skyhiranger
Well-known member
I recently converted a 96 4 door sidekick with a 5 speed from 2wd to 4wd. The 4x4 donor parts came from a 94 and a 90 2 door trackick and a 96 4 door trackick.
The following info applies to 89-98 trackicks. It may be the same for 99+ trackicks, but I am not that familiar with them, so I can't say for sure.
Parts needed:
4wd manual tranny (94) and tcase (90) with shifter and shifter boot with floor plate. These can be from a 2 door or 4 door or a mix and match of each.
Tranny and tcase shifter console (94). You could also cut the 2wd shifter console for the tcase shifter hole....the 2wds have a little pocket, where the shifter hole is located.
Wiring pigtail from the tcase and tranny to the engine harness (94), for the 4x4 indicator light and the reverse switch connections. The pigtail from the 94 (8V engine) plugged right into the 96 (16V engine).
4wd crossmember (94). Any year 2 or 4 door will work. 4 speed auto crossmembers may be different, or the bracket between the tcase and the crossmember may be different, since the 4 speed is longer than the 3 speed and the 5 speed.
Rear driveshaft (96) from a 4x4 trackick with the same body type (2 door or 4 door) and tranny length (3 speed auto trannys are the same length as all 5 speed trannys......4 speed auto trannys are longer) with the proper slip yoke spline count that matches the tcase you are using (89-95 tcases have a 26 spline rear output shaft, 96 and up have a 16 spline rear output shaft).
Front driveshaft (90). A 4wd trackick with either a 3 speed auto (2 doors) or a 5 speed manual (2 doors or 4 doors) tranny all use the same length front driveshaft.
Speedometer cable (96). The speedo cable on a 2wd goes into the tranny, on a 4wd it goes into the tcase....so the 2wd cable is too short.
Complete front axle assembly with axle shafts and hangers (94). Make sure the gear ratio is the same as the existing rear axle gear ratio.
Complete front knuckles (94). I unbolted the knuckles from the struts and the balljoints from the a-arms and swapped the complete knuckle assemblies over.
Other notes:
The 2wd instrument cluster already had the 4x4 light bulb in it, so I didn't have to add it.
My knuckles came from a 2 door, so the cut outs for the calipers in the backing plates needed to have about 1/4" trimmed off the lower edge, so the calipers would clear (2 doors and 4 doors use different rotors and calipers.....but they will interchange on the others knuckle assembly).
The tcase shifter hole in the 4 door tranny tunnel is longer than the one in the 2 door. The 4 door tcase shifter boot and cover plate are a little longer too and are secured to the floor with 8 bolts vs. the 6 bolts on a 2 door trackick. I assume this is because the 4 doors could have either the 5 speed manual or the 4 speed auto tranny, and since the transmissions are different lengths, the tcase shifter will not come up through the hole in exactly the same place. After doing some more research, it appears like the longer tcase shifter hole was a 95 year model change. Since the 95 2 door I have has the longer hole, and a 4 speed auto was never available in a 2 door trackick. The longer/later hole uses 8 screws to secure the cover plate (2wd) or trim ring (4wd) to the floor, vs. the 6 screws used on the shorter/early hole. The newer hole is about 3/4" longer, but the earlier floor boot and trim ring can still be used. Just position the floor boot and trim ring so it lines up with the forward most holes, then drill 4 new holes to secure the rest of it to the floor. To cover up and seal the gap at the back of the hole you can just use some duct tape or a thin piece of rubber.
The later trackicks (96? and up) already have both front axle housing bracket mounts on the frame. The earlier trackicks only have the passenger side one and the other one has to be added.
If you are using an earlier tranny that does not have the engine to tranny supports on it (or vice versa), you should be able to swap the bellhousing off the 2wd tranny over to the 4wd tranny. My 4wd tranny had the engine to tranny supports on it, as did the 2wd, so I didn't have to swap bellhousings.
All trackick driveshafts use the same ujoints. So if you need to mix and match driveshafts (2wd, 4wd, 2 door, 4 door, front, rear) to make one that is the proper length and with the proper spline count on the slip yoke, you can.
All front driveshaft slip yokes are the same spline count (26).
The 2wd and 4wd, and 2 door and 4 door manual trannys all use the same shifter.
The rear driveshaft came from a 4wd 96 4 door. Which made it the correct length, but the slip yoke spline count (16) was wrong to fit the 90 tcase output shaft (26). To fix this, I simply used the slip yoke off a front driveshaft I had around here (all front driveshafts have 26 spline slip yokes). Since the ujoints are all the same, it was just matter of swapping the yokes.
The swap was just a matter of unbolting parts and bolting on new parts. It took me about 3 days working 6-8 hours or so each day. That included pulling all the 4wd parts off the donor vehicles, removing all the 2wd stuff, bolting on all the 4wd parts and bolting the 2wd knuckles on the 94 donor vehicle, so it would still be a "roller". I also did some other little things too......fixed the pilot bearing in the flywheel, cleaned all the 4wd parts before bolting them on, etc.
I don't have any pics, but everything should be pretty much self-explanatory.
The following info applies to 89-98 trackicks. It may be the same for 99+ trackicks, but I am not that familiar with them, so I can't say for sure.
Parts needed:
4wd manual tranny (94) and tcase (90) with shifter and shifter boot with floor plate. These can be from a 2 door or 4 door or a mix and match of each.
Tranny and tcase shifter console (94). You could also cut the 2wd shifter console for the tcase shifter hole....the 2wds have a little pocket, where the shifter hole is located.
Wiring pigtail from the tcase and tranny to the engine harness (94), for the 4x4 indicator light and the reverse switch connections. The pigtail from the 94 (8V engine) plugged right into the 96 (16V engine).
4wd crossmember (94). Any year 2 or 4 door will work. 4 speed auto crossmembers may be different, or the bracket between the tcase and the crossmember may be different, since the 4 speed is longer than the 3 speed and the 5 speed.
Rear driveshaft (96) from a 4x4 trackick with the same body type (2 door or 4 door) and tranny length (3 speed auto trannys are the same length as all 5 speed trannys......4 speed auto trannys are longer) with the proper slip yoke spline count that matches the tcase you are using (89-95 tcases have a 26 spline rear output shaft, 96 and up have a 16 spline rear output shaft).
Front driveshaft (90). A 4wd trackick with either a 3 speed auto (2 doors) or a 5 speed manual (2 doors or 4 doors) tranny all use the same length front driveshaft.
Speedometer cable (96). The speedo cable on a 2wd goes into the tranny, on a 4wd it goes into the tcase....so the 2wd cable is too short.
Complete front axle assembly with axle shafts and hangers (94). Make sure the gear ratio is the same as the existing rear axle gear ratio.
Complete front knuckles (94). I unbolted the knuckles from the struts and the balljoints from the a-arms and swapped the complete knuckle assemblies over.
Other notes:
The 2wd instrument cluster already had the 4x4 light bulb in it, so I didn't have to add it.
My knuckles came from a 2 door, so the cut outs for the calipers in the backing plates needed to have about 1/4" trimmed off the lower edge, so the calipers would clear (2 doors and 4 doors use different rotors and calipers.....but they will interchange on the others knuckle assembly).
The later trackicks (96? and up) already have both front axle housing bracket mounts on the frame. The earlier trackicks only have the passenger side one and the other one has to be added.
If you are using an earlier tranny that does not have the engine to tranny supports on it (or vice versa), you should be able to swap the bellhousing off the 2wd tranny over to the 4wd tranny. My 4wd tranny had the engine to tranny supports on it, as did the 2wd, so I didn't have to swap bellhousings.
All trackick driveshafts use the same ujoints. So if you need to mix and match driveshafts (2wd, 4wd, 2 door, 4 door, front, rear) to make one that is the proper length and with the proper spline count on the slip yoke, you can.
All front driveshaft slip yokes are the same spline count (26).
The 2wd and 4wd, and 2 door and 4 door manual trannys all use the same shifter.
The rear driveshaft came from a 4wd 96 4 door. Which made it the correct length, but the slip yoke spline count (16) was wrong to fit the 90 tcase output shaft (26). To fix this, I simply used the slip yoke off a front driveshaft I had around here (all front driveshafts have 26 spline slip yokes). Since the ujoints are all the same, it was just matter of swapping the yokes.
The swap was just a matter of unbolting parts and bolting on new parts. It took me about 3 days working 6-8 hours or so each day. That included pulling all the 4wd parts off the donor vehicles, removing all the 2wd stuff, bolting on all the 4wd parts and bolting the 2wd knuckles on the 94 donor vehicle, so it would still be a "roller". I also did some other little things too......fixed the pilot bearing in the flywheel, cleaned all the 4wd parts before bolting them on, etc.
I don't have any pics, but everything should be pretty much self-explanatory.
