The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

G'day,
Just out of curiosity - has anyone here have dual range boxes from L series (with 1.59:1 ratio) running behind EJ or EJ Turbo engines, have you used low range - have you blown a gearset yet? Also do you use low range as well? - Just wanted to know about the reliability of the gearsets. And also if you have blown one - which one was it?
Cheers
AP

is that the extra low scorpion gearset?
the answer is probably the same tho- just dont crunch it quick, give it death or get airborne and you'l be fine.

mine hasent broken yet it wines a bit like reverse does
actually suprises me it survived rocking on and off traction (very rutted out hill) at 5500rpm

might not do that again now i think about it

Subafury wrote:is that the extra low scorpion gearset?
the answer is probably the same tho- just dont crunch it quick, give it death or get airborne and you'l be fine.

Nah not scorpion gearset, just standard 1.59 low ratio.
Yeah i'm hoping to take it easy with the box normally i am!
Cheers
AP

I think the trick is to have some mechanical sympathy when in low range , assuming your 1st ratio is 3.545 and diff ratio is 3.9 the overall first low gearing has reduced from approx 16.5 to 1 to 22 to 1 .
This means you're talking about ~ 25% reduction in gearing and increase in torque multiplication in a gearbox that is 0% stronger than it was before .

I can tell by the pics that AR's later gearbox's shafts/gears/bearings are beefed up on the L series ones but its debatable if they are 25% stronger .
The correct way to have stronger gears is to have larger diameter ones rather than wider ones and that means bulkier heavier gearboxes .

If people are going to rip tear and bust drive their cars in LR they have to expect to break gearboxes , manufacturers do push their mule test vehicles fairly hard and this is where Subaru would have found the failure rate with lower LR gears unacceptable in heavier EJ powered vehicles .
True their are situations where throwing an off roader at something is the only way to get over it and thats where more serious off roaders have a chassis/live axles/beefy suspension links/real truck transmission .
No OEM Subaru transmission from the MY/L/Lib Imp/Forrester/Outback range has what you'd call a serious manual gearbox , not even the six spd ones .
My R33 Skyline has huge gears and shafts compared to anything in the above range , basicly a RWD GTR transmission - std .

Be nice to it and you shouldn't have too many problems .

A .

Subaman has been running one in his car for about 3, 4 or more years now. He blew second gear in it once. It was a random "blow" in that he was driving in second gear and went for 3rd. It didn't de-select 2nd correctly and the gears bound and then blew. Theory behind it is worn bearings. It was an old box that had a whine in it. When we took it apart to rebuild was when we found the centre bearing collapsed.

interesting above.... Yeah i'll wait and see what happens.. If mine blows i'll let you guys know! i think mine will be alright.
Cheers
AP

I had a NA EJ20 in front of a EA L series box and used the low range on mostly beaches which is a lot of load on a gear. Shouldn't be any probs generally as the EJ/EA low swap shows, the EJ gearbox is essentially an EA gearset in a slightly different housing. ie Subaru were happy for that gearset to be behind a 100kw EJ22 so no worries.

I think the early suba extreme low range conversions in the forrester used L series low range parts.Maybe someone can confirm.

edit: misread your post. dont mind me