I'm doing this thread because I had such a hard time finding someone with the right info. Much thanks to Jeff Perrin.
First off locate a spare center differential. Check the boards or some of the Subaru junkyards on line. You should be able to get one for around 200 or less.
Take it apart. Completely. Don't worry about remembering how to put it back togather. This is easily accomplished by removing the snap ring on the top plate and tapping on the internals with a punch, chisel, your head, whatever...
Now seperate the parts into two piles. This is what your paperweight pile should look like.
The front shafts don't have to be removed...
I did this conversion about 12 months ago. I have pics of my centre diff if you want to see how i did it. I just don't know how to post them here.
By the way, does anyone want to part with a set of U.S spec corner markers??
The front shafts don't have to be removed...
I did this conversion about 12 months ago. I have pics of my centre diff if you want to see how i did it. I just don't know how to post them here.
I was told by a guy on NASIOC that if you remove the front axles and plan on driving the car you need to take apart the cv joint on the hub side and put that back into the hub. If you dont do that, the wheels bearng will get all forked up. IDK if this is true, just what I was told.
So you just need to change the center differential for driving RWD?
Or are there any other changes need to do...
respectively is there anything to pay attention at?
It's a way hard for me to get through your slang guys
no, just the center diff. the center diff uses the clutch plates to send power to the back wheels via the center-diff body, and to the front plate via the splines in the center of the clutch plates. By removing the clutch plates, no splines are connected to the shaft going to the front wheels... Power is only transfered to the rear wheels via the parts welded to the center diff body.
I'm planning on doing this this summer with one on my spare tranny, just for fun on the track... But.. i'm a little bit "affraid" to snap something with my car putting +300hp :\ (breaking output shaft, center diff case, do harm to my STI 4 rear LSD ?)
thanks for any infos or updates on doing this on big hp setups
id also be interested in some updates. I'd be concerned with the rear diff, its pretty tiny compared to other RWD cars (even the 240sx has a 200mm ring gear)...
yea i'm most likely doing the conversion within the week...
but for those of you asking about rear diff, axles, etc...
when kingpin did the conversion, after a while jeff said that it ate his r160 rear diff, and then went his rear axles, and after a while it killed his transfer gears...so for yall that are gonna do this mod, save up around 450$ for a r180 and get better rear axles... also, the amount of time it'll take to kill your rear diff, axles, and transfer gears, all depends on how you drive your car...but it will happen eventually. So just know this mod is gonna cost you more than you think...
Hi fellas, I'm not on here much but I thought I'd give some more input.
The R160 is not capable of handling the toque that even my NA Outback was putting out. In the time that I've had RWD (6+ months) I've destroyed:
1 open R160
1 welded R160
1 WRX VLSD
4 R160 axles
2 rear differential covers (twisted them apart)
In addition, the thrust forces caused by the helical cut stepper gears are sure to butcher anything in the transfer case/rear half of the transmission. When shifting hard into 2nd or clutch kicking the steppers disengage a little bit and the upper gear pushes itself right into the back of the center differential. So, to add to the list of carnige:
1 stepper gear set
1 <98 center differential
1 rear transmission housing
1 center bearing
I'm still in the process of converting from a <98 Outback trans (FM8 housing I believe) to a 2.5RS housing (FM4), but the gearsets and center differential housings of those two are interchangable (you could bolt a 2.5RS center housing to the back of a <98 front transmission housing).
As for the rear end, I went BIG and built a subframe to hold a 6-bolt R200 from an Infiniti J30
I imagine that the R180 would hold a good amount of power, but the R200 is plentiful and LSDs are cheap. I did have to get custom 4130 Cromolly axles made from Moser engineering, but they are well worth it.
i know there's a person in portland, or that has done the RWD conversion and has a tranny too...didn't read the whole thing, but if noone has been too sucessful, maybe that member (a yellow wrx) would like to speak up
thats Our call!!! ( Bobby and I ) Can't believe you dont remember our names ! Joey!!! 06 STi rear end, hubs, axles. Custom Adapter plate, Custom Drivelineand a T400 Tranny out of a 69 Chevelle.
We had it at subiefest 2 and Bobby drifted it and drag raced that night. Its mainly built for Drag. But Bobby likes drifting!
Bobby did a write up on it here awhile back and posted up some pics.
I am bringing this back up from the dead as I'm sure there are people that are still interested in making our rear end stronger, what works for our cars from other cars etc.
Unless I'm really out of the loop and people have already confirmed what parts from other cars work on ours, I should be able to tell you guys if S13 rear axels/driveshafts work on our cars pretty soon.
If there is a new link to as what works on our cars please post it up!
If it does it would be a cheap and very good alternative to getting custom one's as they are really expensive.