Hey guys, Remember the 80s civic Wagovan? Im toying with the idea of transplating the AWD tranny to a 79 civic wagon Im gonna be working on.

Those models were either FWD or AWD. I know it comes with a 6 speed tranny (extra low first gear) and the EW motor. I aslo know the later 85+ years came with the D series motors but I dont know if those came with AWD. What I want to know is will the tranny of the EW motor swap to the D series block.

The 79 civic wagon has a dummy axle with leafs in the rear. I was thinking of building up a D series motor with the AWD tranny (if possible) and throwing in solid axle (ford 9" with LSD maybe) and making a custom shaft to connect it all. I just want to start seriously brainstorming and collecting parts.

Thanks guys

 

good luck finding one.

 

Yea man sounds like a great idea and props for the originality

 

Well there are some at CAP and CAR right now, I just dont have time or money to pull and experiment with tranny/motor swapability fitments. I was hoping someone might know of a Honda tranny/motor interchangability site or something.

BTW everything will fit with a hammer and a welder

Thanks

 

i'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but the 88-91 civic wagons came with an optional d16a6 and awd, so there is indeed a d-series tranny that will drive 4 wheels. it will NOT bolt to an ea or ew or any pre-88 civic engines, and it's not exactly a good transmission. another option would be a cr-v drivetrain... people have done 4wd GSR turbos and whatnot with that tranny.

 

OK, this is the kind of info Im looking for. Basically I also have a love affair with 1st gen civics. I have a 79 hatch, 79 coupe, and I just am about to pickup a 79 civic wagon in NY. These cars are tiny, but the d series swap is a pretty common one to do for these cars (custom mounts and wiring of course) plus some D series motors use the cable clutch like the 1st gens do. Theres no room to plumb a hydrolic clutch easily in the 79 engine bay. Soooo....If the D series came with optional AWD I just hope its a cable clutch (very unlikely though) But the only AWD wagons I found had the EW motor. Im trying to find out if that tranny will work on the d series. Im pretty sure only like designated motors/trannys swap between themselves right? D series motor will work with any d series tranny, B series motors and B series tranns, etc...

Oh Im not looking to take out WRXs or anything, just to make a cool unique ride Plus Im balling on a budget so getting a CRV donor is out of the question

 

The CRV tranny (and engine) is going to be quite the sledgehammer adjustment job in that teeny car I reckon..
Maybe do something crazy and drop an entire 80s subaru setup in there, if you're looking for different, or Celica AllTrac...

That AWD 80s Honda tranny is notoriously fragile though, those things had axles like toothpicks and a weak gearbox. You might really come out with a cool setup if you disassemble the tranny and get everything important cryo treated, that would go a really long way toward durability. I don't remember if it's a gear or shaft/bearing case support problem with those trannies, but if it's the gears you may be OK with a cryo treatment. I'm just speculating really... What a crazy fun car that would be though.

I'd say the hell with AWD, just go RWD and have some drift fun..

 

then yeah, you're gonna wanna take everything out of the 88-91 wagon and drop it in... motor, tranny, rear diff, etc. it's all D-series, cable clutch, it's already 4 point fuel injected. if you wanted to get really crazy, you could do a mini-me vtec head swap, but i think that's about all the power that tranny would hold. still, 135 crank hp w/ awd in a super light civic would scoot around pretty well. stock the d16a6 based wagon motor makes about 100 hp i think.

 

It would be really interesting to find out how much of that tranny is shared with other D-series trannies, it may be possible to swap gears for something stronger also. I'd still like to know what part of the AWD tranny is the weak point..

 

Thanks for all the input guys,

Looking at the 6 speed shifter on that thing, it has something like SL (super low?) to the left of the #1 marking. It aslo has the dash swich to activate AWD. Does this activate some kind of servo in the Diff or tranny itself to lock out another gate or something. I need to get my hands on a manual and read up on this... And yes I just found out that it is cable clutched, so this is looking promising
Im thinking of skipping the honda rear diff because the lack of LSD options, and theres tons of cheap mustang rears in the JY, Hmm...79 civic wagon with AWD and 4 wheel discs? .........sweet


BTW here is what my 79 wagon could look like...

[IMG][/IMG]