DL: FWD -> 4WD conversion

[Bekokatt]

Okay, I'll have to add pictures soon, but, I just completed the conversion to make my FWD DL become 4WD. If there's any interest in this, I'll post up pictures and a description/ instructions for the build and the best methods of afroengineering it all together. Until then, I'm going to take a shower and if anyone cares I will post up the build. I've attached a photo of the car which received the work.

 

Edited May 10, 2014 by Bekokatt

[MilesFox]

I care. Please post. Meanwhile, i will share with you my FWD<4wd swap in an 86 gl coupe.

 Don't come into a subaru forum expecting people to not care. This isn't your local facebook stance bro scene, but real subaru entusiasts. Especially afro engineered home brew stuff because you can't just catalog order a bunch of bolt-ons for these cars.

[suprjohn]

Not sure what you're doing, but I'm still interested! Love pics!

 

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[Dinky26]

I care +1

[RustyBrat]

much caring is to be had here... post it up!

[Bekokatt]

Alright, sweet. My phone has disappeared somewhere into the abyss that is my coupe full of boiler suits, tools, jackets, fast food garbage, and EJ25 that are in the back of my car. Anyway though, I'll give a basic rundown of my experience in the mean time.

So, in mid december, My friend Vince acquired a 1991 Loyale Wagon which had been rearended. We took it's motor (90,000ish Miles) and put it into my car which had cracked heads and ran 3 cylinders and had 272,000ish miles at the time. We also took it's push button 4WD trans out. My car entered this horrid little tarp garage thing where Vince's soob was earlier when we put an EA81 in it. (It's a 1987 Hatch, like that older gen not a liftback like mine which is also an '87). We took the engine out with the trans on it which was among the easiest motors I've ever pulled. We put in the push button trans, and then put the motor in which was also easy and straight forward and I won't explain how to do that here. That can have it's own section somewhere if anyone wants to learn about soobie motor transplants.

Anyway, the motor and tranny were super straight forward. I made a mount for the carrier bearing, which is a bearing that is part of the 1st halfshaft leaving the transmission, and that mount was actually a crossmember that a transmission mounts to, I think we took it from a 1982 wagon that he parted out for the motor. I just drilled two holes that the carrier bearing can connect to, attached it with appropriately sized bolts, and drilled into my floor pan and used more nuts and bolts to attach it with the holes it already had. Later on, I sourced a rearend from a 1993 loyale that had the same 3.9 gear ratio my trans does, and let it since on Vince's front lawn for about 4 months. (With the halfshaft in it's drivable though still FWD) So, anyway, later on in doing this you'll gain free time and inspiration and finish the 4WD conversion with your friend Adam, who will break one of your brake lines. (Somewhat ironic I guess) and you'll have to go to pull n save and get a new one. Then, you'll finish dropping the rear end which is just bolt removal, and if you understand a wrench, you understand bolt removal until a part comes out. Now comes the part where I share with you the wizardry involved in stalling a the new rear end. So, on your DL, you will find 2 indentations in the frame where the mustache bar goes. (The mounting bar for the rear diff that looks like a mustache). And if you're retarded like I am you'll not know that there are two mounts that go there and drop your rear end for nothing and give up for 4 months. Anyway, you'll need to drill those out, I used a 7/16's drill bit and a 7/16's tap with a pitch of 14. Oddly, if you buy 7/16's bolts with a pitch of 14, they will not fit and your eyes will explode out of your skull from rage and your brain will lose all understanding and lobotomize itself and sort of drip out of your nose. In desperation, you will begin trying to stuff random bolts into this hole and suddenly discover that the largest bolt you removed from the rear end to drop it, it's the fattest one, and there's two, and it's about 6 inches long, you'll find that it fits perfectly. Nice and snug. You'll also understand that you need that bolt to put your car back together and that you can't use it. In your hunt you'll notice 6 bolts, of which you need 4, that are attached to the trailing arms on your FWD rear end, you'll take 2 from each side, they're 2 inches long or so, and that those parts were the only ones not made entirely of rust. They'll work great. Then you'll lay the rear end on a jack so where the jack lifts is on the point where the rear diff connects to the rear end itself, and begin to lift, first attaching the mustache bar to the mounts that you just added. Then the other end that is actually the rear end will meet up with the car and you'll keep attaching bolts until you've attached all the bolts. Then you just place the half shaft in there, and there's some play in the portion connecting the transmission to the yoke, so, don't worry about exact measurements there. Put in the 8 bolts for that, and then love the spoob out of your Subaru and try to find a way to explain to your girlfriend that at this point you probably love it more than she loves her children. Also, bleed your brakes because they won't work until you do this. It's really shitty to try to drive across Spokane with no brakes to go home where your brake line and the fluid is. On Maple street bridge, even though your haz lights are on and you're going 8MPH because even at that speed it takes like 5 car lengths to stop with your e-brake, you'll be cut off by a city bus and then brake checked by it, you'll fail the brake check, and take your chances swerving into the empty oncoming lane. You will then wish to beat this bus driver to death but be unable. You will grumble about it for the rest of the day, but, be unable to forget your excitement in having 4WD and inevitably piss off your neighbors by bashing the car around in alley ways and gravel lots at 11 at night. I also forgot to mention, the exhaust system in my FWD did not fit after making it 4WD. I had a Y pipe for a subaru laying around so my car just has a Y pipe now and it's loud and my neighbors probably hate it but I do not care because codswallop them my car is 4WD now. You'll feel the same way, trust this.

Edit: Oh yea, the DL does NOT have the wiring for the push button 4WD to actually work, there's a lever about 10 inches behind the trans dip stick that changes it from FWD to 4WD. That's important to know. And the carpet is different between FWD and 4WD, the gear stick moves forward about 2 inches so your shift boot will never fit right again until you get a new carpet which is the same between coupes, wagons, and sedans. Um, what else. Also buy tires. You'll need them if you want to drive it like I do. I'll add more and add photos of the build later and be all detailed with the photos so you know what's happening. This should be fine for now, right?

Edited May 10, 2014 by Bekokatt

[sumoco]

Damn, that is really awesome, I was going to do the same thing but though it was to much to handle. Glad someone else could actually pull it off though

[Bekokatt]

And that Subaru is dead now. Here's my advice: putting in the push button trans is NOT worth it. The push button is operated through vacuum lines and your DL does not have the connections for the vacuum lines or the wiring for push button. That lever I was talking about DOES work however, it just took a spoob. I had in 4WD, and shifted it into FWD, which while I was driving it shifted itself out of FWD and ended up in the middle between FWD and 4WD, made a horrid winding sound and the whole drivetrain just locked up, the tranny overheated and puked gear oil everywhere and will no longer shift into FWD or 4WD, and while overheated, it would not move while in gear. It moves now that it's cool, but, after towing it home and then parking it, I will no longer drive this car. I got a High Low from an RX with the Diff lockers and the rear diff for it. So, that's going in soon and I can talk about that part of the build later.

Also, have any of you ever had a Soob that was so rusty that it threw a shock through the shock tower? This car just through a shock through the driver's side rear shock tower. Sweet. Everyone tells me "Just put it down and take it to Pull n Save", but, I'm gonna weld up some steel bars from the top of the shock tower to the frame so it will be really tough. My car is among the rustiest subarus I've ever seen. Certainly the worst structurally.