riverrat

Ok another question kind of along these lines. either my ignition switch is going out or there is a relay somwhere going south either way....sometimes when i twis the key it is not letting enough juice through to spin her over and the other day it behaved like it had no juice thriugh out the system and the wala back to normal. Anybody want out p.m me on how to hot wire the river rat?I spend an imense amount of time in the back forty steelhead fishing and am afraind of a long walk.I am not interested in a new ignition switch on this old but faithfull beast,hell you can start it with any key or even a dime as it is now.I would be just as happy to bypass the switch and install a couple of switches

can you get the castle nut on at all?If so use it to pull the axle through.If the rotor and splined hub are off the the castle nut can be used to pull the axle through with a couple of large screw drivers,carefully prying backwards.just becarefull of the grease seal.Some times the addition of the flat washer and or the cone washer put on back wards helps,giving you more leverage. hope this helps!!!!

I had the same problem with riverrat1.It apeared right after I severly overheated it.My experiance told me that I probably had coolant in the engine oil.Had a suby mechanic diag it to keep me from wasting mony as a shade tree wanabe.He told me to replace the radiator with 240,000 miles on it and to quit using cheap as4 oil in my oil changes.Quit using the walmart special and problem went away. I noticed the other day that riverrat2 has the same white sludge on the bottom of the oil cap. I would change the oil and check crankcase venelation before I got too carried away.

I have another ignition switch over here in bremerton if ya want.Trade it for a peek at your wagon some day.

I would have to agree with the advice of having the charging system tested.A couple of bucks if not free that will save a lot of guessing.Once one piece of a charging system starts to fail the next piece in line takes the abuse and wears out to doubling the cost. I also know from experiance that a new aftermarket alternator does not mean it is good.The only one I have ever had to replace on a suby came out of the gate charging anywhere frome 19v to 9v.did not need a volt meter to tell just turn on the lights.Napa tested it and told me it was fine.had to take it out of town to a differant napa{differant management] to get the truth.I got the idiot at the local store fired over that one.

We had probably a thirty foot or so semi deliver windows on a job sight a few years back.Well he ran out of diesel on the hill just before the house.I called the dirt guy and he came up and gave him twenty gallons of diesel.Well the truck would still not start.The poor guy sat there for probably three hours using the starter to inch his way up the hill in an attempt to coast down the back side to compression start it.I finally could not stand it any longer.I hoped in riverrat1{84gl4x4wagon] rolled over there and told him I would pull him up the hill.He laughed hard so I bet him fifty bucks.Hooked up my tow strap secretly through into low and pulled him up the hill..I let him off on the fifty as he ha dsuffered enough grief for one day.Besides the whole plat was now intriged by the once anonomous subaru:D

Ok that pic is diferant than the riverrat.I just had to replace the blower motor and never found the resistors.I figured it was the brushes and was correct.I did a search though and read a very long thread concerning the ressistors and was disapointed when I did not get to inspect mine in the process of the motor swap. Once again you guys are great,I know alot of the info asked by people is very redundant to you old time experts,yet you always seem to step up to the plate. No pics needed but where is mine hiding?

Here is a little trick to help identify speaker wires.Get a AA batery and pop the speaker.It will not blow your speaker.I used to install for a living.We would just tape some wire to a aa and poke around the radio harnes to identify the speakers.

The riverrats a lowlife and it has one.

saying good bye to riverrat1 was very hard.Like losing a good dog in my mind.I feel for ya

Upon further thought.....when I bought riverrat1 it behaved the same way as you describe.the problem ended up being NO thermostat instaled.just a thought.

My thoughts with a spike like that upon warm up would be a stuborn thermostat.

This is one of the reasons I love subarus.The quality people they atract for pets.

thats what I thought but I onlly have experiance with the ea81.

I run 87 around town but on my week end trips to the coast I run a higher octane simply because the riverrat handles the hills,at freeway speed better than with the lower octane.It just runs better out there for some reason.I am guessing less preignition lugging up the hills in 4th I do agree that alot of people are mis guided at the pumps though.My 2002 mercuary cougar came with instructions not to run any higher than 87 so does the 99 exploder I believe.

I would disconect the linkage on top of the tranny and manualy shift it through the ranges.this would let you know right off the bat whether it was a linkage problem or a tranny issue.The linkage is just rear of the clutch under the spare,on top.

I spend alot of time camping up in the olympic mounains iout of the back of the Riverrat.most of the time she is backed up to a campfire with the radio going.Of course this leaves me with the back hatch open.This in turn leaves me listening to the god awfull door dinger..ding dong..ding dong.Not realy because I learned how to unplug one a long time ago, drunk around a campfire. Edit:All it took to unplug mine was the removal of the glove box.Then simply unplug the darn thing. What has always baffled me is how does the rat know the back hatch is open????There is no pin switch in the hatch jamb.Is there a mercurary switch,a mechanical switch on the latch?Just a bit of trivea really but it has always baffled me.I installed two extra dome lights on the back hatch to help light up camp and saw nothing to trigger the door dinger. My fishing budy who got me into subarus 10 years ago is also on suby 2.I forget which year exactly but it is a mid 90 legacy.He brought it to a mechanic for some engine work and asked the wrench if he could yank the door dinger.He was told that it was to involved with the computer to remove,suby wouldn't run.does any body know if this is true and if it is not, anybody get sick enough of the darn thing to remove it??

No need to apologize for your english , at least you can speak english.We americans are to lazy to even learn our own damn language properly. sounds like the heater core is a candidate for a flush.

Hey moosens, I have an 84 dl wagon ea81.Do these releys still apply?My blower quit working tuesday and then mysteriosly started back up as i was trouble shooting it yesterday.I decided to replace all the burned out dash bulbs and other gremlins as I was already in there.Put it back together and start her up and guess what... the blower motor quit again.So tomarrow after work I get to tear into her again and try to find out why.My instincts,before hearing of this relay,was that the blower motor brushes were going south.Do I also have the famous variable resistor in my heater curcuit.none of my manuals show one? Luckily I have another 84 wagon for parts so I have all the parts to swap out. Thanks guys off to bed.

A shot inthe dark with the clutch would be your cable begining to snap.Mine have always broke at the clutch peddle.You should be able to inspect it at the peddle. I have no idea with the termite noises:D

A happy ending cool! always start with the basics a mechanic I worked for once told me.... :cool:

Http//milesfox.usmb.net......If i hit any of the linnks there I get the 404 error page...stating that these pages are not on this server.???

When itry to use your varios links to view your pages I get the dreaded 404 error page?

dude I have wrecked gl over here in bremerton wash. with cruise.You are more than welcome to it if you want.

You said that the outside of the carb was also covered in mud.Did you clean the outside of the carb as well?Washing the outside of a carb can allow a vacuum leak to breath even more.With it stalling out under load I would suspect a vacuum leak.I have encountered two ea81 that had loose carbs.One was riverrat1 and the other one was one I was looking to purchase.I discovered both leaks by applying preasure to either side of the air cleaner housing.you can also spray wd-40 around the carb while running and listen for fluctuation in the idle speed engine performance.Just a thought. I rebuilt the asian piece of crap on riverrat1.they are not dificult if you take a day and do it right.Try to rush one and it will likely haunt you.You have to have a CLEAN work erea and the room to take it apart and lay everything out in the order you take it apart.Even doing this,reassembly can be a head scratcherl.I have had some practice though.I do believe you have to purchase the entire rebuild kit to re-float the carb.Something like that rings a bell.it has been probably six years now since I did riverrat1 breather. I would never rebuild another asian carb for a car that can recieve a weber though.Webers offer both performance boost and simplicity.One of the reasons I like the ea81 is because of there simplicity.