So I have had my handful of drivetrain swaps, engine swaps, etc... So I got this 5sp d/r trans out of an 89.. I have an old school ea71, and also an ea71 fat case (bell housing will work for either), and I have a 77 Stage 1 4wd wagon sitting in storage BEGGING to be fixed...

 

Has anyone ever mated a 5sp d/r to an ea71, and then fit in a gen 1 4wd?

 

IIRC the trans has a little more girth, so it gets awfully close to the trans tunnel in an ea81 car.. For our smaller Gen1s, am I going to have to either "cut and paste" till the trans tunnel is bigger, or add a necessary 1-2" lift to make my drivetrain fit?

 

-Mike

I suppose it would depend on what your planned usage is for it.

 

I don't recall anyone fitting one to a ea71, but with the fatcase bellhousing with the starter on the left, it should work.

 

since you'd be keeping the ea71, the engine crossmember would still be fine.... not sure if there's any difference in distance from the front end of the trans to the stubs though it's a awfully tight fit for the axle boots to the steering rack as it is, so you might need to verify....

Id be using it for daily driving of course!

Even though I have plenty of ea81s lying around to stuff into my wagon, for some reason I just love the smaller displacement. Its like reinforcement for the underdog factor.

 

Does anyone know off hand if ea71 and ea81/2 4wd trannies had the same spline count on the stub shafts? I might have to swap out inner cups.

 

Whenever I have done 5 speed swaps I have just used the ea82 split driveshaft. For this one I might bite the bullet and resize the single piece driveshaft. I want to add the 5 speed, but I also want to keep the weight close to stock, so I am going to have to find things here and there to remove to slim it up a little

Stubbies are the same on the EA81/2 trans as long as they are both N/A trannies (Normally asperated, not North American).