Early Rider Steve

I swapped my auto for a dual range 5 speed in my 84 turbo wagon so that we could tow it behind our motor home. It was a lot of work to do it, as I fabricated the transmission mounts, shift linkages, and modified the petal box. If you still want to do it look for a donor car of the same year, or Jerry makes a kit to use the dual range trans.

Start them young.

Thank You All for the responses, Yes my wagon was upgraded to the water cooled turbo. ihscout54 is right, on one of my test drives the hose from the thermostat housing to the turbo broke and I lost a lot of coolant . Now looking at things I think the turbo might be toast, and the start of my power problems. Really don't think that the engine needs a rebuild, just a turbo . Steve

Hi All, Will the turbo off an EA-82 turbo engine bolt on a EA-81 turbo engine? Or are they different. I think that my turbo isn't working and I have a complete EA-82 turbo engine in my donor car, but don't want to pull it if they won't interchange as the engine is complete. Thanks Steve

Installing a D/R 5 speed into my 84 turbo wagon is one of the best modifications I will ever do to that car, what a difference!

It would depend on the price of the other ones.

Your engine bay turned out nice. Keep the photos coming, I am thinking of this swap on my 84 wagon and need all the help that I can get.

I just installed a 1985 turbo D/R 5 speed in my 1984 wagon, it also has 3.70 gears and feels like it is too high geared, but it shifts good. I split the trans case and changed the axel stubs to 23 spline ones, replaced the front bearing and all of the seals. Never had done a Subaru trans before but it wasn't all that difficult to do, the hard part was installing the tail section back in place as I dropped the little screw that locks the shift rods together, it took 4 tries to get it back on. Get all of the seals and other parts first as you won't have all the parts just setting around.

Yes I swapped the axel stubs, the only problem that I had was finding new seals for the transmission. Between my auto parts store and the local Subaru dealer, I now have the transmission ready to reinstall in the wagon. I have already built the transmission cross member and modified my shift and transfer case linkages. You are right Gloyale it would have been easier to find another transmission, but it might have needed seals also. I hate oil leaks. ShankinPickle get all of the seals and gaskets first it will save not having the transmission sitting around dissembled.

Any body have a part number and a source for the input shaft on an 1985 D/R 5 speed transmission? My Subaru dealer can't seem to find that one or the little seal for the four wheel drive shaft. Thank you, Steve

That is a great looking setup.

I used to flat tow my 88 3 door GL, it had a D/R 5 speed and never had a problem. Turn key to unlock the steering wheel, put the transmission in neutral, parking brake off (I say that because I did forget one time). Towed the car behind our motorhome lots of trouble miles. I do the same with my FJ 40 Landcruiser also.

Gloyale, Do you still have the 23 spline stubs to fit a D/R 5 speed trans? Would make my swap so much easier, let me know. Thanks Steve

Thank you.

Has anybody ever ordered or used these axles?

The 1984 automatic turbo axles are 23 spline, the 1986 turbo D/R 5 speed is 25 spline. Thank you for your reply skishop69

Hi Jerry: I am installing a D/R 5 speed in place of an AT3 in my 84 wagon, and found this post from 2003 doing a web search for custom axles. How did those axles from cvaxles.com work out as I would order a pair if all was ok. Do you make a transmount for this swap? Thank you, Steve

Thank you all for your very helpful information. I really don't mind doing the stub swap, but am going to the wrecking yard this week and look at possible axle combos. Really want to get the wagon back on the road.

Well I am back to square one again, as it seems that the 83-84's never had 25 spline axles. So do I need to look for an earlier transmission or is there someone who is modifying early 23 spline axles to fit the dual range 25 spline stubs. Or I just might scrap the whole project, but it is such a nice car.

Thanks MilesFox, Let the search begin.

Maybe I should have just left the auto in my 84 turbo wagon as it seems that every thing that I touch turns to poop. With that said I have installed a 86 dualrange 5 speed trans from my turbo sedan donor car the 25 spline axles are about 1 1/2" longer than the 23 spline axles that were in the 84 turbo wagon. So I dissembled one each of the axles to see what I could swap around to make something work and nothing looks like it will work. My question is I can't be the only guy that has had this problem, so what have you other guys done to make this work?

Thank you turbosubarubrat.

Hi; My 1984 turbo wagon has a digital dash that gauges aren't lighting up, they are just black, the clock and trip computer also are not working. The dash lights work, and the car diagram that shows doors open and 4X4 works, the ECS works and is on all the time. All of the under dash fuses are ok, and nothing looks to be unpluged. Any ideas? Can I swap out the dash for a standard analog dash? Any help would be appreciated.

I would need to find 4 speed mounts to replace my automatic mounts, then use the 5 speed crossmember mount and modify it to fit the 4 speed mounts. Thank you spazomatic and Gloyale for the infromation.

Thank you, I think that i will have to find the 4 speed mount to make it work, the automatic don't even look close.