edrach

I have a guy in Ballard that rebuilds them also and I'd rather go there than the mega auto stores since I can talk with the rebuilder and I trust what he does more than the anonymous units I can buy at shucks or such. Cost depends on what's wrong and how much he has to replace...it can go as high as $120; the least I've ever paid is $68. I get a decent warranty on the work but he won't give me a "lifetime" warranty. I still trust his work more; I've yet to have to take an alternator back to him for re-work.

Look carefully at any one of the spokes. If you start at the hub you'll find the spoke has a smooth curve all the way out to the rim on the EA-81 wheels. Compare that to the spoke on the EA-82 wheels and you'll notice a definite "kink" in the spoke just before it gets to the rim. Qman is correct, all EA82 wheels will fit on the older cars, but the EA81 wheels will rub on the EA82 front caliper. This general statement is not true for the alloy wheels which seem to work on either generation of cars (at least I haven't found a set that don't). The EA81 wheels tend to be more robust than the newer ones. The EA82 wheels can bend at the "kink" more readily and will start to wobble when that happens. I once had collected 3 sets of the EA82 wheels and took them to a local tire shop to have them checked for "trueness." Only 4 out of the 12 were okay; that's when I switched to alloy wheels on my EA82 wagon and still use the older style wagon wheels on the Brat or older wagon.

Check my thread in the Off Topic forum. I suspect this year's low turnout might indeed be the higher entry fee although I feel it reflects the costs of putting on the events.

On slow charge, charge it overnight for the next few days. A typical battery has a capacity of about 60 ampere-hours (i.e. charge at one amp for 60 hours to be fully charged). So if your slow charger is 2 amps and you drove it for about 15 minutes (charging at ??--maybe 15 amp rate), you only added about 5 ampere-hours of charge (2A times 1/4 hour plus 15A times 1/4 hour) less what it lost in starting the car. If it started for you, it certainly wasn't completely discharged. But you need to give it more lots more time at the slow rate to fully charge your battery. Have the battery tested at autozone, but if it's only 1 year old, it should be okay; if not, it should be a pretty close to free replacement. Bring your receipt from the purchase of the battery.

You really need to get a hold of snowman. Sorry, but you don't need to pull the distributor to replace the rotor and cap. There is only one right way to put the disty back in. Wait for someone who's done it before to give you a hand.

Grab the rear rotors and calipers anyway; they work on the 4WD car also....only thing different between 2WD and 4WD is the hub and backing plate.

Next thing to do is check your brake pads. Brake fluid is in a closed system; assuming it isn't leaking anywhere, the likely cause for decrease in fluid is that as the pads wear down the fluid level drops accordingly.

Glad you weren't seriously hurt. Do yourself a favor, check in with a doctor and have your back and neck checked out. I was rear ended last year and it took 6 months of therapy to get my neck back to normal.

Wait until after the ORG meeting this coming Wednesday (discussion of rule changes) because you might have the opportunity to run in a new Truck/SUV class with your wagon which would allow modifications not available in Production. In no event would I lift the car if you plan to rallycross it.

Gee, I wish you had posted first before attempting that job. I think there's a description of mine somewhere on the Board for doing this more easily (what you don't take apart, you don't have to put back together). However, Austin's description is right on. Hopefully, you can get this squared away; I'd take Austin up on his offer to help for a fee (he's more than reasonable).

Jason, you're quite correct that the boots from Subaru are the best to use as replacements. However, the heatshield will make any boot last longer.

You can have your current distributor rebuilt by http://www.philbingroup.com/rebuilt/distributors.htm if you can spare it for a few days...or they may have a rebuilt unit in stock for you.

With your talents you should be able to solve the "over the cat" problem. The other Jason welded a heat deflecting shield over my y-pipe. It gave me another 1/2" of cooler air flowing over the top of the heat shield by putting an air scoop on top of the heat shield. I never lost another inner boot on that side again. You can see it on the '86 wagon that flowmasteredGL is working on right now; a bit crude but it did the job.

Nice car, Brian. I have some really pretty wheels for it; you saw them at WCSS6--the polished alloys:) . Good luck with the car.

Yea, I saw the footage about the Anchorage snowfall the other night on TV. You guys looked like Seattle; almost like you'd never seen snow before.

Jason, if you're looking for parts to do your own rebuild, www.cvaxles.com will sell you quality parts also.

Fun time was had by all who attended. It'll take me a week to digest all I ate at Claim Jumper afterwards.....serious good food.

Good place to buy; typical price is $55 plus refundable core charge and shipping. They are one of the few reliable rebuilders out there. If you call them, say hello to Kevin.

If you're going to destroy the socket, make sure it's a Craftsman so you can replace it.

Another vote for Castrol DOT 4; I live in the Seattle area (can you get much wetter than here?) and have never had to change the brake fluid in it's entirety in any Subaru I've owned over the last 5 years. I've only changed it that way when I've replaced calipers or did the disk conversion on the rear brakes. If you plan on changing it every two years anyway, stick with the Castrol.

It looks like Jeanne and I are in. See you there.

Not that I want to complicate the issue, but consider finding a set of rear disks at the local wrecking yard (all the parts will cost you around $75 locally) and replace those rear drums. It makes the brakes work much better and rear disks are much easier to service than rear drums. You and your dad can come by my place and install them (I've done over a dozen of those conversions); it shouldn't take more than two hours.

It was fun to be there; I don't always miss out. Scored a nice tree today also. It took a long time to find it....but as they say...."the end result isn't what matters, but the journey to get there." Or something like that. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Debbie and qman for all the snacks and warmth.

Here are the photos I took today. Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to load them into the appropriate folder so you'll have to look through my entire album for them---not too difficult since there are not a lot of pics there. On the way home, we had an RX scoot by in front of us as we came out of the forest onto the main highway. He stopped a local watering hole and we stopped to talk to him a bit; it's an '89 with dual range 5 speed as well as center locking diff and LSD; fellow was real proud of it (I was drooling to myself). Unfortunately, I couldn't get more information out of him; but it was certainly a nice car. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=110

Austin, hold on to those y-pipes for me; I'll stop by in the early afternoon.