I have been searching for a solid answer on this topic for days here and on Nasioc.  To all the experts that have done this swap, do I have any other option besides cutting and sleeving the axles to make this work?  Here is what I have read - 1993 Impreza fwd axles have 23spline inner that will fit on the EA transmission: regular EJ axles have outers that will work with the EJ Hubs but combining the two is a longer axle than the EA81 track width. Is my only options to take the EJ axle(with fwd inner) and cut and sleeve the axles? Or am I missing something?

 

Setup:

 

1986 Brat

EJ22 with D/R EA transmission

EA81 control arms

EJ strut and Hubs

 

 

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Keith

ea81 frame is about 2 inches shorter in width than ea82. The recommended impreza fwd axles fit well on ea82, with ej hubs.

On my Brat I stayed with ea knuckles and will be searching for stiffer springs and gas shocks. Did the rear disk and new master. 

I'm sure someone has done this on this forum. Good luck.

Thanks , this is going to be a big build so if I can save time in the research phase it will help. When I put the fwd axles up against the ea81 axles, they just look like 4 inches larger so I guess in going to just have to try it all together and figure it out

i cut and sleeved the axles.......4140 sleeve with a 1/4" wall and a 10 thou crush fit.....sleeve had slots machined in them to weld thru to shaft....no weld around the ends of the sleeve.

 

i ran like that for about a year before i pulled finger and machined up some axles out of 4340, i didn't get them hardened.....still running them 5 years later

Thanks for the input LPG! Id love to get some machined but I'm sure it wasn't cheap.  Does anyone on the board sleeve axles for builds like this? I'd rather trust someone who has done this for a Brat conversion than a machine shop around here that I don't know their processes.

Don't cut any axles

A good cv shop should be able to match the outer cvs to the ej brakes

 

Look on some other forums too

That was my whole issue with doing the swap. I wanted to do it but I didn't like the fact that every time I need to replace an axle I would have to make it or have it made. So I decided to put the whole ej front clip onto my Brat. The ej engine just dropped in like it was supposed to and then you can run regular ej axles with the tranny met for it. Plus it makes the Brat AWD. I have an Sti 5 speed in an older outback clutch cable case. 

Edited December 18, 201510 yr by Naked Buell