Hi there,
I have a 1984 laser with the 2.2 turbo and 5 speed. The front frame basically cracked on me. I had it welded but it has contued to blow shafts on a regular basis now. I have found a 1985 normally aspirated laser 5 speed, that my friend wants to get rid of for 50 bucks, its engien is shot and the body has some rust on it. I was wondring how much of a pain doing a swap would be. Are the tranny's interchangeable b/c the tranny I have now for the laser is kinda iffy. I know I need to swap the boost gauge unit area with my 84's one for the obvious reason boost gauge. Can I just hook up the 84's computer into the 85's wire harness? on that thought do I really need too? It appears the 84's boost system is all based on the engine, but I would have to assume the 85's computer would not have the proper fuel curves correct? I can chance it one more tiem on my current laser, have them, align the engine again and try another shaft, but idk. I need to know by tuesday if at all possible, Please let me know some of the probs etc... of doing this.
Thanks!
Brandon
P.S. Also I live in hawaii so even coming across another laser, I was amazed, lol.

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well,
When I say welded, it has been welded alot, at first I could not find any parts cars or parts for that matter, so we put like 1/8 scrap iron and welded that to the front motor mount, and made a pyramid there. To remove all the metal we have put on I believe it would destroy the sidemembers. It maybe still an option though, but I would still like to have responses from anyone that might have tried such an endeavor, thank you for your response though :),
Brandon

Also I forgot to mention, my current laser, the 84, is a turbo Z in black and red, from what I can gather the Z's are very hard to come by and in the red and black combo is even harder, the car is in decent shape, the body doesn't have rust, but the shaft thing is driveing me up the wall.
Brandon

The turbos transmissions are different and are built for the added power, the N/A tranny wouldn't last very long behind the turbo. In fact, the Turbo II's were powerful enough that even a regular Turbo I tranny is too weak for it and they could only use a 5-spd. because the autos couldn't handle it either. If your turbos tranny is iffy, then get it rebuilt or replaced with another turbo tranny. I recommend the A-555 if you can find one, if not then the A-525 will be fine as it is the same as what you have.

Ok well, I bought the 85, I have decided to rip the front crossmember out and put it in mine, get new motor mounts, and put teh front struts out of the 85 in the 84(they were wearing out). I am then going to proceed to beat the heck out of it, lol. If it holds up, then I will replace teh interior of the 85 into the 84, front bumper switch etc.. basically take the best of each, and get teh tranny rebuilt. Hopefully all will go well, too bad no one tried a swap before or have and given up or just havn't read this post.
Oh well, wish me luck:D
Brandon

Good luck with it all.[sm=smiley20.gif]