodeo Spacecab.
Chasing parts for Isuzu Impulse.

Make your life easier and get the new manifold. It will perform better and look better as well. You should be able to recouple some of your money bt selling the TBI setup

You are an encouriging fella Bob.
I will look into the harness some more, and try not to be intimidated. Your right it will be good practice.
Thanks for the info on how to post the pics. I will try that again this evening.
Bob I have some toyota straight axels I want to install on this project as well, do you have any words of wisdom on that?
I could use them...

J-Man thanks for chimming in, I need all the help I can get.
I think your right on the manifold if I do go carburated, bobs about got me talked into tackling this wireing thing.
what do you know about installing straight axles?
Im gonna try and chase down some threads on it.

Ill talk at you fellas later...Thanks for the advice guys....

Theres a few threads in here about putting in a front axle. Have a look in the 4x4 section.


I will add on the EFI thing that the more comprehensive that the info youve got is the easier it will be. It might not appear so to start with due to the sheer volume of info, but if you do it one thing/part/wire at a time, it wont be so hard. Aftermarket manuals can sometimes not quite tell you enough. Factoy books usually cover every detail.

Make some photocopys of the wiring diagrams (GMC & Luv) that you are working from. Make notes etc on them as to what your doing or planning on doing. IE: what wire color is being connected to what wiring color.
I used to grab the Impulse book and read it in the 'little room'. Learn whats what and which pages of the books cover it.

Pay careful attention to where you need to place fuses and/or fuseable links. How your fuel pump realy is going to work in with the system.

Study the info before you ditch the donor truck. Make sure youve got all the bits your going to need. Nothing like having to go a parts yard and have to pay for the bits you didnt know you needed to remove after you have scrapped the body.
I get guys like that all the time chasing me for bits to use Impulse motors for conversions. I have 2 Impulses here at the moment that were pretty much donated to me less drive train, both have the EFi harness, Ignition/knock modules and the electronic wastegate controlers still fitted to the cars. One even has the main engine ECU knock ECU and wastegate ECU still in it. Wont pass emissions/rego as a conversion with out all that stuff. lol.


One extra thing i would get would be a spare wiring bit for the back of the luv ignition. Ive never had one appart so i cant say if it is detachable from the key barrel itself. It might be 4 or 5 wires. On most later cars it is and you have say 6 or 8 inches of wire then a plug into the wiring loom. Some sort of extra automotive plug like this with a few inches of wire tail on both the male and female side could be of value (can put up a pic if your not following what i mean). Splice it into the wires from the key barrel and the other side of the plug to power your EFI loom. That way it is neat and tidy and if need be you can just unplug the loom at a later date. Do the same with another auto plug for the other 'shared' wires. That way you can simply remove the EFI by unpluging the two plugs and revert the truck back to carby without any fear of live wires floating about. Make a note of what the plugs you used were from and you can easily attach a few wires and plug in EFi for tuneport V8 or some screaming turbo 4 banger or Rodeo V6 without having to touch the wiring loom on the Luv again.

The more pins the plug has could be benifical later. You dont need to use every one, spare pins might be handy.

I have an assortment of automotive wiring connectors and fuses etc here that i have kept from cars i have parted out and/or scrapped. Using these bits helps keep things nice and neat. Nice and neat is easy to understand, a Freightliner wirring loom is not, every effing wire is yellow, i shit you not, they are a nightmare. Pull another (or the rest of the) wirirng loom apart, extend wires with wire of the right colour.




He might only be a diesel mechanic but i will always keep this little bit of wisdom he passed onto me.

Bob.

_________________
Current project, 1979 KB Isuzu Ute.

Daily driver, '86 Rodeo Spacecab.
Chasing parts for Isuzu Impulse.

Thanks Bob
I will take many notes. and I do think I can make this work. I will also take many pictures.
If I run into a problem I cant handle, I will be in touch. I have a ways to go before I have to worry about the wiring. I plan to start tearing the truck down to the frame this weekend. Then I will sand blast it, treat and seal it, and then start installing the straight axles. When that is done, in goes the 4.3
It will take alittle time, but ill keep in touch.
Thanks for the encouragement, and the advice...
Later

Sorry, I can't help with the axle. I am a 2wd guy. If you are going 4wd with the 4.3 what tranny and transfer case will you use?

Hey J-man
Im not for sure what im going to use just yet. I am not sure what all will work - or bolt up. I do know of another Luv out there that is running a turbo 350 with 2500 stall converter and an NP208C transfer case. Ill do alittle research and see what all my options are when I get that far.
I have a 79 and an 80 two wheel drive also. What are you running in yours?
I have no plans for those yet, I mostly got them for parts.