Austarion

Ok it looked hard.

Now it looks simplier, from the lovely page: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.stacey1/4wd.html

I got this little quote:

The normal rear-drive of the Starion has been converted into all wheel-drive by the relativly straight forward method of introducing a Pajero transfer box, with uprated Internals,behind the normal transmision. This takes the drive sideways to a second propshaft that goes forwards to the front wheels: torque is permanently 50 / 50 front/rear.

It appears there was no special Ralliart floor, and I'd imagine (not that Ive looked) you may find room in there for everything to bolt on. Mitsi never made a 4WD Starion, Ralliart converted it.

It doesn't mention the front hubs, but I'd take a guess at Cordia.

Here you can see the Pajero transfer box, and the second shaft that sticks out the side to go to the front wheels.

In another post on here, it was mentioned there was a hole for a second propshaft, but nothing was there. From that description it appears to be in the same place as the FWD shaft seen in the photo.

The biggest difficulty here would be finding the right front hubs, and custom making the two driveshafts unless the sizes magically line up with another Mitsi part.

That L :o :o KS PHAT!!! :D

cordia hubs would work, and cordia shafts could be used, you just have to place the diff in the right spot, the biggest prob is u need a steering rack and it MUST be on the front side of the crossmember. i lined it all up on my car with old cordia bits and the steering box setup gets in the way, so does my rack when mounted on the back. BUT it seems there is no room for the rack in the front, hence the custom lower controll arm in that pic.


my 2 cents

That's a Starion?!@#$

I can see it... sorta. The front end looks so odd, almost has a kind of Escort feel to it. Is it a custom front end or off something else modified to fit the car?

I thought that you'd seen the 4WD Staz before Steve?

The front end is still Staz, but if you look carefully, you can see what has been removed to make the front end.

This would be a nice conversion to do, but my only question is...how much money do you got?

I like the bonnet, i want a bonnet like that

Ive emailed Mitsubishi NZ (as they prove very helpful in such matters), told them the situation, kissed some ass, and have requested an english speaking Mitsi/Ralliart contact who may be able to answer some questions regarding the steering system.

Will have to see what he replies.

As anything can be fabricated, I guess what you want to do is just fit something that fits, take it to a frabicator and have them make any bits that don't fit.

But that doesn't sound terribly cheap. I'm hoping Raliart come back with something stupid like 'whats wrong with the Pajero steering box?' :D Also when looking for 4WD parts only look at cars from 1982.

For example the 4WD Starion was built using the 1982 Pajero Transfer Box, and why technologies may not of changed in later models, its safer to stick with the same parts they had in 1982. Also cheaper.

What model Cordia, and what year did you use?? 1600 Turbo, or 1800 ECI turbo? Lots of people have fitted Sirrius 2.0 engines in GSR Cordia's, I've never looked at one, but what makes the steering system not fit exactly? Whats it hitting when you go to put the arms in??

Also the change in front end is pretty obvious. They just cut the nose off. It also looks like a top mount intercooler on that bastard. Hence the sexy vents. I'm happy with my 80's Stylez Rice scoop that goes no where tho :)

I should also mention that making the Staz 50/50 4WD is good for drag/rally, but will be absolute pain in the ass on the track. I was even poking my nose in at the L200 4WD bits from that era, as they have a second gear leaver for RWD-Low, RWD-High, 4WD-Low,4WD-High, but maybe thats going way too far.

Just dreaming at the moment anyway, I can't afford to do this, not for long time.

Actualy I think the bonnet vents are to allow air to escape out of the engine bay. In the picture it looks like it's actually got a low mount FMIC.

Response from Mitsubishi:

Hi.
Good luck with your project.

I don't know anyone who would be a position to know such details given that MMC staff has undergone significant redundancies and rotations over the past few years.

May I suggest you look at L200 steering boxes, as the Sigma / Starion share a lot of common parts with L200. The 2wd and 4wd steering boxes are different so one of them may fit the bill.

Regards
Lloyd

Mate, Kempy's wreckers in Auckland built a v8 powered starion runing 4wd aoround 5 years ago. They had entered it in quite a few rallies with some success.

Heres their website
http://www.kempys.co.nz

Drop them a line.

Hope this helps

Jas
www.starion.webhop.net

I THINK you will find with some mods to the lower ball joint and strut top cordia struts and front drive hubs could be used. with the starion steering box set-up the 2nd pitman arm or whatever you call it that is on the passenger chassis rail plus the steering arm itself would collide with the front drive shaft. from what I can tell even with the rack and pinion conversion the steering arm will still hit. if you look at the wire frame pic of the 4WD starion you will see the steering rack (it seems to be a rack) is located in front of the cross member, I think this is done for the simple reason of getting it out the way altogether. somewhat of a nightmare where the steering coulomb is concerned, you have to get the drive out of the firewall, down next to the chassis, forward and over the engine mount then down to the rack. but bear in mind I did not put huge amounts of time into this so there might be other ways.

2nd pitman arm on passenger side= idler arm :)

Where do you mount the front diff? Also, is there enough room in the trans tunnel for the transfer case and shaft? That pic seems to show it sitting where the passenger sits. A steering rack would work, but would it then interfere with the sump? I reckon there has to be a mitsu steering box out there that would work since mitsu seems to have always had a fascination with them over racks.

two try another way ,go toyota carib 4wd .they have a north south engine & box with a compact 4wd come front diff .never scored one but they look AWSOME





7

How does the 4WD System in the Cordia GSR avoid the steering arm / drive shaft collision?

Have to find a list of cars that have RWD mounted motors, and power steering, and four wheel drive (like the Carib mentioned earlier) and just find stuff that fits, or almost does.

I have to jack my car up yet and see what room I have available and were. My main concern is really the tunnels under the passenger side of the car. See what is there, what can be moved and so on.

Friend of mine said a mate of his races a 4WD Starion in rally. I might just have to track them down.

Also Kempy's in Auckland made a V8 4WD Cordia, not Starion unfortunately, however they seem to do some wacky stuff, so I may contact them anyway :)