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ea82 wagon t-case lift


bushbasher
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I talked to mudrat about it about a month ago.

I was thinkin about doin it to my ea82..

 

I dont see it being any more complicated then doin the EA81.

 

The subframes would be similar.

 

The driveshafts would be the hardest part I think

 

I'd pm Mudrat79. He would most likely have the best advice.

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Not if i do it first, however i will need to graduate, in may, and find a job, yeah right, with this economy. so if you do it within 1 year you will very easily have me beat, and i say go for it, that way i can learn from you, but i would second the learn from mudrat, he is the guru of T-case mods, there are a few others on the board like littlebrownmule or unhatched, i don't recall what his screne name is.

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I'm probably going to start the t-case lift by the end of feb. I may end up just a doing 6" lift if I can't find a nissan thatll let the case go for cheap. With a budget under 500 I can't afford to let the t-case cost too much. Got the time, place, and fab supplies, but I need to get a part-time job at least too, Ive only got a stagnant account to draw from.

 

Im getting free 6 lug toy rims from the local tire pile (I have 3 of 4 of a generic stock pattern), lots a sets of cheap used 31" tires around I can buy, the island is full of guys upgrading from small tires. The guy that runs the yard with subies got my lifted t-wagon and got it running around at his house, thought the thing was awesome, now he gives me suby stuff for cheap or free. So I'm pretty much set except for the t-case, (unless I find it at that same yard and tell him its going in the subaru :D )

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why would you have to go 8" lift...

 

that don't make any sense. the drivelines will cost ya. cause you got to get cut and balanced if you are driving it on the street. clearance issues with my shift linkage and the driveline we did have that issue with the drivelines. other than that no.

 

it's all gonna be a learning experience. cause no one's done one to model off of, or to help. cause it's not been done yet. i know john wants to put up an ea82. he also has one or 2 at least my size ea81 coming up.

 

just my suggestion if you are planning to do moderate to hard trails, without the tcase, don't go with 31" tires. just fyi and my opinion. you won't have the gearing and i've seen several people be slipping the hell out of clutches and frying them. not enough gearing. 27" SSR's is what i reccommend if you do not use the tcase.

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Heres what Mudrat told me when I asked about a lift for my ea82:

 

 

Well, 6" lift installed would run about $700.00 and I'd need the car about 2 weeks.......????

 

if you could afford the cost, I'd say go 8" and then we can stuff the Nissan Transfer case behind your 5 speed, and give you all kinds of gears to run bigger tires......

 

So if you want a t-case you are gonna have to go 8 inch

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Even if you have the power you're hitting stuff too fast to crawl with 31s. With the 30s that I stuck on the front of the car, 1st gear at 700rpm was running speed (in 2wd). Mud and bajain will be fine with that but trying to climb a rockface with the tires trying to go that fast is scary. You don't have much control. Even my friends jeep with 2:1, 4.10s and 35s could use slowing down.

 

I will either do 6" lift with 27-28s (they might look kinda small on it but I need some crawlability, and the good approach angles of the 6" for my terrain) This would be easier to make and better for the road cause I can pull a rear axle to drive the welded diff on pavement.

 

Or do the 8" nissan t-case, like rooinators but without 4.11s and a front lsd, because they are near impossible to find here. Id run 31 tires then. Harder, but way better off-road, and on road suffers cause I wont be able to pull an axle for road driving (rwd) My rear axles and tires would wear fast, and the squeal on corners would get annoying.

 

oh hey what is the reduction of the nissan case?

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Just a thought. The week point in the t-case mod seams to be in running full time high stress through the stub axles of the stock diff. Riding along I thought of the fact that a Vette puts many hundreds of HP through an independant rear diff. Maybe a 410 set up with some custom axles would be worth investigating.

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not sure. but mine ='s around 60-65:1. i believe that's about what i figured out a while back. it crawls nice now.

 

no more high speed rock crawling for me. ask subafly about my highspeed rockcrawling... interesting experiences. yes larger tires and motor are great! but without the gearing rocks can be outright scary. even with my 27" tires on a 1600 it was scary as hell. now it's like crawling, time to react, not point and gas it. then hope you don't bounce off the line you need.

 

27's and an 1800 are a great combo for all around wheeling, that's why most of the HP sits on that combo. cause in my opinion it's the best for what they do. and not changing the drivetrain. i'll be owning a few more set up like that. but for now i got little roo and it's crawl.

 

with 31's it's a creep crawl. and 3 low ranges you have a set of gears for all terrain.

 

as for the stub axles, yes they do break... there's gotta be a weak point somewhere... with stock gear.

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Well, if you atemp to run 6 inches of lift with the t-case, you'll have to either cut into the car to accomodate it , or or have it hanging so low under the car that it doesn't make sense to have it......

 

With 8 inches, you keep the t-case under the car, and it is high enough to stay out of harms way.......

 

There are many mods involved in these swaps, and Just for the record, Rob

Owner of Lil'Mule/Un-Hatched did the first one, and helped me with mine......:)

 

I did a few things Differently than he did , and for overall durability, think this set up works very well......And uses stock bolt on suspension parts......

 

And Yes I want to Lift an EA-82 Car next....:)

 

Later All, John and Crew in Oregon.....

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Guest taprackready

How do you do it? Is it a divorcced transfer case coming off the rear drive line. I can understand that, but what do you use for a front axle since your basically bypassing the transaxle output shafts to the front wheels, because your now using the output drive of the transfer case to the front and rear.

 

Somebody sketch it out for me.

 

Bill

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taprackready-

 

the transfer case is just for the rear end for what I understand.

Doing it the way you are talking about would probably involve a different tranny such as a S-10 tranny and then you'd have to have a front differenetial iwth a driveshaft going forward from the transfer case to the front diff.

 

John, I am correct?

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with a tcase lift you forget about the front outputs on the tranny, and run the tranny in 4wd to keep the rear output engaged. The rear output goes to a nissan t-case via a short driveshaft. Then the t-case outputs go to the rear diff, and to a rear diff thrown up front underneath the motor, attached to the dropped crossmember. This means that the tranny is always in 4hi or 4lo, and the t-case engages the front axle plus has it's own high/lo. This means that 2wd is rwd just like nissan trucks, instead of fwd like subes. I was worried at first on hearing about the use of the rear output on the tranny, but it apparently didn't break on the rubicon, and there have been 3 cars? now with this set up, with no problems.

 

I think s10/jimmy etc diffs use or can use 930 cvs which are very strong. You would eliminate the stub problem with s10 type diffs but you'd have to make custom axles, which would be a pain to have to fix or recreate, instead of just pulling axles from yards. Without the stubs to break, the weak link will become something more expensive and more time consuming to fix.

 

From others rates of stub destruction, the stubs break less than my friends jeep breaks ujoints and he is only just beginning to think of a bigger axle swap. Hes been breaking ujoints for years and just puts up with it.

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yes I do know that... maybe I wasn't clear, I just tend to ramble and make wordy sentences...

 

I was talking about making custom axles to fit the s10 diff with its different stubs, therefore eliminating the weak point of the subaru diff stubs. But, I was also saying that its not really a good idea to do that 'cause its nice having the stubs go before more expensive parts go, like axles, or the "stubs" that go through the suspension arm.

 

Don't worry about me, I've got this pretty much figured out now, and I did do a 6" lift to an 89 turbowagon 2 years ago, which ended up ripping out (I kinda overestimated the strength of a unibody :D ), but it still taught me how the driveline and suspension works. Since that booty-fab/just for laughs experiment I have also learned alot from the board.

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