PICS! Econo Car conversion to Kubota Diesel. 1997 Geo Metro, Kubota D1005 3 cylinder

[planejob]

Ok, today I pulled the transmission so I can match the Kubota to the tranny.

I've got the engine plate coming this way (courtesy of eBay) and a plan to mate the two - thanks to some of the past posts from Kimer6.

From what I've read, when the auto tranny TCM fails you can still manually **** the tranny - folks, I'd love some input here. If I hook up the auto tranny with all of the mechanical connections (that's 2 total; the Gear shift and the kick down) will I be able to manually shift from first up to third - or- will it be a piece of junk that stays stuck in third? What's the failure mode of these slush boxes?

thanks in advance.

P.S. Aluminum has been ordered for the adapter plate. Woohoo. this is moving along nicely.

[MobilOne]

Good Luck!

Sounds like fun!

[planejob]

The Kubota engine plate arrived today. the box was completely destroyed and taped up - the only thing in it was the thing that counted, the plate!

I went out to the garage and did some comparing and took a few rudimentary measurements and started planning the process for making the adapter.

Here's the scene of the crime:


The plate mounts up just fine to the D1005. The eBay listing said it was from a V1505, or some such, and I gambled that the "05 series" engines would share the bolt pattern. The locating pin mates properly.


The center of the input shaft is drilled out from the Suzuki or Aisin or wherever facory. I suspect it is metric but a 5/16" transfer punch (from Harbor Freight, so it's probably metric anyway) went about 3 inches into the hole and was a snug fit. I'll be using it to mark the center of the adapter.


It will look something like this when it's done. I will be leaving the bottom sliver of the transmission bellhousing open, not making a full plate, so that I can have access to the torque converter bolts - similar to the original opening.

[spacemanspif]

Great thread and project! Can't wait to see it come together and the results of the effort. Is there a reason why you are sticking with the auto and not switching to a manual trans?

[planejob]

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

Is there a reason why you are sticking with the auto and not switching to a manual trans?

Thanks for the encouraging and kind words. As for the auto tranny... It's all I've got, and the car is an auto. I really would have preferred a manual. I've even sourced a manual transmission for 80 bucks.

My internet research (bonjour) says that the manual and the auto have the same bell housing bolt pattern. I'm thinking if the auto doesn't work or is fried, or fails... I could replace it later with a manual. What do you think? Sound reasonable?

Also, I'm not sure what all is involved in putting the clutch pedal in, etc. The underhood bits seem to be plug-n-play.

[Baltothewolf]

Yea just stick with the auto for now, not going to hurt anything mechanically, and you will get to test and make sure it works before you convert. Besides the comfort of an auto is sometimes worth the MPG loss.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Is it still fitted with a 3-speed auto or is it already a 4-speed one?

[ennored]

Aren't there sheet metal differences between auto and manual Metros? Nothing that could be dealt with I'm sure, but probably worth understanding.

[planejob]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Is it still fitted with a 3-speed auto or is it already a 4-speed one?

Originally the car was equipped with the 3-speed Automatic Transmission, and the 4 cylinder 1.3 liter engine.

I will be reusing the 3-speed automatic transmission, for now.

Originally Posted by ennored

Aren't there sheet metal differences between auto and manual Metros? Nothing that could be dealt with I'm sure, but probably worth understanding.

Since I'm keeping the auto for now, I think I will not worry about the differences at this point. I would imagine a few holes have to be drilled, maybe some braces swapped, but when I make it to that point of this project we will all be so astounded that it'll seem like no big deal.


Edit: The project is going to stall until October 31. I've got to travel for work and will not be able to fiddle with the spanners.

[spacemanspif]

Originally Posted by planejob

It's all I've got,

That's fair. Just figured that doing the swap would kinda blend with the rest of the project and since the auto is "iffy" already might be worth the effort. I didn't think a swap would be difficult either due to lack of knowledge on the Metro platform. I just thought it would be grab pedals and hydraulics outof a junk yard and slap into your car...apparently I am wrong lol