I hear the EA81 pretty much drops right in. I guess I cant use the stock trans, and why go with a 4spd when there are 5spds out there.. right?

 

Curious if anyone knows what kind of complications Im looking at? I think im going to do a RWD conversion and forget about front CV's to keep things simple (and more fun). I know whats involved with bolting the 5spd to a EA81, but not sure what i gotta do to mount everything in a '78 chassi.

 

-Brian

I would imagine that you would need a custom crossmember and shifters at the least. Probably some bashing on the transmission tunnel, those gen ones are skinny! Beyond that make sure the driveshaft will be the right length and spline count, etc. And check the rear diff ratio because the thought they had something odd like 3.900111111189:1 or maybe I'm wrong.

Yeah i know i will need a custom driveshaft, and shift linkages.

 

Since i will be running RWD, im not concerned about rear diff ratio's. I am also thinking of locking it into 4WD and doing away with the 2WD/4WD Levers.

 

What im concerned with are the tranny mounts, how it will bolt to the frame... and of course the tunnel size. Is the 5spd bigger in size than the 4spd?

5-speed is way bigger then the stock 4-speed Brian. Best bet would be to cut out the tranny tunnel when the tranny will be and make a custom tunnel that's removable to ease in tranny work and shift linakges. There's not enough beating in the world to get it to fit in there without hitting

Is that right? Hum..... not sure if I want to rebuild the tranny tunnel.

Hey Brian This is Jerry, yes the 5 speed is way bigger it will not fit in that small tunnel. The best way to do that project is to get a tunnel from a EA81 or EA82 car cut the entire tunnel out and set it inside of the early car mark it then cut the small tunnel out and weld the bigger in that way all the shift linkage will work. The tranny mounts will have to be custom made. Good luck Thanks Jerry

Yeah i was thinking of that. Thanks for the advice Jerry.

I'd just go with an EA81, use a weber with a Delta cam... Don't worry about it being a 4 speed, the 4th gear is overdrive, and there are options out there for rear end gears since the Datsun 510 used the same rear end :-)

Was thinking that as well. Could run a 4spd with like 4.11's in the rear and forget the front (RWD).

 

But i still think a 5spd RWD Wagon would be way cool.

 

-Brian

May be more work than some other suggestions but couldn't you customize the engine cross member and move the engine/tranny forward a couple inches to give more clearance in the trans tunnel?

Not like you need the front axles to line up with a RWD set up.

You could evict the fan system and go with all electric on the front side of the rad to compensate for the lack of clearance.

Just a late night thought, who knows?

Stumpy

Good idea stumpy but i think the overall size is larger and moving it forward wouldnt help, unless i moved it forward the length of the tranny

 

If I do tackle the problem, i think cutting the tunnel and replacing with a EA82 would be the easiest way to do it. That way I could custom fab the tranny x-member as well.

 

-Brian

I remember garner had put a push button 5-speed into his gen 1 Brat with the EA2T install but I think he hacked his tunnel up to do so.

Another idea is find an automatic EA71 and cut the trans tunnel out of it, the automatics were wider than the manuals, and so they had a wider tranny tunnel (Only way I was able to put the 4WD trans in my 82 sedan was cuz it was an automatic originally)