Numbchux

XT6 front and rear xmember, EJ center (I'm using one from a '96 legacy). I shortened my driveshaft 2". worked great. knuckles and transmission are separate projects. you can go 5-lug with an EA transmission, and you can grab 25-spline 4-lug axles from a turbo Ea82. a bunch of that is covered in my Ea2ej writeup.

that FT4WD D/R is nice, probably the same as our RX trans. I had one in my wagon with the EJ22......if you spend any time above about 60mph, I would not recommend it, as the gearing is very short. the EA internals are the same as EJ. no more or less reliable.

I'm concerned about the strength of the miata shock being used as a strut . They're just not designed for that kind of force.....especially on a track. I hope it works out for you, but I won't be climbing in for a ride.....

there'll be a number on the bellhousing near the starter, something like this: you can usually just plug this into google and come up with some info (with EJs, anyway.....).

Let's just assume we're only talking about EA82 transmissions. as the 4-speed D/Rs would be a ridiculous amount of work for an inferior design. Also, the '85-'86 RXs had a part-time 4WD D/R trans that had the short 1-5 gears and the little low range gear. avoid this transmission, again, extra work (new axles, 25-spline instead of 23) for a lesser setup. they would have the same gear ratio on the highway (assuming we're talking about non-turbo part-time 4WD 5MTs). but you have the stump-puller gears in low-range. also, the push-button system is ridiculously complex. using an electric switch (which the contacts tend to wear out and cause you to loose 4WD), controlling 2 electric solenoids, which redirect a vacuum source (which can leak or come disconnected), which operates a cable (which can seize), which engages 4WD. the dual-ranges have a bar, to a lever in the cabin. much like the other 5 gears. Much more reliable, and it happens when you want it. since the push-button setup relies on engine vacuum, which varies depending on rpm and engine load, it can be unpredictable. the FWD setting can be irritating with the stock EA82 suspension and EJ22 torque (wheelspin). So you might want to consider going to some sort of full-time setup. although you'll sacrifice some mileage for it. EA82 FT4WD is neat, but only available in the turbo models and XT6s. the turbos have the super short 5th gear, which makes them very annoying on the highway. XT6s have very nice gearing, but are fairly rare. or, grab an EJ AWD trans. better clutch, better center diff, nice gearing (look for one with 3.9 gears, you'll have better highway gearing AND you won't have to swap out your rear diff). take 2" out of the EA82 driveshaft, and a little creativity with the shift linkage, and some more creativity with the mount (or get XT6 crossmembers). Here's a good chart of different gear ratios for EJ transmissions: http://www.northursalia.com/techdocs/trannychart/trannychart.html compared to EA numbers (the N/A and turbo numbers remain the same, whether they're dual-range or not): http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=84798 IMHO, ditch the push-button setup. and either get a D/R from an N/A EA82. or use an EJ AWD 5MT

Sweet!! awesome info, and glad to hear you had success!! I'd like to pin this down. do you have any pics of that? do you know you had the rod ends on the correct sides? they are shaped specifically so that they will clear the inside of the rim at full-lock. gary had this issue with his '6 just a week or so ago, rubbing when he got the 14s back on and it turned out he had a rod-end on the wrong side. I haven't taken any measurements at all, or compared them side-to-side. But the only reason that I can think of that the chassis would effect clearance there would be if the steering rack was much further forward relative the control arms. XT6s come stock with 14s. I've run 15" steelies on mine (both XT6 and 5-lugged EA82) quite a bit. zero issues. I'm also curious why you didn't run the EA81 rod-ends. might have saved you some modification anyway. I ran them on my loyale, with lots of thread left un-used.....

I haven't. I never trusted the spring.....I did occasionally check/adjust the tension, but I always put some extra pressure on the tensioner while I did. definitely. I would not run any EJ (even a non-interference one) without the covers.

They are softer-compound. so in warmer temperatures they will wear faster. I wouldn't use them for much offroading, they would probably get pretty good traction, but they'd probably come apart fairly easily. A buddy of mine used to run them year-round on his Astro-van. but he would drive quite a lot of miles every year, and replaced them every fall.

agreed!

the weak link is the transfer gears in the back of the transmission. They have failed from running RWD. and even more commonly in divorced t-case rigs. But they're pretty tough.

no it doesn't. the engine quits, you get out, grab 22mm and 12mm sockets and a spare belt. and it's running again in 10 minutes or so. and with or without covers, EA82 belts fail much sooner than the subarus with hydaulic tensioners. it's been many years since I've tried to depend on an EA82 every day, so I couldn't tell you the cause of every failure, but I always used new belts, and almost never had leakage issues. Like I said, running without them is conceding that they're unreliable, and that you'll be prepared to replace them wherever you have to be. It might be possible to get them sealed up well enough, and get the belts tight enough that it wouldn't be necessary, but my efforts were never successful.

it was 5-lug swapped...

there's quite a bit of room in the EA82 wheel wells. on my lowered Loyale, I ran 215/45r17s on the street, 205/65r15s in the snow, and 225/55r16s on the track. These are all quite a bit larger than stock. as long as you have the correct wheel offset (not pugs or 6-lugs), they'll fit.

it would take some pretty in-depth fabricating and machining, as the EJs don't have the extra input shaft bearing (or it's bolt holes), the pivot for the shifter fork (the XT6 single-range case has this, but the EJs don't), and I suspect the case would have to be clearanced a bit.

with the poor tensioner design on the EA82s (not applicable on XT6s or EJs), the belts are bound to fail. regardless of whether you're on-road or off. The reason to run with the covers off is so you can change the belts in just a few minutes. So, if you trust them to get you where you're going (not me! I've been left on the side of the road too many dozens of times by my EA82s), make them last and run with covers. if not, bring spares (both belts, both tensioners, and the idler), and tools, and leave 'em off. someone who knows what they're doing, and has all the parts/tools at hand, can replace one in about 20 minutes. My record is 14, including putting on my coveralls.

yea...."replacement" isn't really the right word. as it won't be the toy. it's just the new daily driver. yea, it'll get a few mods (check the transmission thread in the retrofitting section). and if I get my hands on one new rota, I'll run those come summer time. and throw the air suspension away because it's junk, even when it works. you know. but no engine swaps. no crazy hybrid suspension stuff. I've been plotting something to be the new street toy, but lately I've been thinking about focusing my time/money on the 4runner.

"new" radiator (by new, I mean old, standard EA82, but not corroded to dust like this one) is in. new clutch cable is in. 4.111 clutch-type rear LSD is in. old clutch kit is out. tomorrow, it's the transmission. Oh yea....speedo gear was a different size. had to swap it. but was a direct fit onto the XT6s shaft. EDIT: pictures of the damage:

I highly doubt the kit actually effects the aero in a positive way. maybe would work well with a diffuser from the gas tank to the edge of the rear lip and splitter on the front. it looks goofy in person (at least I think so) without the front lip, as the side skirts and rear extend down below the body a bit, and the front doesn't match. I'll be getting a new lip for sure come spring. I think I might like it a bit better without....but the fiberglass doesn't rust. and it's probably been on there since the car was practically new (the rockers where the rear mount of the side skirts attach is COMPLETELY gone). I'm not anxious to see/show off what's underneath.

pitch stopper. XTs (6- and 4-cylinders) bolt to the trans like EJs.

I've done it to Ea82 3.9s many times without grinding. no problems. this one was definitely a different casting. couldn't even get the ring gear past the little nubs (could also be that the 4.111 ring gear is a bit larger than the 3.9 one).

^yea, the repro thing got delayed a bit, but it's changing hands this winter. so yea, I'll be getting a repro lip ASAP.

both pictures of the transmission are EJ internals in the XT6 case. reason is to replace the screwed up gears that were in it. I wanted to at the very least keep FT4WD (although I prefer the VLSD AWD center), and since genuine XT6 trannies are rare, and turbo Ea82 trannies are geared poorly, my best bet was to grab an EJ AWD trans and swap the internals. The adapter plates only work to mate an EJ engine to an EA/ER transmission.....I'm going the other way. not sure what torsion arm you're referring to. Just finished swapping the LSD into the 4.111 legacy donor diff (grabbed a legacy one with bolt in bearing retainers, as the impreza had thread-in ones....and I don't have the tool to remove them without breaking them). Also, had to grind the case on it. never had to swapping these into other EA82 cases....took a picture of the mod:

so, this '88 XT6 was making noise in 2nd gear. I suspected the synchros to be shot. So, I bought a trans from a '94 impreza. yesterday, I pulled the '6 trans out, carried it down to the workbench, and started tearing into it. I found 2 teeth missing on the driven 2nd gear. so I lifted all the gears out and laid the impreza internals into it. ran into an issue.....the 1-2 shift fork is a mm or 2 narrower on the XT6 trans than it is on the EJ one. I was able to drop the driven shaft in there, but could not spin it by hand, it was just to tight. So I pulled it apart, and swapped the shift forks between the two transmissions: EJ on the left, XT6 on the right. the EJ shift fork was a direct fit on the XT6 shifter rod (I bet the EJ shifter rods would have worked fine). EJ front diff dropped right in. after many hours of cussing, I finally got the alignment pins aligned in the needle bearings: then got the EJ center diff and tailhousing bolted on: tonight I'm swapping the LSD that was in my wagon to 4.111 to match this trans. and seeing if I can modify the XT6 center tranny xmember section to work with the EJ mount (bolt spacing is different....).

no, the clutch shouldn't cause any hangup (the disc needs to be able to slide on the input shaft to work properly....so they don't really get seized on there). just have to make sure everything is disconnected. the pitch stopper (bar from the engine to firewall), throttle cable, fuel lines, electrical, vacuum, etc. etc.

I measured it all again, and got closer to 2". Since that was right in between what suberdave and kingbobdole reported, I went with it. picked up the modded shaft today, hopefully will start putting things back in tomorrow....