RenaissanceMan

Rich, your getting a 79 wagon? thats pretty awesome. I'll give you a call tonite, I actually need like some parts for my wagon and my brat. -Mike

Unfortunately this skid plate never went into play, but it sure looked cool on the rolling chassis (when it was a chassis) -Mike

you can use 74 super beetle strut cartriges "inside" the EA81 struts with a bit of fabrication, and with RX springs... gives you a little suspension lift, 8 inches of travel, and the VW cartriges are a little softer. Did pretty nicely at WCSS7... ask some people that were 4wheelin with me -Mike

Eh, we were talking about charging systems in my class... and I just got motivatied and held the 2 wiring diagrams side by side. (and because my mechanical regulator went out)

Ya, on the gen 1 those struts only gave me about an inch... so essentially if you keep the stock ea81 struts, you can get like a 2 inch drop, all you have to do is cut off that one bracket that bolts to the knuckle and weld it on the new strut CAREFULLY. -Mike

So I dont know if other people out there have problems with the older mechanical regulators failing on you, but did anyone already know how easy it is to change over to the newer ea81 and ea82 internally regulated 60-65 amp alternators? heres the simple writeup on it. I dont think this will work on anything 75 or older because they might have had a different connector that I havent looked at. 1.Disconnect the Battery 2.Remove your ea71 external regulator alternater. 3.The bracket that holds the adjusting side of the alternator needs to be removed, and like.. hit it with a BFH while in a vice or something. Just a minor adjustment needs to be made.(the internal regulator alternators are about an 1/8th inch wider than the older ones) 4. Put the bracket back on the motor, bolt on the new alternator, and hook up the wires, yes they just plug right in. If yours has a wire for the ground on the alternator, you can change that connector over to an eyelet or something and bolt it on, but its not necessary if your engine is grounded like it should be. (the adjustment will be on the outer reach because of the belt size, if you want to get a 1/2 inch shorter belt you probably can, but didnt have a need to.) 5. Take off the external regulator on the passenger side, clip off the connector and throw that junk in the garbage, but keep the connector with signifigant pigtails. If your regulator had a noise suppression capacitor bolted to it, just bolt that back on the fender. 6. Take your ex regulator connector in hand, and all you have to do is make 3 connections, just 3. Take the blue wire and connect it to the black with white stripe wire. (crimp, solder, wire nut, masking tape, w/e) Take the white wire and connect it to the yellow wire. (if your yellow wire has a fuse on it, take that off, you dont need it) Take the white with red stripe wire and connect it to the white with black stripe wire. 7. Insulate your connections with some shrink tube or electrical tape and plug the connector back into its other end on the harness. If your harness also had a separate black wire going to the regulator, you can ground that to the chassis as well, thats simply the same wire you saw on the other end grounding your alternator. 8. Plug your battery back in, and thats it. Your set. The fuel pump turns on with the ignition, and the light goes out after the engine is running for a couple seconds. In only 8 steps you too can have a Gen1 vehicle with a 65 amp alternator for your bumpin stereo right? -Mike

I can make those struts, though let me warn you ahead of time that you need to be prepared to go through a lot of axles :-\ I'm thinkin in the future I would mount the struts just a half inch lower in the knucles so we dont have this issue. -Mike

awfully complicated looking tool... if you get 2 larger flat blade screwdrivers and shove them in the wrist pin, and spread them apart as tightly as you can you can usually get those wrist pins out. -Mike

OK sorry for being ignorant about this, but does the early EJ series engines bolt up to the EA tranny?? For some reason I thought the EJ bellhousing was larger and one had to get this adapter plate -that someone on the board here makes?? -Mike

heh, this last summer has to be the craziest for me. I drove from San Luis Obispo to The oregon Dunes west of Eugene. Had a couple days of 4wheelin action there. Drove it all the way up to Bellingham next. Dinked around there for a couple days, then caravanned with people to the show, 4wheeled the crap out of it there, then drove from there all the way back down to San Jose california on a bad wheel bearing, then replaced that and went home to San Luis Obispo. I dont remember what my total milage, but it was Solo.. Fastest I have ever gotten that brat was 85-90 ish and then recently I got my 77 wagon up to 90 as well. -Mike

Everyone at my college thinks I have a mental disorder... HOWEVER it has made me the most well known individual in the auto department.

I been workin on that one for a couple years now. Getting a subaru to the point of being competitive and still fall within class regulations is quite difficult.

I got my 78 BRAT in October of 2004 and my 77 Wagon in.... September this year?? -Mike

welcome to the board. Replacing the knock sensor if you know where it is, is really not that difficult and should cost somewhere around $60-70 retail for a replacement one, HOWEVER this is the historic subaru forum and meant for vehicles 79 an older (81 for the brat) -Mike

hey Rich, if you get it, then we'll both have brats AND both have wagons of the first generation.

So THATS what my brat is supposed to look like....

I stop revving the engine when it stops breathing

If only I had the time/money/space/way to tow it, I could add it to my gen 1 collection.

Well I wanted people to know that the wagon I picked up for free in Hamilton City is back on the road. I got it running this weekend, and may I say, this car is pretty freakin awesome. With a carb rebuild, plugs, wires, Accel coil, points, air/fuel/oil filters, alternator, voltage regulator, battery terminals, 4 new tires, and tiger stripe seat covers, that little 1.6 Liter HAULS!!!! that things' got a pair, plenty of life in that engine for sure. and that stage 1 looking front grille is awesome. Still not sure whats going to happen with it. For the winter I am just glad to have a 4wd vehicle with a working heater. At school tomorrow I'll throw it up on the rack and give it a good underside inspection, and alignment. -Mike

I have one I'll sell to you, and even throw in the condenser, evaporator, control knob, and filter/dryer (needs to be replaced anyway) IF I can get a gen 1 glove box in return. It drives me nuts how small the glove box gets when you have AC. -Mike

OK, so what I have is a 94 Justy DL 2wd 5sp (FI). I was wanderin around one of the local junkyards looking for a part for one of my other subarus when I saw it sittin there, in great condition. I talked to the yard owner (who was kind of a jerk) and he called his wife and stopped the paperwork hours before she was heading to the dmv to have the car junked. $300 later and a trip to the DMV and the car was mine. It came with a grenaded motor, but I pulled one out of a car up in San jose a few weeks later. Unfortunately its got the darn lubrication problems with the oil pump, so I rebuilt the lower end again recently, and 200 miles later it went out again, cause I guess the grooves were too bad in the timing cover.... SOOO now the engine is out again, and this time I am gonna go thru and rebore the cylinders, etc and do a more complete rebuild. I also have a Toyota SC12 supercharger sittin on a tool box waiting to go in it too Probably the thing I love best about this car is that you can rev the engine up to 7 grand like its no big thing. I also found some alloys from some mazda that bolted up, so now I have 13" rims. I havent really had any races with other cars, cause around here your need to have a truck to do that . Though I must say the first day I got it running I did some knarly rally racing on a dirt road that goes thru the mountains, and spun it out, etc..

I am gonna start working on a performance fuel injection kit for the ea81.. making one for the EA71 will be following. -mike

No progress on the car yet. I have a couple of projects I need to get out of the way that have priority... like my motorcycle so I can stop spending 1/3 of my paycheck on gas -Mike

I would have to have it sent to a machine shop to have it balanced, thats something that I just dont have enough experience on to attempt myself -Mike