transmission in bugeye

R

rondelljacksoniii

New member
so i have sti upgrades on my 2002 bugeye. i want to upgrade the transmission now. i know that i cannot pull hard in 2nd or 3rd gears if i want my tranmission to stay intact. what should i do? i want to go with a ppg gear set but i dont have that much money to throw at it for a while. i haven't heard too much about RA gear sets. i know they are a lot less expensive and i have heard that they aren't much stronger than stock gears. i am going to do a full sti swap sooner or later so it wouldnt be too practical to dump $8k into it on 5 speed. what do you think? any help would be great.

 
I'd argue that bugeye trans are tougher than rumored. they can handle lots of power, it's just that they can't handle ham-handed shifts under full power. trying to downshift too fast is a common killer.

be patient with the shifts, esp the 1-2 and 2-3 up or down. trying to shift too fast just defeats the syncros and .... ca-runnch. think of pushing the box OUT of gear, then wait a beat, then ease stick on into next one. it's the lightning-fast autox type of shifting that has eaten so many bugeye boxes that ppl just say "they suck." let's just say it's more like the drivers suck than the gearboxes suck.

another prob comes when you get wheelspin @ full power in 3rd gear and all and a sudden you get traction. this tends to shear off expensive gearbox bits with predictable results. we have lunched a number of boxes in the rally car, almost all of em blowing 3rd from losing/gaining grip, even with built race boxes w/RA gearsets. we've found the best solution is a box stock STI 6-speed, them trannies is some wicked rugged.

 
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the cheap way out is to do legacy gt gears cause are almost as rugged as the ppg's you can look over on nasioc and find out more info

 
yeah the legacy gt gears would only work if they are from a 2005. if i go that route then i would have to get a legacy gt rear dif also. the gear ratios are slightly different

 
You can put the gears in your box and everything else will work the same. If you install a whole LGT box then you're opening a whole different can of worms.

 
my 02 WRX has 200k on the clock and about 285hp at the crank. Stock trans with the only issue is you can't downshift into first unless you're going REALLY slow. Otherwise no issues. Unless you're drastically above what I am for HP you will be fine. Just don't totally thrash the hell out of it. Mine has been running like this for most of it's life too btw.

 
my 02 WRX has 200k on the clock and about 285hp at the crank. Stock trans with the only issue is you can't downshift into first unless you're going REALLY slow. Otherwise no issues. Unless you're drastically above what I am for HP you will be fine. Just don't totally thrash the hell out of it. Mine has been running like this for most of it's life too btw.
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That's awesome to hear! And all Subys have that problem shifting into first gear, so don't sweat it
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i really want to get the sti 6 speed set up. i just cant afford it right now. in august or september i am going to do the swap.
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...if you're doing 6-spd this fall, wtf are you worrying about half measures in the meantime?
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+1!

That's awesome to hear! And all Subys have that problem shifting into first gear, so don't sweat it
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Actually, I think they fixed it in '05, at least with the Imprezas. I seem to recall hearing (reading) something about dual synchros? Can someone mechanically inclined chime in here?

 
my 02 WRX has 200k on the clock and about 285hp at the crank. Stock trans with the only issue is you can't downshift into first unless you're going REALLY slow. Otherwise no issues. Unless you're drastically above what I am for HP you will be fine. Just don't totally thrash the hell out of it. Mine has been running like this for most of it's life too btw.
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same here. my '02 box shifts fine with now problems at 116k. gotta be almost stopped to go into first but that's no biggy. the 5speeds aren't really as bad as they are made out to be. as long as you don't ''no lift shift" and launch constantly, and make sure its all the way in gear before you let the clutch out when shifting it will last you the life of the car.

 
+1!

Actually, I think they fixed it in '05, at least with the Imprezas. I seem to recall hearing (reading) something about dual synchros? Can someone mechanically inclined chime in here?
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'06 got the triple crown syncros or whatever. but yeah '06. f'n Pedro used to tease me because he can downshift into first at 20 with no prob. I hate him sometimes! haha jk jk. I drove a friend's 07 and it was SWEET downshifting.

 
Yah first gear downshifts FTW. It nice to be able to keep the revs in the boost range at low speeds.

 
I hate my old syncro's. Someday I'm gonna go down the road to KrazyKarpenter_2.5i's house and steal his 07 trans while he's sleeping.

 
So this seems like an appropriate thread to ask in... Is there any way to get newer-tech synchros for an older trans? I don't know how the synchros work or what exactly they do, so they could be totally different and this would be a stupid question, but I'll never know if I don't ask!

 
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