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5spd into ea81 trouble! help! (pics and questions)


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so I am most of the way thru the 5 spd upgrade on my 80 wagon, but i am running into some weird problems that other people seem to have not had, or at least i have not heard about them

 

problem 1-

the tranny rubs, or is pressed against the tunnel at the linkage bolt and the doo-dad on the other side of the tranny from the linkage... (circled in red in the pic http://usmb.net/gallery/albuo36/5spdrubbing

 

am I supposed to pound this part out? did anyone else do this? or have this problem? Matt- you probably should check this on your wagon too...

 

problem 2

 

the clutch cable is not long enough to put thru the release fork, and put the lock nut on the end... i can barely get the lever nut on it (see pic)

 

http://usmb.net/gallery/albuo36/DSCN1090

 

people have told me that their cables are too long... why is mine different? is there a different length cable for ea81s? i have a ea81, with an ea81 clutch cable, and a ea82 5spd d/r, and an ea82T clutch set on a ea81 flywheel.

i can drive the car, but i dont want to drive it with the rubbing linkage and the lack of lock bolt on the cable... what should or could i do?

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I ran into the same problem when I snapped my clutch cable and had to replace it. I have and 86 GL 4wd wagon and I ended up getting 3 cables off various soobs close to that year and none of them fit.. I ended up getting on off an 88 loyale I believe.. So check a junk yard and pull a few cables out til you find a longer one

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I am also having the rubbing issues. Jerry, I thought ur kit was supposed to make all these problems go away! Why are we having soo much issues with rubbing? And u didn't reply to my email which wasn't cool...:-\ I will look under my car tomorrow and take pics of it, hopefully we can figure it out and make it stop rubbing. I don't think mine is rubbing as bad as urs, cause I made that special mount to hold up the shift linkage. I will take a pic of that too. It has so much more room when I took that dumb mount out, and grinding went down to a minimum. I can get my car in 5th gear no problem but I haven't tryed it at speed. Just shifting threw the gears. I guess I will stop by tomorrow after this PAP thing... I will call u soon about that to see whats going on.:wave:

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There are MANY floor pans for the EA81 series cars, and every one is different. Jerry's kit is made (I believe) to fit a 4 spd D/R car converted to a 5 spd D/R. For one thing - Matt, you started with an auto tranny - so different tranny tunnel there. Austin - don't knwo what you started with, but I think you mentioned it was an EA71 with a single range 4WD 4 spd - also different. I wouldn't go blaming Jerry's kit so fast - I think you both have odd cars is all. You will have to beat on it till it fits.... or lift it - that gets rid of the problem real quick.

 

GD

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why not stack some washers on the crossmember bolts to drop the tranny down a couple mm.

 

the auto is a fat-rump roast, much heftier than the 5spd.

 

i cut up the tunnel for the 5spd in the trashwagon. i believe i showed it to matt, to give an idea of what cutting looks like.

 

tell 'em GD. the washers, the washers!

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Yeah - actually, I did have mine spaced down with some washers before the lift - worked pretty well. You have to put them on the cross-member, AND under the big plates that the cross-member attaches too - I used something like 30 or 40 washers up in there - not enough to require longer bolts, but you could use more washers, and longer bolts...

 

With the washers, I got close to a full 1" more space for the tranny to sit. I didn't do any pounding at all, and it was really easy to install. And all the shift linkages still worked fine. Sort of a mini body lift for the tranny. Also - you can adjust the pitching stopper back so there's not so much pressure on the tranny. That's how I did it - drove the car like 300 miles that way with no problems.

 

GD

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Hey Everybody This is Jerry, i have installed 3 of those in 2 of 84 brats and my 86 brat and had NO problem. I have 1 more kit for Bill in Oregon and he has a 84 brat. I hear all these problems with this kit so i don't think i will be making them any more. I am going to cut up the jig that i have set up for this project and throw it in the junk. Then i don't have to hear any more bitching. Just my 2 cents thanks Jerry

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Jerry- it is not your kit that I am complaning about, the kit works just fine in fact. sorry for the confusion, but the problem that I am having is not related to what you make in the kit, but has to do with the parts I have used in the other part of the conversion

 

the problem- the clutch cable I selected to use, which worked fine on my ea81 4 spd D/R, is not long enough to use with the ea82 D/R tranny and clutch set that I have in my car.

 

if people are saying that cables in ea82s are different lengths, then can someone with a ea82 turbo (FT4wd) take a measuement and then compare it to an N/A ea82 4wd D/R clutch cable (just measure the ends where they go into the shift fork) and see if they are in fact a different size...

(Tex, dont you have a set of N/A and Turbo ea82s?? ;) )

 

so, Jerry, please dont give up the work you do- it seems to work fine for the cars it was meant for, I think I am having rubbing trouble (and matt too) because we put them in a car that was not the same measurments as the cars you built them for (aka the 84 and 86 brats)

 

I did look at the 80 wagon's tunnel, and compared it to the 86 brat's tunnel and they are different- the 80's is skinnier, so I just forgot to pound it out!... :banghead:

 

anyways thanks for the info so far!

( I will try the spacer idea)

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well, If I remember correctly, this kit was designed to fit a brat that normally came with a ea81 4wd D/R 4spd tranny.

 

we tried to install the kit into a 80 GL-1600 (smaller tunnel) and Matt's AT 83GL-T wagon (well, it was a AT!)

I think the best thing that could be done to solve this situation, is to research the differences with the trannys, clutches, cables and all parts that could be used and make a set of instructions that explain which parts can and cant be used with eachother...

 

does anyone know about the thicknesses of the turbo clutch and pressure plate VRS a N/A pressure plate? maybe it is thicker, causing the fork arm to me moved farther away from the cable?

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A long time ago when I ran into this very same problem (tranny tunnel size when doing tranny swaps), Noah looked up the part numbers for the floor pan sheet metal. Each type of transmission has a different part number, and some of the numbers even change from year to year. I think he said there was like 8 or 9 different part numbers just from 85 to 89 (talking EA81's only here). I don't think a comprehensive list is possible for this reason.

 

GD

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austin what is this you you you crap about you geting the 5spd in if memory serves me corectly you wanted to give up go home leave your car in my gaurage for me to finish and when we were at jerrys house he prety much told us how to fix this and well i had a pretty good understanding of how it would be done. when i instaled your 5spd kit it look f***in aswome keep up the great work and jerry i will be bringing your motor soon.

 

 

 

dave

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Hi everybody This is Jerry, well ok i will keep the 5 speed jig for now. When i made this kit it fits fine in a brat and a hatch back thats why i though it would fit a wagon. If the people out there don't have any know how to use a wrench then don't try to do this project. I have a kit going out tomorrow to Bill in Oregon i will see how it gose. Thanks Jerry

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This will not be allowed to become a flame war. If it can not stay on the topic it will be moved to off topic and or closed. If anyone has a problem with someone else deal with it off board.

 

Jerry's product is just as advertised. It was and is designed for upgrades from EA81 4sp D/R to EA82 5 sp D/R transmissions. Anything else is beyond the design and should be the responsibilty of the end user.

 

Modifying automobiles can and will be a difficult process. Most people can not do it on their own. That is why it is important for our community to have people like Jerry, John, Scott, Adam and other. And yes, even Miles. We don't always believe some of the antics but he does have alot of creativity that aids many people.

 

It is not always easy to modify somethng that cost millions of dollars to design and engineer to become something else. It's not for everyone and everyone should not try it.

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Sorry if I sounded mad... I wasn't, After all I did complete this with some help. But I think we all know how to use a wrench.:clap: :wave: I think maybe for wagons Jerry, that maybe u could make a spacer for the cross member, which would drop the tranny down and there would be no problems. I'm just gonna use washers.

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Haven't you been listening to me Matt? It's not just a wagon problem - any car, be it hatch, brat, wagon, coupe, whatever, will have the floorpan that was designed to go with it's tranny. If you have an automatic hatch or brat, then you will have a different floor pan AND a different cross-member, and you will have the same problems as you had on your wagon. Now that said, the kit is designed for 4 spd D/R cars. If you have ANYTHING that was not originally a 4 spd D/R, you will most likely have issues of one form or another. My wagon was a 2WD 5 spd - there is NO WAY that his kit would work in my wagon without major alteration (I'm talking before the lift) - I couldn't even fit a 4 spd D/R in there, let alone a 5 spd. No kit from anyone would have made that combination any easier. There simply was not enough room. I measured the tunnel, and they are WAY smaller. And you have part number mayhem flying every which way on this one. Everyone just has to rip theirs apart, and take the cars one at a time, as they are all likely to be a mixed bag of strange tranny tunnels.

 

GD

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