legacycentral bbs

it's coming along, i fired it up for the first time the other day, the big things are figured out, it's all about the little things now.

a million and one little things.

thank god i'm going for function over form.

crap it would take me 3 times as long if i was trying to make it all look super pretty.

so i finally got around to starting my w58 swap. here are some pics of my progress.







The shifter location for the w58 is 18 inches too far forward. if some how i was to keep it this location it would come out of the middle of the dash.




This is a pic of the custom driveline. the stock w58 driveline is about 10 inches too long to fit plus it doesnt match up with the subaru diff. the w58 drive line has a slighter diameter then the stock subaru driveline. we were able to cut both drivelines and slide the subaru driveline in to the toyota driveline and weld it up really nice. then we took it off and made sure it was balanced. its perfect.









we were able to keep the stock transmission mounts and make it work. in the pictures we just had the mounts in place but we welded blocks on top of them because they sat a little bit too low to help support the weight of the transmission.

i used the stock turbo starter. half of the stock turbo drivline and half of the supra drivline. i used an na subaru flywheel and pressure plate. i used a w58 supra clutch disc. i still need a supra spedo cable. the are two piece and apparently i can make it work with the subaru one. i havent tried yet.

right now we are trying to figure out how the shifter is going to work. if we add some kindo of linkage to it it would shift like a truck and have a foot throw from 1st to second. we have ideas it just is taking time to fab up something that will work. when we are done i will be posting more pictures and a full write up. just remember they are many different versions of the w58 and other w series transmission .

i cant wait to get this the rest of the way done so i can stop destroying these weak subaru transmissions.

custom shift box is almost done. should be on the road in a couple days

Very nice sir, I would like to see how you did your shift box, I have to move my shifter too and haven't figured a good way to do that yet.

Also I found the speedo cable from a 80s supra clipped in like factory into the Subaru speedo, it just happened to be the perfect length for my car, not sure how well it would work in a Subaru, but it did have some decent length to it.

ill post pics of the shift box as soon as its done. thanks for the info on the cable i was hoping it would fit.

Awesome info! Keep us posted on the progress.

will do

any pics of that shifter yet? or any updates on it? is it working out how you would like?

its not finished yet ive been really busy at work. im trying to get it done fast. i miss my car : (

This is me subscribing. Update please Mellow and I need to start winning some max attack money!

ok so i had to buy more parts then expected to make it work thats what i have been doing. its almost finished. just a heads up not just any w58 will work. you have to get one with the out side shifter extention. they are super hard to find. its called a tri pod shifter. i have every thing just waiting for the flywheel to ship. pics soon.

I'm confused on what you are saying what wont work about the w58s?

Your shifter or something about the bell housing?

Wait you're saying your shifter won't work not unless you have this style of w58 from the later supras, right?

yes. you must have that style shifter. the bellhousing was perfect. you dont actually need the bars that bolt down towards the bottom but the part the shifter sits on. the shifter still wont sit where it is pictured though. there will be a set of honda style linkages conected to it. with the normal shifter extention that most w58's come with you would not be able to conect a linkage to it. if the shiftter was left where it is in this picture it would come up though the dash/firewall. it needs to be mover 18" back like in the other picture i posted. so far these are the parts i have needed to buy to make it work:

w58-300
tripod shifter extention-60 (you can buy this by its self. it does not need to come with the transmission you buy. it will work aslong as u buy a w58)
ACT 4 puck race clutch(for w58 ie. non turbo supra)-120
ACT HD pressure plate (N/A 2.5L subaru ie. 1999 2.5rs)-300
Exedy oem flywheel(since this is a drift car i do not want a light weight) (N/A 2.5L subaru ie. 1999 2.5rs)-70
N/A Subaru clutch slave cylinder (DORMAN CS650038)-30
N/A suabru hydraulic clutc fork-20

every part i bought was brand new besides the w58 and tripod shifter extemtion.

Honda linkages- I had them they are almost free( the honda style linkages are really long because the are for a FWD car. to make up for their length they have pivot points in them to shorten the throw, other wise it would be a 8" throw from first to second gear. since we need to conect the shifter to the transmission with some sort of linkage we chose the honda style approach otherwise the throw would be ridiculous).

the last part of the puzzle was the drive line we made it home made. i have pics of it. we will just have to see how it turns out. its all hooked up though. the rest of everything is fitment. the transmission tunnel in the subaru isnt very big. the w58 hardly fits in there we might have to do some cutting to get the linkaged to fit. that is the next step. the flywheel came today so no we just have to put the trany in and figure out the linkages.

I will have pics coming to explain my words better. its hard to understand with out seeing it.

Awesome progress! Would it be possible to move the engine back to help with shifter placement? Or would the firewall interfere with the engine?

3 main things get in the way when you want to start moving the Subaru motor back. 2 I ran into with my mazdaru, the intake tube and the starter. The third being the oil pan. The Subaru is a "front" sump as it sit in front of the subframe.

Let's just say, it would be a whole hell of a lot of work to move the motor back and way easier to come up with a remote shifter.

This is what I came up with for my project, clearly this won't work for anyone really other then me. And it kind of fits the whole theme of my car quite nicely. Kind of cobbled together.

i just wanted to say my car is done and drives great!!! the shifter is similar to yours but i kept all the linkages under the car.
pics to come soon. only new thing is a CEL. havent checked it but maybe its for driving around and the ECU thinks i have n transmission???? idk.

You may look into putting a momentary button on your clutch pedal to mimic the tranny passing through neutral, if that ends up being the case.

Check the codes and see what pops up, we can likely get the code to go away.

The lack of a neutral switch in the tranny would be about the only thing I can think it might be cranky about, not unless he didn't hook up a speedo cable, then it could be the speed sensor also.

no speedo cable right now thats prolly it. its shipping. i have already destroyed 2 pairs of axles. good thing autozone has a lifetime warranty.

Vids or it didn't happen.

ok. im working on the write up right now.

I bet the axles would last longer with a proper LSD.
I wonder how the drivetrain would hold up to 22E power levels. Are these commercially available yet?

It's also probably a new experience to know your tranny will no longer be the weak link in the system. So shifts are harder, the gas is pushed just a little bit further.

And yes these have actually been available for quite awhile now. I got the first one he made so I could give him some feed back, and after that he has been selling them. I think he was quite surprised how popular they got, I guess he has had orders all around the world now for them.