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transmission swap...


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has anyone ever swapped in a non subaru transmission on an ea81? I'm thinking if I ever go divorced tcase I might just want to find a 5 spd transmission to go with the engine to elminate the dead weight from the front differantial, not to mention maybe reduce a little parisitic loss of power from turning those gears and stubs needlessly... just wondering if its been done and if its practical, and what transmissions have the same input shaft and maybe even bolt right up w/out an adapter plate(hey anything is possible...)

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Well. The problem is the only thing remotely the same shape as the flat four EA81 is the VW flat fours. The air cooled ones are neat, but low HP, and the water cooled ones don't live very long compared to the subaru ones. And none of them bolt to any stock longitudinal trannies either (that I know of)

 

But maybe if you put a different tranny in there, you could move the engine back, and fit an inline four in there. It'll still be hard. I am trying to put a VW diesel engine in my '89 GL, using the original subaru tranny, and there are no adaptor plates made for it, and I'm going to have to move the radiator, and maybe cut the hood too.

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Hmmm. rereading your question, perhaps you mean to use a different tranny, but still use the EA81 engine? And not replace both like I originally though. I still don't know of any longitudinal rear wheel drive trannies that subaru adaptors are regularly made for....

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Hmmm. rereading your question, perhaps you mean to use a different tranny, but still use the EA81 engine? And not replace both like I originally though. I still don't know of any longitudinal rear wheel drive trannies that subaru adaptors are regularly made for....

 

yeah I meant still use the ea81... I love this engine lol, it wouldnt be a soob no more without a flat four.

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Somwhere on the board someone was talking about putting a gear or somthing on the stub and running a hydraulic pump or something for accessories.

 

huh? elaborate please... I dont quite understand what your talking about... if you want to run a hydrolic pump for other stuff why not just rig up a pulley and run it off of the drive belt, unless your car as no room at all for that cause it has ac, power steering, a fan and other stuff(not mine.. i only got waterpump and alternator on my belt...)

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Yeah, the front axle stubs on the tranny aren't great for running accesories, mainly because they turn in reverse when you throw the car in reverse...

 

I think the original post was asking about the possibility of fitting say a Toyota tranny or something similar to the Subie motor. The answer is nothing bolts up and no one has made an adapter for bolting up a non-subie tranny.

 

The T-Case route is not elegant but it works...

 

The subie tranny is tough, simple and well designed. You're not losing a lot of power spinning that front diff.

 

Still, it would be awesome if you wanted to research and develop a real tranny swap... Maybe look into Nissan truck trannies as Nissan is a sister company of Subaru. Don't know jack about them myself but that's a start.

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...I think the original post was asking about the possibility of fitting say a Toyota tranny or something similar to the Subie motor. The answer is nothing bolts up and no one has made an adapter for bolting up a non-subie tranny...

Ummm... based on other threads, I am pretty sure that Kennedy Engineering makes adapters for other trannies; at least for VW applications like the Transporter.

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Ummm... based on other threads, I am pretty sure that Kennedy Engineering makes adapters for other trannies; at least for VW applications like the Transporter.

 

Oh yeah, you're absolutely right. Still.... no one's running them in subies, and we're looking for a 4wd tranny or a RWD tranny to run with a divorced T-Case or something for offroad.

 

Kind of a pipe dream but something I've wondered about too.

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I'll research this in the coming weeks... I have an 83 720 4x4 pickup, and something tells me the transmission is coming out soon for some repair(think another bearing is losing it... :banghead: ). I'm not ready to retire this truck anytime soon(321k miles, gutless, but running like a champ), BUT I will take measurements of everything and post them and compare to subaru. Honestly, even though the subaru tranny is good, theres just no point in having it with a divorced tcase.

 

anyone know the shaft diameter and spline count on the subaru trannies?

 

btw, I like fwd when it comes to handling... but when it comes to taking off and doin cookies, rwd is where its at

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  • 2 months later...

I thought I might revive this thread. my transmission isnt in the best shape, 1st gear and reverse arent doing to good and theres alot of slop in the gears, and my clutch isnt going to last very much longer either. so if I wanted to go with a nissan 5 speed transmission(found out it needs to be 4wd transmission, 2wds have much MUCH longer tailshafts...), what all would be needed to make things work?

 

I'm assuming the minimum I need to do:

 

Nissan flywheel drilled to fit ea81

nissan clutch and pressureplate

Adapter plate?

Transmission mounts

 

all of that seems fairly easy to do, take the flywheel to a machine shop to get that drilled and balanced. I'm not sure how to go about making an adapter plate tho.

 

also, if I'm gonna have things apart and swapping things out, what other tranmission should I look at? maybe find a larger flywheel and pressureplate and find a clutch disc that is big enough and will fit on a nissan input shaft.....

 

 

anyways its 3am... lol

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