Is there such a gearbox as a close ratio AWD that bolts direct to an EA82 motor Iv'e never heard of such a box but was told they do exist ??

If such a thing exists, it'd be like unobtainium in Aus.

The only thing I can think of is someone fitting a later model STi box with 4.44 diffs.

There are Full Time 4wd transmissions that were bolted to EA82Ts and ER27s. It's not technically an all wheel drive transmission due to the open center differential though.

There are Full Time 4wd transmissions that were bolted to EA82Ts and ER27s. It's not technically an all wheel drive transmission due to the open center differential though.

 

But some of those boxes has lockable center differential so it will act like AWD. I myself have one of those fulltime 4wd gearboxes with pneumatically lockable center diff. It also has HI and LO ratios. It should have the same internals as the newer subaru boxes but with different tail ratios. Seems to be pretty rare nowdays these fulltime boxes.  

Build your own, RX turbo box has different ratios to the L series wagons but 5th is way tall though First, Second and third are taller and closer than the wagon so the Turbo box with the lower Fifth gearset swapped out of a wagon would be the best this side of either the rare and probably worn out Group A gearbox or getting somebody such as Needham to make a set up as Peter Holinger once did before he got the Suzuki Sport, Nismo and Opel sports option gearbox contracts, Well his company did as Peter has been gone for a few years now.

 

But before he became a factory Supplier Peter used to charge $250 a ratio to build a close ratio box to whatever ratios you wanted, So I would Guess Needham , Modena or a couple of others that make close ratio boxes in Australia might be around $500.00 a ratio change.

 

What applies to the RX turbo box may also include some mixing and matching with EJ bits as well, But one change that I can demonstrate would be changing the Input gears namely the input shaft the clutch plate runs on and the matching gear on the cluster if they can be swapped which many can.

 

Changing those two gears changes all the ratios in the gearbox and depending on whether the change is a higher or lower numerical ratio change it closes up or widens the spread of all other gears in a gearbox except a direct drive gear like Fourth in many boxes.

 

Example with Nissan type 71 gearboxes (260Z 2+2 -Skyline etc) some had a 3.6 first gear and some had a 3.3 first gear and other differences up to third gear simply because the input ratio was different two seater Zeds ran a 2.9 first gear Nissan as an example because of the ties between Subaru and Nissan for many years.

 

Nissan as we all know used the same rear diff as Subaru which is why 510 (1600) owners hunt down Subaru LSD's but when Subaru first released the 1400's in America people blew the engines with monotonous regularity costing Subaru Millions retrofitting 1600,EA71's with taller gearing under warranty.

 

It almost sent Subaru broke and Nissan became a part owner of Subaru for many years to bail out Subaru financially, Years later Subaru was making all the money and Nissan went almost broke and that is when Renault took over Nissan and where the Butt Ugly Nissan Styling over the last decade or so came from Renault Influence, Same happened to Subaru later with GM, Glad that era is now in the past.

Edited June 11, 201510 yr by coxy

But some of those boxes has lockable center differential so it will act like AWD. I myself have one of those fulltime 4wd gearboxes with pneumatically lockable center diff. It also has HI and LO ratios. It should have the same internals as the newer subaru boxes but with different tail ratios. Seems to be pretty rare nowdays these fulltime boxes.  

The difference between the full time box and all wheel drive box is this. The locking center diff locks it into 4wd like all other Subarus of the era. Not able to drive on pavement with it locked.

 

The EJ all wheel drive box uses a viscous center diff to allow slippage when turning.

 

And yes, you can tell the difference in handling between both boxes, especially when hitting a bump in a corner.