Toyota Corolla KE72 DX Wagon Restoration

[Timothy123]

Hi Guys, I am getting a Toyota Corolla KE72 DX Wagon which needs restoration work. Wondering if the manual transmission can be changed to automatic and if power steering could be added? Are there any limitations with the car? In Colombo who is the best person to restore one of them?

[matroska]

1 hour ago, Timothy123 said:

Hi Guys, I am getting a Toyota Corolla KE72 DX Wagon which needs restoration work. Wondering if the manual transmission can be changed to automatic and if power steering could be added? Are there any limitations with the car? In Colombo who is the best person to restore one of them?

Interesting prospect.  Adding power steering is relatively easily accomplished. Gearbox swap is also possible - but I wonder if it is possible to source a KE7X auto gear box.  I did a somewhat similar project with an EP71 starlet - but in my case i swapped the engine along with the gearbox (and I did do the power steering conversion too) you can read about this here.  

[iRage]

Ooh..interesting....
Gearbox : Did you know that technically the KE72 van and KE73 wagon, with the 4K engine, never came in AT transmission form ? Only the KE75 with the 1500cc 5K engine did. However, the export model KE70/KE71 wagon did come with an AT.

Okay...so for the 4K engine, you would need a A41 series 3 speed AT which came in the 60 series Starlet and E70 series Corolla/Sprinter sedan, hatchback, coupe and liftback. Other cars like the Carina, Corona, Celica, even the 2WD Hilux pickup truck came with different variants of A40 series transmissions but in 4 speed form and with a slightly different bell housing. Not sure how the gearing of the 4 speed would effect the 1300cc's power delivery but the bell housing part can be sorted out.

The issue you will have is actually finding a gearbox. Back in the day automatics were not that popular in SL so you will have a tough time finding one locally. On the other hand in Japan, these cars are pretty much extinct that you hardly get these parts and when you do they are pretty pricey. If you are open to importing one then you might have better luck in countries like Australia.

You can always look for an AT from a newer model car, but then it would be easier to just swap the engine as well. May I ask why you want to make it AT ? How long are you planning on keeping the car ? Keep in mind the conversion might not be favorably looked upon by the KE72 seking crowd and they will low ball you on offers when you are selling it out. So you need to make sure you use the heck out of the car to justify the conversion cost.

If you are open on an engine and gearbox conversion, sadly it is not going to be as easy as a FWD Starlet because...well..you don't get many RWD cars from the mid 80s onwards. You might want to look at 3A-U engines...5K engines from around the same period. You can go late 80s, early 90s with someting like a 3E or 4E engine...but these are FWD engines so you will need to to a lot of fabrication work to fit but then you are back at square one looking for a RWD automatic transmission, so that is going to be sort of a mute task. So if you are going for a engine plus conversion then you might want to look at a 4A-GE conversion (either a 16v RWD or a 16v FWD or a newr 20V FWD setup..). THis has been done many times with MTs but it won't be too difficult to do with a AT as well. If you are feeling really adventurous you can go with a RWD 3S engine and gearbox....either way....this does seem to end up costing a lot if you cannot find a stock A41 series transmission.  

Power steering on the other hand is relatively easier....

[matroska]

1 hour ago, iRage said:

sadly it is not going to be as easy as a FWD Starlet because...well..you don't get many RWD cars from the mid 80s onwards.

Given the difficulty finding the compatible 80's auto gear boxes - the easiest thing would be a full engine swap. But then again you run into the issue iRage mentioned. The most commonly available engines with Auto gear boxes (they're also EFI so you get a bit more reliability) are from the 90's - 4E's,5A's etc which were all from FWD cars. 

Fun fact though -locally there have been a few 7K (Toyota Townace) Engine swaps into old Morris Minors (which are RWD) - 7K petrol engines were usually commonly found as most people swapped them out for diesels on Townaces (Noah). This might be an option worth exploring. 

Re: resale well project cars with swaps etc are usually not the easiest to sell off - but if you're doing the swap decide to keep it for some time. Anyway people prefer Automatic transmission nowadays and the KE72 still being viewed as a daily runner as opposed to a classic/enthusiast car  by many it might just appeal to some prospective buyers. 

[iRage]

1 hour ago, matroska said:

Re: resale well project cars with swaps etc are usually not the easiest to sell off - but if you're doing the swap decide to keep it for some time. Anyway people prefer Automatic transmission nowadays and the KE72 still being viewed as a daily runner as opposed to a classic/enthusiast car  by many it might just appeal to some prospective buyers

On the other hand...if one does a good 4A-GE swap....it will be in very high demand by a very specific crowd as it just got elivated to an enthusiast's car. Especially if one goes for a T series diff with the option of upgrading to a LSD

 

[matroska]

5 hours ago, iRage said:

On the other hand...if one does a good 4A-GE swap....it will be in very high demand by a very specific crowd as it just got elivated to an enthusiast's car. Especially if one goes for a T series diff with the option of upgrading to a LSD

 

IF OP can source a 4A-GE then definitely it will be quite something. 

Apparently this was discussed 4 years ago too -