I have a 1997 Tracker 4dr 4x4 with a 3 speed automatic ( 1 2 drive ) and 1.6 I4, 16v engine that is locked up. I have access to a 1995 1.6 I4 16v engine, 5 speed transmission with transfer case, and an ECM from a 1996 Tracker 2dr 5speed 4x4. I would like to convert 1997 Tracker 4dr to a 5 speed using the 1995 Tracker engine, transmission, and transfer case. What do I need to do to make this happen? Thanks for any and all help.
First off, unless someone swapped it in, your 97 4 door doesn't have a 3 speed auto. The only 4 door to have a 3 speed auto was the 91s. Yours should have a 4 speed auto.
Secondly, there are more differences between 95 and 96 and newer engine setups than just the intake, oil pump and oil pan. 95 and older are OBD1, 96 and up are OBD2.....so that means the distributor is different, the wiring and engine control wiring and ECM is different. The best way to use the 95 engine in yours is to take your distributor, intake, oil pump, lower timing belt pulley and oil pan and put on the 95. You should be able to keep your ECM and wiring with the 5 speed tranny (in my experience, auto trannys don't care if you run a 5 speed behind them, they don't know the difference). There is some wiring that runs to the 95 tranny and tcase, but the 97 wiring should be compatible, or you should be able to splice a couple of wires and get it to work. It is just for the 4x4 indicator light and back up lights.
Use your tcase on the 5 speed tranny. It will bolt up fine. Plus, the 97 tcases use a different spline on the output shaft. But, if you do have a 4 speed auto and are swapping to a 5 speed, you will have to get new front and rear driveshafts, since they are not the same length between 4 speed autos and 5 speeds. But if you do in fact have a 3 speed auto in it, then you can reuse the driveshafts, since the 3 speed auto and 5 speed use the same length driveshafts.
Oh, and on the axle gearing. All 4 doors have 5.12 gears no matter what tranny they had. The exception to that are the 91 4 doors, which had either 4.62 or 5.38 gears, depending on whether they had the 3 speed auto tranny or the 5 speed manual tranny (91s were the only 4 doors to have the 1.6 8V engine in them...that is why they were geared differently).