DJ_Kuehn

McBrat, you must work for subaru or something... you're always responding to my posts with good answers to (what i consider) obscure questions! (thanks, btw) Well then, this is for sure a 2WD trans. It is a 1980, and it does not have a shaft in back.

Hops, just sent you an email. I believe it is a 4WD automatic, but I'm not positive on that. It has a shaft coming out of both sides on front, whatever that means. Sorry for sounding like a moron, but I only use these motors for my hovercraft projects. I'm not familiar with the transmissions at all.

Thanks Caboobaroo, that's what I hoped to hear. I ordered another one this afternoon, but had to have it shipped. Although I expected it, it was kinda funny because they only wanted $10 for the flywheel, but it was $25 to ship Oh well, at least I'll have what I need, and it ended up being the same price I paid the local @$$holes minus sales tax. So actually, almost $2.50 cheaper. Anyway, if anyone ever needs to know, and assuming that was indeed an EA-71 flywheel, which I'm pretty sure it was, the diameter of the bolt hole pattern from the center of the crank is about 1/4" smaller than on the EA-81. Thanks again for everyone's help.

BTW, if anyone is in the St. Louis area, DO NOT go to Al's auto salvage just north of downtown. You will not be a happy camper if you do. It is a VERY unprofessional yard.

Hey guys, Went to a salvage yard this weekend and spoke to a very friendly (using EXTREME sarcasm here) employee who sold me a, supposedly, 1980 ea81 flywheel. Got it home, cleaned the half inch of solidified grease off of it, the tried to bolt it up. It wouldn't fit! The holes are in the same arc locations (in degrees around a circle) but are farther out from the center on my motor. When the flywheel was on the crank, the outside edges of the holes on the flywheel were lined up about at the center of the holes on the motor. Afters looking around, I came to the conclusion that the grouchy moron gave me a 1.6L flywheel because there was "71" stamped on the cast (motor) side of the flywheel. I assumed this meant EA-71. However, when I took it back today to get the right one, the guy gave me all kinds of crap and insisted that it was the right one because he had another one exactly like it "in back". I anticipated him being an rump roast after my first encounter, so I brought the washer plate that goes over the AT flex plate to prove that the holes were wrong. He took it, came back a few minutes later, and said the other flywheel he had was exactly like the one he gave me, then accused me of not knowing what I needed. After insisting I get my money back, he reluctantly agreed, I left. Here is my question: I'm not the moron in this story, right? An EA-81 manual transmission flywheel WILL FOR SURE bolt up to a crank on an EA-81 motor that originally had an automatic with a torque converter, right? I'm going to have to mail order one from someplace, and since I know shipping will cost a fortune, I want to make sure I'm getting the right thing. Thanks!

HMMM, that's kinda what I thought... maybe I'll call around some more.

Yeah, pretty much. Here is where that first pic came from. http://www.zbcreations.com/our18sp.htm It's the website of another hovercraft guy I know. That craft is much bigger than mine, but it works pretty much the same way. The soobs are used on the bigger craft all the time, I'm just going to be the first (as far as I know) to race one. Or for that matter, to even put one on a craft as small as mine (13 ft).

hehe, I was afraid that question would come up I build and race hovercraft. I'm converting my craft from 2 extremely moody 2-strokes to a (hopefully) not moody and very reliable soob. Attached pic is the craft I'm going to try the soob on.

Yeah, I remember reading that about that starter gear reduction thing somewhere. From what I could tell, they looked like they were the same physical size, just one turned faster than the other. This sound right?

Thanks for the reply! No, i'm not going to be using the clutch part, so as long as it will physically bolt to the motor flex plate, it will work for what I'm doing. Actually, now that I think about it, I can show you what I'm doing... http://www.zbcreations.com/epbimages/18sp(347).JPG I've been calling around for the last hour or so, and I found one place that has an 86 (i think) for $50, and another that has a 1980 flywheel for $35. $35 still seems steep to me for nothing but a 24 year old flywheel, but I guess thats what i'll get unless someone has a better suggestion.

This is simple, and I'm pretty sure I know the answer anyway, but I'm going to ask before I go buy parts. I've got an EA-81, 1980 model, with an AT. I'm using this engine for a project outside the car, and I need a flywheel to bolt my everflex to. My questions: 1. Will an ea81 manual trans flywheel bolt right to the metal plate the at torque converter bolted to? 2. Will it fit in the AT bell housing? (pretty sure it will from reading other threads) 3. Will the same starter work on the torque converter or flywheel? 4. Will any year ea81 manual transmission flywheel bolt to my ea81? (also pretty sure it will from reading other threads) Thanks guys!!

hops, If you need one I have still have that tranny i posted the other day with only 26,000 miles on it.

Yeah that 18SPW is alot of fun to fly. In fact, I hold the 'unofficial altitude record' in that craft. I was flying it once on a day that was WAY too gusty to be flying in. Right at about 45mph, which was just under liftoff speed on that particular craft, right as I started to pull back on the stick I got a huge gust of headwind. The thing went straight up and leveled off at about 30 feet! I about wet myself (10 feet is pretty much the absolute max your supposed to be able to go) but luckily I was able to get it down safely. Needless to say, that was the end of flying for that day! Braking isn't nearly as big a deal as it seems like it would be. 95% of the time you're going to be over water anyway, so if you did have to stop suddenly for some reason, you could just cut the lift and turn it into a boat, which will stop you really fast and won't hurt a thing. You can do the same thing on land, but it will sometimes tear your skirt. It's never really a problem though. Just plan ahead a little bit and you won't need to stop so quickly! As for speed, hovercraft are extremely efficient. The most popular UH craft next to the 18sp is the 14 and 13p. They use only a single 25 horse motor and can easily do 50mph. If you ever think you might be interested in building something, let me know. I race for Universal Hovercraft and I'm a chairman with the Hoverclub of America, so I can hook you up with information. The website I was going to give you yesterday, but was down, is now back up. This guy has LOTS of pictures of his 18SP, with lots of the soob setup. Check if out if you're interested. http://www.zbcreations.com/our18sp.htm

SUBARU3: Found this by accident while browsing another board just now. Actualy there is atleast 3 distinct 4/6cyl bellhousing patterns that subaru has used. The old EA-71 uses one pattern, the EA-81/82 uses a different one, and the EJ the 3rd. I haven't checked to see if the early 1.1L and 1.3L are the same as the 1.6L but they apear to be. Note that there IS an engine side belhousing so that you can mate a EA-71 to a EA-82 tranny. EA-71/81/82 ER-27 all use a belhousing 1/2 that bolts onto the back of the motor before the flywheel/flexplate is installed. The EJ/EG motors use a integrated engine side belhousing 1/2 and It is NOT compatible with the older trannies. And the older motors are not compatible with the new trannies. This was at http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread/t-230538.html Looks like you could use it if you swapped engine bell housings.

Shadow: Believe it or not, soobs are probably the single most popular engine used for automotive powered hovercraft. We use them all the time. This is my personal first time with one, but I have lots of friends that have used them. I'm just getting sick of two cycles so I'm converting my race craft over. It will be the first soob powered racer as far as I know. No, the prop is not direct drive, and from what I'm told the MT parts are a better choice for this app, but the AT will work. Since you pointed it out, I'll do some more asking around to seee if I'd be better off finding a manual trans to work with. I know for sure people have used the AT's I just don't know if they've they've been more prone to problems than the MT people. If you're curious, an everflex coupling goes between the flywheel and the bottom pulley of a 3V belt drive system, so that absorbs the vibration. Here is a set of pictures from a soob craft. There aren't any good close-ups of the back of the engine, but you'll get the idea. http://www.hoverclub.net/2003/2003-05-24-hovering-at-bobs/index.html SUBARU3: I don't know if this will fit on a 71, but I'm sure there are people on this board that can probably tell you serial numbers for EA-71 trannys off the top of their head, so hopefully one of them will read this post and tell you if it will fit!

Hey everyone, first post to the board, though I've read quite a bit. I just bought a 1980 EA-81 and transmission from a junk yard with only 26,000 miles. They didn't know what they had! I'm going to be using this motor for a hovercraft, so all I need off the transmission is the flywheel and bell housing (to mount starter, which I still need if anyone has one for sale). Since the milage is SO low and I know it would be about impossible to find an AT with that low of miles, I hate to tear it up just for those parts, especially since I could get the same stuff off a junk tranny. The part number on the housing is T81MA-M1. I'm asking $200, but I'll let it go for less if you can get me a replacement bell housing and flywheel (or your old tranny). I'm in the St. Louis area and make frequent trips to Indiana as well. I could ship it if you want, but it will probably be somewhat expensive due to the weight. Let me know if you're interested! Thanks, Jason Kuehn