driveshaft fitment issues (swapping gen2 5mt into gen 1 wag)

[Bosco]

Howdy folks.

I'm in the midst of a 5mt swap into my '94 toruing wagon. The donor car is a 97 legacy gt.

Got the trans and diff from the 97 in and I can't seem to get the driveshafts to work out.

I have 3 to work with

A: I have the original MT driveshaft from the 97 gt donor car.
B: The Auto driveshaft from the TW
C: A 5mt gen 1 driveshaft I had out in the barn. (I believe from a '93 sedan) This one is one piece. by "one piece" I don't mean it's one solid bar, but it doesn't have a flange between the front and rear half to seperate it.

I can't get any combination to work out.
The closest I got was the one piece shaft from the '93. the length was right, but the holes on the '97 rear diff flange are too far apart.

The 94 auto driveshaft is too short, and the 5mt shaft from the '97 donor car is too long.

What Driveshaft do I need?

Again, this is a 94 touring wagon that is recieving the trans and diff from a 97 gt sedan.

Anyone know? thanks.

[n2x4]

Use the shaft from the 93. You can swap out rear diff flanges to one with the right hole pattern. It's just one big nut (32mm I think). An air impact gun will get it right off. It's splined and will slide back on no prob. Just need to find a new flange.

What happened to the wagon, tranny die? BTW - the red car is still rocking. I was out of the US for a few months and the tranny developed issues but I just washed it off yesterday and am gonna start cracking on it. May end up doing a tranny swap just like you!

[Bosco]

Thanks Nate! I suppose I should have thought of that. I had to swap the rear mounting studs for the diff already.

Sorry to hear you've developed transmission issues. Torque bind didn't come back did it? I personally have now sworn off of the early ej automatics. Never had one that didn't have or develop some major problem. Come to think of it the auto on our 02 legacy is quirky too.

As far as why I'm swapping:

A: always wanted to
B: the auto trans gets me around fine in dry weather, but the rear end slips and clunks and creates general mayhem when it is slick. Pretty much the opposite of what AWD is supposed to do.

Thanks again. I'll go try that now.

[n2x4]

Sounds good Brian. I had to swap the flange when I did the wrx swap into my 91.

No torque bind issues, just slips in 4th. I'm not too worried though!

Good Luck!

[Hocrest]

Use the Gen 1.

You'll need to swap flanges on the rear diff, count the threads on the retainer nut so you can put the flange back on to the same spot.

[Bosco]

Thanks dave. good tip.



Sorry 'bout the double posting. certainly accidental.