MoscowSubaruDude

Right... will check today when I have it torn down. Thanks a ton, letcha know how it turns out. Oh and... errr... any special tools needed to do bloody bearings? I'm mechanically competent, just never done it. Thanks! Chris

So my next question is... who's got a trailer/truck type combo that would be willing to loan/assist with this project? It'd be a few weeks, and I'd be more than willing to work around anyone's schedule. Gimme a few days warning, and my schedule is about as flexible as a ramen noodle. Any takers? There's beer in the offing, plus gas money (gotta love being 21:P). Or, where can I rent a truck/trailer outfit, or perhaps a cheapie transport service? Thanks in advance folks. Chris

So I was at the pawn shop the other day, lookin for some tools, and was speakin to the lady behind the tool counter. Conversation ensued, and, as it frequently does, turned to my Subaru. Long story short, she offered me an 87 GL with 5spdD/R that's been sitting out on her property for the last 4 years. Has 387k on it, ran perfect when parked. Here's the question. Having zero experience with the EA82 series cars whatsoever, I need a list of pointers. I'm gonna go out in the next few weeks and get it running, and need to know what to look for/troubleshoot beyond the usual plugs/battery/tires/etc. Is it even feasible to get it running again after 4 years without any problems? Great deal, can't beat the price (free, she wants it gone) and I'm gonna go for it, but I want to be able to drive it into town. It's out in Davenport, so needs to run semi-normally to get it home. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, as well as stories of 'Well I did that once, and this is what worked...'. Thanks a ton.

Okies... got an 83 wagon last friday, took it out for a run after tightening everything down tight, etc. Ran fine. Went out to seven-mile orv park, spun the cup in the drivers front axle, no prob, remove that, pop it into 4wd, go home. Now, on the way home, it starts making a rotary grinding noise. Coming from rear diff/axle/hub assy. Can't pinpoint it down, as it only does it while it's moving, and I'm not one for hanging to the underside of the car. It DOES sound like it's coming from the inner DOJ's, or else the guts of the diff. At low speed, aka rolling it with the engine off, by hand, with me under the car, it takes on a clicking noise. I'm going after pull-n-save axles tomorrow, hopefully that's the problem, but the one thing i'm worried about is the diff. There was a point where I got quite stuck on a berm, and had to be pulled out. The diff was the sole support point for the car for a good 15 feet, wondering if we goobered it up somehow. Any suggestions? it'd be grand, this is really startin to piss me off, as it's very embarrasing to roll into the parking lot at work and hear a scree-scree-scree noise. Anything that anyone might suggest, I'll give it a shot, and I'll be monitoring the thread once daily. Thanks a million folks.

What's the difficulty level? We talking lifted/locked rigs only? or a stock ea81 wagon? May be layin hands on the aforementioned rig, might be able to go toss it about.

Rig up something with a Mossberg 590, tripwires, and perhaps a homemade ghetto claymore mine:P I'm working on plans as we speak:)

Yes it does indeed wobble a bit, driving it home in the slushy snow was a cast-iron ***************, going around several higher-speed corners proved more than it could handle. The car will do 60, easily, and isn't too bad on the freeway, but it can be a royal *************** at time, aka when I forget the I'm driving a cripplecar, and revert back to my pedal-to-the-metal driving routine, corners get a bit weird. New question... are there any special tools needed to remove the whole swingarm/strut/torsion bar/etc besides my usual 10-16mm wrench, pliers, and assorted socket set? If so, what? I have a friend who has an uncanny ability to find the right tools, so if I know what it is, I can get it. Thanks again Chris

Ok so here's the deal. I was enjoying the half inch of snow we had recently here in Spokane, and was doin some brodies and huge powerdrifts on the neighborhood streets. Wound up going a wee bit too fast, full sideways motion, down the street. Straight into a curb, mashed the rear passenger wheel up a good bit. Moment of impact, estimated speed by several observers was upwards of 20 mph. Almost tipped the hatch over on the side, both drivers side wheels were, quote 'three feet in the f-in air, man!' Now, onto my problem. After limping to a gas station, changing out the wheel for my spare, and getting back on the road, I have discovered that I seriously fubar'd something up back there. The passenger rear wheel is currently sitting (forgive the crude terms, I don't know all the camber and caster crap) at a minor angle, the upper part of the tire is outboard of the lower. aka like so, looking at it from the rear / And looking at it from the top, it is also steered outward in a funny fashion, if you eyeball it from the top, it looks like this as well / so basically the damn thing is sitting kitty-wompas and causing my car to crabwalk down the street, passenger door first. Not bad, I can still drive it on the freeway, but it's very dangerous on any major cornering, as the crabbing effect is not constant, leading me to believe that something is loose, wobbling, rather than just bent and still solid. Sooo... due to my idiotic love of massive powerslides, I need to know what I need to pull off a junkyard wagon to fix this beast. So here goes the questions. First... what's the most likely thing to have gotten damaged? I have jacked it up, can't really find anything bent, like the swingarm, it looks fine, the axles look fine, altho I do believe the shock compressed them somehow, because a formerly unripped boot was shredded (although it's more likely that's from the extensive visits to 7-mile:P) I haven't been able to do any comparisons from one side to the other, so I really, in all honestly haven't the foggiest notion as to what I did. I just know I fubar'd it. So if anyone wants to hazard a guess, or give me things to look for that can alert me to a problem that can be more easily diagnosed, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'll be checking this daily, so I'll give feedback and whatnot. Thanks a ton in advance, you guys are always great. Chris

Okies... first post in a quite a while, been on the move for a few. I've been having a problem with my fuel delivery. Massive fuel starvation after about 30 seconds of idling, or about 10 seconds of 2k+ rpm running. Makes a 90-mile drive quite interesting, lemme tell ya. Anyway, I need to know where the fuel filters are, besides the one under the hood, and where the fuel pump is. I'm planning on bypassing the filters, and tweaking on the pump until it runs, as I'm a bit chapped for cash at the moment. Any ideas? I just need locations, and maybe procedure for removing the pump, along with any other ideas regarding fixing this issue. I'm in Spokane at the moment. Thanks! Chris

Hey... it really wasn't that much fun... got out there Sunday, mashed around for a bit, went through a big puddle, shorted out the wiring from the dash switch to my fan, started a small fire, burnt through the windshield wiper fluid hoses, lost the fan, overheated on the way out, got lost in the dark, and had to wait for some pissed-off ranger dude to come find me. Found a pinhole in the radiator, flushed a cigarette down it, stopped the leak for a while. All in all a very crappy weekend. I've been stuck in Spokane for two weeks, instead of the intended three days:( But anyhoo. Perhaps some other time, when I get some Stopleak in the beast. Chris

OK then... I'm leaving now, it's noon. I'll be in Spokane around 130-200, and I'll be chillin in the safeway on northwest Blvd at about 10-11am on sat and sunday... Dark blue hatchback, white wagon wheels, ugly mug behind the wheel, even uglier mug in the passenger. I'll leave for 7-mile around noon, both days. If you're there, you're there. If not, well... mebbe next time.

The craziest Subaru survival story I have ever heard was when I worked as a repo agent. My boss's daughter, 15 years old, took a 96 outback I had repo'd that day out for a joyride. At some point along the way, she wound up cooking along well above the speed limit. Somehow, she left the road, hit an embankment, became airborne, and landed on the roof on a large boulder. When I saw the car, it was literally folded almost in half. She was stuck for about half an hour before someone went by and saw it, they had to cut it all the crap to get her out. She had a few scratches from flying glass, and a good lump on her head from where the airbag, her head, and the collapsing roof made a triangle. Needless to say, we were immensely pissed off, lost a client because of it, but it amazed me... she should have died. Also rather pointless to mention, there was hardly anything worth salvaging... one wheel came off along with the hub, and it was decent, and a rear taillight. Kinda ugly.

Is this gonna be a one-day only event? Or is it gonna be a full weekend? Seems like we could have a bit more fun if it was a full weekend... lemme know, I'll need to budget in a motel room for a night or two. But I don't see any reason why I won't make it.

Cool... I'm definitely down for Sunday afternoon, might make two runs this weekend anyway, so anytime is good for me. Mornings are also fine, I can work around them. PM me some phone numbers, I'll get ahold of ya'll. And lets get some more people! C'mon... you Spokanites know you wanna get dirty! Chris Also... this post reads 'Moved'... wtf? It's in the same place I posted it last night... Odd.

Is this even possible? I'm looking into as a modification to make driving with lifted rig/larger tires a bit easier... when I do the lift, that is. What I'd like to do is take the 4.11 ring gears out of a legacy or whatever else has them in it, and put them on the ea81 diffs. Will they fit? Or would I have to have ring gears custom built? If it would work it'd be awesome. Anyone try this? or know bolt patterns/gear sizes? I'd imagine the pinion would have to be swapped as well. Thanks in advance, just gathering info atm. Chris

On the corner of Third and Monroe in Spokane, WA, there is a car rental place that has an old Brat with a snowplow on it that looks good. Might stop by and see how they did it. I'd imagine it's an OEM one:)

I had a 92 Geo Storm with that exact problem... only it'd move when I turned the car on, and then stick at the highest location that I had revved it to, usually about 1500. Best guess I can do is something to do with the bushings/bearings in the tach itself. If there's any grease in there, as there should be, it might get gummy when it's cold, and gel up.

So I'll be back in Spokane for this weekend, hopefully rollin in Friday night if everything goes as planned at the Latah DMV... anyone wanna make a run through 7-mile? Been seein some pics of it, looks like fun, and I'd like to find something that my stock hatch CAN'T go through... so far it tackles everything. I'd be available Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon. The mornings belong to me, as well as Monday, have to spend some time with the girlfriend. Anyone interested, post here, I'll try and get in touch with you. Because I'm so cheap, I don't own my own phone, however, if you leave yours with me, I can call from gf's house when I get up there, or my buddies down here. Lemme know, I've wanted to see some other rigs in action, and it'd be nice to have someone to pull me out of the huge mud puddles I'm seeing. Anyway, post away. Chris EDIT: Oh, and someone bring a flippin camera!

I don't see why it shouldn't be.

Knocked the plugs/harness off the back of the lights? check them out, had that happen to my passenger side light, one of em, anyway, when i came down off an embankment at speed, fast enough to have the rear wheels off the bank before the front ones started to drop and slammed the frame down hard once. Different suby tho, my old 2wd 83 wagon, before it blew a head gasket. First place I'd check, and then just go back from there, checking every connection. Did you get any water in any connnections? I mean a lot... aka fording streams and whatnot? If not, then I'd check the connectors. Especially the grounds, if they came loose, they won't work. My 0.02 Chris

Already have! haha:P try the second page of offroad section... had an absolute blast... wasn't happy with how it wouldn't take extreme off-angles tho... hence the scramble for a locked diff. Lift kit in the works too, but that's for later when i'm filthy rich Chris

All these fancy snorkels make me drool... I'm fixin on about a foot of abs pipe, wide as i can make it, fitted onto some sort of fitting that will attach to the carb. Cut a nice sawzall hole in the hood, find a cheap hilborn-type scoop and air fillter, call it a day. If water gets any deeper than that, drowning the engine will be the least of my worries... I'd be more worried about myself. Perhaps have a footlong extension that can be clamped on in a coupla minutes, just in case I REALLY have to ford that 5-food deep stream, and don't really need to breathe. Chris EDIT: BTW.. and explanation of ABS as compared to PVC pipe... ABS does not shatter. It will dent, bend, button, whatever... it will rarely break under pressure. I know this because when I was in high school, for a short period of time I belonged to the AFJROTC drill team. Lot of tricks involved throwing very expensive rifles through the air. Learning said tricks meant dropping rifles. And breaking them. So we used pieces of ABS pipe that were filled partway with sand, emulated the weight balance of the rifle quite well. And they DID NOT break. Ever. PVC will shatter with a good blow, and which is a negative offroading. ABS lets you not have to worry about it breaking on a tree in the water, or for whatever other unfortunate reason, and flooding your engine. It'll just bend like hell, then bend back. Very stron stuff.

Gah... I'd hate to see that thing anywhere but a gravel/slightly bumpier dirt road. Looks like it'd rip right off on the first rock that a skidplate wouldn't even feel. It'd be great on a road-only/rally car, tho. My 0.02 Chris

Far from it, that was my next question. Thanks for asking it:) So now I have a different question... anyone in the Spokane/Moscow/CdA/Lewiston area that knows how to weld/knows someone who does/would recommend a good shop? Am really really interested in seeing how well she goes offroad. If I could get it done by someone on here who knows wtf they're doing, I'd feel a lot better. I generally try to do all of my own work, or have someone that I know do it. Dunno, personal preference. But yeah, it'd be really awesome if one of you knows how to weld and is within about 100-150 miles of any of those areas... I'm willin to drive, and I'll provide beer money/cash for welding supplies, etc. Perhaps a post in marketplace would be best? Otherwise, the name of a shop that you know is reputable. Thanks in advance, on both counts. And sorry for the constant questions:P Kinda new to this whole gig, and if I'm not sure about it, I'd rather ask a zillion q's, than fubar something important. Chris

Nuf said:P I have no desire to see my little car go flippin rump roast over teakettle down the street. It can be drived sans rear diff and driveshaft? gonna have to to get the diff to a shop:P