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I wasn't the only one doing last minute prep on my car, slammo put his old skidplate on his daily driver and met up with us. Friday I picked up the bumpers from the paint shop but didn't have time to install before I left since I was packing the car. B and I drove down through Joplin MO and we found a campground south of there that had tent sites. Slammo and travelvw camped at this site. Saturday morning we headed south and met slammo and travelvw in Talihina OK. We drove east on highway 1 into AR. Did some trail riding there with travelvw mostly leading the way. Slammo and I both got to drive travelvw's bug. It rode quite rough as he has much too large torsion bars in the rear. He said the limited slip makes a big difference and it definitely looked like it on loose climbs, much less wheelspin than I would have expected. Travelvw's windshield washing technology: Near the end of the day we drove to the top of Eagle mountain. There was a rocky obstacle near the top that slammo left his car at the bottom of. B and travelvw were getting video so I took the most difficult line and put a hole in my RF tire sidewall. We swapped on the spare and drove to the top. A little off to the side of the building at the top there's a nice rocky outcrop with a good view. We camped at a site travelvw had been to before where two streams came together with some little rapids. We left slammo's car there for the day. Sunday morning I found this weirdly rotted out trunk near the campsite. We headed east. Hiked to a couple different old lookout towers, one a much longer hike and also more intact than the other. From the intact one you could see the hills/mountains generally run east/west. Views were good but it was overcast most of the weekend, on a sunny day they would have been great. Eventually travelvw had to head back north and we headed back west on some different trails. We went to the two footed oak tree which is bizarre. Went back to the campsite. We all planned to be back home Monday night so we figured we only had a few hours for trail riding Monday morning. We'd crossed a powerline grade near the campsite so we went to check that out first. It turned out to be a dead end but a decent hill climb. Headed north into Mena to get gas. Saw some plane junkyards at the airport. Decided to check out Top Walker Mountain road on the way north. Quite a few side trails on the way there. Drove to the end of the side trail/ridge on the map. There were a couple of narrower trails so we tried one of those, it dead ended at Round Mountain. Again, pretty good views but would be really cool in clearer weather. Before we got back on the tarmac for good we aired up and ate some sandwiches. We hadn't made it very far north when the Forester's engine suddenly stopped running going up a long grade and he pulled over on the (fortunately wide) shoulder. Engine cranked over fine, too well really, sounded like it had no compression so we assumed timing belt failure of some kind. Hooked up the tow bar to my Impreza. Had never towed with it before, has no wiring set up for towing. Towed Forester to the nearest off ramp. Slammo convinced us to do some wiring so we got some scotch locks and a four pin wiring pigtail from a parts store and wired up running lights and brake lights to the magnetic mount lights. Continued north, seemed a little squirrely when braking but not terrible. Slammo split off at Joplin to the north and we headed east. When I pulled into the next gas station in the dark it felt worse and I could see the Forester was clearly off center. Fortunately it has no problem driving over curbs. At this point only one leg of the tow bar was attached to the Forester. We straightened out the tabs and cranked all the bolts down and added a ratchet strap to keep the legs of the tow bar from spreading. After that it was much more stable the entire ride home. B took part of the timing cover off at one stop and confirmed the timing belt was loose. Didn't see this until after we got home. It's been a while since I've worked on EJ engines but I don't think you're supposed to see the timing belt through the cover and that looks like the wrong side of the belt. We both think the Impreza can hold grades better while towing the Forester than the Forester can while powering itself. I don't think we burned significantly more gas on the way home either but my speedo/odo still isn't working so I'm not sure. Overall a decent trip. Weather was pretty good. We never got stuck but I did get a flat tire and B's engine clearly needs some work. It probably needs new heads or at least valves. He does have two pairs of probably good heads in his basement. Impreza ran well all weekend. Did take three tries to start once but generally started pretty quickly so I'd say the rewiring was a success. I'm going to try a different crank position sensor and eventually probably shimming/shaving it up or down to get more cranking voltage.

B and I moved most of the rest of my business inventory to my machine shop across town. We took one trip with his Forester and my white Outback loaded with parts. Then while he was working on his car I loaded the white Outback up with another literal ton of parts. Almost as soon as we started driving the transmission acted like it was slipping. Got to the shop and unloaded everything, still slipping on the way back and has been ever since. I tried adding some brake fluid since my brother knows some people who've had temporary success with it but it didn't really seem to help. Plan to get a lower mileage replacement trans from a junkyard and hopefully a tan leather driver's seat while I'm at it. The Impreza has been taking a while to start fairly often since the swap after it sits overnight or longer. Sometimes it takes two or three tries before it starts. A while back I discovered this was because the crank position sensor wasn't generating enough voltage while cranking. Voltage signal on the Haltech oscilloscope looked decent but it wasn't enough. I lowered the threshold voltage and also added a column for 0RPM which seemed to help but still wasn't a complete fix. Then it just wouldn't start, was giving crank position and throttle body codes. I took apart the engine harness connector as that's been the source of most of my problems and the wire pulled out of the pin for the crank position sensor. I repinned that and checked the throttle body connections and it started and no longer had those errors but it was running rough, probably on five cylinders. I decided I'd had enough and ordered some closed barrel pin connectors and a tool from JR Ready. I'm not a huge fan as they're made in China and I don't like how closed barrel pins don't crimp on the insulation but M says they're the best thing they've found for wiring airplanes so I figure it might be good enough for trail riding in a Subaru. The week before we left I rewired the engine harness plug on the Impreza with some help from B. Shortened up the wires with a couple feet of excess length in the process. Directly wired the throttle body and MAP sensors to the ECU as they're pretty easy to unplug and then I'd have one less connection in line and fewer things to run through the connectors I added. Added four Deutsch connectors with closed barrel pins. I did zip tie them away from that bracket after I took that picture. Labeled and checked wires, pinned out the connectors, double checked wire color matches and tried to start the car Thursday. Only cranked but didn't fire. I checked various things, sensors seemed to be reading except the cam and crank position sensors. Then I realized I hadn't plugged that connector in. Then it fired up. Overall pretty happy with how that turned out, should be much easier to repin those connectors and the reduced wiring under the dash makes it cleaner and allows the glovebox to fit better. Bit of a last minute fix finishing that the day before we left but I'm glad I did it.

Yep, lots of good information That page is included in this whole "Subaru of the 80s" page. https://www.indysworld.com/subaru/index.html Check the "Original Ultimate Subaru Repair Manual" on there. Lots of good writeups there. I think this stuff is basically all 15-20 years old, but great place to start

I keep a bad ebay seller list on my laptop. All kinds of past misery in that list. That thread oughta be put in the off topic section.

That’s nuts! You’d never hear away with that over here!! Not having any provision to utilise the towed vehicle’s brakes is the major issue - I couldn’t imaging two or three towed vehicles being much fun at all, regardless of how oversized your “utes” are over there (we're seeing more and more of them on our roads down here and they suck unless actually used for their towing capacity). We do have road trains though, and down in Victoria where I’m located we’re finally seeing them on our roads - only two trailers or B-triple configurations, much like NSW does. I believe QLD, NT, SA and WA all do three trailers with WA having a five trailer combo in the mining areas! Awesome bit of engineering and I wouldn’t mind driving one myself sometime… I digress. Cheers Bennie

Yes, rear bumper same gray color as front, roughly matches the bottom of the body. Agreed on the towed vehicle braking. Maybe the simplest would be to have an extra master cylinder plumbed in that the tongue would push on. Have seen this on some boat trailers. Could just have the extra master on a hose and store it somewhere on the vehicle when not towing. Also have discussed wiring a trailer light pigtail into the front of each car so we don't have to use the magnetic lights. But all of those things require a significant amount of work on all of the cars.

Don’t go the Weber, not worth the trouble! If you have an auto choke it should work on initial start up. Try double pumping the throttle before turning the ignition on and starting. Don’t touch the throttle pedal. If all is working well it’ll start and have high idle until you tap the throttle again, then it’ll drop the idle speed down and open the choke a bit more. Cheers Bennie

It could be the little tab on the end of the spiral spring is broken. A few things to consider. You could just deal with it and work the pedal. Could take that choke housing apart and likely see the small bent tab at the end of the spiral spring will have broken. Then either find another from a junkyard or an enthusiast. Could get the Weber kit.

Also forgot to mention, ran the AC on some fairly long climbs when it was 60F and temp gauge never budged. Not conclusive but I'm pretty sure under similar conditions it would have started going up on the trip out west, so hopefully the thermostat fixed that problem.

Weekend was a blast, glad we could make it happen! My daily definitely has a few more dents and scratches than it used to, but well worth it! It's been too long since I've taken a Subaru off road.

Been a really long time since this thread was updated. Had my share of local trouble with attempted theft and damages. https://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/186359-beware-of-mevotech-parts/ Decided to go with KYB 2wd struts(new old stock) and Lesjofors '94 Kia Sephia front springs(4044208 on RA), new KYB strut mounts(SM5364, IF you can find 'em). New KYB 4wd rear shocks with better looking, less rusty springs. Rear cross member with gaps in mounts filled with urethane. Superpro front strut rod bushings(SPF2534K). Superpro new moustache bar bushings(same as rear diff mount bushing). Rides much better without all the bounciness on highways. Combination of Sachs 4wd struts with those Lesjofors springs, they're about .040" thicker than stock, will get you another inch of lift in front. Combination of those and 2wd rear KYB shocks + stock rear springs OR 4wd rear shocks with Honda Accord front springs, Lesjofors 4135713, may ride even front to rear. Just a suggestion. KYB 2wd strut, Lesjofors spring, KYB mount, SJR 4" lift. For $86 shipped this McPherson spring compressor was worth it. MUCH safer to work around than those hook compressors that tend to slip and always at the wrong time. spring compressor Be sure to lube the threads and round part with gear oil.

Looks like it is located behind the battery instead of mounted on the transmission.

You are an absolute legend thank you so much! I'll get a new gasket right away!

Reverse lamp switch. There’s a gasket behind it that measures 14.2x21x2

Yeah we can’t do anything compared to you guys state side!! Nanny country The guy that had those rims made was told this was the only way to do it and I believe they said it was better than the originals. The originals are HEAVY! 5mm steel on those spokes - yet my off-roader’s ones have “flex fractures” in the paint on them. You can see these in the pic above on the left before they were refurbed. Never had a crack though! Cheers Bennie

My guess for that crack is that when the centers were formed, the stress from the deep backspacing puts extra leverage on the center. The original Scorpion wheels have spokes welded to the wheel centerline. The copies are built like a bowl with the edge of the bowl on the wheel centerline. The large "D" shaped holes add twisting around the center as the car rolls. Bad design. That is why I keep pushing the notion to get used 6 lug wheels and drill 2 holes for 4 bolt 4 x 140 pattern. 6 x 5.5 inch pattern is 6 x 139.7mm which is close enough. You'd be money ahead. el_freddo can't do this in Australia. We can if its done right. The new holes must be countersunk to match the lug nuts.

Wow that crack is nuts! And those are the copies. Here’s a close up of mine - you’ll notice the design difference! ^ that’s my before and after shots of the freshen up these copped about three months ago for Subinats. I can keep an eye out for a couple of rims over here if you want. The biggest issue is getting them to you without breaking the bank. I’d follow cnzy’s advice with the repair job. That crack surprises me and I wonder how it was created. The rusting tells you it was there for quite some time as cnzy said. Good thing you found it! Cheers Bennie

You could have it TIG welded after blasting off the powder coat, BUT, to be sure there aren't any stress risers after welding it should be shotpeened., That crack has been working for quite awhile. Ask Bennie to put the word out for wheels, maybe(?)

What are these scorpion rims you’re talking about? We’ve got these original scorpion rims formally made by Scorpion Subaru in Queensland I believe: There was a copy done a few years back that is sort of the same but not at the same time, not made by the original company as they’re not around anymore. I’ve heard of cracking occurring on the later units around or near the bolt holes. Cheers Bennie

i would check the cam angle sensor just to make sure its doesn't have an injector plug on it... and vice versa, if it doesn't then sort the cam belt..

From the old 4X140 wheels page hosted by McBrat at https://www.indysworld.com/subaru/gallery/wheels/wheels.html

Have that scorpion wheel abrasive blasted to remove powder coat, then have all weld beads TIG welded. If there's one crack there could be more developing. Then new powder coat, perhaps all of them(?)

Always wondered if it was that Subaru production kept using the drum brake wheels until ea81 production really got going by mounting only the solid rotor front disc brakes. In other words, lesser curve spokes until advent of vented front discs then sharper curve spokes. Do a search for the 6 lug conversions on Goggle OP. You might find more there in early discussions.

They’re not just rims from drum brake era vehicles - they’re an early EA81/MY rim and they don’t clear the front calipers of the L series. These probably came from the models with solid front discs. They have a curved hub and sunraysia star pattern are the bit with the curve in them. The L series ones are flat with a sharp curve before it joins the rim. I’m unsure if the vented front disc MY/EA81 sunraysia rims have that same style bend in the star like the L series units. I’d have to look at a set (have them out the back on a 1984 Leone). Spacers might clear the front calipers but they’re not an ideal solution in my book. I hope this helps. Cheers Bennie

There are old threads on USMB for this problem. Early drum brake wheels just don't have the proper backspacing curve for disc brakes. Obviously. Hope you didn't pay much for those fb "bargains". Peugeot 505 wheels have the same bolt pattern as Subaru EA cars - 4x140 mm. New Peugot 505 alloys OR, you could do a jy search for Mazda B2200 six lug wheels, drill 2 more holes and open up the center hole with a die grinder & burr to fit. Both the Peugeot and Mazda wheels are 14 x 6 inch. AND, have the backspacing for disc brakes. Much easier to find tires for.

Well, I'm back in town and will be taking another crack at getting it running on Thursday afternoon (it's over at a friends house on the other side of town right now). On your advice, I had him disconnect the battery so the codes will all be cleared by the time I get over there to try and get it running. At this point I'm thinking it isn't the TPS since I've already tried swapping one off my spare parts car and it made no real difference. I'm thinking that if the MAF is bad then it wouldn't throttle up properly because it wouldn't be correctly measuring the increased airflow - and therefore the ECU wouldn't supply the right amount of fuel to maintain the correct air/fuel ratio. Logically, that would match the symptoms I've seen so far. But if I'm wrong about that or missing something, please feel free to correct my troubleshooting process. So, based on that theory, today, I pulled the whole top of the airbox assembly (including the MAF) off my parts car to make it quick and easy to swap out the MAF. That will be my next step in trying to troubleshoot this issue. If swapping the top half of the airbox and MAF doesn't help, the next thing I'll try is to swap out the knock sensor (thanks for that suggestion el_freddo). I just watched a u-tube DIY video that showed me exactly where it is located and how to replace it. I'll pull the knock sensor off my parts car tomorrow and take it with me on Thursday. If swapping the MAF doesn't solve the problem then the knock sensor is next. Thanks for all the suggestions and advice guys! You've given me some really good pointers on what to check. The absolute worst-case scenario is that if I can't figure it out & fix it, I'll use my AAA membership to have it towed home where I can work on it at my leisure. Stay tuned - I'll post back to this thread with updates on my progress and what I find. Thanks again for all the helpful suggestions...

How was the state of old compressor, did it frag and sent metal down the line? If you still have it around, try dumping out all the old oil. If it's close to black, chances are it's been grinding away and the iron particles have oxidized. If there's moisture and gunk in the oil, it gets extremely thicker when it starts to freeze. It'll coat the walls of the evaporator and not transfer heat from the cabin. The refrigerant stays liquid until it reaches the outside line in the engine bay, then it can finally flash off and that's why frost builds up.

Your guess is as good as mine! If you’re doing a rebuild, why not drop a set of turbo pistons in there as these are really the only difference between the NA and turbo shirt blocks. If you’re after power/torque, best bang for buck is to do an EJ conversion, hands down. More reliable too! Cheers Bennie

Well, since you said "Fired right up after timing belt/water pump kit was installed, but when all was reassembled, car misfired then would not start." First thing I'd check would be the T-Belt. Make sure the timing is correct! Yes you should hear the fuel pump run when you first turn on the key for a few seconds. Subaru fuel pumps are much better than aftermarket pumps! You can just put a little gas into the intake and see if it fires up to check and see if it's Fuel or Spark.

Hi, I suspect a sensor could be incorrect, IE injector plug on CAS or similar. however, since you have indicated fuel I'd start there: - Ensure there is enough petrol and if in doubt put another 20L into it... then check to see if petrol is getting to the rail/front filter, if it is you can assume its not petrol related If its not... then hardwire the pump at the plug to a battery to see if its pumping etc, then you can start eliminating things that make the pump run ie wiring/relays. If it has fuel getting all the way to the rail/filter, then id check if it has spark, if it doesn't have spark then you can start trying to figure that why. If it has spark and fuel, then id compression test it and go from there....

Got a 54L, 56# (empty) propane tank from Belgium. 650mm diameter, 200mm tall. That fitting welded to the side has six tapped holes so I plan on making a cap to bolt to that with a couple of o rings for sealing and a couple of fittings. Fits nicely in Forester spare tire well, could probably go an inch bigger on diameter. Sits well below the stock foam under the rear floor. Not so much in the Impreza. Had to hammer quite a bit to get it to mostly fit. Sticks about 2" above the rear floor. Should still be able to stand the spare tire up next to it on the floor, so not a big deal. Next step is to see if a stock fuel pump is reversible. We finished rear strut tower bracing for B's Forester. He did the majority of the work on this. Diagonal tubes go down to the rear bumper bolts. Cross bar is removable. If we left the rear seat latches in place, we'd have to put the crossbar far enough back that it would block the strut nuts. So we spaced the seat latches forward 3/4". This also helps hold the top of the strut tower down. The front diagonals require us to move the seat belt retractors. We have that all figured out and welded up, basically moving them up about 3". Mostly welded with gussets. Here you can see where the front diagonals go down to the top of the trailing arm mounts. Seat backs are a little more vertical now but still reclined some. The back seats rarely get used but they're good to have when we really need them. Finished welding them outside the car. This will be a good car to test them on since the one rear strut tower has been repaired a few times now, the first time due to crash damage under previous ownership. So if it stops this car from coming apart we'll know they work. Might make a set for the Impreza over the winter too. Would be a very convenient thing to weld a spare tire mount on.

Disconnect the negative battery lead. 30 minutes late hook it back up.

Bin the 4spd and drop an EA82 five speed in. Been done many times! Bin the EA82 engine if it comes with the gearbox… or use it as a boat anchor! The EA81 4 spd is a pain in the butt to tear down and rebuilt. A specialist tool is required to remove the nut on the back of the pinion shaft that isn’t easily accessible. Fun fun. It can be done as others did it previously, just not easy. The 5spd conversion is easier in my book. Cheers Bennie

Car has been fully stripped and is now at the sandblaster, can't wait to get it back and get a plan in place for all the repairs

Anywhere to read about the relay fumes?

They charge $250 to store a car there from mid-October to early April. They also store boats and travel trailers but that's more. It's a great deal shortly after I took that picture of the Brat it was surrounded by other cars. That's why they issue you a date and time to retrieve in the spring so they can unpack in order. It's just like an informal car show, I even see a couple of my former cars there.

My wife and I have a 2014 Forester. Hands down the worst car we have ever owned. That being said, we probably got a lemon. That being said, Subaru denied our claim on oil consumption, had the dealership replace the block at cost... We had two blocks fail (both rod bearings) within 500 miles. CV axles went out within 80k miles Occupant detection mat went out in passenger seat Driver heated seats went out(havw to replace the entire seat to fix) AC compressor went out in under 100k Radio went out at 40k Neutral safety switch went out And last, but not least, bulkhead Wiring Harness failed (I think the damage was a result from the engine removal). Currently waiting for the CVT to go as we're at 142k, but so far it's been okay... I would buy the 2010.

I used the Ford Escort distributor on my 2.5 frankenmotor with EJ22 heads and dual Weber IDF carbs. It was fitted into a long travel buggy. I had to fuss with the slots and I think file the drive tang a little. The slot in the cam and the tang don't have the same offset from the centerline but there is some float so the tang can slide on a pin. To me this is a bad situation because every revolution causes the drive tang to shuffle in the slot and on the pin. Expect high wear here. I ended up using an aftermarket cam which did not have a drive slot so I was able to machine the drive slot to fit correctly. It runs best with 15 degrees of initial advance but that causes too much total advance so I need to limit that. The Escort used a couple different versions of the TFI module and the one I got had the bastard first year TFI that was only made for one year and has issues. I bought up 4 of the modules on ebay and in stores and every single one was dead. I ended up adapting a GM HEI module with good results. I carry a spare cap, rotor and HEI module for trailside repairs. Still looking for a programmable digital ignition that doesn't cost $500. Right now I have a great engine that runs with just a few wires and a fuel line including a one wire alternator. It would be a shame to add a complex computer to something this simple.

and some more project Pictures

1ST GENERATION BRAT SPECS ____________________________ NAMES Subaru Brat Subaru Brumby Subaru Shifter Subaru MV Subaru Targa MODELS DL - 2 round headlights GL - 4 round headlights SPARE TIRE Located In Engine Compartment SEATS 2 Interior (Bucket Seats) 2 Exterior (Jump/Rumble Seats) Located In Bed BRAT NAME MEANING Bi-drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter PRODUCTION 1977 to 1981 ASSEMBLY Ota, Gunma, Japan CLASS Small Utility Coupe SUCCESSOR Subaru Baja SOLD 92,445 from 1978 to 1987 (including 2nd Gen) STYLE 2 Door 2 Seat Pickup DIMENSIONS Overall Lenght (in.) 164.8 Overall Width (in.) 61.0 Overall Height (in.) 57.1 Wheelbase (in.) 96.3 Track Front (in.) 49.8 Track Rear (in.) 49.2 Ground Clearance (in.) 7.9 WEIGHT (lbs) 2,061 PAYLOAD (lbs) 882 ENGINE Code - EA-71 Produced 1976 - 1994 Redesign of EA-63 Block 4 cylinder Liquid Cooled Overhead Valve Pushrod 4 Stroke Horizontally Opposed Bore x Stroke 92 x 60 Piston Displacement 1.6 liter (1,595cc) Compression Ratio 8.5:1 Horsepower 67 bhp @ 5,200 rpm Torque 81 lb-ft @ 2,400 rpm Also Found In Subaru Leone FUEL Tank Capacity (gal) 9.9 Economy (hwy) 34 est on leaded (cty) 25 est on leaded TRANSMISSION 4 Speed Manual 3 Speed Automatic DRIVEN WHEELS FWD - full time 4WD - Activated On-The-Fly STANDARD EQUIPMENT Tinted Windows Radial Tires Inertia Reel Seat-Belts Head Restraints Push Button Radio PAINT Single-Stage Enamel COLORS Crystal Blue Plaza White Mild Yellow Sprite Green Brilliant Red WARRANTY 18 Months or 18,000 Miles ____________________________ Please let me know if I missed anything, I don't think I got all of the colors, as I think there is a silver, but couldn't find an official list. Add things for the 1st gen in comments and I'll edit this to reflect any other or more accurate information.

Running a carb is an option on an EJ22, thats what I'm planning on doing when I swap. I don't trust EFI systems, carbs will run forever with proper maintenance.