91 Brumby Gearbox Questions incl rebuild and upgrade

Hamish71 · Post by **Hamish71** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:33 pm

Gents, and ladies,

This is not the first question I have asked, and I suspent I will have many more!

Just bought a 91 Brumby, smiles all the way home, until I got there, and couldnt for the life of me find reverse! Didnt check that on the test, did I! (Stopped laughing yet?) This car will be my work car, and carry the dirt bikes on weekends. The current 4 speed could best be described as "floppy" and as stated already, is a genuine 4 speed...all of them going forward! I will see if I can fix the crrent 4 speed at least temporarily, but Id like to upgrade to the 5 speed.

Question 1. As I understand it, the L series 5 speed is a straight exchange, no adaptor plate, no different clutch required, no flywheel change required. Is this correct?

Question 2. The only "old" subarus I have driven, including this one, had well over 250,000km on them. The gear box "action" could be described as "similar to stirring a big pot of pasta". By that I mean it is not exactly a nice tight gearbox and shift. Are they always like this, or is this a sign of a well worn gearbox? Is there a way to rebuild them and tighten them right up so that the feel is similar to a modern manual transmission?

Question 3. If it is not possible to rebuild them so that they function in a
"more modern manner", what other gearboxes with dual range and 4WD will fit?

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:58 pm

Hi Hamish,
The most likely cause of the floppy gearstick is a worn gearstick linkage.
If you look at the rear of the gearbox, above the tailshaft there is a shaft (chrome rod) about 2" long with the shroud of the linkage (about 4" long)completely covering it. This is retained by a rollpin. In time, the mild steel shroud wears out and becomes loose against the shaft, causing the shift to be sloppy. If you cannot find reverse it is very very worn. There is a cheap common fix which entales removing the linkage and slotting the sleave so that a bolt can be used to replace the roll pin and tighten the sleave up against the shaft. You may find that your linkage is too far gone and it just needs replacing.

90brumby · Post by **90brumby** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:06 pm

5sp conversion do require a different clutch and also clutch cable dependin on ur flywheel and clutch u may only need to change ur friction plate to a L series 1 but that all depends on the size clutch u have

u have to change the clutch cable to L series 1 and also the tail shaft is different lengths and the gear linkages are different as well

im sure if u search u can find all the info u need on that conversion

Hamish71 · Post by **Hamish71** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:26 pm

brumbyrunner wrote:Hi Hamish,
The most likely cause of the floppy gearstick is a worn gearstick linkage.
If you look at the rear of the gearbox, above the tailshaft there is a shaft (chrome rod) about 2" long with the shroud of the linkage (about 4" long)completely covering it. This is retained by a rollpin. In time, the mild steel shroud wears out and becomes loose against the shaft, causing the shift to be sloppy. If you cannot find reverse it is very very worn. There is a cheap common fix which entales removing the linkage and slotting the sleave so that a bolt can be used to replace the roll pin and tighten the sleave up against the shaft. You may find that your linkage is too far gone and it just needs replacing.

Checked today, definitely some slop here. I just wanted to explore two of your suggestions. Firstly, your "cheap fix" I can understand punching out the roll pin, and replacing it with a bolt. Why is there a need to "slot it". Can you explain this more?

Secondly, if for some reason this wont work, you suggest replacing the linkage. Do you mean, replacing the "shroud"?

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:49 am

Hamish71 wrote:Checked today, definitely some slop here. I just wanted to explore two of your suggestions. Firstly, your "cheap fix" I can understand punching out the roll pin, and replacing it with a bolt. Why is there a need to "slot it". Can you explain this more?

Secondly, if for some reason this wont work, you suggest replacing the linkage. Do you mean, replacing the "shroud"?

You need to slot it (with either a cut-off wheel or hacksaw) so that the shroud can "shrink" down over the shaft. A tight bolt just won't be enough to do it. I'll try to find you a pic.

Secondly, yes, replacing the shroud with a brand new one.

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:18 am

This pic shows the shroud trimmed back to the end of the shaft as well as slotted and drilled out to take an 8mm bolt (might even be 10mm, can't remember).
You may not have to trim yours like this but as you can see, I was redesigning the whole thing.
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/4691/img1967zt7.jpg

Hamish71 · Post by **Hamish71** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:58 am

Ok, I understand. quite simple really.