Will EJ starter motor work for a 5 Speed D/R?

[SaltyMike]

Does anyone know if a starter from a '98 Legacy 2.2 5-speed would work on an EJ22 swap with a EA82 flywheel and 5-Speed D/R?

[Steptoe's photos]

good question. do you have the to different starters to physically compare? Like, count the teeth on starter, hold a rule against housings to compare where drive cog sits and how far they will throw out ? Another question is auto or manual starter - auto used to be different/or preffered by some for some reason in EA circles

[el_freddo]

I believe they don’t. Different hole size to snug them into the gearbox mount from what I recall. Easy to work it out if you have the two available to play with.

Cheers 

Bennie

[SaltyMike]

@Steptoe's photosI have the starter from the 98' Legacy (5MT EJ22) and the starter from my '82 Brat (4MT EA81). Both starters have a total of 9 teeth and the spacing between the two bolts holes are the same. I'll have to look back and see if the actual holes themselves are the same size, I didn't notice any significant differences at the time I inspected them. The cog on the EJ's starter stick's out more than the EA's, but both mount in flush with the transmission housing.

I've heard of people having to space out the starter motors when they do the 5-Speed swap, but since I can't see whats going on between the fly wheel's teeth and the starter's teeth, and both starters are sitting flush in the transmission housing, I'm not sure what the best course of action to take is. I may have to wait until first start up. 

[SaltyMike]

On 4/6/2023 at 8:27 PM, el_freddo said:

I believe they don’t. Different hole size to snug them into the gearbox mount from what I recall. Easy to work it out if you have the two available to play with.

Cheers 

Bennie

When I get the chance I will check the size of the holes. The spacing between both mounting holes are the same though. 

[Steptoe's photos]

when i did EA82 5 speed DR into my EA81 Brumby, I needed to space the Brumby EA81 starter by making up a spacer using 4mm aluminium sheet. It looked like a single pipe exhaust gasket once completed.The difference is likely found in the gearbox bellhousing dimensions - as I retained EA81 200mm flywheel . When I finally ditched EA81 for EA82, the spacer came out

[SaltyMike]

On 4/8/2023 at 4:20 PM, Steptoe's photos said:

when i did EA82 5 speed DR into my EA81 Brumby, I needed to space the Brumby EA81 starter by making up a spacer using 4mm aluminium sheet. It looked like a single pipe exhaust gasket once completed.The difference is likely found in the gearbox bellhousing dimensions - as I retained EA81 200mm flywheel . When I finally ditched EA81 for EA82, the spacer came out

When you say you went to the EA82, you're referring to the flywheel, correct? 

[Steptoe's photos]

I went right through to the water pump in EA82   with what I termed EA82M , M for Mongrel as it ran EA82T heads, cams, intake for the dual port breathing in capabilities, on a carb block, running Impco fueling system for propane. To have a four pot rev out to 6,000 or 6,500 ever so quietly, extended the range of each of those 5 forward gears - likely never to go back to EA81 - except maybe to make my EJ20 Forester reliable !!