LUVTruck.com

My father-in-law has this 85 nissan 4X4 that he's tryin' to get running right. If he can't get it runnin' right he's trashin' it. It's got IFS but it's got a good 4 inches more ground clearance and 15" wheels that I've been lookin' for awhile now.

So my question's are:

Is it going to be possible for me to put his frame under my truck

Not likely, but will his tranny bolt to my 1.9 G200

Know how much the motor mounts are gonne need modifying

Thanks a lot for any info. I'm gonna go look at the truck myself in a while, but you guy's probably know more than I could learn lookin' at it.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

Nissan's and Toyota's and LUV's all seem to look damn near identical underneath. From my expeirince anyways. So I wouldn't be surprised if it bolted right on, but I doubt it will though. But it will be very closeand should be a fairly easy swap. If not you can just build some body mounts onto the frame and your good to go. As for the tranny, probably not. And as for the motor mounts, probably not. But ya never know. Im sure somebody here will though...

I went over and looked at it and I think it's gonna be too long, cause it's a king cab long bed. But, the frame also ends about 9 inches from the end of the bed and has extension things that the bumper is hooked to so maybe. It just seems to have a longer wheel base too. So I'm not too sure now that I look at it.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

you can always shorten the frame too

if you wanted to go nuts, you could always chop the front part of the frames off your trucks and graft on the nissan front to your luv. it'd give you some better suspension options(albeit not many), but i think it's more work than it's worth. the nissan cases are pretty good, the 720 trucks had divorced ones

Susension options aitn much better for the 85 nissans than loves. I think I measured my nissan wheel abse to about 114 inches. I may be wrogn though..... check nissan4wheelers.com for the correct measerment. Nissan/luv/yota/mazda/ all look pretty close. and I think a reg cab yota si a dirrect boltup to a luv. I know a guy who had a luv body on an early yota frame... looked almost stock. The nissan cases are strong and divorced as already said, which allows for almost any engine. If you do it, id use yer engine,tranny and existing case, and hook it right up to the nissan case, that allows dual cases, leave the frotn on in 2wheel, and use the back to lock in 4... if you need moee power offroad lock the other one in. You could alwasy chop the frame under the cab and shorten it to fit... and have a driveshaft made.

I was going to drop a luv enigne in a nissan, and i measured it out that the tranny and tacse fo the luc, was a slong as the tranny in the nissan, so the engien would sit in stock location.

a nice thing toyota stuff has is that it's much cheaper than nissan parts and there's more variety in the aftermarket. a set of 4:1 transfer case gears for a nissan case run 1000$ some places...the very best ones for a toyota(marlin crawler) run cost around 400 bucks, and you can get some of the cheaper ones from advance adaptor for a little more than half that. not to mention you can double up toyota cases with an adaptor for farily cheap, gives you a 5.16:1 reduction if you use stock cases, if you use a 4.7:1 set in the rear case it's even bigger

a toyota frame under a luv body would be cool, but i've always loved the way the earlier toyotas('79-83) looked so i don't think i could do that to one unless it was rolled

I've been shopping for a yota frame since I heard that they bolt up, but the Nissan might just kinda fall in my lap. I'm wondering what the easiest way to make it work would be if, worst case scenario, the mounts don't line up, the frame is too long, and the drivelines are the wrong length, body mounts don't line up. Yikes. Also, $'s matter alot to me, as I'm supporting my family and wheelin' habbit off $8.32 an hour...

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

If the wheel base is to long, measure both wheel bases and cut the frame in a flat striahg tspot, and weld it back together, then have a drivesahft made ( that should be much), body mounts should be fairly close, if not you could always cut the moutns from the frame and move them to where they need to be, a plasma cutter helps, but a torch will do the job.

I did all of this with my vette.... let me know if you need any tips

Double yota cases, is ahrd than nissan cases.... this year nissan has a divorced case, with a driveshaft tween tranyn and tacase, to double em, u just stick the one that smounted tot he tranny in front, and runa drive shaft to the stock nissna one. and tis doubled. I think the luv engine,tranyna nd tcase botled to the nissan tacse would be swet....

My buddy has a ford fiesta, on samurai frame, running dual cases, froma samurai 9 same case I use) and that things crawl ratio is amazing.

You're giving me good news, I love it, but I'm always leery about good news. How much does it cost to have a driveshaft made Anyway, I'm not doing alot of climbing on anything, mostly mudding, nothing that I believe would require that kind of ratio, so I think I won't worry about that. But other than that, that sounds awesome. Theoretically, if I have to shorten the frame, could I shorten it a bit more and maybe shorten my bed to and make a short bed out of my luv Just curious.

How good would the t-case work for me in the long run as far as putting in a v6 and either a 5 spd tranny or an automatic, (not decided one way or the other yet)

Thanks for the info chevette. Your cartruck is awesome by the way!

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

if you already have a driveshaft most places will lenghten or narrow it for under $100 usually

i think the nissan cases are pretty stout but the 720 has a wierd center drop. should hold up to a v6 fine though. not sure about the tranny, don't know much about those

and you could definitely shorten your bed. in the offroad world it's called "bobbing" it. most guys do it to get more departure angle so they don't drag their bed when climbing a steep incline, but you could do it just for looks if you want. essentially, you cut a section of your bed out and weld the remaining part back together

I agree... case will hold up to a v6 fine. with manual or auto tranny doesnt matter. I know the nissan trannies are weak, you wont to trash that if you do a swap. Adn youlll of course have to modify the oil pan no matter what engien you use, becuase of the centered dif.

Also, liek said you cna shorten it all down. there are ranger sin my club runnin a 2foot long bed.

Thanks alot, now all's I have to do is wait and see if he's gonna fix it or not...I'm gonna be all anxious until I know. I'll tell you as soon as I know though, thanks.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/