casm

Share the details; I like this one Along those lines: I'm looking into making a antenna mount for the bed area that won't require drilling the panels. It'll basically screw down on the existing screws that secure the side panels down. It's mostly figured-out at this point; just gotta work out the routing details for the cabling and get the Brat back from the world's longest clutch job so that I can properly measure & eyeball stuff.

Slam it!

Seconded. Having said that: I've dealt with Rock Auto for several years and never had a problem. Their OEM stuff has been exactly that: OEM stuff. Prices and service are generally excellent. The one thing you have to watch for with them is that if you're ordering multiple parts at the same time, they may send them from different warehouses: this adds up to multiple shipping charges. It's usually worked out cheaper for me than getting the parts locally, but it is something to keep in mind at checkout. Also, be sure to Google 'rock auto discount code'. You can usually come up with a valid 5% to 10% off code that way, which usually knocks at least the shipping (and some of the tax, if applicable) off of the order.

Doing the leather seats on the Brat got me to wondering about what sort of other unusual mods people have done to their cars. I'm not talking about stuff like putting in a stereo, CB, or a set of rally lights unless there's something different about how they were done - what I'm looking for are more off-the-wall modifications (large or small) that improve performance, driveability, or just make it easier to live with. As an example: for my next trick, I'm looking into LED replacement lights for pretty much everything. There are two reasons for this: one is improved visibility when I'm on the brakes (no third brake light == people don't notice when you're on them), but the other is to take a few watts of load out of the power system when driving at night with the high beams, heater, radio, and wipers on. So... What else has everyone else been up to?

Yeah... But I've got original floorpans with no rust. I have no idea how that's even possible, but I really don't want to drill them. The shop's fooling with the rails to get them to fit. Ah. OK. Interesting. Can I get a quick description of that from you? Not sure why that would be necessary, is all. If you wouldn't mind sharing those with me once you've got them, it would be much appreciated. I've decided to hold off on the wiring part of all this until I've got diagrams to work with; it'll mean pulling the seats after they're out, but at least that's easy to do.

Will do. I'll be interested to see if the non-airbag seat has a little more clearance, but we'll see what happens. Got it. Probably not an issue for me, since the only time I tilt the seats forward is if I'm tossing small stuff behind them. Still good to know. No worries. I'm letting the shop figure it out; I just don't have the facilities to do it myself, so it's a them problem I'll get some photos of mine up once the Brat's back next week.

Yeah, no kidding on the storage unit. I really wonder which bright spark came up with that idea. Sorry for not mentioning it sooner; I kinda figured that the generic 'no, I can't open it up' would've covered the situation... But yeah, ambiguity eliminated It's really not well-documented in a lot of ways. Here's a fun discovery I made in the process of figuring out that it was a Canadian-market transmission: apparently Subaru Canada can search SOA part numbers, but not vice-versa. STUPID. It explains why the dealers I spoke to on this side of the border had no idea as to what it was.

Back when I still lived in SoCal, I decided to take the white Brat out to the old Mojave Phone Booth site one weekend. In order to get there from L.A., it's about 220 miles on I-15 North followed by about another 14 miles on desert tracks - think dirt & deep sand in places. The tracks are actually in pretty good condition, and you can keep up anywhere from 30-50mph in places. The sand will slow you right down to a crawl, though, and it's a good idea to keep your tyre pressures down when driving on it. I was bombing down one particular stretch when I hit a patch of sand. Speed went down to about 10mph - then, just as I was coming out of it, I felt the driver's side front wheel dip sharply (enough to tilt the passenger rear side of the bed up in the air about two feet) and come back down hard. I immediately stopped to see what had happened. It was a good thing that when I opened the door, I looked at the ground because there wasn't any. I'd clipped the edge of an unmarked mineshaft with the front wheel and missed going in completely by about a foot. God only knows how deep the drop into there was; certainly, you couldn't see the bottom. Good weekend otherwise, and damn was that Brat good on the washboard stuff. Rattled like hell but went like a bat out of the same over it.

Understood. The issue was more that I didn't have somewhere that I could do that. The transmission was being kept in my storage unit - which is carpeted. Why they did that I don't know, but I just don't have the facilities to do it without risking angering the storage unit people, who are already a little iffy towards me since lugging parts in and out of that place has already caused some damage to said carpet. Well, it's not worth much to me (I'm looking for a D/R with locking centre diff from an RX, not an AWD 'box), which is why I'm selling it. What I'm trying to do is figure out what I've actually got so that I can give a prospective buyer an accurate description of what it is that I'm selling. The last thing I want is to sell someone a tranny that I think has a 4.11 final drive; they bolt it up and it turns out to be a 3.90 or something else, and all this happens after I've shipped it out to them. I'm not worked up over it at all - I'm just trying to piece it all together partly for my own knowledge and partly for anyone else who may be in the same boat. If I could do it without risking the lease on my storage unit, sure. Not doable, though.

Good to know. I'm 5'9", so headroom shouldn't be as much of an issue. It also looks like the seats I grabbed have a thinner lower cushion than the ones I've currently got, so I may actually gain back an inch or two (or at least break even). This was a concern of mine because the leather seats have the manual height adjusters on the driver's side - it wasn't clear if it would hit the door or not. Chances are I'll have to remove the adjusting arm. More on the seat specs in a bit; it'll help clear up where I'm coming from on all this. The current ones are the same way, so I figure I can live with that. Frankly, I'd like to find a decent stock Brat driver's side seat and use that (I have a good passenger side seat in my parts stockpile), but good luck finding one in decent (read: economically-salvageable) condition. Thanks - I appreciate the insight on this. I'm in a slightly different situation as regards all of this; see below for more info. My seats are pre-airbag (they came off of a '99), so that's one item off the worry list. Cool; my plan was to use the rear defroster circuit for it. Was power already run to that fuse, or did you have to pull +12V to it? I'm guessing it was already live, but would like confirmation if possible. Hrm. It looks like I may be on my own for the heater wiring; IIRC, your seats are out of an '04 and mine are from a '99 - and are manually-adjusted. I'll get some photos of the switches and heater wiring I scavenged over the next day or two; if we could do some comparisons between what I've got and what you've got, it would be very helpful to me. The relay(s) will probably be pretty straightforward. 15A should be enough to run just the heaters since there's no power adjustment to worry about. As an aside, I was actually surprised to find heated leather seats with fully-manual adjustment (including height) - I'd never seen anything with that spec and no power adustment on any vehicle before. The lack of power adjustment was actually one of the things that prompted me to do this since it should theoretically make fitment easier and allow for better headroom.

Interesting. If he (or anyone else) has a wiring diagram for the heated seat circuit in the OBW I took them from, I would love to see it. I think I've got it mostly figured out, but I'm still stuck in a couple of places. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this *bigtime*. Somehow my last four cars have all had heated seats and it's one of those things I never cared about until I had them.

Not a possibility. This has been one of the routes taken. Negative - I own the transmission and would like to know what gear ratio is in it. Opening it up to count teeth on the ring & pinion and do the math is not an option. Further, I no longer have physical access to the transmission without some serious effort on my behalf. It's just not going to happen. Believe it or not - my total time investment is only around 30 minutes at this point, a good chunk of that being composing posts here.

Folks, given the amount of questions being asked that have been answered in this thread already, I'm making a polite-but-firm request: Please read the entire thread before posting. I understand that people want to help and I truly do appreciate that, but questions that have already been answered continue to be asked. This does not help to move identification forward - nor will it help anyone who may be searching for this information in the future. A couple of good leads have turned up today; I'll be chasing them down over the weekend / first of the week. Let's see where it goes from there.

These should actually be an improvement over what I've got in there now, which are out of God-only-knows-what. I've probably lost a good 3" of headroom or so; the OBW seats should get an inch or two of that back based on rough measurements of both.

Nope. If it were, this would be dead simple to figure out. Evidence is pointing to the contrary, though nothing is solid yet. More: Thanks, but for right now I'm disregarding all online information and going by what people are telling me from printed materials. The problem is that there's been enough (not a lot, but enough) conflicting information on this transmission online that I want a definite answer from an authoritative source - preferably FHI, though there are a couple of others I'd accept. I would be interested in seeing the page in question if it turns up, however. 4.44 was also available, at least in Canada; however, apparently not in the year range I'm looking at with respect to this transmission ('90 & '91). This is straight from the Hamilton, Ontario's parts manager. Except in Canada, where AWD could evidently be had with 3.7 gears early on. Taken from the same dealer. No worries. Just trying to piece it together. I no longer have physical access to the transmission. Good idea, though. The only other vehicle on that chart with a transmission number ending in A1AA was the US-market '99-'01 Impreza. It's already known that that is not the transmission in question. Based on what we dug up this afternoon, this is the expectation. Just to clarify: this is a manual transmission, not an auto. The plan is to get a definitive book answer on what is apparently in it, then check by hand. This should be a resonable double-blind method of knowing if the listed final drive ratio for that transmission's part number is accurate or not.

No problem, and apologies if I sounded like I was being pushy because that wasn't my intention. Just kinda got a rush from grabbing the seats this morning and got all gung-ho about it. Totally understood on work pressures; I'm in a calm period myself after six weeks of hell. Let me know when you can

Bratback... Like the mountain? Not that I can talk. My Outback seats are going in as I type, so I'm fair game as well... And Brent, check your PMs!

Agreed, and that was part of what spurred me on to finally do it (that and the Outback was about to go to the crusher, so it was now or never). I'm really hoping he pops his head up; I could use his expertise in tackling all of this.

It appears as though a number of people (myself included) have been going nuts trying to figure out what the final drive ratio in Subaru transmission part number TY752VA1AA is. My laptop's battery is about to croak so I have to be brief, but here's the progress I've made so far: It appears to be from a 1990-1991 Canadian-market Legacy with the EJ-22. Final drive ratio is still unknown, and I'm hoping to have that shortly. Possibilities were 3.73, 3.90, or 4.11. It's believed that the specific transmission I have is a 4.11, but that may be dependent on whatever reduction gear it uses. It's been a bunch of calls to Subaru of Canada, Subaru of Hamilton (Ontario), and Four Star Motorsports to get this info. They've all been extremely helpful in this search, and I want to give them credit where due. I did check the transmission chart on SPDA (great resource), but unfortunately it wasn't listed there. Hopefully it'll all be cleared up shortly; evidently I'm not the only one playing the 'what the hell is this' game with this gearbox.

Well, I finally gave in to temptation today at the junkyard. I'm now the proud owner of two heated leather seats with manual adjustment from a '99 OBW that are destined for the Brat. This fills me with pleasure. How many people have done this swap before? The seat part seems pretty straightforward, but the heater wiring has me in the dark. I'm guessing I can use the (unused) defroster circuit, but I'm flummoxed on the switch wiring and which wire goes where. I found beheinen74's thread where he did the swap here and sent a PM to him but haven't heard back yet. If anyone else can chime in it'd be appreciated. Mmmm... I love the feel of leather on my Brat (sorry, can't resist).

That's normal. Peugeot used a couple of different lug styles over the years, so they won't necessarily swap wheel-to-wheel. Been there and done that at the junkyard; 'cool, I just got a full set of lugs... Aw, crap.'

Those 'turbine' alloys were used from about '81 up to about '84 (possibly '85) if I remember correctly, and were usually found on lower-spec models - we used to find them a lot on sedans and wagons with low trim levels. I don't believe they were ever used on the '86-up (new body style) models or any V6s / turbos. One possibility I can think of: if the TRX-era cars offered a standard-sized rim as an option, that may account for it: it's possible that the offsets on the standard alloys were changed to match the offset that the TRX rims had. To be brutally honest, I'd always junk TRX rims when I found them; I figured it was my way of doing the world a favour, so I don't really know a great deal about them other than that they're really good for keeping the car off the ground while you're grabbing the gear linkage. Having said that, it's possible you've got one from the TRX era and one from the time when Peugeot came to their senses and gave up on weird tyres. Definitely interesting, though. I'm actually curious to hear how this shakes out; I had Peugeots for nearly a decade and never ran into backspacing issues with them. Still, there's obviously one here, so something's definitely up.

Any plans for a meeting in the DC / Virginia area? If not, anyone interested in putting one together? I didn't really get a chance to talk to folks much at Carlisle, so wouldn't mind something where we can get together and yak.

I'm trying to find the person who bought my old Brat. It's a white GL, t-tops and seats, VIN number JF2AT53B4FE502089, and it was up for sale on Craigslist (Mercer Island) in Seattle about 2-3 months ago. Just curious as to where it's ended up.