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5 lug swap difficulty?


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Basically you are looking at this for an EA81

 

Front:

Ream Front arms to fit larger EJ ball joint.

EJ knuckles/brakes

EJ Struts (with either EA81 strut tops, or redrill car to fit EJ strut tops).

Axles do not exist that I know of. I'd take an EJ, and EA81. Hack them apart, sleeve the shaft, weld it.

 

Rear:

Should just need xt6 hubs/brakes.

 

Feel free to call.

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I did the swap in my hatch. I'm in the process right now of installing an ej awd transmission.

 

As far as the axles go, with all of the research that I've found you're going to have to make some axles & a drive line. I'm having Bill make mine, then I'll take them down to portland drive line and have them all balanced.

 

I used 99% Legacy/Impreza stuff for my swap. The only XT6 thing that I used was the rear hub. I also used WRX brakes and FK coil over struts with EA81 top hats (you can't use the EJ strut stuff 'cause the strut tower is too narrow). I used the EA81 control arms and just reamed out the holes to fit the EJ ball joint.

 

Have fun and let me know if you have any questions.

 

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I put a impreza AWD trans in a 87 gl wagon. For front axles, I hink I found a shop in Tigard that can make them. I'm in the process of putting the 2.2 in now. and thanks to Pooparu, I put a LSD 4:11 rear end in it. Will get back with results on axles

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I put a impreza AWD trans in a 87 gl wagon. For front axles, I hink I found a shop in Tigard that can make them. I'm in the process of putting the 2.2 in now. and thanks to Pooparu, I put a LSD 4:11 rear end in it. Will get back with results on axles

 

Axles are not a problem for you - just use 23 spline EJ inner joints - FWD Impreza axles will fit.

 

Zap's coupe is an EA81 and the whole car, including the axles, is narrower - he doesn't have that option.

 

I'm going to build an adaptor to press the axle shafts out of the outer joints and see what I can do about fitting the EJ outer to the EA81 axle shaft. Rockford might have an option for it. There are a lot of EJ outer's and two different EA81 shafts out there so there's got to be a workable configuration.

 

GD

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I also used WRX brakes and FK coil over struts with EA81 top hats (you can't use the EJ strut stuff 'cause the strut tower is too narrow).

 

What part was narrow? What year stuff did you try?

 

On my brat I have mounted GC camber plates (05+ LGT ones were too large)... which leads me to believe that regular mounts would work... Maybe depends on year?

 

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Axles are not a problem for you - just use 23 spline EJ inner joints - FWD Impreza axles will fit.

 

other way around. that's for using the EJ knuckles with the EA trans. he (thread-jacker with the '87) has an EA82 with an EJ trans. so he needs EA82t axles.

 

 

 

Zap, pretty much the same as has been mentioned. XT6 rear hubs are the only hard part to get a hold of. if you're using the EJ trans (sounds like you are) you won't need a hybrid axle. But, you'll either need a shorter axle, or longer control arms.....

 

 

 

 

GD. have you heard of the pipe trick for disassembling the outer CV? I keep meaning to find a pipe and try it on some of my spare subie axles:

Edited by Numbchux
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Hi. guys, I've done my 88 GL10 T, & I don't know if there's a difference in track width between EA81 & 82. I'm runnin' a mid 80s D/R, & XT6 Fr. control arms- struts, hubs, & brakes are Outback. The 1/2 shafts are 23 spline inners w/ Leg./Imp. outers. They are for 93-94 Imp. 2wd. 5 spd. I have some friends at CarQuest, & we ordered every shaft avail. & went thru them until we found these. I started with XT6 set up in fr., but options were too limited, Note, in order to run the Leg. type hubs, I had to relocate the inner pivot point for the control arms out about a 1/2" to gain some end play for the CVJs, but now, working beautifully. I don't know if this is any help for your projects, but thot I'd offer it up anyway. Luck, S.

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Just for reference:

 

EA81 control arms are 1.5" shorter than EA82 control arms, from the centerline of the inner pivot to the centerline of the outer ball joint.

 

It's not too hard to make XT6 or EA82 control arms fit an EA81, and for lifted rigs its a good idea to have the wider front wheel track. The EA81 and EA82 radius rods are the same length, and bolt to the lower arm in the same location with relation to the inner pivot. The only thing you have to do it cut a slot in the arm near the pivot point, so you can pull the control arm back until it lines up correctly, then weld it up and plate it at least a little on the bottom for strength. And with a 4" lift, just use straight-cut front lift blocks and your camber should be close to perfect.

 

-Bill

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What part was narrow? What year stuff did you try?

 

On my brat I have mounted GC camber plates (05+ LGT ones were too large)... which leads me to believe that regular mounts would work... Maybe depends on year?

 

 

I was using 2002 WRX struts & 1992 Legacy struts. The stock springs were way too wide. I think Jibbs had the same problem on his BRAT.

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GD. have you heard of the pipe trick for disassembling the outer CV? I keep meaning to find a pipe and try it on some of my spare subie axles:

 

Nice! I had not seen that yet. I can't beleive I didn't think of doing that! I'm going to score some tubing to give that a try tomorrow. Need to get to the steel yard anyway.

 

GD

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I was using 2002 WRX struts & 1992 Legacy struts. The stock springs were way too wide. I think Jibbs had the same problem on his BRAT.

 

Yeah, I was trying to use stock '90 legacy struts on the front, and they seemed to be too wide to fit into the tower. Impreza struts went in fine.

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Tex, is that an ea81 you've drilled to fit the coilovers? I tried drilling the towers on a parts car I have, but it seemed that because the engine side of the tower is lower than the fender side, it didn't seem to work. How'd you do it?

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other way around. that's for using the EJ knuckles with the EA trans. he (thread-jacker with the '87) has an EA82 with an EJ trans. so he needs EA82t axles.

 

 

 

Zap, pretty much the same as has been mentioned. XT6 rear hubs are the only hard part to get a hold of. if you're using the EJ trans (sounds like you are) you won't need a hybrid axle. But, you'll either need a shorter axle, or longer control arms.....

 

 

 

 

GD. have you heard of the pipe trick for disassembling the outer CV? I keep meaning to find a pipe and try it on some of my spare subie axles:

 

yeah the pipe trick is hit or miss sometimes it just doesn't do the trick but u can still cut the outer jount off with an angle grinder..just have to be very careful not to cut the splines...I've had more success with oem NTN axles using the pipe trick and variants and less success with rebuilds/aftermarket.

 

I have seen outboard joints in many spline varieties, three variations for ea/er cars with oe stamps of 82, 87, 95 and 100. In ej cars the numbering conventions are generally the same, but it gets complicated as there are now fine splined and coarse splined versions, for example gd wrx axles even though the shaft looks nice and fat the actual joints are in the 82 size but are completely incompatible with anything sized 82 in ea/er 'cuz there are fine splined and ea/er is coarse splined.

 

I took two of my axle shafts to an aftermarket parts supplier here, one shaft was out of a 4wd 4eat ea82 turbo car, the other was out of a carbed ea82 auto fwd the turbo car had 95 on the joints and 25 spline inboard DOJs. The fwd car had 82 on the joints and had 23 spline DOJs.

My parts store had BOTH types of outboard EJ joints in stock

 

Pics: fwd on top turbo below

IMG_0796.jpg

 

turbo on left:

IMG_0788.jpg

 

some ej GD wrx on top 4eat Legacy below, you can see both are fine splined and you can also see the variation in axle diameter on the gd axle:

legacyvswrxaxles002.jpg

 

legacyvswrxaxles007.jpg

 

Now connecting this on topic most ea81 axles are the 82 coarse spline variety..

 

I build custom axles using ea82 fwd inboard and shaft and ej outers the same can be done with ea81 parts.. This is what the guys in aussieland have been doing for years..

HTH Kaz

Edited by PoorManzImpreza
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I did the swap in my hatch. I'm in the process right now of installing an ej awd transmission.

 

As far as the axles go, with all of the research that I've found you're going to have to make some axles & a drive line. I'm having Bill make mine, then I'll take them down to portland drive line and have them all balanced.

 

I used 99% Legacy/Impreza stuff for my swap. The only XT6 thing that I used was the rear hub. I also used WRX brakes and FK coil over struts with EA81 top hats (you can't use the EJ strut stuff 'cause the strut tower is too narrow). I used the EA81 control arms and just reamed out the holes to fit the EJ ball joint.

 

Have fun and let me know if you have any questions.

 

[

 

Thanks a lot for the pics and info. I'd really like to put some little bit lighter wheels on the coupe. I have some tires in mind too. :evil:

I'd have to sell the Superlites to help pay for the swap though. . .

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I build custom axles using ea82 fwd inboard and shaft and ej outers the same can be done with ea81 parts.. This is what the guys in aussieland have been doing for years..

HTH Kaz

 

Thanks for the pics and info Kaz - any idea who might carry such components? What type of supplier am I looking for? All the auto-parts chains want to sell you an entire axle rather than just just the joints. I was thinking of calling Rockford CV when I have some axles apart to measure.

 

GD

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Thanks a lot for the pics and info. I'd really like to put some little bit lighter wheels on the coupe. I have some tires in mind too. :evil:

I'd have to sell the Superlites to help pay for the swap though. . .

 

I might have something to trade for those superlites.

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Thanks for the pics and info Kaz - any idea who might carry such components? What type of supplier am I looking for? All the auto-parts chains want to sell you an entire axle rather than just just the joints. I was thinking of calling Rockford CV when I have some axles apart to measure.

 

GD

 

In NZ all you can get are just the single CVs and DOJs (Inner CVs are what they're called here - noone seems to know what the hell a DOJ is :) ) and I've never seen a place in NZ that sells whole axles.

 

I dunno, seems like a waste to replace it if your axle if fine, and a CV is gone. Sorta the "if it ain't broke" philosophy.

 

It's what NZ is known for :D

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