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Apparently this can't be done, but after having a poke around in my 2004 Forester box I'm beginning to doubt! If you have more information let me know before I waste too much effort!

From initial inspection it was obvious that the bearing on the input shaft was bigger, and the syncros on the low range were smaller. The roller bearing on the end of the input shaft is the same size, and the splines on the start of the next shaft measure the same size, but I need to get some bigger circlip pliers before I can swap that bit over to make sure.

From what I can see/measure, where the main bearing is pressed on the input shaft, it is the same size on both shafts so I'm thinking that I can swap the bearing onto the EA shaft, swap in the 1.5 reduction gear, and swap the rest of the selector/gear/syncro thing from the EA box and it should all fit.

I really really really hope!

I should point out in the photos below that the EA input shaft I was using was my spare from a D/R Turbo box, the number of teeth on the gear is the same as the Forester one. The 1.5 low input shaft gear is slightly smaller.


Forester input shaft/low selector



EA input shaft/low selector



Forester reduction gear



EA Reduction gear



Input shaft housing - Forester on left, EA on right



EA on top, Forester below



Forester on left, EA on right



Forester on top, EA below

EA syncho is bigger isn't it.. They look like they'll swap like the older Lib boxes do. Maybe is a ratio thing? I've heard the 1.59 can't go with 4.11 or bigger unless you cut some of the crown wheel teeth off? Although I don't know what ratio the Forester box is.

Forester is 4.11

There was a post from someone recently stating they had 4.44 and 1.5 in the earlier lib casing. The crownwheels both look the same, and subaextreme sell a 1.69(?) low gearset that obviously fits.

Must of been another myth I've heard along the way then...
Looks very possible to me.

Well, I got the circlips off and swaped over the gear on the main input shaft. The splines on the EA shaft are longer than the EJ one so I'll have to lathe a bit off that thing that goes between the two syncros to make it fit in the right place, but that's easy.
The EJ reduction gear turned out to be 4 mm longer than the EA one but the shaft it sits on are 150mm in both so they swapped fine.
I did a test fit of everything and it all seems to fit in the right place and work correctly so fingers crossed that changing the bearing on the input shaft will be easy!
As it turns out the output stubs from the EA box seem to fit correctly into the the EJ box so hopefully I won't need new drive shafts either.

Its possible can be done - all you need is to try it out...
Its something I've planned once things settles down here.
Cheers
AP

I did it!

With a bit of persuasion and lots of head scratching I've managed to get everything to fit. I'll take some more pics tomorrow when I reassemble everything and write up a how-to.

If you can use a lathe and a welder it's actually remarkably simple. Amazing, considering one box is 17 years newer than the other.

well done mate. looking forward to the write up

Keep updated - good work there!
Cheers
AP