Hey guys i just recently purchased a 93 laser rs nt fwd. I hope in converting it to an rst awd.
the car is a 5spd. I know that this is not urgent but im am curious to find out all the parts that are needed- due to the fact that i only know some of the basic parts. If you know of something or could take the time to help me out it would be much appreciated.
thanks.
bryan

Is there any special reason for you to keep this particular car?

Unless you have some serious cosmetic mods - it would be less work and less cost, if you simply pick up an AWD shell (with a complete working drivetrain) and swap your engine and anything else you want to keep over to that.

It does not matter which shell either.
All the differentiating body parts are interchangeable, between Talon, Laser and Eclipse.

//edit
Oh and this would belong in the drivetrain forum

With 2g's its possible to go from fwd to awd, but i doubt you can do that on 1g's. Isnt the fuel tank in the way?

And the rear suspension is totally different.

I do not intend to piss in your bowl but it generally is pretty cost ineffective way of getting an AWD.


the rear end is different to a big degree. IT IS DOABLE because in theory you could cut the rear end and weld an AWD rear howerever the suspensions are ENTIRELY different. and the mouting assembly for a dif doesn't exist. it involves quite a bit of welding.

the fuel tank needs to be changed. and as such the fuel lines.

Inside of the trunk needs to be ripped out and replaced by an AWD one.

front subframe could be different too, I am not sure because of the different trannies. and then the drive shaft mounting.

In other words - you will have to pretty much buy another car anyways, to get all the parts.

It's probably cheaper and easier to buy an AWD with a dead motor than it is to shop around for every piece of the puzzle.

Though you would definitely be known as "that guy who actually went through with it".
I've never heard of this actually being done on a 1G before.

2500 bucks can easily get you a decent AWD 1gb that runs well... Something to think about.

thanks alot guys, ill look for an awd shell. But the extreme project does sound enticing.

I just realized that this is a non turbo car you're starting with...
That makes it all the more complicated.
You'd need a shell with a working motor, or at least all the turbo parts must be good and then one of the blocks needs a rebuild!

I think Rob pretty much summed the whole thing up. You'd basically require a complete AWD car (not necessarily running, but more or less a complete car--the enire shell, drivetrain AND engine). So basically you're going to have an entire AWD car. So what are you actually going to swap over from the NT FWD? A couple of bolts that are shinier? There's practically nothing on the NT FWD you'd want to swap over to the AWD. I suppose maybe some interior pieces and maybe some body panels (and the VIN, I guess)--but, I mean, that's it. Certainly you realize that you would never start with the NT FWD and swap parts into that, right? What would be left that came from the FWD when you were done? A few bolts and the driver's seat?

N/T Laser's have the ugliest seats, so he would probably opt to swap those too... =)

i had a n/t talon that i converted to turbo, and it wasnt as easy as i thought it would be..but it was a very very good learnning experience, and lots of fun as well..the feeling of having a car that youve beuilt yourself and know EVERYTHIG thing about it. im not sure how much work is needed for the AWD conversion, but all i can think of is what the guys here said already..you basically have to switch everything from a different car (an AWD), to yours. good luck

my n/t laser had nicer seats then some of the talons I saw, grey on grey keep them!

can the rst head fit onto the nt block? I heard that the nt tranny is stronger that the rst tranny. Would that work?

the heads are the same

and your tranny news happens to be wrong. you might have to look into new sources of info.

It hurts my head trying to think of why someone would think such a thing was possible

^^^
It has a stronger explosion, when it gets all blowed up

I heard the 1.8nt tranny is the strongest...

p.s. I apologise from all the mods for having this post

hehehhee KABLAMO!!!!

I was going to add a Kaaz LSD to my fwd over the winter, but I found an awd with a bad motor for $700. Way cheaper to buy an awd then to build one. A few years ago there was a shop in the states that has sucsessfully done a 1G awd conversion to a fwd, but the cost was about $6,000US. Just find yourself an AWD, and save yourself time, money, and hasstle.