Everytime I read anything about an RX,it seems that it always is directed toward the 3 door coupe.

I was in Aurora Co.going thru a junk yard and saw an 88? 3 door and it was f/t d/r. w lsd. I think that the 85-86 rx were sedans?(right)and they had on demand hi/lo,and few were lsd? And the 87-89s were all f/t with center diif lock/ rear lsd? If thats correct,can any or all clarify the difference in the low range ratios of both trannys? I believe that they all were 3.70? thanks.

 

And a couple of quick sube stories, for old time sake.

 

I worked at the port of Portand,Or.in the late 80s and got to unload all models off the ships,thru a solvent cleaning process(protection from the elements in transport from japan) and thru undercoating and a/c install line and detail line,and then onto rail cars,and trucks to be delivered to dealerships.and man was that a blast.It seemed that every other drive way in the pnw had subes in them. I had an 81 gl brat 1800 d/r full guages (best sube i ever had) bought it as a trade in from Hanna subaru in Vancouver in 85 with 34000. I was hooked, snoqualmie,mt hood,ape caves ,washougal river road at 75+ and of course frenchmans bar partys. (you know).those were some good times,blablalaaa,

 

Another fun time was in California,1983 my friend worked for subaru of america test facility in garden grove. they would leave orange county out the 91 fwy to redlands, up 38 to big bear, then on off road coarses,to the desert floor.then 62 through lander/29 palms and up 79 thru anza,murrieta,elsinore,74 ortega highway(death alley) and back to garden grove. I remember in 83 when he was driving 85 turbo rx,checker interior,air suspension.(actually worked ). talk about a fun job. not long after I got to see XTs that werent even seen yet,Anyone remember when they had that cool comercial on tv. were the dad was at home at the farm,and there was a mint 79 wagon in the driveway,and with the dad watching,here come an xt flying down the dirt road,(camera shows him locking it into 4wd), and throws it totally sideways at 55 and blast into the ranch.the dad says to the son "I thought you said you were gonna buy a subaru?" son replies ,"it is a subaru. that was from @ late 84/85. anyway,party on:cool:

All RX style transmissions for the US market were 3.70, and 1.2:1 low range. 85/86 were part time, and 87-89(.5) were full time with center diff lock. The other low range (wagons and such) are 1.5:1.

 

There are "not-rx's" out there with all the components, but not the badging. And most of this stuff was an "option" that could be ordered at one time or another, so strange stuff does exist.

 

GD

Any turbo with a dual range for that matter, has a 1.2:1 low range.

 

Found an 86 PT4WD Turbo Coupe in the junkyard at one time. It had a d/r tranny with a 1.2:1 low range.

 

It should also be noted, according to my 86FSM, 3 door non-turbo coupes also have the crappy 1.2:1 low range. My 88 FSM though, shows the 1.5:1 lowrange in the coupes.

ok, so slight highjack but its related so bear with me...

How alright is it to switch between hi and low range on the FT4WD's?

Do you have to be stationary? Or just any old speed?

Should be alright if you clutch proper and stuff right?

Sorry for slight hi-jack..

Push the clutch, pull the lever, release the clutch. I've taken mine out of low range at around 55 before, no issues. Going up the short launch ramps onto the highway here, I like to run up to third in low, shift it to high, then third and fourth in high. Of course, I am in RWD on my car, but on any Subaru it shouldn't have any issues, since everything is always turning.

So I'm not going to blow up the rx's box by jumping between high and low all the time, and at any speed? Because I reeeaally don't want to damage it.

Do these gears have syncros?

i was informed by a very well trusted subie tech not to go over 35 with it in low range

It's not good for it, you're spinning a lot of rpms, but when you're on an engine and tranny that are getting swapped out soon anyways...........

Is there any I.D. tad on each trans? like the rear diff.has? and p.s. (i dont mind "hijack coments" as you say.) Ive owned 6 brats, (single range)78/79/ (dual range)81/82/83/83,and 4 stationwagons D/R),a gl 10 turbo sedan, and the same wagon, and an 85 rx part time d/r +l.s.d. and I have worked the hell out of these things for years and the ONLY problems i ever had was my fault.(1) burried in snow in lewistown mt. 81 d/r 4spd brat,i reved it to 5000 and dumped the clutch in reverse and broke that gear. drove it for 5 more years and dumped an 83 trans in there. (2) was ran it a 79 brat i ran it out of gear oil. and my experiance is that they all shift from front to four, high to low,at any decent non abusive speed,and have never had any probs.that is what they are designed for in my opinion. but remember,ther are lots of other ways to destroy any transmission/gearbox.

Is there any I.D. tad on each trans? like the rear diff.has? and p.s. (i dont mind "hijack coments" as you say.) Ive owned 6 brats, (single range)78/79/ (dual range)81/82/83/83,and 4 stationwagons D/R),a gl 10 turbo sedan, and the same wagon, and an 85 rx part time d/r +l.s.d. and I have worked the hell out of these things for years and the ONLY problems i ever had was my fault.(1) burried in snow in lewistown mt. 81 d/r 4spd brat,i reved it to 5000 and dumped the clutch in reverse and broke that gear. drove it for 5 more years and dumped an 83 trans in there. (2) was ran it a 79 brat i ran it out of gear oil. and my experiance is that they all shift from front to four, high to low,at any decent non abusive speed,and have never had any probs.that is what they are designed for in my opinion. but remember,ther are lots of other ways to destroy any transmission/gearbox.

 

+1. The reverse gears are far more of a problem. The problem is the linkage on the 4 speed. It wears, and does not fully engage reverse. Then you are running on only half the gear, and being a straight cut gear the edges start to bevel off. First it just starts poping out of reverse, then after a while reverse will just strip off completely.

 

The 5 speed has the exact same problem, but has a VASTLY superior linkage so doesn't exhibit it as much. It has another problem however, as the linkage sometimes goes the other direction and the gear travels too far and extends off the back edge of the driven gear for reverse. This eventually results in the same destruction.

 

The 5 speeds are virtually unchanged to this day, and the RX FT4WD tranny is more or less a legacy/impreza transmission with a different bell-housing. Fairly tough unit really. Subaru was putting 175 HP through them on the race-spec EA82T's....

 

Just watch the linkage and especially the reverse gear engagement. It NEEDS to be fully engaged. That goes for the rest of the gears as well.

 

GD

the lo range reduction is just like another gear. so you can shift it at anytime just like you would any other gear.

 

if you've got part-time 4WD, you have to worry about being in 4WD at speed and on pavement, but the lo range part isn't a problem.

the lo range reduction is just like another gear. so you can shift it at anytime just like you would any other gear.

 

Thank you!