This past weekend brought about an opportune time to work on the van project as my part of the world sees a turn of nice weather. I ended up buying a new flywheel as cracking open this motor doesn’t seem like a super fun task after everything is together. This still left the problem of installing the appropriately sized pilot bearing that mates the Subaru flywheel to the Vanagon transmission.

I needed a press to get my bearing installed and so begins the hunt of trying to find a friend who had one laying around. I think I’ve needed to use a press once every five years. It is often enough where I almost consider giving up the space to one but inevitably it would just be another tool that would gather dust. I also considered just wandering into random auto repair shops with a twenty, a wink, and a nod and seeing if I could get it done that way. Luckily a buddy had one gathering dust that he let me use for all of a couple minutes to finish the task.

I returned to the workshop and installed the flywheel and clutch without issue. There isn’t much to it, but I do love the look of shiny new parts.

On to making the Vanagon transmission more accepting of the Subaru transplant. There are many options available to accomplish this but I chose to go with the Smallcar solution which has this cast bellhousing kit. Installation was fairly straightforward; you drain the transmission fluid, remove the old bellhousing and then install the new one.

Transmission fluid as black as my heart as my wife would say.

New bellhousing installed, just need to slap the throwout bearing in and then I can mate this to the motor. That’ll have to wait for it to warm up a bit, as I write this we had a lovely little blizzard hit the city.

Here is a video that walks through most of the process if you find your curiosity piqued.