heres a weird questionwill a 1.6 chevette engine bolt up to a tracker trans?.the chevette trans is a turbo 180 .. and I thought I read somewhere that they could be swaped into a samurai or a a tracker  My friend was droped on his head as a youngster & wants a 4x4 chevette we got sami axles/& springs & I got several tracker trans/transfercase setups laying around& hes got sweet running(ha ha ha ) chevette

Back in the 80's when I lived in Michigan someone built a 4X4 Buick Opel. They mounted it on a Bronco frame. A Chevette would be cool as well. Just mounting it on a Sami frame would be the easiest way to do it however mounting the axles under the Chevette might work to. I would be aware that the Chevette is a uni-body car and as such might not stand up to the torques generated by off-road use. If you do go this route I would install a strong 8 point cage and connect the sub frames to beef up the strength as much as possible.

As far as the Sidekick trans goes I would go with a Sami Tcase behind the Chevette trans. it would be just as easy and you will have more options with the Sami case.

 You would need to have a custom adapter made to mate the Chevette  engine as it wont bolt up.
 If you have a Sammy 1.3 you can adapt the Chevette carb to the Sammy intake! One of my Sammies runs this setup and it really wakes up the 1.3 and runs well at extreme angles!
 I've driven Chevettes... your better off running a Suzuki drivetrain and just adapting the Chevette body!

Cheers and good luck.

I agree Id rather just pluck a running engine trans /t/c as a package from a sami or a tracker but I was thinking what we had on handis free   for running gear  I also think sub frames of some sort for spring mtg

Don't put money on this info because it's been years since we did one of these.
You take the chevette motor and bell housing and you can bolt up the tracker tranny to it. There is one model of chevette tranny that the bellhousing will unbolt. and then bolt on the tracker t-case.

The chevette motor will not rev at all....and I'm not kidding about this but the motor has tons of torque compared to the samurai motor. You will power over almost everything. If you bolt up the tracker tranny and t-case I think you'll be limited on the gearing because they are geared high.

I'd bolt up a samurai t-case with samurai front and rear. you can weld up the spring mounts on the unibody but I'd add some bracing under the unibody and weld it all together.

I've got a similar project with a 1977 Honda civic. I'm going to cut out the floor and sink the Honda on the samurai frame. I like the look of a 4x4 car but the honda is front drive. I hate the look of a big frame under the 4x4 car so I'm trying to sink it on there to make it dissapear.

I hate the look of a big frame under the 4x4 car so I'm trying to sink it on there to make it dissapear

On the old hot rods they call that channeling.    My buddy's doin that to a VW golf body to fit it on a  kick frame.  

thanks for info Ive built several 4x4cars I guess the plan for this will be use leafs for ft suspension ,samurai axles
use a sami steering box or mabee somthing power . same thing for rear......strengthing aras that need it  we'd like to use chevette engine (since it runs good )and adapt it to a tracker trans (I have about 5 set ups from belhousing to transfercase It would be easier to use a samitransfer case but the Idea is to use what we got
wed keep it semi low  no extra frame  I ve seen lots of 4x4cars & hate to see the frame probably 31" tires  it will just be a 2 tracker

well keep us posted on the build... it will be cool to follow along. Sounds like it's gonna be a fun project.

ok well keep ya posted we talked roday about geting a samurai t/cso we can use stock engine & trans that will be the last major part to round up we looked at &started the chevette today it does run good(for a 26 year old chevette

chevettwe had only 69hp new stay away lol

The auto trans in the sidekick is a th180a, but only in the 8V early
years, like 89-92 or3 as far as the chevet engine goes, I think there is better
support for the Suzuki engine, but if you must, give it a go.

The bell housing is what makes the trans swap doable, it's not a one piece
trans housing in the zuks.

Wild

our plan is to use stock engine &auto trans from the chevette samurai axles /springs and steering.use a samurai transfercase behind stock drive train I think this was my buddies grampa's car we have the parks gathered up now just gotta get some garage time set up  Ill post pics when we get down to business
 I thought since the early trackers & the chevette have th180 we might be able to use tracker stuffw/the chevette engine but it will be easier to do it with a samurai T case