edrach

I've been able to do the replacement without ever dis-connecting the ball joint or radius arm. There was a write up on axle replacement in the old Repair Manual, maybe someone copied it and can re-post it so it can be put back into the USRM since this question comes up about once a month.

I'm not sure how you'd do it, but this should go into the Repair Manual section if it's not already there. Good job.

Find someone in the US who can get you OEM gaskets and mail them to you. The cost of gaskets is pretty low and air mail would get to you within a week I would guess.

I ran the car with all those symptoms for about 4 months (8000 miles or so) but last week it obviously was not happy and running rough. It was definitely time to park it until the engine swap. I was just lucky that I had the time to locate a decent engine at a reasonable price.

Mary, save the drivetrain and motor; you won't be sorry. My '84 Brat has over 200K on the engine when I bought it from Zap and I ran it for 3 years or more (CRS strikes again) before replacing the engine with a "hot" motor. Only reason I don't have the original gearbox is that I upgraded to a 5 speed. Corky added the LSD kernal to the original rear differential for me and everything is still working.

Jumpy tach is often caused by a worn bushing and shaft wobble. Wet distributor is more likely to cause it not to run at all. I used to have that problem with an old 510 Datsun years ago. I found spraying the distributor cap on the outside with something called LPS greaseless lubricant. It's heavier than water and displaces it and solved the problem on my Datsun. Most good auto parts stores carry it.

One thing I learned today.....if I ever do another clutch on my Legacy, I WILL pull the engine instead of the transmission. Clutch job two months ago took us the better part of 10 hours pulling the tranny. Today's job included removing flywheel and clutch from my original engine and installing it on the donor engine. Total time less than 6 hours.

In my case the blowby was so bad that if you unscrewed the oil filler cap and just put it back without screwing it on it would blow off.

I took it ifor a drive up to near where rattty2Austin used to live and back on the back roads. Pushed a little smoke out the back until I put 3 or 4 miles on it (must have been some oil residue in one of the smaller hoses that came with the chassis) and then nothing. Engine runs smoothly and quietly....no lifter clatter or anything abnormal. No check engine light until I got home and turned on the a/c with the defroster; but I think that might be bogus. The only minor problem is that it takes a long time to return to idle when I come to a stop. RPM sits at around 1500 and very slowly comes back into the 900 to 1000 range in about 15 seconds. It might be a simple adjustment but I can deal with that in the next few days. Not bad for a used JDM engine I got it from a car with a bad transmission. Engine had 50K on it after it was installed in the donor car 15 months ago, so it's probably in the 80 to 100K range for original mileage. Hopefully I'll get more miles out of this one than the engine that came with my car originally. So tomorrow it's time for brake pads front and rear.

Cool; me too! Are you done yet? Corky and I started just after 9am and finished around 3pm.

My '91 legacy had a very similar problem but caused by serious blow-by. In my case it would exhaust vast quantities of smoke for the first 4 or 5 minutes of running and then all would be okay. Until last weekend when the smoke wouldn't stop and I finally parked it rather than severely damage the engine more than it was already. Throttle intake hose was dripping with oil when I replaced the engine today as well as most of the hoses feeding it.

My tried and true '91 Legacy developed a severe case of blowby as well as HCs in the coolant recently. Started about 6 weeks ago and I started looking for a replacement engine. Last Monday I parked it for the last time since the smoke coming out the back was beginning to bug the neighbors. Picked up a mostly complete '90 wagon with a probably good engine (couldn't hear it run since the tranny was trashed...and starter couldn't be hooked up). Pulled the donor engine myself last weekend and today, with Corky's help, I pulled my old engine and installed the new (to me) engine. Seems to run just fine (whew) and no ugly smoke out the back. I'll do a test run later today. Much easier than a EA82 version and not much harder than a weberized EA81. Now to see what went wrong with the old one; lots of good spare parts there. Thank you Corky for all the help and patience!

Valve cover gaskets can be changed without removing timing belt covers. If you're losing that much from there it should show up on the driveway in the morning when you've parked it overnight.

Actually the cap is probably doing what it's supposed to do. Did you overfill the radiator? There will be a significant expansion of coolant when warm over cold. Also, there might be an air pocket in the cooling system that's expanding and causing this. But anyway, get a new cap after you've explored the simple solutions above.

Look for a loose connection at the battery terminals and alternator for a start. If it's not there we need to start looking for bad grounds.

So Craig, is that engine still stock or weberized? Way to go anyway.

Pull a Part in Lynnwood gets about one turbo every 2 or 3 weeks.

Regarding the3 cold running problem; it seems all webers have a tendency for that. the obvious thing is the choke, is it properly adjusted?

Bow-wow Autoparts in Lynnwood stocks them; ask for Chris, he's Subaru friendly; just under $30 plus tax. 425-771-6411.

POR15 is your friend. Just hold on to your pocket book when you get the POR15. It's a great product but quite pricey. Also, you can't paint over it without first painting it over with a special primer....then you can paint over it. I've got to hand it to you Mary, you've more patience than I have; you're probably better at it too. I don't mind the mechanical stuff so much but body work just drives me nuts.

Mary, I hate to say it but I'm with 88HatchMonster on this. My son's '82 Brat is pristine compared to this one and I wouldn't even consider restoring it. There are NW and western Brats with body damage (or missing engines) that can be had for $500 or thereabouts with minimal undercarriage rust that could use the body parts that you have on this one for a true restoration. I can't imagine rust so bad that the mustache bar bolts would break off. The only way I would consider restoring this one is if the underbody and frame were rust free; then all the suspension parts and such could be replaced.

Welcome to the Board, Bill. I'll look forward to seeing you again at the next rallycross unless there's something else going on between now and then. I'll have my blue Brat then instead of my son's gold one. Happy New Year.

Bad alternator; should output >14 at 2000 rpm (maximum 14.5 or so). Battery will only charge to the maximum alternator voltage, so if the alternator only puts out 11.5 volts, don't expect the battery to put out 14!

That would be me; Happy New Year and welcome to the USMB.

Looks like the price went up since April; now $85.