44mag

I found a super cool moderately restored 67 eldorado for an irresistible price the only problem is that I recently learned that is is Front wheel drive with a normally mounted motor but a chain driven side mounted tranny. Isit possible to swap in a rear axle and a driveshaft and get ride of all the stuff upfront, thus making it rwd. I know anything is possible with enough money, but could this be done without a huge dent to my wallet.

Matt H

Anything is possible with a fat enough wallet. It is not worthwhile.
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Ethan

I believe that and the Olds Tornado were the first front wheel drive cars IIRC.

Kurt R

WHY???

What's so bad about front drive? OK, they don't make good drift cars. 1967 was the first year for the Eldo, so purists will lynch you. If you want a rear drive Cadillac, buy a Fleetwood or De Ville.

Jessa

Tornados were the first mass-produced American FWDs. Foreign carmakers beat us to this one as well, not that its a technology to be proud of.

Do some looking and find a super cool Lincoln of simmilar vintage. RWD.

Tom

The Cord in like 193?? was front wheel drive. I'm sure some of the earliest automakers experimented with FWD.

Manning

I'm not too sure I would call the Cord a mass production automobile

Adam Richman

Why? Its ingenious, inexpensive, less moving parts and it works.

FSAEracer03

First off, Jess.. you live in CA, why are you talking about "Americans" as if you aren't one... and Adam, FWD is great for economy cars, but I'd hardly say it was "ingenious" or "inexpensive"... it's a bitch to work on compared to RWD cars, and it costs a lot more to develop a FWD powerplant as potent as a RWD, meaning car companies have to spend more in R&D to get effective power from FWD platforms... finally, could you show how there are less moving parts? a FWD with limited slip isn't exactly a simple setup!

...I don't mean to **** any one off by saying any of this, by the way, this is all IMO.

-Kevin

Red 944

Chain driven sounds a little sketchy .. It's have to be a really big chain ..
anyway ..
I haven't converted a fwd car to rwd - would be a bunch bunch of work if it wasn't made for it I'd imagine, but I have converted a fwd drivetrain to rwd .. we put a 3800 v6 from a K car into his Gremlin. Wow- that makes me sound like the hugest hick. It took a while to work everything out, but was lighter and sat back further than the 258. The only real expense was the driveshaft balancing because we had to cut and reweld it to fit, don't remember it being too expensive though. Few hundred bucks.


There are a whole lot of FWD cars out there that I said "I would love that, if only it were RWD". The only way I like FWD is if it's behind you - in the middle of the car.

To state the obvious on what you would have to do is - mount the motor and transmission, transmission you would have to get really fancy with to convert it. Since most fwd cars are smaller cars, you would have to find a 'sweetspot' on the height of the motor so that you could stick the driveshaft up into the runner you will have to cut out and run through the passenger compartment. Probably cut and weld one in from a junk mustang (or other small rwd car). Make that completely water proof. Link it to the differential that you will have to figure out how to suspend. Redo all of the suspension in the rear because of the differential and the new axles. Make a new fuel tank because I'm sure that's in the way of the differential, the make it work with the original filler. All lines - fuel, brake, electrical will have to be re-routed. The front wheels and their 'spinning ability' would have to be figured out. The steering rack would have to be redone. About 1,000 hours of little things that take forever and big things that I've forgotten. Then to get the motor running all the wiring I'm sure would be too short and you would have to rewire a lot anyway to make it work with all of the stock equipment (if you're using another motor). It would be hard to get at things as the car is designed to have a transversely mounted motor and now you're making it long and skinny instead of short and fat.


It would make your life a whole lot easier to start off with a shell of a car that you're extremely familiar with. It would also HAVE to be a labor of love, as you'd be doing all of the work - unless you have a hugely large trust fund. In that case, share the wealth.

44mag

RED944 I'm not sure you read my post to the end, the car is a 1967 Cadillac eldorado it dosnt have a transversly mounted motor so at least there isn't that hurdle to jump.... well it was a nice idea it's just seeming less and less likely to me now, I just thought it would meke for a wicked *** hot rod thats all.... and a fwd hot rod is definately not the way to go, Why the hell did caddy switch to fwd anyway?? what retards!!!

Luke

CORD was using FWD in the '20's?

89951DREAMER

I have to reply to this thread because I have some experience working on a 1973 Caddy Eldo owned by my autocross partner. First, you would be a fool to convert it to RWD. There is no hump in the floorboards to accomodate the drive line. Anyway, the engine is one of the largest ever mass produced at 500cid. In stock form, the output is about 350hp and 550ft/lbs. The transmission is a modified Turbo Hydramatic 400 and it will not break. Don't worry about the chain drive. Over time they do strech, but it's really not a problem. The differential is a conventional type that is mounted to the driver's side of the engine next to the oil pan. This is why the engine sits so high in the engine compartment. Everything on the car is heavy. I would not be surprised if the entire car weighed more than 6000 lbs. Also, it is probably one of the largest 2-door convertables ever made. Things to watch out for are a faulty air conditioning system. The parts are getting hard to come by, and they are expensive. The top mechanism can also be troublesome and is also expensive to fix. However, with a few tricks, the engine can be built to put out over 500hp and 600+ft/lbs. Even though the car is heavy, it moves out. Don't expect it to turn a corner at more than parking lot speeds, though. Once it gets going, you will tend to remain moving in a straight line if you get my drift (pun intended). The '73 my friend had had some cool features like a PA system, onboard computer (1973 technology, it was really just a calculator), auto climate control, auto dimming headlamps, etc. Also, it seemed to be a babe magnet. Everytime I drove it, I'd end up meeting a girl. I never got laid in it, but believe me, there's plenty of room. All in all, it's a fun car. It's not hard to work on if you plan on doing your own wrenching. Just keep in mind the weight of the parts and where your fingers are and you should do fine. I remember changing the CV axles once and I can't even count the number of times I smashed a hand or finger during that job. Those axles are a lot bigger than the ones on a Civic. Anyway, you have my vote, and good luck!

Ian

Adam Richman

Kevin, in looking at what applies power from the motor to the wheels on FWD (and I am not a mechanic by any means), there are fewer moving parts - at least on the ones I've looked at. I find it pretty clever as there are less materials to construct, less to break and on the diff, a clutch type LSD on my FWD is identical to that on any 944. I would not argue on the difficulties of producing more effective power gains on FF vs. FR vs. RR vs MR - I wasn't too concerned about that with my statement. However, that Audi, GM, Mitsubishi, Ford, Honda/Acura, Toyota, Nissan/Infinity, Chrysler/Dodge all make large percentages of their cars (seemingly all of their lower price cars) in this format tells me that there is a cost savings in mass production of this platform. I've seen very few examples of mass produced products ever built on the concept of higher R&D, greater costs, less efficient, harder to work on.

If you are saying the actual gearbox is difficult to work on, I have only seen the guts on a 944, SVT Cobra and CRX boxes and I would not call myself expert on this. If you mean getting to/out the transmission, I (and a friend) have replaced the clutch on my CRX after a practice session at 8:45 AM to be on the grid for the five minute call by 10:45 AM so you'll be hard pressed to convince me these are difficult to work with but admittedly, this is just one FF car I am talking about.

Matt Sheppard

Sure, just fit a DSM AWD drivetrain to the thing.

Done.