88HatchMonster

Hey looks good! Glad to provide some inspiration! Definitely a good idea to wait until you've got an extra cluster to play with before pulling your's all the way apart. I did ruin my first tach pulling the needle off. Luckily I had another one right there ready to go in... Those are some good shots of the EA82 cluster faces. The difference with the EA81 is pretty clear, just two big panels instead of one little one for each guage. The challenge isn't so much replicating and printing the faces so much as how to do it and keep the backlight functionality...

Thanks for the info on the XT6 tranny, but I searched and found some more stuff out: I guess you can't swap 25 spline EA82 or New Gen DOJs onto EA81 axles. But cvaxles.com can make a 25 spine EA81 axle for you. So that's probably what I will do. That opens up my options a lot, but I will probably still look for an XT6 trans for the 3.9 final drive. What years should I look for or are they all the same?

Hi, I'm trying to figure out my options for putting a 5spd full time 4WD or all wheel drive transmission into an EA81 Hatchback. I need to know if there's a tranny that will work with my stock EA81 front axles (forget about the engine part of the equation for the moment, I've got that part covered ). I know this rules out an RX tranny or any New Gen trans. So other than that, all I can think of is a Loyale trans or possibly XT6 AWD trans (not sure of the spline count on those). Also what are the differences between these trannies? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

The silver is painted, but just above it is a thick (1/4") vinyl pinstripe. Scrape off the pinstripe if you need to repaint that area and you'll be fine.

Gotta love that! Congrats!

Yeah, awesome work! Looks like you really put some thought and engineering into your offroad mods. Can't wait to see some more pics!

EA81 Hatch 4" homemade lift EJ22 27.5" Swamper TSLs 10.25" under rear diff 11.25" under oil pan

Here's the diagram. 93ej18.gif Just double check all your connections against the diagram and you'll get it. I can't imagine trying to strip a harness without a diagram... Good Luck!

I'm looking into solving the same kind of problems on a new project I'm going to start soon. EJ AWD into a hatchback, definitely a sleeper street vehicle so no lift. I also have a complete AWD parts car and my first idea was a fulll suspension/drivetrain swap like themixtoo, but what I didn't like about that idea was the different track widths between the hatch and the legacy donor. It would come out looking like a nasty lowrider with road tires sticking out 5 inches on each side... I'm still forming a solid plan in my head as to how to pull this whole project together. What I'm leaning toward now is using a 5-lug EA82 suspension + axles (only 1" wider each side). Should not be terribly hard to hybridize stuff like the front control arms between those two Generations. Legacy/Impreza is very different and a lot more complicated. So I say go for it! I'll help from my side of the country...

I can't tell anything from those pictures... too small. 135K is nothing for an EA81. You're golden there. In our area rust is going to be the determining factor. I really don't like the sound of "major rust patched with aluminum." Patching a rust hole with aluminum means it was screwed or rivited to the body. That interface will leave a gap for salt and mousture to collect, causing even worse rust. Look the body up and down (rockers, inner fenders, door bottoms, front and rear frame rails). Maybe peel off one of those aluminum patches if he'l let you. If the body isn't up to snuff it's just a partsmobile... $100 Or I guess if you're desperate, drive it into the ground transportation... $150 Your time is money, and if you're looking for a project to restore, weigh the time it will take to fix the rust on an east coast car against the cost of importing a rust-free west coaster.

You need you use an EA82 flywheel. Yeah you can send it to me I'll do the redrilling for the fee listed on the website. If you want to do it yourself, you can use an old EJ Flywheel or better yet, an EJ flexplate as a template. You should put a post in the classifieds: wanted section of the message board if you're looking to find a tranny.

I make the adapter plate. Here's my website, you can order online. http://mroseusa.com Use an XT6 clutch and PP. OEM or equivalent will be fine. You'll have to fabricate a new tranny crossmember and either shorten or lengthen your center driveshaft to fit the new trans. It is something you can do at home, but it's gonna take a little bit of head scratching and redneck engineering to complete. Only a few other D/R into new gen swaps have been done. There isn't a terrible lot of info on the board on it. The bottom line is that it's quite doable, it's just going to take a little determination. And the board will be here to answer specific questions along the way... So just dive in and do it!

This guy in BC did it with a brat. He's a sooper-dooper welder/fabricator. He machined his own axles (among other things). Here's the thread, unfortunately the pics seem to be broken :-\ http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=44201

Here's my roo fam. Identical twins, right?

Where do you get your steel? I get mine from Jeffords Steel in Plattsburgh. They've also got a branch office in Potsdam. They are a huge mill, but they have a walk-up counter where they don't mind getting you a single piece of tubing or a scrap of plate for $20 etc. At least that's how the office in Plattsburgh operates. Might be worth looking into if you haven't already. The bumper looks great BTW, can't wait to see it on the imp.

Has anyone ever done this? When you take your cable in to the 4x4 shop don't tell them it's for a Subaru... I'm not putting up an image file cause the printing is the critical part (not gonna work on an inkjet, has to be color laser.. there's a couple other tricks...). That's why I offered to send copies to anyone who wants. But if you know what your doing and want to modify it or print it yourself PM me your email address and I'll send you the EPS file.

Thanks, yeah that is the only problem so far... all the others look kind of shabby and dim now

Hi everyone, here's an update on this little project. It's all done and I'm pretty happy with the results. Yes, keeping the backlighting was the big challenge and it didn't take much head scratching to realize my original approach wasn't going to work. Taping a printout over the old face would result in a mess of overlapping numbers when the backlight was on. Also, the white of the paper was translucent enough, but the black printed area was not opaque enough to fully black out the backlight like it should. I solved these problems by running one sheet of self-adhesive label paper through the laser printer 3 times, this built up a totally opaque layer of toner. To match the thickness of the original face, I cut out the exact shape from a clamshell CD case. The plastic was plyable and easy to cut with scissors and a razor blade. I simply peeled and stuck the new printed face to the plastic cutout. Probably because I'm certified compulsive, I went and made a new face for the tachometer that upped the redline to 6500 (this hatch has a '93 EJ22 ). This was kind of pointless, but at least this way the faces matched. One other thing I did since the first rev. was to put on Km/H marks (I'm only 1 1/2 hours from Canada so why not?) I know a few people were interested in doing this mod... If anyone wants a sticker (just the sticker you do the rest) they can send me a SASE. Just PM me for my address. No charge... the hard part is done, it's no big deal to run off a couple more copies. The speedo face will work on EA81s with the ODO between the guages and is calibrated for tires with an actual diameter of 27.5".

Ya know, I really think we're getting somewhere here. All of my EA81 subarus have dust sheilds on the CV and DOJ cups that cover the seal area. The bearings do last forever. My 98 OBS has no kind of dust shield on the outer CVs in the back. Do some other new-gen cars actually have dust shields on the outer CVs? If I do end up replacing my axles (and bearings again) I may figure out some way of shrouding the seal area from the majority of dust and dirt. I will also likely do a careful spray-gun coat of rust-bullet on the outer CV cup.

UPDATE: I have new info on this subject. If you drive your Impreza throught the winter in a rust/salt-belt state, you MUST replace your rear axle with your wheel bearing and seals. A rusty outer CV cup will never make a proper seal against the seals in the spindle, and water and crud WILL find it's way inside the wheel bearing. This info comes from the owner/operator of a large independent subie shop in central Vermont. I brought up the subject of repetitive rear wheel bearing failure and he instantly asked the question, "did you install new rear axles with the bearings?" He said that a set of new bearings can get destroyed in as little as three weeks if you don't replace the axle as well. I, for one, believe him. And if you're wondering if he was trying to convince me to have work done there or something, he wasn't. This was just common knowledge to him.

Yeah, even if the speedo only goes to 80.

Hi, There's lots of info on HOW to do this swap available through a quick search, so I will answer your question about how hard and how long it takes. You'll need an adapter plate and redrilled flywheel. You can buy it or make it yourself. If you buy an adapter plate, swapping in the EJ is about as difficult as doing a clutch job yourself. I sell the adapter plates for $185, and do flywheel redrilling for $75. Wiring is somewhat difficult and fairly time consuming. ShawnW on the board will do your wiring for $200. Well worth it. It can take a week or more to do yourself. So basically, it's pretty easy... doable in a couple of weekends. Of course there are lots of little issues like radiator hoses and gauges and stuff that will take some time. BTW most people who do swaps into EA81 subes will swap in an EA82 5spd D/R at the same time. This is a nice upgrade, but not a requirement. You can keep the 4spd D/R and swap in an EJ. Let me know if you want more info on how to do this...

Yeah, I think you've got it all right. The EJ's just have one fitting for oil pressure. Like Josh said above, there is a fitting that threads into the block for the stock sender, that has a 10mm x 1.0 output... that's where you start with the adapters. The last two aluminum adapters that are on the list could probably be found in brass at a hardware store for a little cheaper.

The supplier for the oil line and fittings is Paragon Performance in Lake Arrowhead, CA. http://www.paragonperformance.com/ I got them to fax me the invoice but all it had are descriptions, no part numbers, anyway, here goes: 8" -04 female st. to st. Teflon hose assembly.............$13.10 #4 st. male, AN flare to 10mm x 1.0.......................$11.15 -04 Alum. Straight AN to 1/8" NPT Adapter.................$2.10 Alum. pipe bushing, 3/8"/1/8".............................$9.10 Alum. pipe coupler, 3/8"..................................$9.65 Note that 8" of hose was barely enough to get the sender positioned where I have it. Depending on where you want to mount it you may want to order a longer hose. Their entire line of adapters is on the website, it just takes some poking around to find them all. They also make custom stainless lines, in whatever length and with whatever connectors you want, I had some made for my three-wheeler, they're very nice and not too pricey either. I'm pretty sure you can get DOT approved lines as well.

That is sooooo what I've been thinking My two hatchbacks are a little "clunkier" to drive, but they'd never think of dropping bearings every couple thousand miles...