edrach

While you're checking the lugnuts, check the castle nut for tightness too. Hopefully your mechanic didn't over-extend the axle and ruin the inner joint (DOJ). Does the vibration occur while accelerating and go away immediately when you let off the gas? That's a classic symptom for a bad DOJ. Check the DOJ boots also; if one is torn, the DOJ is likely bad.

It allows you to have lights on for safety when parked and the ignition off. Welcome to the Board. You not the first to have this problem and won't be the last either. It happened to me when I had the car detailed and didn't notice the parking lights were on when I picked it up. Dead battery the next morning; charge it up; see the parking lights lit; I spent too much time trying to figure it out and I finally relented and asked on the Board.

I've been told that the rear axles on an EA81 hatch are the same as the axles on an EA82 wagon. Before I pull the wrong axles can someone confirm that? Thanks.

Glad you made the trip safely. Enjoy.

If you have the power steering setup you might want to have the linkage on the other side since the weber seems to interfere with the power steering reservoir.

Gossgary and MorganM both have the right idea about getting the $5 tool. I've seen it at B&B, Schucks, NAPA, and I think at GI Joe's also. I haven't had any luck with just removing the the master cylinder cap; I suspect there's a check valve in the lines somewhere that keeps the fluid from being forced backwards into the master cylinder. I now open the bleeder valve and drain it into a can with a small hose while I retract the caliper piston.

Temperature at both Lynnwood and Everett yards is usually identical. As of my last visit last week, Lynnwood seemed to have more Subarus in the yard than Everett, altho both yards have a goodly number. They are so close together, you should really go to both if you don't find what you want at the first. Don't forget to bring your tools since it is a "do it yourself" yard. If you're going this afternoon, look for my blue Brat since I expect to be at Lynnwood and then Everett.

Good one Craig. This should definitely go into the repair archives.

One of the comparison tests I read compared the Hakki Q against the Michelin Alpin and Firestone(?) Blizzak. With new tread all three tires were comparable in performance; after taking 30% of the tread off the tires, the Hakkis still performed well while the other two dropped off significantly. I am now on my fourth year of the Hakki Qs on my Brat and they still gave me no trouble on our snow run earlier this month to get our Christmas tree in the mountains. I don't know what else to tell you, but google around to see if you can find some other performance reviews. I have the WRs on my '91 Legacy and they are an "all season" tire. I now have 40K on them and will likely go well past 50K. Unfortunately, we haven/t seen much snow over the last four winters, but the little snow we did have gave me no trouble at all.

It shouldn't be too hard to replace the vac advance unit. I know they're still available for around $25 after market for the Hitachi carb.

Boy I wish I had known that a year ago; you would have been shipping me tires!!

Another consideration....are you looking for studless or studded tires? I prefer studless since we don't get any real snow around here and I've never had any problems with the Qs on my Brat and the WRs on my Legacy. Another thing, don't get wide tires; go for the stock width or maybe on size narrower. Look at the really skinny tires the rally drivers run on the WRC winter rally circuit.

Unless things are different in AK, the Hakki 1's and 10's have been discontinued here. I wanted to buy a set of 10s without studs for my rallycross passion....I couldn't get any.

I'm with archemitis on this; if the valve doesn't open to let the water run through the heater core very well it could contribute to the heating problem. Altho your comments about the hoses running cool is distressing since they should get quite warm. Lastly the vents in my '84 Brat are controlled by cables; perhaps the cable to your air vent has come off the lever and isn't closing the air intake enough.

Sorry but I have to disagree with that comment. My Brat never ran warmer than 1/4 of the way up the guage. Not a problem since it never came close to overheating. However, we found out it was a 180 degree thermostat and when I installed the stock 195 degree thermostat the temp guage went up to just below the 1/2 way mark on the guage and I had lots of heat out the heater. Now we don't get -2 degree weather here much, but changing the thermostat worked just fine. Just my 2 cents worth.

Also, if you look up his profile I think he has a website for the shop. I'd post it if I could remember it.....darn senior moments.....

Send richierich a PM; he has an excellent shop in Portland.

As they say...."what goes around, comes around." I can honestly saw I've never had a problem with anyone on the USMB in my dealings. It's great to deal with people whose word is their bond.

I may have a 3.900 LSD available for sale in the near future; I'm still thinking about letting it go. I'll repost when I'm ready.

If the idlers are like the tensioners in the EA82 engine, the bearings can't just be pressed out and replaced. The older tensioners have the inner race held in by peening over the inner shaft; once that's destroyed there's no way to use the original with a new bearing. A good machine shop could get around that for you, but then it'll cost you more than the dealer OEM part. Don't skimp on tensioner costs with an interferance engine like yours.

Generally speaking, the turbos didn't come with LSD with any consistency until late '88 or '89; they were optional before then. The RX models came with an LSD from '86 on (I think). All of these were as Noah said, clutch type. The Legacy series uses a viscous type and it seems to be pretty rare...I've never seen one in three years of looking.

At that price I can't be too picky. Sounds like a deal. Thanks. Call me at 425-481-0604 when it's convenient.

I'm looking for an open 3.900 rear diff for my Brat. I'm hoping to find a low miles EA81 or EA82 to pull one from. I guess anything under 150K would be low enough. I just need the info; I'll be glad to pull it myself.

If I remember correctly, it did have the Legacy "hunk" of plastic running across the back. I did manage to salvage the support pistons of this one; first set I've seen that actually picked up the tailgate under their own power once it was hiked half way up. They certainly weren't original and mine have about a year left before I'll need to replace them.

I stopped by today and it was built 2/89. It did have a slightly funky grill but both bumpers were red like the rest of the car.