stephenw22

I think that a lot of the drivetrain of this dearly departed car (5-sp D/R, a.k.a. 'The Red Rocket') will be transplanted into the turbo wagon, which has a 3-sp autoslushbox. It will take me a while to find a nice donor body around here

My '86 Subaru finally gave out today. Not the drivetrain, but the body. Time for a little memorial service tomorrow as I park it in a field tomorrow. The drivers' side axle is completely worn out, so I had jacked up the car to change the axle, and tried to set it down on a jack stand. Apparently, the frame on my car is a little rustier than I originally thought. The jack stand decided to go through the frame, through the car's sheetmetal, and into the car. After I got the car stabilized, I took a look at the underside, and this winter hasn't been kind to the car. Maybe it was just paint holding the rust together before, but now there isn't much of anything left of the frame. At least I wasn't under the car when it gave out. Anyways, it was worth the $250 I paid for it (lasted 6 months). I'll be able to transplant the drivetrain into another body.

Excellent, guys! Thanks a ton!

If I replaced the cams on my n/a carbed car with cams from a turbo engine, would it affect my car's performance? How?

Zirks are grease nipples for injecting grease into stuff. Funny story about zirks - There was a loser mechanic at one place I worked at. Everyone hated him. He decided to quit and take a job at a competitor, so the mechanics got back at him. They installed zirks on his toolboxes, and FILLED them with grease. We had an air-powered grease gun (heavy-duty truck shop), so it only took a few minutes for each cabinet. Anyways, that's what zirks are.

Almost every NAPA axle I've ever bought did that to me, on the inside of the DOJ. I don't think I've had a single NAPA axle last more than 20,000k (13,000mi) Up in Canada, I've found that the MEVOTECH brand has a part no. that includes a redesigned outer CV that is supposed to be better than OEM, and the stores (Auto Parts Plus, I think) seem to be a lot nicer to customers than NAPA was. NAPA wouldn't take an axle for core (or honor the lifetime warranty) if the cv boot was ripped. These guys would take one back if it came in a shoebox, as long as it's all there.

It works just like a second muffler. I think the idea is that is slows and smooths the exhaust flow, reducing the exhaust noise, and perhaps any resonance of the exhaust pipes??? (just a guess, i don't know for sure but a resonator must have something to do with resonance or resonating. either one would make exhaust more noisy.)

Which are the pug wheels that I need special lug nuts for? I found a set of 4 steels and a pair of alloys in the local jy.

I think most of the fittings work with 5/16 line. I just used a short plugged piece of vacuum line instead of a plug or cap at each spot. I used new line because all the stuff on the car had become too brittle. It also let me re-do the vacuum advance line for the disty (makes a pleasant difference).

I can see the carb now!!!!!!! This has probably been one of the most effective 'upgrades' I've ever done on a soob yet. It was tempting to take the intake off to really clean up the vacuum lines, but I can do that when it's a little warmer. I still need to redo the PVC system, kill the EGR, and get a better air cleaner, but that can also wait for another time.

1986 Carbed EA-82 (Hitachi) What can I remove? (In other words, what needs to be there so the car will still run fine, and what is the unnecessary stuff?) UPDATE: I can see the carb now!!!!!!! This has probably been one of the most effective 'upgrades' I've ever done on a soob yet. It was tempting to take the intake off to really clean up the vacuum lines, but I can do that when it's a little warmer. I still need to redo the PVC system, kill the EGR, and get a better air cleaner, but that can also wait for another time.

My opinion is that if the car will be driven on-road (~100% asphalt) then no t-belt covers is a good option. I've done it on a couple of cars of mine that I know would be seeing mostly highway miles, and the timing belts still appear to be in great shape, even after 50,000km on one of the cars. If you travel on more gravel roads, or in conditions (like winter) where there is lots of sand or gravel on the road, no covers is also an option. For extra safety, though, keep an extra set of t-belts in the car. In both of my coverless cars, I keep the old belts from the last change in the back of the car. With the covers off, it would probably only take me 30 minutes max. to change the t-belts, and I could get home from wherever I am, and re-do the belts properly once I get there. If you do a lot of off-roading in mud, deep water, and places where debris can end up all over the engine bay, then find a set of mint covers off a wreck, use lots of anti-seize on the bolts, and buy a new set of dust seals every couple of belt changes.

Saskatchewan here, representin'.

I've broken into 2 of my cars in 2 different ways, using no tools, just the car itself. Method 1 - Pop the hood (easy to do from outside the car) and get the hood prop. Then use the hood prop to slim jim a door open. Takes a few minutes, but it worked. Method 2 - This works on wagons with power locks - Get the hood prop again, pry the drivers' side window open a bit, and push the switch for the rear gate lock with the hood prop. It works whether the keys are in the ignition or not. For a blinking LED, you can buy ones that blink when they're powered, or a simple blinker kit. Try http://www.allelectronics.com for a cheap one.

How hard is it to change the clutch cable? Mine just snapped yesterday. I looked in the FSM, and it doesn't look too bad, but I'm just wondering if there are any problems I might run into. I'm going to be doing the job tonight, so any help would be appreciated. UPDATE: Taking the old cable out was easy, maybe 15 mins. It had snapped right where it goes through the firewall. Anyways, the new cable they gave me at the parts store was the wrong one (GRRRR!). It'll be a couple more days before they get the right one in stock.

That's a great idea! I think I'll be going out and trying that this afternoon. I only use my car for commuting to work - as long as I can get up to highway speed, it doesn't really matter how long it takes, and the less fuel I use, the better.

On my '85 wagon, the connector for the dinger was under the dash, right next to the green test connector. It was a black wire with white connectors, I think. At any rate, it was a single wire connector, just like the green test connector is. Unplug it, and voila! No noise.

I had my driveshaft done at a driveline shop for CDN$130, including parts & labour. I could have bought the u-joints (rockwell) for about $35 each. I have the part no. written down somewhere in my pile of stuff here. If I can find it, I'll get it for you.

the calipers are different sizes. sorry. a couple of people on the board were trying to adapt other cars' calipers to subaru rear disc setups. I think I remember hearing that a nissan or something had a caliper with similar bolt spacing. It'll be a couple of years more before I'll have any time to play around with fabbing up an adapter plate or something. I liked school, but now that it's done, I have about a billion $$ worth of loans to pay off. :cornfuzz:

It's true that at first, these electrical systems might be plagued with problems, but so were most mechanical systems when they were first introduced. I'm sure that at first, the electrical systems will all be "assist" systems. Electric-assist steering (which already exists), or braking. BTW, the reason for a 42V system is because 42V = 14V x 3 (the actual battery voltage on these cars will be 36V, but 42V will be the normal operating voltage. At least that's how it was explained to me.

yeah. The new (42V, by the way) electrical systems will be sweet. I just drool over things that will now become possible: - a crankshaft-mounted starter/alternator, all in one unit - electric brakes and steering - other electrical stuff (water and oil pumps) - electrically-actuated valvetrains (infinitely-variable intake and exhaust valve timing)

When my intermittent wipers broke, it was because some internal contacts in the wiper motor gearbox were all mangled, and not making the proper connections. I opened up the wiper gearbox, straightened the contacts, and the problems went away instantly. No problems at all since then.

I'm picking up the parts tonight, and I'll be putting it in either tonight or tomorrow night. It'll be nice to have a properly-running car again, and no more cold-weather headaches. It'll also be nice to have reasonable fuel ecenomy again. I'm only getting about 12-14mpg right now in cold weather, which is only a little better than my chevy with a 400SB.

The clutch isn't hydraulic. It might look like it, because of the 'hill holder' that attaches to the clutch with a cable. The hill holder prevents the car from rolling back when it's in a forward gear with the clutch depressed. The pilot bearing should be sealed.

From what I remember, the EA-82T needs the engine mounts loosened for the pan to come completely off. Something about the crossmember differences, I think. You can drop the pan on an EA-82 if you rotate the pan 180 degrees after removing the pan bolts.