DaveT

It's time to retire my 90 wagon. She served me well for over 205,000 miles, over 16 years. Top 2 pictures on this page: http://home.comcast.net/~davidtief/house.html Another picture: http://home.comcast.net/~davidtief/House/Outside/blast2.jpg On the way home Wednesday, I heard some strange noises from the rear, and things didn't feel right. Well, there's your problem! The rust got away from me while building the house. There just wasn't time to deal with it, and I knew it would eventually win. Insurance & registration transfered to my "new" 1987: Parts will live on in my 92 & 87 as they are needed.

Factory Service Manual. There is no substitute. Sometimes on ebay also.

The tensioners and the idler have small ball bearings in them. They are good for a little longer than the belts, but not twice the belts. Many years ago, I rebuilt the brakets so I could use standard ball bearings with contact seals - about $6.00 each. Oil pump seal & front main are worth checking. Take a good look at the cam seals and the o-rings for the seal holders. If there's oil all around there, might as well do them too.

With a warm / operating temperature engine: Remove the V-belt/s. Start engine. See if noise is still there. IF it is, check your timing belt idlers. Now. There is also an O-ring on the water pump input (steel tube) pipe where it enters the pump. I have seen that leak.

9004

The OEM nichrome wire can be solderd to the terminals. The problem is they usually break in the middle. Solder won't stand up to the heat. I got some NiChrome wire on ebay - matched the gauge. Wind the same number of turns, same diameter, and you have a new resistor. Not all NiChrome solders, however. I'll have to braze my new resistors.

Remove the block assembly & look at them. They are coiled NiChrome wires. If they are broken, they are bad. There are 3, the finest one, for the lowest speed is fragile, and often burns out. Be careful with the removal & handling.

Here's a few things I've picked up & learned over the >25 years since my first welder. For your first attempts, get some scrap 1/4" thick steel to practice on. I found 7014 rod pretty easy to use & get decent welds. Store welding rod in a DRY place. Then do some 1/8" thick. I managed to weld 1/16" with stick, but that's it for that mode. Joints to weld must be clean and fit up good. The thinner you go, the harder it is. I have done a little MIG, but with a cheap welder, and I won't do that again. I just got a TIG setup going. For thin stuff, it's the best I've tried. The remote (foot) control for the power is very helpful for thin metal. If you have space, you can get an excellent welder for cheap if you go with an old industrial welder: http://home.comcast.net/~davidtief/toys.html I've seen these go for $50.00 - $800.00. Downside to this type is that it is not right for MIG. For stick welding, a flip down mask is ok, I much prefer the auto darkening one for TIG. There are basic welding books that will show what good vs bad welds look like, etc. This forum has everyone from beginners to pros, they have been helpful: http://www.weldingweb.com/

I accidentaly discover a way to prevent that. A long time ago, (when car alarms were rare) I had an alarm on my car. I made linkage to make the arm / disarm switch work off the door lock, so I always set the alarm & locked the door with the 1 key. So I never got in the habit of pressing the button & closing the door. I still lock cars with the key, almost never with the button.

Back when Loyals were new, a repair / parts shop I frequented had a poster on their wall of an autogyro powered by an EA82. A web search on EA82 autogyro still brings up hits. Here's one: http://www.biysk.ru/~samoletautogyr/index-2.html Bottom of the page - engine options include EA82. Another: http://www.shortrunbookco.com/gyros/

1. Use a stock coil, or the original. (I have yet to have one fail in nearly 20 years) - multiple EA82s, still driving the 90 & 92. The spark from the stock coil is strong enough to jump from the output terminal to the ground screw if you remove the wire that goes to the disty & crank the engine! 2. Never used seafoam, other engine cleaners didn't seem to do much. Not much risk in trying it. 3. If you aren't going to run the car much, the amount of polution isn't significant.

Cam cover gasket: get new gaskets & bolt seal / washers - far as I know, dealer part. 4 or 5 bolts on each side, remove & replace, pretty simple. Some tight spaces. Cam seals & o rings. Take a look at the timing belt procedure, since you have to remove them to get at the seals. Worst is the seal between the cam case and the head. Remove, clean the surfaces, re apply the silicon sealant, re assemble. There is an oil passage through the headgasket, with o rings. They eventually get hard and it can leak from there. I resealed 2 engines, from the head gaskets up. One is still pretty good, only small drips, the other is annoyingly leaky.

I bought the car over 2 years ago. Many other projects kept getting in the way. I have converted the original from 2WD to 4WD. Had to completely dissasemble the whole dash & heater system to get rid of mouse poo. Installed adjustable front struts, repacked the front wheel bearings. New all metal 2 row radiator. Here is the engine test run: Only the Y pipe, so nice & noisey, or like someone recently posted, all the noise of a NASCAR without the speed and power. The only reason it stopped afetr the first start was that I had forgotten to reconnect the fuel pump to the car's electrical wiring - I was using my test cable & battery charger to prime the pump.

The following applies to EA82 4WD wagons. From actual cars I have / had, 86 to 92 are interchangeable. My 86 came with the OEM adjustable ones. A bunch of years ago I got a second pair from a pick & pull yard. I just installed them in my "new" 87. The pair from my 86 have low miles, as the car was killed by an accident way before it's time. They are destined for the 92. I do not know if anyone has found an aftermarked adjustable / adapted from another application. I was thinking of figuring a way to modify the fixed aftermarket units, but I haven't worn out my adjustables yet. It should be possible to get a spacer in there if not fully adjustable. The range was only about 1 inch total adjustment.

That is my experience. The adjustable ones were on only a few years. The fixed ones are set at the midpoint of the adjustable range. I had a specialty after market parts guy look into it for me years ago, and that is what he found.

IT sounds normal. Hot engine, at idle, even on a new one would be down near the zero. The gauge isn't really accurate down there, either. It should be around 45 running down the road. It's bad to put heavy load on the engine at low RPM. If it gets rattly at idle, check the pressure with a mechanical gauge.

If you are getting the click, then fiddle with connections, then it starts, it's not a charging problem. My 90 drove me nuts with the intermittant "click" instead of cranking. Sometimes just trying again would get it to go, gradually it got worse. Hook up a switch from 12V (with a fuse) to the tab on the back of the starter. Use 14AWG or heavier wire. You can make it so the original wire is conncected also. Pick the 12V from somewhere other than the circuit that feeds the ignition switch. At least when it doesn't crank, you have a backup. Consensus around here is the ignition switch. I also found a high resistance connection in one of the harness connectors. Have not spent the time to hunt down the remaining high resistance due to the car is soon to be retired due to rust.

1985 Mercedes Bens have an electric water pump in the cooling system to move water through the heater core when the engine is at idle. Something like 5/8 or 3/4" inlet & outlet. I have no idea on the flow rate. BUT the pump is designed to operate at 15 PSI and high temperature (at least 200 degrees), unlike a bilge pump. Maybe you need 2 or 3 parallel to get the flow?

Nothing to worry about. With no A/C and no PS, you don't need 2 belts. It may have been a replacement alt... If the 1 groove lines up, it doesn't matter if the pully has a 2nd...

It is also possible for the alternator to not charge and not light the warning lights. Eventually, the battery is discharged to the point it won't start the engine.

There are a couple different configurations - 2 different A/C systems. Power steering has 2 belts over the PS pump. If it is supposed to have 2 belts, there has to be 2 pulleys - one for each belt - with tension adjustment. Some have the alternator as one adjust, and an idler as the other. One I have uses the A/C compressor as an adjustment.

Here's mine: http://home.comcast.net/~davidtief/hitch.html

I wouldn't give up - at least until you really know what's wrong. Pull the bumper, remove the carpet. Probably the bumper is bent. There is space between the back of the car and the front of the bumper, so hopefully the bumper did it's job and absorbed the energy. Pics would be helpful.

Mostly what has already been said. I found this one while searching years ago. There is a good mix of experts & noobies. I've been on forums where the technical difficulty levels off at the equivalent of "how to change a headlamp". This one is a better match for me. Before I found this forum, I was beginning to consider what to do for a "new" car, as both my EA82s are showing their age. Finding this much activity still surrounding these otherwise forgotten cars helped me decide to stick with them longer. Also: The message board program. I am on a few others(not Subaru), and I prefer the way things work on this one by far.