Mostly.. Scooby box comes from a front wheel drive car and pushes the car forwards. If you just lobbed a scooby box into a bay, it would run backwards...simply. The Subaru gears solution is to fit a specially made reverse cut crown and pinion ( the bit that is driven by the engine/gearbox and is connected to the drive shafts) into the Subaru box to enable the scooby box to drag the van, rather than push it...simply.
With regular oil changes it should be good for 10s of ks more. That's the biggest killer of any box, neglect. Oh and dropping the clutch at the lights to impress the lads...
Hmm, in my case the joke is that it's still in the garage, although it does have oil in it now. 18 months and counting.
to convert a Subaru box besides the reverse crown wheel and pinion and clearancing, the drive to the rear differential is removed, locked and replaced with a nose cone supplied by Subrugears or you can modify the original housing Some of the nose cones that were supplied were incorrectly machined which caused gear change issues I've converted a few of these boxes with no issues and have one of my own which is going to be bolted to a 2.3 Lt air cooled engine that I'm building at the moment. It uses a conversion plate, bespoke flywheel and subaru clutch and pressure plate.
I don't want to hijack this thread so will start a new one (both here and our own site) when I'm a bit further through the engine build (I've only just got the stroker parts and machining back from Wayne Penrose) There's still a few modifications around the gear linkage and front mount to sort out
When swapping over to Subaru gearbox, what other modifications are required to the existing vw installation? Subaru swap to Subaru gearbox
vanagons (t25's) are easier than t2's t2's need the cross member (the one that holds the back of the gearbox) cut away and a bar attached to the chassis and under the engine/gearbox to support everything. then there is the radiator issue, either on the Bull bar (ugly as) or underneath (think about your salty roads) although I've seen a setup with 2 half radiators and electric fans in the air intake vents. you can get a nose cone from subrugears that holds the original mount (modified one on the t25) very crowded in a t2 and because there's no tin ware to seal the engine Bay from road grime it gets messy in there on a dirt road. Then there's the Subaru electronics that must come over from the doner vehicle (unless you shell out for an aftermarket setup). I can go on but you probably worked out I don't like the t2 versions But the t25 one's are a different story specially the water cooled ones, not much to do to swap over and definitely the go There's a few over here that have the flat 6 Subaru engine in them, real weapons
Made the decision I went with the taller 4th, will find out soon enough if it’s right for me. Van has been @ fellows for a week today, so a little while to go
I ran a 6 rib box on a subaru conversion for around 6 years, with 3 years prior to that on a 3 rib 1600 box - no issues with either set up, though the 6 rib had a taller 3rd and 4th which was straightcut and consequentially a little noiser than normal. It used to pull around 2900rpm at 7omph - the boggo 3 rib was somewhere near 3900rpm at 70mph until I fitted oversize rear tyres with brought it down to 3600rpm ish. I went Subaru box and Subaru Gears because of the clutch set up between the Subaru box and gearbox is apparently a custom - the Subaru to Subaru is a standard clutch. I run it on a Gene Berg shifter and its my favourite of the 3 set ups I have, not least because I can run smaller tyres. All work carried out by Nick Tune and Fellowes, wheels aside. TBF - I never had an issue with any of the set ups, thought the shift action on the Subaru box is nicer as is the clutch, but then they are custom set ups - which has only just occurred to me as I write this as the reason I came off the 6 rib - doh! Oh hang on - @Baysearcher found some NOS Subaru Gearboxes in a Warehouse in Birmingham for a very reasonable price - wished I bought them all now!!
I have a bug-tech shifter, which took a while to get used to & now quite happy with. May well go over to a berg at some point as never had one
They are good - not sure if they are £400 good though - I bought mine in 2010 ish direct from Gene Berg USA.
All I'll say about taller gears is you spoil your 4th gear acceleration a bit. IMO you'd notice if you had std then swapped to taller.
A few days to go & it’s back home. Drove up to fellows to collect the type 4 last week, nice to see what goes on in the flesh.