5 Speed Bus Kit Install - SubaruGears transmission

[dlb154]

Any updates on making your mount work?

[Crooked Designer]

Has anyone had issues with sometimes not being able to shift into 1st or 2nd? Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for it. Wondering if anyone else with 5speedbus shifter and subigears has experienced anything like this.

Everything is still where it was when originally set up. Shifting to 1st has always been tough, but chalked it up to breaking in new set up. Sometimes it feels like shifting to 1st but I’m in 3rd. Any ideas?
_________________
'85 Westy full camper, Subaru 2.5L, 5 speed SubiGears + 5speedbus shifter kit

[dlb154]

I recall dialing in the linkage as being critical to shifting in/out of all gears smoothly. My wife was in the driver's seat while I was under the Vanagon making minute adjustments. After a small adjustment and tightening down at the junction and she would run through the gears. It took us about 35 minutes to adjust to the right spot.

I've had no problems with the linkage, finding gears, or difficulty moving in and out of any gear. Could it be you need a slight adjustment?

It's definitely a two person job with very small adjustments to the length and/or the angle of the connection between front and rear portions of the shift rods. Don't try both adjustments at the same time.

[Crooked Designer]

[jordauto]

To crooked designer, I've had two times on 5spd Subaru conversions as you describe. In the first case where the new 5spd shifter has a "ball and socket" under the floor in the box above the spare tire. The socket part was an early design one and made out of aluminum, and had worn where the roll pin that is installed through the ball seats into the socket. David Clymer looked after my customer and sent him a replacement upgraded steel socket, and new ball. The new parts took care of the play, after adjusting the shifter all worked perfectly.
The second case of poor shifting was the result of wear in the female half of the shifter rod where it attaches to the transaxle. There is a drilled hole with a roll pin holding the two sections together. The drilled hole had worn and wallowed out enough to allow a few degrees of play. The shifter moves very little radially when shifting, so any play will cause issues. To repair that one I drilled out the hole to fit the next larger size roll pin.
Again this was on Davids first shifter kit design, and yours may be the later design.
This kit also came with a plastic "setting" block to set the shifter in the correct position when setting the joint between the front and rear shaft. the setting is critical and fiddly to get just right.

[D Clymer]

[D Clymer]

[jordauto]

Hello David,
Always good to hear from you.Kells is very happy with his 5spd Westy. I think he got one of the first few kits, so a bug or two is to be expected. Both were minor and easily remedied.
There is one more bug I'd like to care of for him next time he's here for service. This is probably a better question for Subarugears as they built the trans, but maybe you have run into this one. Again is a very early kit, Subarugears built the trans and shipped it from Australia. The vent is located on the RH side of the trans case. It was just a fitting with a screen screwed into the housing. It has always "pumped" gear oil out of the fitting. My first attempt at a repair was to find a banjo fitting and install in its place, then a section of hose running uphill to the RF area of the engine bay with the screen fitting installed at the end. It still pushes gear oil up and out of the tube and makes a mess. I see the newer versions have the vent located on the LH side, which maybe confirms my thought that spinning parts are flinging the oil at the breather and then expansion of the oil and air inside push the oil out.
So, can I just drilled and tap the housing on the LH side and plug the original vent hole? If so is there a dimension for the location? And can I drill it in place or is there too much risk of damage to internals?
I'd be interested to know if anyone else has this issue and if they switched the breather location.

[Franklinstower]

[jordauto]

This is the location of the vent as supplied by Subarugears. As I said in the earlier post, this was one of the first few that we’re completed so the location has been improved.
I like the location of yours, the top of the housing seems a logical placement.

[kco2949785]

Guess I must be lucky but my 1982 single cab (SVX engine and 2007 Impreza trans) has both these problems of no first or second gears and oil coming out of the breather.
It's been a multi-year project and I've driven it five miles. The breather placement is on the side of the transmission case and it really leaks. The breather was placed on the side per Todd's recommendation (I built the transmission over five years ago) and is not on the top like in the previous post.
The gear change linkage and machined rear casting was kit number six from David Clymer. Tomorrow I will try to get my wife help with re-adjustment of the linkage. I have a feeling the problem is the adjustment or indexing between the front and back linkages.
Is that the best place to start?
Thanks for all replies, Ken Collen

[D Clymer]

[D Clymer]

[dlb154]

I may have posted this earlier in this thread. My breather is located on the drive's side front. There has been a fine spray of oil building up around this area.

Any reason why I couldn't put a PVC tube over this breather and route with zip ties away from the transmission to let any oil emissions drip away from the transmission?

[D Clymer]

[dlb154]

Thanks for the link Dave.

I don't see an easy way to drill into the case while the transmission is installed. I wonder if this breather location was a SubiWorks decision. I purchased a built unit direct from them. Would have been great if the breather was a 90 degree barbed fitting to accommodate a drain hose.

Unless someone provides a valid objection, I may try the hose from current breather with a continuous downward path to daylight. Yes the emission is minimal but looking at an otherwise clean transmission is a bit bothersome... however purely cosmetic.

[D Clymer]

[kco2949785]

I thought I had update my entry on this thread.

The shifter has been adjusted per David's recommendations and it is great. Spraying WD-40 on the splines helped a lot with the adjustment.

Still having a problem with the transmission pumping oil out of the original recommended breather position. I replaced the breather that came with the SubaruGears kit with a brass barb (it's a 1/8" NPT) for 1/4" hose. The hose is close to three feet long that ends in the left rear corner. The rise on the hose from the transmission to the end of the hose is about a foot. That's as high as it can go under the bed. Unfortunately my single cab does not have a tall D pillar.

Has anyone made the originally recommended breather position work without leaking oil?

[skills@eurocarsplus]

i have a client fighting the same issue. may want to ask whats his face...supposedly they redesigned something and have a new nose cone.

his usual response is "let me know what you did to fix it" and I have been unimpressed by the conversions lack of R+D....which seems to be up to the end user to deal with
_________________

[D Clymer]