I have not installed the steel housing yet.  Im working on the bracket for the pass side.  when that's finished.  I will start welding everything up.  Right now its tacked.  Need to make sure it fits first.  So far its looking good.  Ill try and get a picture tomorrow.

A good day in the garage.
There appears to be little room for a crossover pipe for the exhaust.


And the back frame crossmember had a hump in for the exhaust system on the drivers side, so I cut it in the middle of the hump and on the passenger side.  I turned it around and over, so now I have one large hump.
Big enough for duel exhaust.


I used cut down 90 degree bends and welded them to the old crossover pipe stubs, leaving the 02 ports.


As the fuel lines and brake lines would be running right next to the exhaust pipe, I took a section of 3" exhaust pipe, cut some rings off of it, cut it in half and slipped on the 2 1/4" exhaust I am using.  I welded the rings up against one side of the exhaust pipe to create about 1/2 - 3/4 gap for the heat shield.  



I put two mufflers on it and.

Little louder than I expected, does have a rasp to it when cranked up.
It is a good thing the drive line does not move sideways.  Could have used smaller mufflers, but could not find any.

That looks really impressive.  Nice work Dad!

Nice.  I look forward seeing your rig......

Drone637 came up and we got a lot of small stuff done on my Tracker.  It is hard not to work on it now because most of what is done shows how much closer it is to getting on the road.
We installed the bottom two 02 sensors, and it has a much better/quieter sound.  Still need to make up the tail pipes, but standing behind it you can hear that it has dual exhaust.
I backed it out of garage under its own power.  I did not wait for idle to drop and chirped the tires.  Going to take a while before I get used to not having a clutch (just seems strange).  Did not test drive, no seat, wires still hanging, exhaust not fully supported, etc., but it can move by itself.
Kris reworked the dash wiring, and speedo now works.  I had to use a different take off and motor temp now works.  I need to find where the oil pressure wire is.  The FSM shows it going straight to dash, and I am trying to find the connector it uses.  My silicone coated connector looks to be doing what I expected, so wires will be firmly held in place.
Idled it for about an hour, and with radiator elec. fan and a hood setting on it, it will get up to 201.  W/o hood it gets around 190.  I still have room for a bigger fan if it tends to go higher on slow trail work.
It will creep in high range, so low range should be really good.  And the desire for a slower low speed w/o always slipping the clutch is what got the mtr/trans change started.  I know gears would have been faster, easier, CHEAPER, but I wanted back road gears more than trail gears, and the mtr. seemed a good deal at the time.
We cleaned up half the Garage also.  Now I can find stuff that falls to the floor.
Elk hunting starts next week, and I have to get all my gears ready, so no work on Tracker for a few weeks.

Got back from two week vacation.  Elk were not in the mood, until last morning, so was more of a vacation.  I was able to catch some nice trout at the lake, and spent more time in the rain than in the sun.  Great Vacation

Work is progressing on the Tracker.  Just before I left the starter started to give me problems, but when jumping the solenoid it would start just fine.  So I was considering installing a relay to get more juice to the starter, then I found a couple of "fix for starter" threads that said same thing.  Well first few starts when I got back, went fine, then starter would not fully engage, so having a few relays laying around, I installed a relay to bring juice from fuse block by battery to starter solenoid instead of from starter switch.  Works great, maybe this solenoid requires a little more juice than my old switch can provide.  It was easier and cheaper than either a new switch, or new solenoid.
Still have a wire mess from the crossover wiring, but it is getting smaller and have most systems I will be using now working.  I am using same cooling fan control as before (using A/C switch to turn cooling fan on/off).  When wiring is out of way, seats will be installed and then it is ride test time.
I will take camera to garage with me today.

Front diff was setting to close to oil pan, so made new mounts to relocate with more clearance.  NAPA provided wrong seal so will have to wait for morning to install.


Wiring under dash is now tucked up out of way.  Relay's and Fuses will go into original position (still room).


Motor compartment is getting full, most everything is in there.


It is getting much closer.  Lots of stuff yet to do, and when I start thinking THIS WEEK something comes up and WELL MAYBE NEXT WEEK.  At least motor is running much better and starts easily.

Front diff installed.  Drivers seat installed.  (You know where this is going.)


Awesome.  It is not a rocket on take off, but has no problem rising to 75 mph.  Speedo is off + 5 mph at 60.  This is so much fun NOW.  Now for the catch items, but it does run on the road.  Forgot to hook up the air line to front diff, so field tests on another day.  Not going to give it a roll test like the Trouble Race car.
Oh yeah, still needs hood work.  I am looking for a 16V hood in Wa.

Now to clean the garage.

you never stop working on that rig.  pretty soon there wont be anymore modifying to do to it. It still looks good too.

Have to do something about the pink door though. 

Yah, what happened? It is all dirty and I think I see some rust on that bumper.

Yes, the Pink door, rust on bumper, and all the dirt are on catch items.

The low range TC gears were not engaging.  Seems that the TC adaption that I had made only seemed to work, teeth almost engaged and would not hold with power on them.  So I got another XL7 TC (2002), and the input/output shafts were smaller diameter.  Changing the input shaft (and case) was not much of an item, but getting both output shafts w/ connecting chain (which was also wider) took a couple of tries to get them started (and installed) straight.  Then installing the back case, and shift mechanism, it is ALMOST done.  The seals looked really beat, so I removed them so I could replace them.  Try finding output shaft seals for a 2005 XL7, most auto parts stores books only go to 2004 on the XL7.  I know the middle case (forward shaft) seal is the same for tracker's/GV's/XL7's, but the back case output shaft seal is larger.  I now have Suzuki part numbers, and will check with local Suzuki dealer Monday (online part stores do not recognize the numbers). 

In Portland we have McGuire Bearing and some other places that have seals, bearings, chain, gears, pulley, different styles of Joints. I would say call a local place and see if you can just get one by the dimesions you need and not by numbers.

Front diff installed.  Drivers seat installed.  (You know where this is going.)


Awesome.  It is not a rocket on take off, but has no problem rising to 75 mph.  Speedo is off + 5 mph at 60.  This is so much fun NOW.  Now for the catch items, but it does run on the road.  Forgot to hook up the air line to front diff, so field tests on another day.  Not going to give it a roll test like the Trouble Race car.
Oh yeah, still needs hood work.  I am looking for a 16V hood in Wa.

Now to clean the garage.

Great to see you've got it running!  Was yours a 5 speed?  I've got gobs of neck snapping power (5:12 gears).  Will spin both tires (spooled) uncontrollably and launch like crazy.  I got it over 110 mph and decided that was plenty for me, but there was plenty more.  Either you have very high expectations of what a rocket is, or something is different...

Great to see you've got it running!  Was yours a 5 speed?  I've got gobs of neck snapping power (5:12 gears).  Will spin both tires (spooled) uncontrollably and launch like crazy.  I got it over 110 mph and decided that was plenty for me, but there was plenty more.  Either you have very high expectations of what a rocket is, or something is different...

Just running is it.  It appears that I have Fail Safe issues.  Torque converter will not lock, no 4th or 5th gear now, which means no OD or PWR selection.  I have the 2227, 962, and 977 codes.
I had a busted Shaft Input Speed Sensor, only place I could find that could even find it was Suzuki Garage and theirs was Gold Plated ($186).  Same transmission as all the other AW550's, except input shaft splines and output splines.  So I found a Toyota speed sensor only $82 at NAPA, and would be here next morning, I went with it.


Tomorrow I open up the wiring again, and start checking voltages to find a ground or missing 12 volt input.  Two weeks ago I had 4th and 5th gear, w/o torque converter lockup, so should be able to find the changes.  Only moved the 4 L wires, and 4 L will prevent 5th and Torque Converter lockup.  Now that I have the input shaft speed sensor, when I get the gears back, I should have lockup also.

Yes, mine is the auto 5, and it did like to cruise, even w/o lockup.  5:12's on 30X9.50"s.

I have both new seats in it, and center console.  Lighting in the dash is dim, and do not have a temp. indicator yet.  Temp indication coming from computer is time based, and just swings the temp gauge.  I have been using the OBDII with computer to monitor engine temp while working on it.

I WOULD NOT DO ANOTHER SWAP!!!!                                                                 (Without a donor vehicle to strip.)

How is yours running?  Have you got the new dash in yet?