Subaru g/box for a/c

[BARON]

GUYS
Came across this and it can be a way out for some speed freaks here.
Bugger is this feasible and cost effective ?
Aussie conversion.
I thought that the European Covin owners would be interested in this as the cost would very cheap. A guy here in Sydney Australia is producing 5 speed Subaru gearboxes of use in VWs in the traditional position in other words he is reversing the direction of the gearbox so you can use the Subaru box and still hang the motor out the back. At this stage it is only setup to use Subaru motors and gearbox combo but there is work happening towards fitting type 1 motor with an adaptor plate.

The price would be around 1500 pounds plus freight.

Check it out here http://www.subarugears.com/index.htm
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[ZeroAxe]

This is a subject that bothered me for ages.... Seeing that Subaru motors (and boxes) are very close to ACVWs, and people using Subys in ACVWs, how come doesnt anybody use a 'similar' Suby GBox??

[ian]

This has been mentioned on the samba a bit. For anyone doing a Subie engine conversion this makes a lot of sense.

[img]http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... ru+gearbox[/img]

[ZeroAxe]

Thanks for the link. I am going to have a peak at it a little later. Cheers!

[Bugger]

Hi Baron

Have chatted to the Aussie about the conversion

The conversion Crown wheel and Pinnion that you need is $1500USD and then you need linkage kitt etc etc had done a calculation and it came to around R40K as you have to go IRS aswell so there are extra costs involve

[BARON]

Thanks Pierre,
Are there any other 5 spd options -Audi/ late model bus --
Something that will fit the simple way and with cheap spares/service posibilities
I know Subie parts are expensive.
BTW Ill pm you about the wide variant side strips.

cheers Baron

[Bugger]

The other option is the midmount Audi box option but then you need to build a frame to acomodate the box and can use bus IRS components to make it work

[Pine]

Well it's an epic day today .... after 2 years of development we now know it works. For sure. It drives. And it's awesome.

Thought I'd start a new thread about these boxes and conversions as my 4WD Manx one was getting full of discussion about the topic and should really be about the Manx.

The test reversed 5 speed Subaru was fitted to a Sharpbuilt V2 buggy here in Sydney, powered by an EJ25 quad cam naturally aspirated. This motor puts out around 160hp standard. This motor runs a standard ECU and the transmission has been converted to 2WD and shortened so that it fits into the pan without cutting the torsion bar.

The box I built as a test transmission houses the original Impreza gears, the weakest gearset I can fit, just to see how it holds up in this application. The buggy is a LWB buggy which is licensed for the street and should come in just under 1000kgs (2100lbs) or so.



I used a Subaru cable operated transmission as opposed to hydraulic transmission just to retain the original clutch cable and bowden tube in the test buggy. I could have used a Subaru hydraulically operated transmission converted for cable use with my adaptor, but no need at this time.

We fitted a 3.9 final ratio reversed ring and pinion to this setup as it was the first one I produced, this is the standard WRX 2000 ratio. The owner of the buggy had wanted a different ratio more like 4.4 because of his tall tyres and sand dune driving.....but we needed to get this done and driving. More ratios will be trialled in this setup soon.



Here's the engine and box in place





The simple shifter connection, 2 tubes welded to 2 plates and bolted together



Here's how well it sits underneath, Subaru motor is fitted with a shortened sump



CV joint clearance to frame horns



The buggy was fired up and taken for a long drive around the block tonight. The owner commented to me that he was surprised that the 3.9 ratio seemed quite good actually, with 4th gear 60kph at 1600 revs.

He also commented that the cable clutch with bowden tube worked well and softly, no problems at all. He made some bowden tube holders to fit on top of the Subaru transmission as you can see from the photo.

The gearbox selected all 5 gears and reverse but he did comment that the sideways gate selection was shorter than his old 6 rib kombi box. Forward and backward was fine. We will try some different width plates and see if this makes the sideways movement to select gates a bit larger.

I'll update this post with some more closeups in the next few days and hopefully a video real soon so you can see it going through the gears.