Monster wagon

User avatar
AndrewT
Senior Member
Posts: 4777
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: WA
Contact:

Post by AndrewT » Tue May 17, 2011 11:29 am

These gears I have now I *think* are just 1:1 ratio. At least I would assume so. They are from a later model gearbox, I even had to swap to the matching later model rear housing as they didn't fit into the original Aussie RS one (original one had snap rings etc, later one doesn't and the gears are slightly different shape). I think only the Aussie RS had the weird 3.54 ratio rear diff so any other gearbox wouldn't actually change the ratio with these gears.
Hopefully they are a bit more resilient from this, also from being later model and lower kms (although strangely Doug is offering me no warranty on them in this application, HA!).

That's right his is probably more extreme application to mine, although, imagine the pressures I'd be putting them through in this situation - boggy beach sand driving, on boost with EJ20turbo, 2.27:1 low range with locked centre engaged. I think these gears will still definitely be the weak point in the driveline.

Just have to play it by ear now.

User avatar
RSR 555
Elder Member
Posts: 6951
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 10:42 am
Location: ATM... stuck in Rockingham

Post by RSR 555 » Tue May 17, 2011 12:59 pm

Yeah.. if you or Doug fitted the later rear gearset then you would have needed to change the rear housing, another reason is due to the centre diff won't match.

Early WRXs had the same box as the Aussie RS.. I know this because I'm using the early WRX running gear for Murtie.

I'm going to be running similar setup to you.. so we'll see how mine goes too :mrgreen:
You know you are getting old when the candles on your birthday cake start to cost more than the cake itself.

RSR Performance
Home of the 'MURTAYA' in Oz
Subaru Impreza WRX based Sportscar
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

Disclaimer: Not my website but hyperlink here to Subaru workshop manuals

User avatar
AndrewT
Senior Member
Posts: 4777
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: WA
Contact:

Post by AndrewT » Tue May 17, 2011 8:29 pm

I fitted it :) but yeah it's supposedly later model than the RS and was quite different, requiring the housing to be swapped too. Yeah the centre diff looked like it wouldn't fit, and the RWD spool I bought supposedly only suits the later model gear shafts too.
What setup are you going to be running specifically? Is this for the RSR offroader?

User avatar
AndrewT
Senior Member
Posts: 4777
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: WA
Contact:

Post by AndrewT » Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:19 pm

Still using the car daily for work covering quite a few kms atm.
Here she is parked in West Perth a couple of days ago for a client meeting.

Image


There's been a bit of a thud developing when taking up slack in the driveline, ie just taking off from standstill etc.
I suspected main diff hanger bush (the one on the forward part of the diff) as I've experienced this before and sure enough, the rubber had disintegrated a fair bit and it was just flogging around making the thud noise. I guess RWD only takes it's toll on this bit.
I'd had a spare diff hanger sitting there for a while which I got from Brendan ages ago, it has a very very solid red bush custom fitted to it. Doesn't look like it will ever wear out.

Also the rear suspension in my wagon has been getting pretty slack lately. It was a pair of KYB shocks and Kings springs which I'd bought brand new but this was quite a few years ago now and the car saw a lot of 4x4ing on them back then. Looks like I've worn them out.
I've had the set I was running in the RX Sedan (exactly the same kind) sitting in the garage ever since I sold the RX. They were basically still brand new, didn't see much use and it was only on the road too. These aren't the slightly longer 2wd ones but seem to suit well enough.

Put the diff hanger and the shocks/springs in early this morning. Big difference :)
Handles even better around corners now with the new shocks/springs and the diff bush fixed the thud straight up.

I've got a few spare moustache bars sittings around too, I really should get around to zapping up a double one at some stage, still just running the standard one but it's still completely straight somehow!

User avatar
Dann
Junior Member
Posts: 232
Joined: Thu May 13, 2010 6:39 pm
Location: Perth

Post by Dann » Fri Jun 03, 2011 3:54 pm

looking gwd there, haha really stands out now :)
Cheers,
Dann
http://www.ausubaru.com/forum/showthrea ... t=dann%27s

Looking for:
- LSD diff

Image
IMG_0957 by Dann_Evans, on Flickr

User avatar
guyph_01
Senior Member
Posts: 2515
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:24 am
Location: Wilson WA

Post by guyph_01 » Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:32 pm

Nice Pic there andrew.
Civic springs i got are KHFS-58
The project, EJ22 --->>> EJ25 Quad CAM:D touring wagon
Image
Thinking of going on holidays on a little paradise island, Check out http://www.dodolidays.com

User avatar
El_Freddo
Master Member
Posts: 12487
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: Bridgewater Vic
Contact:

Post by El_Freddo » Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:38 pm

Great pic mate!

Think Ruby Scoo's a little short now :(

Cheers

Bennie
"The lounge room is not a workshop..."
Image
El Freddo's Pics - El_Freddo's youtube

User avatar
AndrewT
Senior Member
Posts: 4777
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: WA
Contact:

Post by AndrewT » Mon Jun 06, 2011 5:42 pm

Thanks Guyph, I might have to get some of those. Dispite my bashing in of the rear guards as much as I think I can without butchering the car too much, I still found it scrubbing abit a couple of days ago when I was being a hoodlum getting it sideways around a corner.
El Freddo, heh yeah perhaps, but think how that guy in the green WRX felt :P although height probably is not his objective.

Just spent another 10 mins on the wagon today (yes that's all she gets even on a long weekend!) and finally did something I've never done the whole time I've had the wagon for some reason. Fixed the rediculous negative camber in the rear end! Should have taken before and after pics...but the old "loosen the 3 bolts" idea definitely works.
On either side of the K frame you loosen the 3 bolts that holes one of the trailing arms on and give the arm a few whacks with a mallet to get it to settle. I swear it barely even moved. Tightened the bolts back up and let her back onto the ground. Camber is basically neutral now, mabey even a little positive. Even after a couple of laps around the block it's still holding. Might have to work out something a little more permanent because I bet after a bit of offroading in the future it might return again, happy for now tho!

Think I might take the 4.111 Clutch LSD diff out during the week and swap it for the 4.111 Viscus LSD one I was running in the RX sedan for now. The CLSD one has been whining ever since I first got it years ago (even when it was just an open diff before I put the CLSD centre in), I think the main gears are worn and the whining has been worsening recently.

User avatar
El_Freddo
Master Member
Posts: 12487
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: Bridgewater Vic
Contact:

Post by El_Freddo » Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:16 am

Yeah Andrew, I did that rear 3 bolt camber trick - I didn't think it would work, but I had some serious negative camber on the rear end after the lift went in. I first noticed it with the big tyres and it was almost as apparent with the little tyres. About half an hour of stuffing around and I've got them back to 0 degrees offset or there abouts on each side.

Very happy!

Cheers

Bennie
"The lounge room is not a workshop..."
Image
El Freddo's Pics - El_Freddo's youtube

User avatar
AndrewT
Senior Member
Posts: 4777
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: WA
Contact:

Post by AndrewT » Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:48 pm

The whining Clutch LSD 4.1 diff is out now, standard open 4.1 diff is in (thanks for the supply Guyph).
The rear end doesn't step out wildly when I smoke it around a corner anymore, just does a single pegger :P But on the bright side, no more whining.
I'll put my second CLSD centre into this diff at some stage and then use the whining 4.1 CLSD diff in the front end when I get to that stage. It won't whine in the front end because it only happens under load and only above ~80km/h. I doubt I'll go 80km/h in 4x4, well maybe on the beach.

User avatar
El_Freddo
Master Member
Posts: 12487
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: Bridgewater Vic
Contact:

Post by El_Freddo » Sun Jun 12, 2011 6:37 am

AndyT - I think you'll find that it is not the diff centre that is whining, rather the carrier bearings or the R&P gears...

So it won't really matter which CLSD centre ends up where, just so long as the carrier bearings/R&P gearsets that are whining end up being the one out the front ;)

Cheers

Bennie
"The lounge room is not a workshop..."
Image
El Freddo's Pics - El_Freddo's youtube

User avatar
AndrewT
Senior Member
Posts: 4777
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: WA
Contact:

Post by AndrewT » Sun Jun 12, 2011 10:07 am

Yep I know that - as mentioned;
AndrewT wrote: The CLSD one has been whining ever since I first got it years ago (even when it was just an open diff before I put the CLSD centre in), I think the main gears are worn and the whining has been worsening recently.

If I have time I'll try to find another 4.1 open diff in really good condition and stick the CLSD centre in that....but yeah...this one wouldn't whine anyway when offroad unless I'm going really fast with 4x4 engaged. But it's probably still good to get a better condition one in there for reliability I guess.

User avatar
Subi101
Junior Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:34 am
Location: Tasmania

Post by Subi101 » Sat Jun 16, 2012 11:02 pm

Just wondering how well dose an EJ engine fit to a 91 L Series thinking of doing mine up like the one on wagon tribute on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KSVIcyXq8M

User avatar
taza
General Member
Posts: 1417
Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:21 pm
Location: Perth, Australia

Post by taza » Sat Jun 16, 2012 11:38 pm

Subi101 wrote:Just wondering how well dose an EJ engine fit to a 91 L Series thinking of doing mine up like the one on wagon tribute on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KSVIcyXq8M

That's Alex's Wanky Wagon. It was a real weapon.
The EJ fit's very very well into the L-Series. give a huge performance increase. Most people go with an EJ22. There are many threads on here about doing it.

Welcome to the forum.

Taza

User avatar
guyph_01
Senior Member
Posts: 2515
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:24 am
Location: Wilson WA

Post by guyph_01 » Sun Jun 17, 2012 9:02 pm

taza wrote:That's Alex's Wanky Wagon. It was a real weapon.
The EJ fit's very very well into the L-Series. give a huge performance increase. Most people go with an EJ22. There are many threads on here about doing it.

Welcome to the forum.

Taza
Subi101 You should really start you own thread. Andrew may be pissed. Tho his hasn't been here for a while.
I'd got ej25 single or like mine quad cam over the the ej22. Simple really. For the same amount of work and time spent, you get a much more powerful engine and if you look for the right bargain, They are not that much more expensive.
The project, EJ22 --->>> EJ25 Quad CAM:D touring wagon
Image
Thinking of going on holidays on a little paradise island, Check out http://www.dodolidays.com

User avatar
AndrewT
Senior Member
Posts: 4777
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: WA
Contact:

Post by AndrewT » Thu Apr 24, 2014 4:04 pm

It's been a really really long time between updates. Been lurking around here and a few of the other forums the last couple of weeks, like an old L series I too feel quite rusty.

Briefly:

- Drove Monsterwagon ages just in RWD, never did get the transfer case working in it. I just never got enough time and it seemed like it was going to require a huge amount of mods to the actual body (cutting massive holes in tranny tunnel etc). Was using it for work for quite a while, fun to get around in.
- Got married, built a new house, moved 3 times finally ending up in the new house, had a first child... so the wagon didn't really get much use for a long time.
- Let the licence lapse and really didn't want to source basically all the standard L series driveline, suspension etc and convert it back to standardish to pass the pits. The body was pretty gone anyway, fair bit of rust coming through and some worrying stress fractures and panels not lining up from a couple of pretty bad "accidents" offroad.
- Stripped it down to a bare shell and got rid of the body.

But did I want to quit old Subarus? heh...

- Found an identical car...white, MPFI, registered touring wagon and picked it up. Already came with 3" lift, chunky tyres, and an EJ22 adaptor plated setup. Most of the mechanicals are pretty ratty but hey, it's rego'ed and it drives. I can technically go offroading any time I want.

So basically still have Monsterwagon, it's just technically a different car now (hah), and most of the ridiculous parts are sitting around my workshop.

The 6" / transfer case idea had merit I think - the car was surprisingly balanced to drive in the 6" configuration, worked really well. I just never actually got the transfer case in.


So now that I have a fairly clean slate, and all my tools organised in a proper workshop for once, I'm going to do a bit more work on it now. I still have basically NO time, but I think the next phase should only really need a bit of tinkering after work here and there.

Planning to configure it not as extreme this time, but still fairly special and unique.

- Will stick with 3" body lift
- Still will be running an EJ engine crossmember and wishbone control arms. Likely going to get the block / adaptors off RSR Paul for this (I don't have the time to mess around with this again and my 6" ones certainly aren't suitable!)
- Re-use my existing Outback struts/springs (which are still pretty much new condition Kings / KYBs I bought new)
- Return to running a traditional AWD gearbox setup (no more crazy transfer case). I just need to source a nice Forester gearbox for this.
- Rear end will just be an RX clutch LSD diff

The unique part will be the engine - going to do something nobody (to my knowledge) has done before in an L series. A few hurdles to get over but it's looking like it should work out quite well.

Also been picking up a few nifty exterior accessories, and will spend a little more time getting things looking nicer, including interior, actually get aircon going etc, things like that.

Hopefully going to make some pretty fast progress from here. Probably going to rip the EJ22 out this weekend and clean the engine bay up a bit then test fit the new motor. Might even run it on the adaptor plate at first because it's a bit hard to find a new gearbox at the moment.


For a change this time around, I think I'll just post pics and more specifics only after I've actually done them :)

User avatar
Bumpty
General Member
Posts: 1288
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 11:44 pm
Location: Tas

Post by Bumpty » Sat May 03, 2014 9:00 am

WOOHOO!
Monster wagon lives ...sort of haha


An H6 twin turbo?

User avatar
AndrewT
Senior Member
Posts: 4777
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: WA
Contact:

Post by AndrewT » Sat May 03, 2014 2:09 pm

haha dont think that'd fit!

She certainly doesn't live now anyways. Nothing in the engine bay. Going to give the bay a lick of paint before anything goes in.

User avatar
Proton mouse
Junior Member
Posts: 378
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 11:35 pm
Location: Diagonally parked in a parallel universe

Post by Proton mouse » Sat May 03, 2014 2:41 pm

AndrewT wrote: - Drove Monsterwagon ages just in RWD, never did get the transfer case working in it. I just never got enough time and it seemed like it was going to require a huge amount of mods to the actual body (cutting massive holes in tranny tunnel etc)
Shame, would have been awesome to see it in action!

AndrewT wrote:- Got married, built a new house, moved 3 times finally ending up in the new house, had a first child... :)
Cant believe you would use these as excuses, where were your priorities!! lol


AndrewT wrote:So now that I have a fairly clean slate, and all my tools organised in a proper workshop for once..
And doesn't it feel good!! After 25 years of working on outside, uneven driveway surfaces, open to all the elements, I finally built a 6x9 shed. Its like heaven!!

AndrewT wrote:- Rear end will just be an RX clutch LSD diff:)
Hope you have one already!! They're as rare as a queer tomcat!!
AndrewT wrote:- The unique part will be the engine - going to do something nobody (to my knowledge) has done before in an L series. :)
Electric? Nuclear powered?

User avatar
AndrewT
Senior Member
Posts: 4777
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: WA
Contact:

Post by AndrewT » Sat May 03, 2014 2:49 pm

Yeah, it's awesome having a shed now. Mine's 6x9 too. Strict rules too - no storing shit. It's a workshop not a storage shed :) Just two old project cars and a heap of tools and equipment.

Have three old clutchpack lsd's already.

Post Reply

Return to “AndrewT”