petew wrote:looks really good. I reckon this might be the first of many such conversions. you will need to watch weight distribution though. I also be interested to see what you do with the centre diff. is there any way to make sure it puts most of the bias towards the engine end, coz in an impreza it does the opposite from what I understand.
I weighed all the bits that get added to make the 4wd conversion. It adds 50kg to the front of the car.
The centre diff torque bias is actually 50/50 in a lot of subarus, the earlier liberty turbos particularly. The whole issue of front/rear torque bias is irrelevant imho even if its 60 front/40 rear as thats how most modern fwd based 4wd systems work - primarily fwd with some power to the rear. And the beauty of the Subaru system is it always sends power to the wheel(s) with the most traction. If the front wheels spin the power shifts to the rear.
Imagine the possibilities this opens up... I think it would be cool on a Cal Look street bug to have all wheel drive, but I would want big tires in the rear and small in the front, one of the diff gear ratios would have to change to compensate for different tire sizes. Of course on an off road car, tires are typically the same size and it's not that critical. I'm just dreaming out loud...
petew wrote:looks really good. I reckon this might be the first of many such conversions. you will need to watch weight distribution though. I also be interested to see what you do with the centre diff. is there any way to make sure it puts most of the bias towards the engine end, coz in an impreza it does the opposite from what I understand.
I weighed all the bits that get added to make the 4wd conversion. It adds 50kg to the front of the car.
The centre diff torque bias is actually 50/50 in a lot of subarus, the earlier liberty turbos particularly. The whole issue of front/rear torque bias is irrelevant imho even if its 60 front/40 rear as thats how most modern fwd based 4wd systems work - primarily fwd with some power to the rear. And the beauty of the Subaru system is it always sends power to the wheel(s) with the most traction. If the front wheels spin the power shifts to the rear.
surfbeetle wrote:I would want big tires in the rear and small in the front, one of the diff gear ratios would have to change to compensate for different tire sizes.
Why go to all that work for different size tires? Seems to me you'd be losing some of the advantage to AWD by decreasing traction up front with a smaller contact patch. Just thinking out loud...
Once my subi street bug is done, I plan to do a Manx, already have an IRS pan and a line on a body... I will have to look at the options for AWD, but of course to be difficult, my pan is also ball joint.
surfbeetle wrote:Once my subi street bug is done, I plan to do a Manx, already have an IRS pan and a line on a body... I will have to look at the options for AWD, but of course to be difficult, my pan is also ball joint.
My pan is also ball joint. I did some tricky machining and modifications to make it work. It does change the spacing of the upper and lower front control arms so they are a little wider apart (like the formula v's do) which of course affects the caster angle of the front. We will see what it's like once it's on the road.
