DaveT

IT's been a long time since I had a pre EA82, but I believe every model since at least 1976 has a coolant passage in the intake manifold where the carb / throttle body mounts. Capping the small line would not keep coolant out of the passage, as the other end of the passage is cast into the manifold, attaches to the main channel in it. Capping the passage would disable it's heating effect. Which I believe is there to prevent ice from forming under certain conditions. Warming the air in the manifold is not why it's done. That actually reduces power. The manifold is heated so that it's expansion follows the expansion of the engine block & heads. One of the best ways I have discovered to remove stuck bolts is to run the engine up to normal operating temperature. In the case of thermostat housing, be sure that the thermostat has opened and enough flow has happened to get the assembly hot. Shut off, and immediately remove the bolt/s involved. If it won't or can't run, a heat gun and space heater can heat the engine but it takes longer. Clean the holes with a tap, clean the bolts with a wire wheel or wire brush, re assemble with anti seize. Go a little lighter on the torque.

No. Oem. I have not yet bought anything from rock auto. I've been running various ea82 wagons since 1988 and this is the first time I had this sensor fail. No trouble code either.

My 87 EA82 3AT wagon began doing odd things a while back. Occasionally, when idling, the engine would rev for a fraction of a second. Once in a while, when cold starting, it would fire initially, and die. Cranking with the pedal half way down or so would get it to re fire, and run rough for a few seconds, then be normal. These things began roughly around the same time, and fairly infrequently, like once per week, so trouble shooting would have been near impossible. As I expected, the frequency of these occurrences increased. The last few days, the idle would almost always be 1000 -1500RPM. So I put an ohm meter on the thermometer - the temperature sensor that the ECU uses, not the one for the temperature gauge. The sensor in question is on the lower part of the thermostat housing, toward the front of the engine. It has 2 wires connecting it to the harness. And it read jumpy numbers in the low thousands of ohms, from when the engine was hot, all the way down to room temp. Put in another sensor, poof! Works fine now. Posted on the chance that someone may have the same mysterious trouble someday.

Possible bad gasket between carb and intake? My experience with blown headgaskets is exhaust gasses getting into the coolant, pushing the Coolant into the overflow bottle. Or coolant leaking to crankcase or outside of engine. Early sign of the exhaust gas into coolant is slow bubbles in the overflow bottle.

I have had the tire bubble thing. In my cases, it was caused by alignment out of whack. Didn't make any noise. My super bad axle, made noise, jerked the wheel. Not constant, but was effected by load, etc. Having no symptoms with the wheel off the ground does not surprise me. I've also had my share of axles get clicky due to broken boots [dirt] and once off the car, you can't tell anything is wrong with them.

I had an axle get bad like that. Yes, it seems odd to think you have 2 that bad. Does the noise also coresespond to a jerking in the steering wheel?

Vacuum leak might do this.

Yes in a 3AT the starter disable is in the shifter.

You're welcome. I tend to like to fix things so they are "stock", or improved. I did use the button start add on - on my rusted out beater that was soon to retire, and only I drove. I fought with finding the cause of the intermittent start thing years ago. Eventually decided the add on relay was worth a try. Way less work than dealing with the ignition switch, I figure. The wiring rout from the key to the starter is long, so better off with a relay anyway.

The adjuster should shrink enough to allow the drum to fit. I never had a problem getting them on. Maybe you have a ridge / rust build up?

As far as fixing it, see if you can find the suspension parts from scrap yard, or maybe a local doner car? I tend to keep spares of every part for just such situations.

Here's a test : Disconnect the little wire from the back of the starter. Get a wire or test lead to connect to the back of the starter. Touch the other end to the battery + terminal. Expect a spark, and the starter to crank the engine. If you put the key in run, the car should start, if the first step worked. The main ground is the heavy wire from the battery to the upper starter mounting bolt. There should be a thinner [about 10AWG or so] from a tab on the coolant pipe that is above the driver's side timing belt. It connects to the body. There is another that connects the transmission to the body, in the area of the Diff oil dipstick. At least on an automatic. Pretty sure this stuff is the same on a stick. If the starter test works, you are looking for a bad / loose / intermittent connection in the power wiring, or the wiring that goes from the ignition switch to the transmission lockout, to a connector near the passenger side feet, to the starter.

Others on here have fought with the loose crank pulley. A number have also done an EJ swap. I'm pretty sure you could do it with those cars. There are a fair number of threads on here about the EJ swap. They might be in the modding forum?

Shoot some carb cleaner down the throat, Crank it with the pedal part way down. If it fires for a burst, you have spark and all that, look for a lack of fuel problem.

Back when the whole lead free solder for electronics BS started, I went and bought what should be a lifetime supply from people on eBay. For plumbing, I use the lead free. The secret is to get tinning flux. It has solder mixed in, and tins before the copper gets a chance to oxidize.

A piece of plumber's strap makes the 1/2 " drive fit better. I used my 3/4" breaker bar and impact adapter to 1/2 to fit the plug. Jacked up the handle - till it lifted the car a good few inches. Was thinking wtf? Got out from under the car, shoved down on the bumper, and it broke free.

Welcome! There is a LOT of information here. Good luck with the car.

I just bought a rust free one from CA to avoid that much rust repair. I'd rather rebuild the drive line than have to do that much sheet metal. If I had to, I'd just fabricate / replace / patch the bad parts. The suspension tube is a bolt on part, maybe try finding one in better condition?

Should not have harmed either diff. There is no center diff, this is 4WD, not AWD

There is no relay. It is usually one of 2 things when the intermittent start thing crops up. One of the contacts in the back of the starter solenoid is worn out. It can be replaced. The other is that one or more of the several connections in the wiring from the key - shift lockout - starter is slightly bad, causing just enough resistance to prevent the solenoid from pulling in all the way. This can be fixed by adding a relay so that the old wiring doesn't have to carry the high current required by the solenoid.

Fuses can just fracture from age , temperature cycles, vibration. The ones I've seen fail from these causes usually don't look bad. A blow from severe overload usually has dark / burnt marks . I should make sure I have spares in my cars....

Bleeding the 2 on the circuit should do it. If it doesn't , bleed the other 2. Probably wouldn't hurt to replace all the fluid anyway, unless you did so recently.

87 should be power steering. Good luck with the new car! Not sure what you mean about the clutch.

Just did a test drive with the transmission swap. Works great, and fixed the 4WD binding up problem also!

For my 87 - Swapping the 3AT from my 86 out for the 3AT from my 90. The 86 has slightly taller gears, making the car annoying to keep at a chosen speed at low speeds, and lacking in acceleration by comparison. The original reason the 87 has the 86 tranny, is that I converted it from 2WD to 4WD, and the 86 was the spare transmission at the time. I also was not aware of the different gearing.