My vehicle is a long travel mid engine dune buggy with 34 inch rear tires. I'm building a 2.5 Frankenmotor for max torque. We use this for trail riding and not wide open sand dunes, I will convert the transaxle to 2 wheel drive.  I am now shopping for a 5 speed tranasaxle but am concerned about the gearing with extra large tires.

 

The best I can do without dual range is to select a 5mt trans with 4.44 gearing and 3.454 first gear, I am afraid first will still seem too tall and we won't have a slow enough speed to crawl over logs or other trail obstacles. Also we just don't need a high top speed.

 

The choices are,....

 

An older phase 1 four bolt EA dual range trans with 1.59 low range and 3.9 final drive. I will need to re-drill the flywheel and use an adapter plate for the 2.5 motor.

 

A phase 2 eight bolt EJ dual range with 1.19 low range an 4.11 final drive. No adapter plate needed.

 

I can make either choice work if I can get my hands on a decent transaxle at a reasonable price. The older EA units are available in the US from early 90's cars so they are usually pretty worn out. The later EJ style dual range is only available in other markets which makes them hard to get and expensive. The one possible exception is the very active JDM market but I'm not sure if they have dual range there?

 

I called several JDM importers and they either wanted to know exactly what make/model/year it fits or better yet the transmission code. I found a half dozen nice transmission charts showing codes, gear ratios final drives etc. but with absolutely no mention of dual range.

 

I need more specific info on which trans codes or which USDM or JDM cars used them. I'm not even sure if a year/model is enough because I suspect the dual range was only an option? 

 

Any help is appreciated.

hmmm...if no luck , maybe check into planetary or portal hubs?

 

probably $$$$$$$

What about a second divorced transfer case? I think I have seen some posts on here about using Suzuki Samurai or Nissan pick up transfer cases.

Perhaps you could shop in Europe, all non turbo imprezas, legacies and foresters with manual are dual range! And above that 95% of sold subarus are a manual.

Thanks for the ideas.  Planetary hubs would add far too much unsprung weight to this ultralight buggy. Its a mid engine 2WD so what you guys call the front diff is really my rear and only diff. The rear wheels are driven off what used to be the front axles.

 

Engineering wise,.. it all works out great. My only problem is getting a dual range transaxle to the US at a reasonable cost. The JDM supply chain brings us low mileage parts cheaply and they have the shipping worked out too so If I knew DR gearboxes were used in Japan and could come up with a trans code life would be good.

 

Shipping 100 lbs or so from Australia or Europe would be much more expensive but I haven't ruled it out. Its just hard to convince someone to go through the trouble 

did Canada get those DR trans?

You can buy a toyota bell housing adapter for $475 that mates ej engines to w series transmission. Then you can have a dual cases or one.