Numbchux

hehe, just a little bit. truth be told. You've done some positively awesome work! but yea, a little greedy. I definitely think you'd gain a little power and a lot of reliability if you swapped to a standalone. anyway. not much to report on this. the XT6, and upcoming frozen rotors group buy have soaked up much of my funds lately, and the wagon has been accumulating snow. BUT, Skidd over on RS25 has made progress on his, and given me a massive idea. I was always a bit nervous about running the belt around the radiator hose like reddevil does. but couldn't think of a good way to mount an idler low enough to route the belt under the hose. But he's done it: bolts to the power steering bracket: belt routing. that's some very nice wrap on all the pulleys, and no removing a rad hose to swap blower belts! so I think I'm going to keep my blower mounted flat like reddevil (since I don't have to worry about an ABS pump). but route the belt under the hose like Skidd did. next step in the project, however, is to get some legacy power steering lines. my manhandled EA82 ones will be very much in the way.

yep, I've done the old baseball-bat fender rolling trick. pretty easy, just have to be careful (also better to do in warmer weather to help prevent paint cracking. but careful use of a heat gun can do this too). running the AGXs that stiff on stock springs is definitely working them harder than just regular street driving on stock struts. I've known many people to have great luck with AGXs, but all are running a well-balanced setup with stiffer springs. you're next project is to figure out where it's rubbing. try backing that corner up onto a ramp, or jacking it up from the suspension to compress just the one corner. and see where it touches first. as for the EJ22 swap. short answer, yes, it's quite easy. But there is a ton of other info here about it. no need to hijack this thread to get into it.

"How hard can it be?" :lol:

that would be true with 02-05 wrx rears. but 06-07 use a 290mm (compared to 266 for wrx and tleg) rear vented rotor and 2pot caliper. definitely an upgrade in every way, and definitely not re-using the old rotors, as they're 24mm smaller! what kind of springs are you running? only on the one side? other signs of blown strut (poor handling, bumpy, etc.....heck, go out and bounce that corner of the car by hand, and see how much it continues to bounce).

oh, good call! I do remember that. Loyale2.7turbo posted it, I believe.....off to search for it. although, I think it was a tercel axle or something, which I don't really think would hold up to oversized tires any better than an r160. as for wheeling worry-free. I've borrowed buddies jeeps, toyotas, nissans, etc. and wheeled them harder than I ever did my soob, without worrying about needing to borrow a trailer to get the rig home. never had that with any of the subarus, and wheeling just isn't fun when you're thinking about who you can call to come rescue a car that doesn't roll/run/turn. I love subarus to death, and had a ton of fun wheeling them, but got tired of being scared about how I was going to get home. I think I made one trip without breaking something mechanical, and that was when my water pump was going out and I could drive it most of the day......

outer splines, as in the ones that slide into the hub. so an EJ axle could not be used with an EA hub. I've never noticed any difference in axle length. swapped all kinds of combinations (FWD N/A 3AT, FWD 3AT turbo, 4WD D/R, 4WD 3AT). granted, I've never measured any of them....so I suppose it's possible.... also, XT6 hub splines are different than EAs. so those don't help.

I'd be willing to bet that it is. since the internals are the same as EJ 5MTs. and I know an EJ 5MT cable pigtail will thread in place of a 6MT VSS.....I would assume that there's something that would fit in an EJ 5MT. I plan on replacing all my gauges will aftermarket ones within the next couple years, and an aftermarket speedo will require a digital VSS....so I've been looking into this a bit. keep us updated on what you find!

you will need to use the inner DOJ cups that match the diff. there's a chance that things will be the right size and you could just mix and match parts and make hybrid axles that will work. or, you might have to get some conversion races from rockford or similar. I'm planning to put an SVX rear LSD into my XT6 this spring...so we'll see how that goes.

in the USRM, on the new servers: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=84798

all EJ series shafts have the same splines on the outer ends (as other EJ shafts), which is quite different to the EA. so yes, newer WRX sedans have longer shafts due to a wider track, but the axles will not work with an EA 4-lug hub. all Ea82 shafts are the same length. I'm with the king here. strut tops are virtually identical (interchangeable anyway) between EA82 and EJ. so you can get camber plates for a liberty/impreza and put them in your RX, although you may have to drill 3 new holes to get them oriented correctly.

I've never heard of anyone doing a solid axle without a tcase (not saying it can't be done, but your comment that you know it's been done is not entirely true). also, I think you'll be hard-pressed to stuff a solid axle under there with enough room for suspension workings and such with only a 4" lift. maybe relocate the fuel tank? and yea, once I dropped the diff enough, I didn't break any rear axles on the trail (had more problems with fronts, and even then, 95% of my broken axles were on the road, mostly from torn boots/dirt in the joint). not saying it's a bad idea, or it won't work, just that it might not solve the problem (which might not exist in the first place).

yep, the VW guys do it all the time. helped a local guy take 1.5" off the bottom of an EJ22 pan to put in a vanagon.

I'm N/A...but I've been running sans pitch stopper for 40k+ miles. stock mounts (280k+ on them) are still in one piece. although, when I upgrade things this spring, Group Ns are on the list.

the diff in a subaru trans cannot be flipped. even with a custom ring/pinion. just no room for it. I also don't think the engine could be made to run backwards without a ton of work. cams reground, oil/water pumps redesigned. ECU reprogrammed. I think your best bet for 4WD, is a VW-subaru adapter plate, with a Synchro vanagon 4WD drivetrain in there. would be rear engined...but close. I think running a driveshaft under the suspension components would be a nightmare. really wouldn't be much room.

the clutch plate might not be aligned. might try loosening the pressure plate bolts and re-aligning the clutch (with a real-live alignment tool) before re-torquing. the input shaft only slides about 1/2" into the pilot bearing. so my immediate reaction (having done many of these) is that that's not lined up. it can be an enormous ***************, as they have to be perfectly aligned (not just in the right place, but if the engine or tranny is angled a bit, it can hang up). sometimes it helps to put a bit of grease on the input shaft. then, put a jack under the front of the tranny to get it high enough so things will line up without the engine mounts hitting the crossmember. get the engine lined up, and you'll probably have to shake and wriggle things a bit. and yea, turn the crank a bit to help the splines line up. you may have to use the bolts to help a bit (don't use them to pull things in, you could strip the threads. but put them in finger tight, then rock the engine back and forth to get it to seat better, tighten a bit more by hand, etc.). it's an extremely snug fit, so it'll take some coaxing.

'86 "loyale" (although the loyale name wasn't used until '90. before that they were just referred to by their trim level. the loyale body style is an EA82, the '84 is an EA81). the EA82 has a larger engine bay, and more tranny options. the rest of it really depends on what you want out of it. if you want a wheeler, I'd definitely keep the EA81. but for a street car, the EA82. lots of options, and your preferences with those will change what your ideal setup would be. lots of information already posted. check the stickies at the top of the page, there is a list of most of us who've done the swap, with some more info about each of our vehicles. find a setup you like, search for posts by the owner, and you'll probably find lots of info about how we did it, what we like/don't like, and what we might do different in the future.

when I pulled the old stuff out of my loyale. I opted to remove the axles/suspension/brakes first. then I lowered the car to the ground, unbolted the crossmembers, then lifted the front of the car with a hi-lift jack under the rad support, set it on 2 stacks of tires under the framerails, and used my other subaru to drag the assembly out:

a cable will outlast an air hose, every time. a carefully routed air hose won't cause too many problems, but will still be more vulnerable. and an OX is a fraction of the cost of an ARB. airbags in a car that didn't have them is a bad idea. the G sensors and computers that make them all work are very carefully programmed to the car (weight of the car, location of the sensors, location of the sensors in relation to crumple zones etc.). messing with that could mean they go off to easily, or too late. IMHO, the kind of fab work to put a different IRS system in there would be much harder than a solid axle. for less strength, less reliability, and less aftermarket support. if I'm swapping rear ends, It's a solid axle. also, subaru brakes are more than adequate for the car. the fronts will need to be upgraded before the rear discs become a limiting factor. and, gearing is limited by the front. getting as low as 4.444 in the rear is easy. but the front is still limited to 3.90.

+1 I'd only run a selectable in the front (OX brand cable-actuated one, least stuff to fail. seen too many people SOL with failed air systems and an ARB) to allow easier tight turning. putting one in the rear is just trying to find ways to spend extra money. if an easy r160 locker existed, it would have been used. get a beefy LSD, weld it, or put a real diff in it. as for the gearing. no way could you fit a second low range gearset on the input shaft like stock. you might be able to move the center diff/transfer gearset back, and put another low range between the 5 speeds and the center diff like a second tcase on a toyota. but even than, it's a ton of work, for what? even if you manage a 4:1 ratio in that second reduction (no way would gears that large fit without making a substantial bulge in the case), you've still only got an 88:1. I watched a 4runner go through the rock gorge at the "local" ORV park with a 250:1 crawl ratio. When rock crawling, gearing isn't about torque, it's about control. the day someone finds a reasonably priced way to get a subaru over 100:1 and an auto locker in the rear, is the day I'll think about selling my 4runner and getting another subaru to use as a wheeler.

looks like my '78 boy, looking at the body and seats, I never would have guessed it had 100k+ iowa miles! my '85 wagon just about broke in half at 130k iowa miles. but yours looks awesome. must be almost all summer miles.

the B-pillar is a major part of the structure of the car. I had even heard that the Jaws of Life can't cut through a subaru B-pillar. that said, I think it could be pulled out correctly, but I would proceed with extreme caution. if it happened to my loyale ( makes me sick just thinking about it), I'd repair it. but only because I've only seen a couple EA82s this solid in MN in my life (I've EJ swapped both of them ). I think if I were you, I'd find another. subarus aren't as prone to rusting out where you're at, so it's much more easily replaceable. I'm not sure what work you've done to the car, but I think it would probably be easier to swap the modifications to another shell than it would be to effectively and adequately repair a bent pillar. just my 2 cents.

same thing as my '85. wheel fell off (lug nuts....never make that mistake twice), sheered the end of the ball joint off. didn't notice until a week or so later when the ball joint popped out of the control arm while bombing through a field. pretty amazing how strong that press-fit is. I honestly don't think it would have fallen out on the street.

yep, bent one on an '88 hatch doing fairly light wheeling (well...still pretty impressive compared to a stock rig, but nothing compared to what it's done since the chevy 6-lugs). and the ice racing one was an impreza using EJ spares. slid sideways into a snow bank, and both passenger side wheels where wedged against the brake calipers, the car wouldn't even roll....even bent the caliper brackets a bit.

it certainly doesn't, but while searching, I stumbled across an ARB dealer that had them listed....

I have personally seen donut wheels bent like pretzels in "normal" use (offroading, rallyX. beyond just driving on the street, but well within the limits of a stock wheel).