L Series L/R into SG mechanic advice

skep

Forum Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2015
Messages
59
Location
Mornington Peninsular,Victoria, Australia
Car Year
2003
Car Model
Forester xs
Transmission
Manual
hey all! I purchased an l series box today and gutted it for the low range componants and was under the impression that the crown wheel needed shaving and pretty much that was that..... As I search even deeper it seems that a fair bit of custom machinery work needs to be carried out as it would also be a good idea from what I have seen to have it oil fed as well, and wondering if someone could please point me in the right direction of a mechanic/(backyard handyman) in vic who has perfomed this procedure as I am very keen to go ahead with the swap but custom metal works is not my strong suit and dont want to re-invent the wheel with a clueless transmission mechanic if I can avoid it! its a standard 4.11 d/r gearbox atm. thanks for reading.:)
 
hey bud! yeah I have seen this write up and thats what gave me the irrits seeing all the minute changes required haha! its a very good write up non the less. May have to find a local mechanic to have a browse over it and go from there idw, cheers
 
I think the input shaft from a series one 4 bolt forester dual range box fits (so i've been told), I'm still tracking down a box for cheap before I try this conversion though. I'll update you when its all out on my bench but that might be a while yet.
 
ok nice one I'll have a look into that bud. I might hold off for a little and have a helical front fitted while its out! so you might beat me too it. cheers
 
ok no worries bud. what do you think of your quaife lsd's? looks like a similar setup you have that I am going for except ill prob be getting a 20kg centre down the road.
 
They work very well as long as the opposite wheel touches the ground. For more severe off road I would go the clutch style rear LSD but the downside is they wear and need maintenance…

Lockable helical diffs would be perfect...
 
G'day mate.

What you need to do is fully understand what needs to be done. Once you know this you can get a machine shop to machine the bits required.

I don't know where to get the crown wheel shaved as it was done by a backyard builder, I'm not even up with how it's done exactly.

To fit the L series low range several things need to be done:
- an interference bush needs to be made up to fit the SG input shaft bearing to the L series input shaft. The same seal is also used between the two shafts so there's no issue there.

- the synchro hub on the L series low range needs to have ~4.25mm of spline shaved so it fits the EJ shaft. This has to be taken from the side with the longer section on it. You'll see what I mean.

- then the crown wheel shaving.

Find a machine shop that will do one off pieces of work. I think it cost me about $150 to have those first two bits done.

Have a look at some of the build threads on here, there are links to my recent build in those threads - if I were on the computer I'd drop the links here for you to view.

Personally I'd only get a mechanic to put it together, even the. I think you'd need some money bags!

Cheers

Bennie
 
I also forgot to add the mods required on the selector fork - either modify the EJ unit and the L series selector hub to mate together

OR

modify the L series arm, shave a bit off the case where the dedent ball lives for the L fork to fit.

This is roughly what my L low range selector fork looks like with the required mods to fit into an EJ case. It underwent further mods today to make it work better in the SG case I'm now using, but you get the idea:

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My current gearbox build starts on this page. Flick to images to save reading time ;)

Cheers

Bennie
 
thanks for your input Bennie!! That sounds better that way I think than carting the gearbox in the back of my wrx to a gearbox specialist. just reading your link now! cheers bud.
 
Don't just read my build - read around! There are many ways to do it, Dedman's thread on this forum is another example of a backyard build that's aiming for the same thing but done in a different way - and with some better options than mine - but the principal of the build is the same.

Also consider what gear you're using - phase 1 or phase 2 gearbox (or look at it a different way: a 4 bolt or 8 bolt gearbox). There are slight differences in the build of both boxes as I found out the hard way...

Research is the key, ask questions for further clarification (well, that's the aim but not always the way on forums) and go from there ;)

Cheers

Bennie
 
thanks Bennie. just saw the pics of the selector fork. ill will try and find some time this weekend hopefully to drop her out and get stuck into it. it came off a 5sp but was a 4 bolt for memory??
 
How's this going skep?

The L series low range is a different 4 bolt gearbox pattern - it won't bolt up to an EJ engine, but its internals are the same layout as the 4 bolt AWD box.

With my SG box build I left the shim in front of the input shaft's bearing housing out as I felt the gap in the low range synchro was too much. Removing the shim seemed to bring this gap back down to something that I was happy with even though it still looked larger than the gap on the other side of the low range hub. And it works perfectly!

Cheers

Bennie
 
haha still conected to the engine atm mate!! been flat out and havent had a chance to drop her out yet bud. im starting to wonder if a 1.447 might be better? of as it will be a direct swap!
 
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