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Old lug nut, fender washer, and some grease is the easiest DIY way. Or pull the hub off and hammer it in with a socket supporting the hub on the threaded side. GD

So after a lot of work, mailing in a set of torsion bars from my Brat, paying for the initial machine work and engineering design, and a 8 week turn around, I happy to announce that you can now order new torsion bars for your EA81 chassis from Swayaway here in California. They will run $325 a set and will offer you a spring rate that's 20-25% stiffer than stock without loosing any of the rotational limits the stock ones had. Actually, Swayaway claims their bars will out perform the OEM bar in every single matrix, and they're guaranteed not to sag or break. You can check out their web site at www.swayawaycom. They make very high end products. So what does this mean: Better handling, no more having to crank the torsion bars for heavier loads, no more broken torsion bars, better articulation, and a new parts option for our aging suspension. I will be receiving my set this week and will do a comprehensive comparison to place here and on FB. Once I do that and ensure fit and finish is good, Ill update this post with the PN. He made 3 sets, 1 for me, 2 for immediate purchase, and any orders after those will be made to order.

Update, got my shop gauge connected today. I used the port with the square nut, and my gauge threaded right in, no adapter needed. Surprise, surprise (no one is surprised) the dash gauge is way off. At cold idle I’m reading around 55, and up to 70 with a throttle blip. After everything warms up and the dash gauge goes to 0, I’m still showing around 20. Again, with a blip of the throttle it jumps back up to 50. So now I feel a lot better, and my paranoia is satiated for the moment. I plan to mount a nice/working gauge on the inside eventually, but for now all is well.

Have a look at these, boys! Still available from Subaru in tan.

Have you got a shop vac? I’d be tempted to try that approach before disassembling anything.

Update: I spent some time cleaning the used engine up, then getting it ready to replace top end gaskets. Looked like the front main seal was leaking, so I replaced it, and am debating a new oil pump seal kit because I can’t tell if it was leaking too. Not sure where to source that, any tips would be appreciated. I ended up with a mix of oem and Fel-Pro gaskets for everything else, and am grateful for all the advice I’ve found digging through these threads. Sourcing the recommended parts has been pretty easy- In addition to the gasket set, I have new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor, a new fuel filter, and an auxiliary wiring harness for future accessories. Now that I’m thinking about it, I should probably look over all the hoses and clamps and get replacements for any iffy ones ordered. The only real trouble I have run into came in the form of an exhaust bolt broken off in a cylinder head, but I used an ez-out and freed it without doing any damage. Aside from that little side quest, everything has come apart, cleaned up, and has gone back together nicely so far. I’ll make valve rail spacers in the morning so I can torque the heads on, then get the intake manifold and carb back on tomorrow after work. Hopefully I can get the rest of the out-of-the-car assembly done and my get harness wired up this weekend. That leaves next week to clean & prep the engine bay and bolt the motor back in it. So maybe two more weekends and my little GL will be whole again, then another couple weeks hooking up wires/hoses and getting it running right, and dinking around with any little basics it needs to drive around town for shakedown. I think I’m at the stage now where the list starts getting shorter, so that’s nice...

Is the starter clicking? Do the headlights work when the starter does Not? Along with what the others have said the starter main contacts are prone to wear. When the main contacts within the starter are not good, no power is getting to the starter motor. When it is NOT working, Read voltage under load - key in the start position at: Battery + to ground Starter + to ground Starter Motor + to ground Make sure all the grounds are clean and tight. One fellow had a pitted ground at the rear engine negative ground wire and his car would not charge. Fixed the ground and it was good as new. He had put in 3 alternators.

yeah, the one under the intake on his is starting to show signs, but is not too terrible yet.. maybe we should go ahead and order one, just in case tho, LOL that oil cooler line, however... looking pretty nasty. maybe not as bad as the one we replaced yesterday, but not too far behind. that little bolt - yeah, after reading your post asking about it.. I kind of figured it was gonna be a bear.. but the deepwell socket worked quite well - that and my smaller hands, lol the only other difficulty we encountered was one of the exhaust studs.. several of the studs came out (rather than the nuts coming off) most went back in fine and tightened up fine, but on one, the nut broke free so rather than actually turning the stud back in, it was threading up the stud.. grrr Pulled it back out, cleaned up the rust on the wire wheel (was not too bad), got the nut off, then used the bandsaw to cut a slot in the end to use a screwdriver to re-install the stud.. then put the nut back on. it worked.. everything seems to be in order after getting it refilled with coolant.. even took it for a short test run to go get dinner.

There are no solenoids under the dash. Those are relays. NONE of them operate the starter.

great, maybe you sniffed it out. you've never said it overheats, no bubbles, and it's passing the pressurized coolant test which is the best one for this engine and your scenario. so there's no immediate headgasket indicators, it's just not something to forget either. it's common for initial EJ25D headgasket issues to pass nearly any test. cooling system pressure test is the best and the electronic $$$$$ hydrocarbon sniffers (not the chemical test styles) are great but not widely available. compression test and milk and oil mixing or coming out the tail pipe are essentially pointless and a waste of time on that engine. they never really do that or if they do it's already so obvious the test isn't needed.

Pretty sure you gotta lift the motor but I don’t have every model and year memorized. Some day fly out or ship and buy a rust free Subaru. Glorious

they rust out all the time, very common part to fail on those. they're like $50.

This is tough because bleeding is relatively simple but has some very particular details sometimes and you're working on an unknown vehicle...!!??!?? More than likely there's still air in the system. Take note - everyone was saying bleed the brakes - and you were guessing master cylinder multiple times. You reassessed your bleeding and got more air out - so those suggestions were spot on. I'm not sure where the line is drawn between "you need to bleed more" and "it's probably something else" - that's a very gray area - but it's often the case more bleeding or proper bleeding or a better bleeding set up (don't run out of fluid in MC, screws not leaking, hose/pump/whatever make shift system is being used working well)....

Problem could be the hill-holder if so equipped.

25D's are difficult to get the air out of. You have to pull the bleeder out of the passenger top of the radiator to let out the air as you fill. Then they typically work fine. You MUST use an OEM thermostat, and quality water pump that has close enough tolerances between blades and housing to efficiently clear the air pockets. Being this is a 96/97 25D there is also an extremely high head gasket failure rate and the more you mess around with it and overheat it, the more likely that becomes. It also helps, once you get it warmed up, to use a fill funnel to get the level higher than the engine bay, and then rev it up to 5k rpm repeatedly till the thermostat opens and the air pocket clears. Make sure you get the oil up to temp before you start revving the beans out of it. That's how we clear the air on all of them. 50% of the time it works 100% of the time. GD

the fan cuts off? or, does the fan continue blowing but the temperature is not hot? (why the heater in July ?)

Really doesn't matter since Gates kits are absolute trash. GD

They introduced the HD model when the 3.6 got the CVT. It's also used on the 15+ WRX's. I am not sure when they quit using the non-HD unit on the NA 4 cylinders. Subaru is replacing the older CVT's at an alarming rate. They extended the warranty to 100k on all of them. We do believe that some of the rate of failure is due to extended fluid intervals. Fluid is cheap - transmissions aren't. We recommend all auto's - CVT or 4/5EAT have the fluid drain/fill done every 60k with synthetic or every 30k with the stock fluids. We prefer Amsoil ATF and CVT fluid and are comfortable with it at an "extended" interval of 60k. GD

You need the controller for safety reasons. Never hot wire a fuel pump. In an accident, it won't shut down and could lead to someones death and possibly a lawsuit to boot. If you can't afford to replace it, try this.http://www.revolutionelectronics.com/Fuel_Pump.html I use these when I do restorations. Just finishing a frame up restoration on a 68 Mustang and it got one. Works perfectly.

+1 Both compressors have roughly the same internal volume for moving freon, but the Lexus has a variable displacement compressor where the old school Brat compressor is a fixed displacement compressor so it's pumping full tilt all the time (unless the pressure switch shuts it off). The variable displacement may be mechanical or ECU controlled and is based off system pressures, flow and temp to yield acceptable cooling with minimal load on the engine to keep your MPGs up. Add to that, as you stated, the cabin size difference (Lexus being 2-3x the volume of a Brat) and the fact that R134 does not coll as well as R12 and there you have it. Your Lexus may also be having issues. Low charge, sticky temp door, plugged or stuck orifice/TXV or a cooling fan or condensor air flow issue. Give me old school AC any day.

rotate crank to open intake on cyl 1, take out spark plug, attach compressor hose, blow the plastic backwards out the the way it went in?

A few hours before you posted I did the hack method. Installed new alternator previous evening , left battery unhooked , then came back the next afternoon with my fusible link and hooked it up and looked and listened. All seemed well. My personal “meter” showed GO ! And so I did. So many things going on I’ve only got minutes sometimes , at certain moments , to evaluate , diagnose , and repair. Chunks of time are tough right now. So I really appreciate all the help !!! Sorry to be a bit frazzled at times. I work the worst possible hours and sleep is naps. Makes for difficulties with memory , vocabulary , ambition , etc etc Thanks for understanding.

I remember many years ago, riding around with a good spare EA82 in the back of my wagon. One time when I went to the mall, I remembered while inside that I had forgotten to lock the hatch. I ran back out to my car as fast as I could, but it was too late... Someone had already piled two more in on top of it.

time to attack driver side inside rocker and floor ... rocker is pretty much complete in first pic.. getting it shaped and tacked in .. time to attack the floor section and nearly all finished for this area... starting messing around trying to see how the wrx interior will fit, doesn't look bad to me. bed is fully primed.. think I'm just going to do por-15 for right now then Bedliner later after wrx suspension is fitted. also dashboard and all hvac had been stripped out.. more updates, made a bunch of templates yesterday.. welded in the 2 side pieces for the support member near front driver wheel.. waiting for por15 to coat the inside walls and then weld the bottom piece on.. driver side floor all welded up. seam seal and por15 next and then onto the passenger side here is the driver side floor mostly stripped all the way down getting ready for por15 driver front floor section has been por15'd support member underneath driver floor has been built and inside por15'd patch piece for rear section of driver floor and the bed raptor lined it's gonna get another 2-4 coats nice and even after all the fab work is completed underneath for the wrx suspension got the motor and trans out today.. very easy compared to a wrx.. lol oh my.. look what we have here... I started tearing into the front end and figuring out how to make the wrx suspension fit.. So first things first... take all the brat stuff out ! next was mocking up the wrx member.. wrx member is way too wide! originally was going to weld the wrx member to brat frame rails but decided against that.. brat crossmember fits wrx arms and engine mounts with barely any modification (minor) now that brat member is bolted back in time to make the wrx stuff fit.. temporarily using brat top hats on sti struts untik i figure out the top hat mounting.. only one piece left before suspension is fully bolted in.. have to make custom bracket/mount.. some 17s with big snow tires for my lifted impreza... not fitting... lol and after all that realized the brat subframe doesnt droop nearly as low as wrx one so spacers will be made.. (nearly finished today) rear end is coming next spacers fitted in place.. little bit of mockup action.. time to make this brat bracket fit wrx control arm slowly getting there... next is fab up a tranny mount.. next updates coming Sunday.. the bracket will also be reinforced second mount point for control arm made and ready to be tacked in time to put the real deal and see how it fits.. It sure is tight.... stock rad still fits way too close for comfort tho.. Also tranny mount fabbed up today forgot take pics. of that. rear end coming soon! started to attack the wrx wiring harness today jeeeeezzzzz.... first day i had no diagrams really and i forgot to label everything when i took it out of the wrx delete pile from the first day. mostly just airbag wiring... then i downloaded some wiring diagrams... who can make sense of this?? hahaha piles getting bigger.. yikesss... i think im done... hopefully bout 2 or 3 5 gallon buckets of loom and tape... hopefully i dont need any of those... engine bay harness pretty much done.. poor wrx.. accidently broke the rear windhshield... ugh time to get cut into pieces... sorry.... took off work all last week to put in time on the brat... worked a solid 50 hrs i would say but progression is still really slow lol ok time to start working on fitting wrx interior... first up is dash support bar.. time to hack it up its in there... time to make the actual dashboard fit.. its in there but wayyy too wide for doors to close.. next is steering wheel... looks good enough to fool some idiots on the internet yayy the doors close now! barelyyyy.... next cut out the rusty spare tire well and make room for pedal assembly mounts and slave cylinder etc... next is fitting wrx tranny tunnel.. rough cut.. test fit... continued... all cleaned up ready to weld.. and heres a pic of us shortening the stub on the brat brake booster... (wrx one is nearly impossible to fit) got some more progress for those interested... first up ill show you how to make a wrx steering column fit a brat steering rack tranny tunnel getting burnt in place time to cut up rear end of wrx for strut towers crossmember and trailing arm mounting points towers braced and cut.. crossmember mounts cut out not much left .. temporary crossmember made up so we had somewhere to lift from while we figure out trailing arm mounts. initial crossmember mock up.. before we realized we would have to lower it 3" down to get correct suspension angles tranny crossmember mocked up rear crossmember in place after 3" dropdown dat fitment tho... lol thats just a fixed piece of metal holding wheel in place.. wont stay like that forever but i do like the way it looks lol will probably be around the final full droop height so nice to see matching wheels time to start cleaning and undercoating the areas that will be boxed in and never to be seen again pitch stop mount tacked in place.. Okay and there you guys have it, you are all caught up now on the progress! Next to do is fab up trailing arm mounts and cut out brat wheel wells to make room for wrx ones!

If we could add EA81 Hatch rear glass I would be into that. If possible