el_freddo

On the flip side I didn’t have issues with my gearbox when I was front wheel drive with 27s. I found the front would spin a wheel if you were going too hard off the line. And I would use drive shafts more often too AWD is where it’s at for sure! I’ve “basically” got a dual range forester box in my L and can daily it or drive it hundreds of km without even thinking about it being unreliable. And flog it around town plenty. Cheers Bennie

Hmmm... I might have to check that out on my mother inlaw’s brumby as it’s got a heavy clutch pedal compared to mine (and I only found out tonight). Cheers Bennie

Pretty sure it’s like the L series and every other Subaru setup - no can do. Both are different. Cheers Bennie

Hey Jono, the wagon wheelbase is 100mm shorter than the brumby from memory, and it shares the same wheel base as the hatch IIRC. Someone will have some specs hidden away somewhere. Hopefully they’ll share. As for the cutting and welding, you’re correct - cut the weld carefully and that will “release” the tube of the tail shaft from the rear yoke flange arrangement. Mark where you want to cut the shaft and very carefully cut it ensuring you’re cutting it square. Then when welding it, ensure the tailshaft and yoke flange are parallel to each other and go for it in sections at a time. It’s a good idea to check that it rotates without any wobble in it before using it in the car. We did this on a ‘78 Chrysler Lancer. Rear of the shaft isthr place for these mods - just in case the weld ever breaks you won’t be flipping the car with you in it Cheers Bennie

Hey Paul, send us some pics via text (I tried calling, mob # ending 031 - my number hasn’t changed) I’d be happy to swap a set of those non-bolt rear diff output stubs for the open diff stubs/axles and mounting bolt. Contact me via mobile and we’ll sort something out. Cheers Bennie

Hey Paul, I thought you’d know this already! New bolt from an open diff *should* work. It’d be worth trying anyway. Afaik both retainer bolts are the usual RH thread - at least on the open diffs they are. Cheers Bennie

G’day Eric, It won’t run at all being 180 degrees out. Although that’s pretty hard to do. My guess, from experience, is that you didn’t do the mandatory one crank revolution before fitting the second belt. On the EA82 the cam wheels should have their markers 180 degrees from each other, so with every crank revolution and marker alignment, one cam wheel will line up, on the next 360* crank revolution, the other cam wheel will line up with the crank’s mark. I hope this makes sense. When I was new to the EA82 I had this same problem and it took me AGES to work it out (that was in my pre-forum days). Cheers Bennie

If you’ve got a stock box, 65 will see revs of 3500 or thereabouts. An EJ22 is not going to change that. An EJ22 will give you more torque and power over the EJ18. How much I don’t know. With the junkyard EJ22, how did you determine it was beat up, compression tested? If the car was totaled and the radiator still intact you’ll know it’s a good engine as it was running before it made it to the junkyard, and they’ll generally run well too. Cheers Bennie

I didn’t know the USDM didn’t get manual H6s. I do know very well that the USDM didn’t get the dual range gearbox. My point of sharing that was the gearbox is being powered by the ever strong EJ207 from an STi. It’s holding up strong with regular power runs and the odd launch. The NA single range box of the USDM is pretty much the same as our dual range boxes, just without the dual range bit above the front diff. Shifting quick has nothing to do with strong boxes. Shifting quick has everything to do with coordination between arm and leg actions. Power shifting, dry shifting or whatever you want to call it will kill all gearboxes except dog boxes in general. This style of shifting is when you’re WOT and “snapping” the next gear without clutch or letting off the throttle. In any build there’s always a compromise unless you have severely deep pockets. Yours might be changing your driving style/habits to be more mechanically sympathetic towards your build. I’ll be interested to see how you go with this build and gearbox selection. Side question on your EJ22t build, what pistons will you run to achieve that power figure? The factory cast NA units won’t be up for that sort of work! Cheers Bennie

So it’s only the USDM where the Subaru filter is not made in Japan? I’ll have to look closer the next time I purchase a genuine filter - it’s a good $5 cheaper than an aftermarket brand locally. I find it odd that I can get a genuine filter for less than an aftermarket unit (at an auto parts chain store), and that’s the cheapest unit on the shelf. This doesn’t normally happen, it used to be genuine was about four times more than aftermarket! Maybe it’s an AUDM thing now... Cheers Bennie

As recent as two days ago I was talking to a mate about how to rig one up. Have a closed relay intercept the fuel pump power wire. The trigger wires are ignition and the earth - from the oil pressure light. The idea is that when you don’t have oil pressure the fuel pump turns off. You could use the alternator warning light too. Yes you loose the priming function but this could easily be negated with a momentary switch to bypass the oil pressure light trigger. Push this button for several seconds and you’re primed ready to go Cheers Bennie

Yeah wow that’s different ^^ I understand the leverage on the bolts. I’ve got a three inch lift and have so far been lucky with my captive nuts in this area - I did have to weld one when I removed the lift kit to repair another issue. The real problem here is the short cuts the builders take. One bolt, one block. The three blocks down there should’ve been tied into one block to reduce the chance of that leverage occurring. It’s something I would still like to do to mine, and the same on the rear end with the three bolts on the rear side of the K frame - tie these together then forward to the single bolt out the front of the K frame. That to me is an ideal lift kit build. So I reckon you’re right that your strut block has no camber built into the block, so it’ll be like factory if not worse. Cheers Bennie

I’d recommend anything that’s an 8 bolt/phase 2 gearbox. They have wider gearsets and a beefed up set of front cases. NA/turbo there’s really no difference other than clutch setup and ratios. Strength remains the same. Wrx boxes are known as glass boxes because ppl put all their money into engine mods for max power but do nothing to the stock box to help with power. A mate of mine has a SF forester running a STi EJ207 in front of a stock phase 2 dual range gearbox - it’s holding up just fine and it’s insanely quick! Driving style has a lot to do with gearbox health too. Have you thought about considering the six speed box from a H6? That’ll hold up to whatever you could throw at it with the EJ22t. Cheers Bennie

Yeah that’s epic! Sad day. Bennie

Well DF would be drivers front, PF the passenger’s front. That makes me wonder what company made the lift kit. Scorpion Subaru used to build kits way back when, which would probably fit with the era that your lift kit was fitted. The quote was just his “red tape” stuff. Basically there’s no structural mods, I’m not using an adaptor plate, and factory emissions with the EJ meets everything he needs to see. I’m going to upgrade to rear discs and he’s happy with that too. I was meant to ask about this earlier: What do you see as being so dumb about this? You’ve moved the engine crossmember down, this changes the suspension control arm swing points in regards to the radius rod mount. To drop the gearbox/lift the body off the gearbox, you must drop the radius rod mounting plate as this incorporates the gearbox crossmember mount, otherwise the rear end of the gearbox will be pointing upwards which could cause binding with the Uni joints on the tail shaft. Clear as mud? Cheers Bennie

Over here an ‘82 won’t have that fuel pump cut relay module thingy. You sure yours has one? Cheers Bennie

As Steptoe said. The push button operation is lost with the dual range - unless you get a dual range AWD gearbox from an RXII coupe, simply hook up your vacuum hoses the right way to lock the centre diff. If you do manage to get one of these AWD EA82 gearboxes, you’ll probably want to swap the low range to the decent 1.59:1 found in the NA EA82 dual range gearboxes. The EA82 AWD gearbox has a factory low range of 1.19:1 and larger diff output stubs (25 spline vs NA 23 spline). The L series MPFI and MPFI turbo use a 25 spline inner cup on the drive shaft. This interchangeable with any L series. This gearbox bolts straight in place of your current gearbox and will need the low range lever like the PT4wd box. Many of the L boxes will hold up behind an EJ22, adapted using a modified EA82 flywheel and an adaptor plate Cheers Bennie

Talk to an engineer regarding EJ conversions. I’ve spoken to one about my future brumby conversion and he’s given me the green light and a price (~$1500). On top of the strut blocks, on the plate you can see from the engine bay, is there an arrow or the letters L, R or E (E possibly one one side of the top plate indicating engine)? These sorts of marks can indicate the orientation of the blocks - if they’ve got the built in camber. Cheers Bennie

What you’ve pointed out could be the bushes on the sway bar or those crappy end “links”. Long shot, it could be a worn CV as it takes up the load on a different angle - or the radius rod bush needs replacing. Cheers Bennie

By rough you mean rust? Or dents, or crappy paint finish? It’s up to you, but over here they still go for a decent price even if a bit rough around the edges. Hopefully someone can provide you with some local context for you to consider Cheers Bennie

If there’s a lot of play I reckon you might have a collapsed diff bearing. Or a detonated auto - read on for more about that. What colour/condition is the remaining oil like? I’m asking as the EA82 three speed auto was notorious for leaking the auto fluid into the diff and vice versa, the pinion shaft bearing would “dry out”, collapse and destroy the front diff - often leading to a front end lockup, sometimes at speed I reckon you’re up for a new auto. Throw up some pics if you can, specifically the loose drive shaft side that’s leaking the oil Cheers Bennie

Have you got a side view of the strut block? It could be offset. The scrubbing on the outer edge of the front wheel could be from the nose living on take off, creating a positive camber situation, wheel spin will exacerbate the wear on the outer edges. Tall tyre wall and low pressures will make the tyre roll onto the outer edge of the outer tyre when cornering hard. And if you run an EJ22, that extra power can do all of the above if you’re not AWD. Further, the 20% rule is bogus if you’re changing to an engine not offered in your vehicle from factory. It was based on the old holdens and fords when dropping a larger capacity engine of the same configuration/model designation into the vehicle. So going from EA82 to EJ20 requires engineering - most likely depending on which state you’re in. Nachaluva from Subi Lift Oz will be able to knock you up a set of front lift blocks too, he’s based in Melbourne and may have seen his stuff on Facebook. Let him know that Bennie sent you in his direction as he doesn’t usually do L series stuff - but the front strut block is basically the same. Cheers Bennie

Don’t drive at 80mph?? That’ll bring revs down. Have you googled the trans code? It’s worth looking into because it could confirm what others are saying about the box being for a different model of subaru. This will give you some idea of where to go next with this “issue”. Cheers Bennie

So this build/ride thread has become an advertising ground for your YouTube channel? Bummer.

When/how did you find out that there’s no power? ‘84 could be the year where they introduced the fuel cut relay. I’d be looking at this first. It’s a black box behind the kick panel above the driver’s feet. I’ve heard they can go bad but I’ve not experienced this myself. If your coil dies the fuel pump won’t work either. If your coil dies your ignition module dies too. Got a good coil and ignition module in there?? Cheers Bennie