D/R 5 Speed into Brumby

[El_Freddo]

G'day tash,

Its times like these I wish you were still in Lannie... Yes we are still on the farm, sis should be home at that time from what I've heard - she's currently ripping it up in canada! Been there for almost 9 months now.

AFAIK you don't need to be shorten any prop shafts or drive shafts. If your gearbox is a 23 spline output shaft unit your MY shafts will slot straight on. Just make sure the diff is the same as the rear, I'm 99% sure your rear diff will be 3.7:1 ratio. If the gearbox is the same you'll be sweet - I'm also 99% sure that the gearboxes from the post '87 L's are all 3.7:1 ratio as well. There will be a sticker on the back of your rear diff that will tell you the ratio, unless you have L.S.D. on it, if that happens to be the case I'd hang on to that one and NOT let it go!

With the flywheel you can get your current one machined to fit the L series clutch plate and clutch pressure plate. A machine shop should be able to help you out with this one. Dunno what the cost would be though.

Don't worry about taking the gearbox apart. If this is really too much I'd suggest getting a replacement gearbox until you have a little more mechanical experience and knowledge (and funds) to take this on. I know the feeling of working with a budget, that's how I've build up Ruby Scoo, always on a budget! What you need to do is decide what you want to do with your subi, do your research on how to do it then start collecting the RIGHT parts you need - also make sure they're at a good price. A lot of this comes down to being in the right place at the right time! You can't plan that...

As for the weber I reckon you'd be right with that - an adaptor plate, weber, choke cable, bolt it all together and you're sorted. If it doesn't work reverse what you've done and replace it with what was there before hand I've been there and done that a few times over!

Its all learning, just so long as what you've done is reversible, you may loose a day doing it but in the end you've learnt something - hopefully!

Again, I'd grab a second hand gearbox and swap before shelling out the tough stuff for a reconditioning of the old box...

All the best, I'll keep an eye on how/what you're up to

Cheers

Bennie

PS sorry for the late reply, been on ski camp all week Its the only way I'll ever get paid for skiing!!

[Subiegirl]

Hey Hey

Ok so update, i managed to get a complete l series donor vehicle with 5 speed d/r with an ej20 to boot all for the reasonable price of $450, cheers! My entire pitiful savings...but it will be worth it all in the end.
Haven't had a proper look yet, will do this arvo, but from what i know, the engine will need a rebuild/recon as its smoky and running rough- so thats for a very rainy day, rebuilding engines is something i would love to learn in the future... Mostly i want it for the gearbox, so can i use the l series gearbox and matching diff with the brumby driveshafts? For some reason i thought these had to be shortened...hmm

So i reckon this weekend i'll spend parting out the car and seeing what else is useful. Is there anything off a l series i could use, disk brakes? power steering?

As for the weber, does anyone have a step by step instruction book with pictures (cos im a monkey and pics do the trick) as i might just have a go this weekend. What do i do with the pollution gear? I was searching through the forums and couldn't seem to find anything definitive, the interweb is just that, a web...

Hey bennie, yeah sometimes i seriously consider moving back, u guys have a rad culture, arts and music scene i love to stomp around in. Sweet we'll if i have enough annual which i reckon i might, im coming down to melb for a holiday...lets go camping :P :P I really wanna go to england for a few years then do the canadian snow for a year! Laurs has travelled so much, ah jealous! I haven't even seen snow yet...one day

I think i will have to take pics while i do the box, so i can trace what i've done. Maybe i will post them here if peeps are interested, and pics of what ive done so far to the brumby...which isn't much haha

I better get back to work.
cheers

[spike]

to be honest suby girl id fix the L seires and drivwe that around for a while, i would love to find a ej2o engine alone for 450$

[RSR 555]

Nice find in regards to the L.Series Is the EJ20 a single cam or quad cam model? As for the Weber conversion fitment, I don't remember seeing anything that is like a step-by-step process as it depends on so many different factors.. like what air filter is used and engine model, etc.. I remember my best mate fitting his Weber to his EA81 and he ended up making the original airfilter housing marry back up to the top of the Weber, it looked like factory fir and whenever the cops looked under the bonnet, all was sweet

[steptoe]

SG , count the splines on your intended gearbox on the front drive stubs before believing what we say about fitment as far as CV shafts go. I tend to thnk as mountains and valleys when looking at splined stuff. Your Brumby 4 speed box should have 23 muntains and so do most L Series boxes. The exception is as far as read in here are the mpfi mated boxes whether they be NA or turbo. Who knows if someone sourced an mpfi box for beind the EJ

So.... how many you got ?

Jonno

[Subiegirl]

SG , count the splines on your intended gearbox on the front drive stubs before believing what we say about fitment as far as CV shafts go. I tend to thnk as mountains and valleys when looking at splined stuff. Your Brumby 4 speed box should have 23 muntains and so do most L Series boxes. The exception is as far as read in here are the mpfi mated boxes whether they be NA or turbo. Who knows if someone sourced an mpfi box for beind the EJ

So.... how many you got ?

Jonno

Hi Jonno

As far as i can tell, as the owner did not know is that it is the 23 spline gearbox and it has the adapter plate mated to the ej20, so i am assuming that if the gearbox was from a mpfi model then it would be the 25 spline required to mate it up to ej20 and wouldn't need an adapter plate, is this correct? Jeez i certainly hope so!! I haven't had a thorough look over the car yet, but doing up the wagon wouldn't really serve my quest to better my brumby, i'm a ute girl thru and thru...i hate backseats and backseat drivers, and love camping, so utes serves me to no end...bar the constant "sooo...u've got a ute hey..i am moving house next...blah blah" hahaha have helped many a folk move a few things

The ute is running rough with the carby issue and gearbox is really getting to me, so once these two are fixed, i will have my cruiser back again...then forward onto more mods probably...cos im an addict LOL

I won't have enough money/skills to tackle a conversion, so i might just hang onto the engine and see what needs fixing and maybe do that as a side pet project, albeit if my roomie doesn't get annoyed with car parts lying around

I have seen a few ej20 engines going for around $500-$600 in brisbane a few times on ebay, but i have never pursued that as i know i don't have the skills for the work involved, and they usually don't come with ecu, loom and engine components. In this respect i think i've done well to get a complete car, even if the engine aint that great. All in good time

cheers

[preno]

http://www.subarubrat.com/Retrofitting% ... V%2032.htm

there was also a good write up here:

http://www.ausubaru.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

but its full of spam now

[El_Freddo]

Hi Jonno

As far as i can tell, as the owner did not know is that it is the 23 spline gearbox and it has the adapter plate mated to the ej20, so i am assuming that if the gearbox was from a mpfi model then it would be the 25 spline required to mate it up to ej20 and wouldn't need an adapter plate, is this correct? Jeez i certainly hope so!! I haven't had a thorough look over the car yet, but doing up the wagon wouldn't really serve my quest to better my brumby, i'm a ute girl thru and thru...i hate backseats and backseat drivers, and love camping, so utes serves me to no end...bar the constant "sooo...u've got a ute hey..i am moving house next...blah blah" hahaha have helped many a folk move a few things

The ute is running rough with the carby issue and gearbox is really getting to me, so once these two are fixed, i will have my cruiser back again...then forward onto more mods probably...cos im an addict LOL

I won't have enough money/skills to tackle a conversion, so i might just hang onto the engine and see what needs fixing and maybe do that as a side pet project, albeit if my roomie doesn't get annoyed with car parts lying around

I have seen a few ej20 engines going for around $500-$600 in brisbane a few times on ebay, but i have never pursued that as i know i don't have the skills for the work involved, and they usually don't come with ecu, loom and engine components. In this respect i think i've done well to get a complete car, even if the engine aint that great. All in good time

cheers

Its times like these you need minties! Good score on the L. Touring wagon or not? The touring wagon had all the bells and whistles - electric windows, electric mirrors, carpet and the good old raise bump in the roof that started just behind the front seats. If you don't have touring wagon I would suspect that the spline count is 23. The spline count is for the diff stubs, not the gearbox input shaft. Intersetingly the gearbox input shaft on all subi boxes I've encountered have the same number of splines... IF it is a touring wagon, you should give the body and complete interior to me It also means that it could be 23 or 25 spline count, depending on wether it was an MPFI (multi port fuel injection AKA multi point fuel injection) or a carbie EA82 originally.

As for the engine, if the ECU (computer) is not throwing any codes, grab a good block - it can be just the block with heads, just need to get one from the same sort of era I believe. What you do here is remove the intake manifold from your current EJ20 and drop it onto the new block, put all the sensors on if the new block doesn't have them (knock sensor, cam sensor, crank sensor) and drop it in. Will be heaps cheaper than the engine rebuild option. You can do that later. Sensors can be expensive to replace but you won't have to do that often. I just replaced 3 sensors on my L's EJ - and thanks to FROG it came in A LOT cheaper than it could've been... She goes ace again for the record (more about that in my thread later!)

With the L there's afew interchangable parts. The rear self adjusting drum brakes are a better proposition to the manual adjust units your brumby will have on it now. If it happens to have rear discs I'd definitly drop them into the rear of your ute.
Other than that you could do the L control arm/strut/front hubs and brake conversion. It does push your wheels out a little further from what I've heard. Personally I don't know if this is really worth doing...

The most difficult bit you'll find is the wiring. Hopefully the conversion was done well - the wiring is the critical part, if its not done properly you can have a real hair puller on your hands. It is not fun to trace a wiring problem and even less if its someone else's doing on some wiring you know little to nothing about!

All the best with it, would love to help out if I could but I'm all outta time myself. And the distance thing could pose an issue as well

Cheers

Bennie

[Subiegirl]

http://www.subarubrat.com/Retrofitting% ... V%2032.htm

there was also a good write up here:

http://www.ausubaru.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

but its full of spam now

haha had to laugh at the spam page...geebus how'd that happen??

Cheers for the first link, this will help heaps....luckily my boss has agreed to give me a lift to work if i completely stuff the weber convert this weekend wish there were pics, really need pics.
cheers
tash

[El_Freddo]

Cheers for the first link, this will help heaps....luckily my boss has agreed to give me a lift to work if i completely stuff the weber convert this weekend wish there were pics, really need pics.

That's a good boss you've got there!

Yeah, you wish there were pics - so take some for the next monkey!!

Cheers

Bennie

[preno]

wish there were pics, really need pics.
cheers
tash

a few pics

note, first 2 pics not everything was connected yet

[Subiegirl]

so going to have a working bee day in brisbane some time soon?

i'll come and watch haha for when its my turn to do the conversion (i also have compressors/rattleguns/and about everyother tool known to man)

Haha yes if everything goes to plan, i reckon in the next month or so...there will be a big working bee day and your quite welcome to chill in the hammock
i mite have got my hands on an old postie bike...fingers crossed...then it doesnt matter if something unexpected happens as i can always get to work...which is my one of my main concerns before i attempt to dismantle the brumby.

Its all coming together now.

[Subiegirl]

hi bennie

oh did i say it was a wagon...oops my bad its a l series sedan, i had a better look over it yesterday and boy am i impressed. The engine isn't actually all that bad, has heaps of power and takes off like a rocket. It does however look like its been a while since the last service as the leads look very brittle, and low level oil altho i couldn't find leaks. It idles a little weak and offbeat at about under 1000 revs. The convert looks a little 'unprofessional' as far as wiring is concerned, there seems to be stray wires running around the place--fun fun. Apart from that the gearbox is smooth and nice, the rear diff is a 3.9, will this still fit?? It also came with a few bonuses, like a brand new spare tyre on a 4x140mm rim, an amp, some h4 globes, 1 sony speaker, pair of pliers, tshirt, 70cents in change, 1 bottle of extra virgin olive oil and best of all new liberty seats.

It also has a sports exhaust, looks like a 2" straight free flow into a cannon, and power steering--can i mod this to install on brumby?

Also it has a different hi-lo range selector than the 4wd lever in the brumby, is it possible to just use the this new one, as i think it looks nicer with a polished wood handle would this make it easier than trying to adapt it to the brumby lever??

Ok to make sure i have a 23 spline gearbox, steptoe do i count the mountains that the cv shaft thing comes out of the gearbox, there is a mountain and valley moulded into the metal around the boot - do i count these and that will tell me whether it will fit?
If it happens to be the 25 spline, then i guess i'll just have to wait till i can do the conversion and do it all in one go, right?

Can someone confirm that if its a 23 spline that driveshafts don't need to be changed? pull out and bolt up job?

cheers guys

[spike]

hating you right now subie girl

wish i knew a girl this keen on cars =D lols

[steptoe]

now SHG is getting technical. 23 mountains on the stub coming out the side of the gearbox is std for MY and Brumby and carby L Series, I think it is 23 on the stub, never thought it may be 23 mountains in the CV cup now you mention it. I announce I do not know or remember.

You can do what I did and retain all the levers 1 to 5 and R and 4 hi lo from L Series and shove it in Brumby, use Brumby gearbox x mem and mounts modded with a simple rattty file to fit to L box. Use L two piece shaft. and of course match diff ratio at rear to front. L diffs and MY Brumby diffs look or feel no diff to each other

JUST DO IT !

[78sti]

Dont worry to much about the splines as you should be able to swap the outer part of the cv joint onto your shafts using the inner part of the joint already on your shafts.
It sounds a bit complicated but is very straight forward when you stuck into it.

The high/ low lever on the l series does work in a different way and would be hard to reuse. It is much easier to connect the brumby one to the l box.

The only thing that will cost a bit is getting the tail shaft lengthened or shortened (the 5 speed gearbox is much shorter) This should not be done diy as it needs to be balanced! It is cheaper to get the l shaft shortened but you will have to make a mount for the centre bearing. To get the brumby one lengthened (much easier) cost be about $450 last time I did it as they need to put a larger longer shaft on, to get an I shaft shortened it cost me about $250. You could try Driveline services for this to get the latest prices?

If your rear diff is not the same (probably 3.7) that is easy enough to swap over.

[El_Freddo]

23 mountains on the stub coming out the side of the gearbox is std for MY and Brumby and carby L Series, I think it is 23 on the stub, never thought it may be 23 mountains in the CV cup now you mention it. I announce I do not know or remember.

You can count either. There will be an equal number of "mountains" and "valleys" in the stub spline count. If you don't believe it draw a 23 pointed star (or a 5 pointed star, its going to show it all the same, just less counting), then mark your starter point, count the mountains, then count the valleys. Both will be the same otherwise it is not physically possible to have un-even number of one against the other...

4wd sedan eh? They're hard to find. I'd guess by your description and the fact that it is a 3.9 ratio that this sedan was a june 1987 build or earlier, down to 1985 model. I wouldn't reckon they had an '84 4wd L series sedan as I'm 100% certain only the 2wd model came out late in '84, like my sister's Baz was. Unfortunately he's playing parts bitch now - either that or he continues to rust...

And 78 STi I was under the impression that the L series and MY's have the same wheel base length and thus could use the L series two piece tail shaft with centre bearing in the MY when fitting the L's 5 speed gearbox? Can anyone clarify this as I'm hoping to drop a 5 speed in to Sunnie during the summer months Would also LOVE a dual carb setup if anyone's got one kicking around

You've done well to score those parts tash, the 3.9 ratio'd gearbox should be good offroad from what I've heard too.

Cheers

Bennie

[78sti]

I was under the impression that the L series and MY's have the same wheel base length

My series 1 ute has a 2 piece l series tail shaft in it and it has been shortened quite a bit and I am 90% sure that the later my is also shorter than a l series.

[isnowi]

My 85 Brumby with AWD L box uses the L propshaft, perfect length. I think as long as the propshaft matches the box it should be the right length (this relates to L wagon driveline into 85 brumby) No shortening required.

[steptoe]

another here that fitted L Series 4WD box to an 84 MY Brumby and tailshaft did NOT need shortening or lengthening jus the floor brackets made up for centre bearing.
Did my conversion by preparing another pedal box to take the L clutch cable, then started at 11am Saturday morning, wasted time chasing a nother rear main seal after I stuffed the first one I installed at same time - get two spare rear seals to do at same time - and drove out at 4am Sunday finished and happy. At 11am it was warm enough for a T shirt, by 4 am I wanted a jumper and did not have one and could not wait to get that heater working, was a nice drive home.