5mt crossmember schematic
 

I'm looking for a diagram or schematic or measurements or anything that would help me construct a crossmember for my 5mt swap. I've only got jack stands and my SVX is my daily babe, I'm afraid building the cross member as I go won't be an option.
I've read the hardest part of the swap is the pedals, but I've already installed a set from a 3rd gen legacy (2000-2004US) and almost no modification was required. All that's left is to modify the rear diff and fab up a crossmember.

If push comes to shove I'd be interested in purchasing a x-member if someone has one kicking around.

Update: My transmission has had the radish, so it looks like I'll be doing the swap sooner than expected. Once I get a crossmember mocked up I'll post pics and specs here, and will record in detail the process of converting the rear diff.

Progress
 

WOOOHOOO! Now THAT feels good.

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

Following with extreme interest.

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

I got the rear diff sorted out. It would seem the easier way to go about this is to take the 'carrier' and 'side plates' from the SVX rear diff and transplant them into the case from the donor car, this way the pinion doesn't need to be touched. My first time rebuilding a diff, so I'm all about easy.

First pic: the reason I'm not a photographer. This is the 'ring' separated from the non-LSD 'carrier.' These are held together with eight[8] 14mm bolts. The LSD has VERY SLIGHTLY longer bolts than the non-LSD [second pic]

Third thru sixth: these illustrate the interior difference between the two cases. The open diff has nubs that indent where the side plate bolts enter the case, the svx one had no such nubs. They need to be ground down in order to slide the larger LSD carrier into the case.

Seventh pic: shows the ground away nubs

Eighth pic: side plates to be moved from svx diff to donor case. These have thin gasket-like shims to adjust lash, both of my diffs had 2 on each plate, so I just kept those the same. I didn't really notice a difference between the two sets, but I read they had to go so I swapped em.

So in summation, the back cover and side plates come off of both diffs. That will allow you to finagle the ring and carrier out. The ring from the donor diff goes into the carrier from the svx, USING THE LONGER BOLTS. Grind away the nubs on the left inside of donor case. Reinstall ring with LSD carrier and install side plates [with shims] from the svx diff. Reseal the back plate. Reinstall diff into vehicle, test forward and reverse gears with car raised in jack stands.

I haven't tested it yet, hopefully today I'll be able to find some time after work to get the crossmember done. Also I think my linkage needs to extend about 3.75 inches? It's from a 99 LGT.

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

Images continued

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

Also got my $80 'stage 2' clutch and pressure plate[lol] mounted, as well as the throw out bearing with some sweet STI pink grease. Oops, hopefully my pilot bearing isn't ruined....

Headers / linkage
 

I'll hopefully be able to find time tonight to deal with my rusted headers; all four bolts connecting to the rest of the exhaust snapped off...
Also gonna get my linkage sorted after I lower the !EG33+5MT! back in. Maybe I'll finally get those crossmember measurements...

For the clutch master cylinder all I needed was a 1.5 inch hole saw and a large flathead screwdriver. I have been driving around with a useless third pedal for a while now, so I already had the 3/8th's inch holes drilled for the pedalset studs. I pulled the brake lines out of the nearest couple clips and used the screwdriver to bend them slightly up and to the right. Next, a one and a half inch hole right between the two studs... careful now...
Then I slipped the master cylinder into the hole at an angle to clear the lines and noticed my reservoir was too tall. My solution? Slice out a 2x2 inch patch of insulation interfering with the reservoir cap. After that it kind of 'fell' into place, with some love taps. The brake lines seem happy, and the bracket on the hydraulic line lines up perfectly with a ground bolt on the SVX!
Then I tossed the engine back in.
Also I picked up steel for the linkage and crossmember.
I'm getting close...

Engine and trans are in
 

Back where she belongs:cool:

Re: Headers / linkage
 

If you haven't dealth with this yet the solution I came up with was to grind the bolts off flush and drill and tap the flanges for new bolts. Sort of like a red-neck helicoil.

http://www.subaru-svx.net/photopost/...m/P1010257.JPG

Recheck helicoil
 

Oh yea, I like the sound of that, especially considering how nicely my manifolds are cleaning up. I figured they were toast.

Just to be clear, you tapped into the frozen bolts?

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

It would still be nice to get an SVX transmission crossmember schematic for the 5MT conversion folks out there if possible.

At one time, I think TomSVX was manufacturing them for sale, although he may not be willing to part with the schematic if it is part of his business.

If you do find one, please post it to the site, thanks.

SVXDoc

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

I'll probly be working on the crossmember tonight, and I'll be going off the design below. Can't remember whose this is, but it's straightforward and I have the materials to get pretty close. I'll post a schematic for my crossmember and anything else I come across.

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

Hit a little snag last night, just when I was ready to put it all back together too!

My driveshaft bottoms out in the trans. It's from a 99 LGT, and it's not hitting on the dust shield 'cup,' it appears to be the snout of the shaft hitting inside the trans. It's so slight, it doesn't start hitting till the carrier bearing is almost all the way up. Since I've got the carrier bearing lined up primo, I've elected to gnaw off about 1/2 an inch from the snout, hopefully that will give me some clearance... Any input on this course of action?

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

So here's my crossmember finally! It's more of a first draft just to get the car on the road. I've welded my trans mount directly to the crossmember so... I'll get back to you on the ride quality...

There's about 19 1/8 inches between the side of the svx trans mount where I welded and the torque bar. I used a 1 inch tube of 1/8th inch steel, seemed sturdy enough in short pieces. The passenger side cross bar goes parallel with the car front to back, and attaches right at the bend on both crossmember and torque bar. The driver side cross bar has to angle outward from the svx trans crossmember because the manual trans mount has an uneven side. This puts the attachment point just outside of the bend on the torque bar.

For the mount, I welded the metal piece that bolts to the trans directly to the cross bars. This means I won't be using the rubber part of the mount, and will probly provide quite a rough ride. But like I said, I need this car on the road yesterday. I'll put up with any vibration with a smile as long as I'm the one doing the shifting! At least until the next nice weekend.

I recommend tacking things in place with everything bolted snugly. I tried to mark it and tack it off the car, just wasted time breaking apart tack welds.

You'll also notice I notched out the svx trans crossmember. This is because there's a couple studs and a flange on the 5mt that it would otherwise hang up on.

So the foremost section of the driveshaft, just ahead of the U joint, is longer on my 99 LGT driveshaft than my SVX shaft. Just slightly. I'll grab a pic tomorrow evening.

Also, it's not the snout bottoming out in the trans as I previously thought, it's the trans bottoming out in the dust-shield-cup thing at the head of the driveshaft. I ground away the two tack welds holding it in place and it came off with a little bit of hammering.

And it's CLOSE. I'm going to grind down a wee bit of the base of the snout and report back.

Anyway, I already drove it. It was awesome. It was still smooth with the welded mount, it felt extremely solid and nice in fact, but the gear whine is rather loud. I need new exhaust gaskets before I can say if I can live with it. Plus it could just be the trans on driveshaft friction. But without the slushbox soaking up torque this car moves pretty well, and I haven't even disabled torque control. And right when I got on it, it minced the accessory belt. POWAAAHHH!

The shifter stood up out of the center console a little to high, so I chopped the top half of the threaded tip of the shifter and ground away the ring to allow the knob to sit very low. Worked a treat. DIY short shifter BOOM! I may yet go lower...

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

Glad to hear you got it on the road! Good tracking of your results/issues as well.

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

What brand is the stage 2 clutch that you went with?

Mitsuko is the brand of the clutch disk and pressure plate, but I believe the kit was put together by Grip Force? Everything seemed of decent quality and installed/ fit easily enough. The clutch pedal feels oddly light however, I was expecting more weight with 'Stage 2' but what do I know? :p

Thanks, there's plenty to keep track of! :D
I wouldn't say she's on the road just yet, I had no hood and for the second half of the drive no accessory belt!

She's a beast!
 

I've been driving my SVX around for the past two days and I'm in love with the car all over again. After reassembling the exhaust she developed some leaks. I guess the rust was acting as gasket material...

And holy gear whine! Reverse is rather loud, and all forward gears have some volume. It's like a race car :tongue: if this was my Legacy, I'd keep it as is, it really doesn't bother me, and it's louder inside the car than outside.

But this is an SVX. I believe this car deserves to maintain a certain level of refinement, so I'm going to revamp my crossmember tomorrow. I'll see if I can get a CAD savvy friend to do a proper iso/orthos.

BTW, anyone else doing a MT swap, if you neglect to lengthen the wires for the VSS, your car WILL run like crap. Right around 3k- 4k rpms the car would buck and surge with more than about 50% throttle. I assumed it was because I have no check valve for the iris. Can't wait to see what happens when I get a new one of those!

Stay tuned for a PROPER crossmember.

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

Thanks for info! I'm tryin to get all the info needed so I can start my conversation! Wish Tom was still making his cross member and clutch assembly

Re: She's a beast!
 

I can definitely agree on the gear whine! My Legacy's 6-speed also whines but much more quietly. There might be a combination of engine and trans mounts that will isolate the noise from the chassis and still give good performance (I'm thinking stiffer engine mounts and a softer trans mount), but I'm planning on adding some soundproofing to the trans tunnel to see if that helps. My pre-cats don't have heat shield so it gets fairly toasty in there.

If you do the crossmember from scratch I think you can shave a fair amount out of it. The OEM SVX transmission brace needs so many bolts to provide some front/back twisting resistance, but since the MT crossmembers are a ladder structure you really only need one bolt on each back corner. I'd love to make a full tubular crossmember and remove that boat anchor stamped steel part.

However.... That brace might act as a chassis stiffener in addition to being the transmission support. If that's the case then stripping metal out is counterproductive.

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

anyone else have any advice for the trans mount?? i know many guys have done this conversion....share the wealth! lol

im pulling an 04 impreza outback sport soon and would like to get somethings in motion (trans mount and pedal assembly)

be nice to get pics and how to-s on both pieces

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

I have pictures of my modified pedals and shifter (6-speed) here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/craz...?sort=3&page=1

The transmission mount is more of a build in place sort of thing. Install your transmission and use a jack to support the tail in the right place. Install the OEM trans mount and cut where required for clearance. After that you need to install two bars lengthwise between the trans mount and the round tube below the flywheel. With that basic structure in place you can come up with a plan to fab a cradle in between that will hold the actual transmission mount.

You can check out TomsSVX's locker for some of his pictures:

http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/user.php?TomsSVX|33590

Okay, so as I mentioned before I have to revamp my crossmember a little.

Would you guys be interested in a fully redesigned version that does NOT involve the original svx piece? I'm toying with the idea of a very minimalist design, a single bar/bracket that would cross directly beneath the trans mount and only attach to the body with new bolt holes. Simpler to make, and hopefully easier to install.

The other option is the commonly seen svx crossmember connected to the torque bar. Regardless of what I come up with for a schematic, this will probly still require access to underneath the vehicle to make a perfect fit. The plus side is you won't have to drill any holes in your baby.

So what do we want? I'm leaning towards the former option more and more...

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

Just had a thought; the svx crossmember is bolted to a reinforced section of the body, and my new preferred location is likely to be nothing but flimsy floor pan... I'll have to take a look under my car tonight.

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

Please post up some pics/info when you get a chance!

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

I'll be under the old girl later today, anyone looking for specific pics? I'll try to get an overview of the underside of the vehicle across several pics.

You'll also get to see my atrocious (but functional) crossmember.

Re: 5mt crossmember schematic
 

Ended up having to deal with an exhaust stud which is actually a bolt now after the stud stripped out, and appears to have cracked the block and now leaks coolant. It's the foremost stud on the driver side manifold. At least it only leaks when the bolt is removed.

Fyi the bolts that hold the driveshaft carrier bearing to the car are the same thread as the exhaust manifold studs, but a little longer. (Too long perhaps)