Help needed on my M422-A1

[Sgt Betancourt]

Hi everyone, I could really use some help/suggestions. I recently acquired a M422-A1 Mighty Mite and it’s in really rough shape. Being previously in the Marine Corps Infantry I would love to restore it but it might be a little to gone for that. However I would like to get it running again but I have an issue as it didn’t have an engine. However I do have the transmission as was wondering if anyone would know where I could find an engine for it. If not, what would be a good replacement engine/ transmission for it. I’ve never worked on one before so I thought I would reach out to folks that have. I have a 13 and 11 year old boys that would love to drive this one day so I appreciate anyone’s help. Thanks and Semper Fi!

[mspeters]

Originality is the best, provided you can locate a rebuildable Mite motor and tolerate the cost to rebuild including the modern longevity fix; namely nickel-silicon plated cylinders instead of pure-chrome.

I’ve repowered two basket-case Mites whose motors had long departed.

The 1.3L Samurai or the 1.6L Geo Tracker/Suzuki Sidekick (8-valve) all-aluminum engines fit quite well with a moderate level of fabrication. Good parts supply, lighter than the original motor and more powerful. I still have the drilling template used to mate the Geo Tracker bell housing to the mite transmission/transfer-case.

Adapting an entire engine/trans/transfer-case power-pack combination such as a Samurai, Tracker, Jeep or M151 is significantly more fab work as crossmembers are needed to suspend the both the front differential and the new drivetrain. The front driveshaft angles are horrible unless a transfer-case is clocked near-vertical, like the stock Mite design.

Here is a collage of photos to give a snapshot of the adaptations involved. This Mite has a Sidekick/Tracker 1.6L motor, with an aftermarket side-draft carb/manifold conversion. It’s all connected to the diff in a unified package & uses a single front motor mount point, same as stock.

[Warren Duchesne]

I’m very impressed with the motor conversion!! Very professional job. I also would like to find a rebuildable motor but after Sgt Bethancourt finds one first. Warren Duchesne

[BJBoehm]

Beautiful job!

[Bill H.]

Absolutely beautiful!