Uberoo

The most common swap is the phase 1 EJ22, because it uses OBD1 so the wiring is simpler, and because it is a non interference engine-no engine damage if the belt breaks.Its found in 90-94 legacies.It it only 130 HP but it is still enough motivation for a light subaru,especially an old brat.The first EJ22 swapped vehicle was a EA82 station wagon which is a good 5-600 lbs heavier than a gen 1 brat,and I still had traction issues in FWD at 25 MPH in 3rd gear if I stomped on it.In a gen 1 brat a AWD transmission may be needed if your not lifting it and putting on bigger tires. Also with a gen 1 valve cover clearance to the frame rails is tight with an EJ22,A little bit of frenching work on the frame rail is needed if you want to ever be able to change valve cover gaskets with the engine in the car.The 2.5 is wider still especially with DOHC heads.

So while I had found a hatchback shell,it was just that: no engine,transmission,suspension,interior,etc and it was it yakima- 4 hours from me one way.I was browsing the local craigslist when I found a 78 brat.I know that the early subaru's are a pain to lift, especially with the funky torsion bar but My 81 hatch was more or less all custom.It had a subframe,a tcase, and the biggest mismatch of subaru parts in the galaxy. So here is my idea: 78 Brat EJ22 5 speed DR Nissan T case EA82 front suspension+ crossmember+powersteering EA82 rear suspension+ disk brakes 4.11 gears 31x10.5x15 mud tires rear EA82 axles with legacy inner DOJs at both ends spare tire + battery+ winch in bed bigger fuel tank I'm thinking make it look like a cross between a mad max vehicle and a bandit technical from the game borderlands 2 http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fborderlands.wikia.com%2Fwiki%2FBandit_Technical&h=0&w=0&sz=1&tbnid=qLmkcB84POcuFM&tbnh=194&tbnw=259&zoom=1&docid=CWSCqL84Ym9XmM&hl=en&ei=7-MmUtWdFsrArQHUuoCoBw&ved=0CAEQsCU I am thinking EA82 suspension because while its not as flexible as the EA81 torsion bar I am thinking that alot of the parts are EA82 so I could easily buy a EA82 parts car reducing cost. So far Ive only blown axles or stub axles when a tire was at the far end of its travel-IE stuffed up into a wheelwell .So If I run a little less rear travel maybe it won't asplode stuff. With the EA81 torsion bar and my strong axles I stopped blowing axles and only blew a stub when a tire when way far into the wheel well. If I can get the rear axle breakage problem under control I might be able to run 33" tires. As far as the whole "collector" thing with the 78 brat, it comes from an estate sale out in the woods so its been sitting in a field for a while so I am thinking there might be quite a bit of rust on it.Parts availability is scarce so most people would probably just scrap it. I dunno what do you all think?

Take the hinges off and apart and weld up the holes then redrill them for the hinge pin size or if room drill out the worn out hole to a size big enough to allow a sleeve to be pressed in with a hole the size of the pin.That or make some hinges fit from a newer subaru.

As the title says I am just looking for the fuel tank capacity of a 78 brat.

just clicks in reverse now!

Go for it.If you want to do the work its fine.You can extend the life of the bad axle for a bit by swapping them side to side.Although OEM subaru axles can click for 100K miles before dieing on the street.

The biggest issue was how to store 12 gallons of gas...not so much draining the tank.

Alot of mud boggers run different sized tires because it helps with steering especially with LARGE tires.Other than subarus and suzuki's most mudders are heavy and cant turn with the front and rear locked.If however you run narrower tires in the front they tend to sink in more and act more like a rudder when turning helping the vehicle to turn better when all four wheels are locked.Some tires its easy to find a size that is the same height but narrower IE 31x10.50 vs 31x9.5 on the other hand a 44" super swamper is like 20" wide to to get measurably narrower you need to drop down to say a 38" or 40" super swamper. Yes it is easier to find gears that will work with different sized tires,problem is subarus are limited by the 3.9 gear ratio in the transmission.Until a separate transfercase is installed your limited by the 3.9 in the transmission. The rear gear ratio can be easily changed by contrast hence the bigger tires in the rear,but wider tires in the rear is counter productive because the rear end of most vehicles weighs less than the front end so a wider tire allows the rear end to float while the front "sinks",a better performing but dumb looking setup is wider tires in front to provide the needed floatation,and narrower tires in the rear to match the same contact PSI in the front.No one does that because it "looks" wrong so the best compromise is 4 tires the same size and width barring 4 equal tires causing it to not turn ...

whats the point with the different sizes tires?Big tires in the rear only tilt the body and your still limited by the front ground clearance/traction.

so rather than getting a $50 windhshield and glueing it in place so it works for an offroader, I should buy a BRAND new windshield for $200.With my luck with nice,new things it will get cracked/broken the first time I go wheeling. hell my hatch was nice and clean and straight and only got a very small dent from the tight rocky trails at Evans Creek,but that wasn't good enough for the powers that be so it came undone and rolled off the trailer at 50 MPH and centerpunched a tree.This new shell has some wheeling rash so hopfully it will avoid the same fate. Everything Ive owned that was nice gets destroyed,while things that are beat up can't be injured... go figure.

Damn, I though all EA81 windshields were the same,So I guess before I go to the junkyard I will have to first make sure the body style is F U or W.That does limit the choices.So with that being said what is the best way to get the glass out in one piece?

I was only able to get one axle out-the passenger side for some reason.The driver side one wouldn't budge after I was able to tap in about 2"-got even with the hub and wouldn't budge after that.Even with a nut on the end and hitting it with a 10lb hammer...The passenger side even with the mangled suspension on the other hand more or less shot out of the hub after a few wacks with a hammer.. After all said and done today I got the front diff,the RF cv axle, and the transfer case out.Doesn't sound very impressive but everything was tweaked.I had to torch the front diff mounts off the front crossmember because there was no way to even get at the bolts,the transfer case shifted slightly in its mounts so the bolts holding it wouldn't slide out and hammering them out wasn't an option... now to find a way to store the ~12 gallons of gas and drop the tank+ fuel pump, as well as the entire rear suspension and rear bumper.

I'm in the middle of the planning stage for a project.Right now I am looking for some info on a 90-94 legacy crossmember, specically how wide its bolt holes to the framerails are front and back and also the width between them.Also the track width would be a nice thing to know. Thanks in advance.

I can't give a specific year or model other than EA81.The shell is an 86 hatchback, but the window could come from any EA81 at the junkyard.

I'm looking at getting a hatchback shell to begin rebuilding my offroader. This shell in particular doesn't have a windshield. I am just curious how to remove a good windshield from the junkyard so it can be installed.I would prefer not to have a shop install a brand new shiny windshild in a soon to be offroader,because with my luck the first wheeling trip a tree branch would slap against the window and crack/bust it out... I have tried to pull the window from various cars over the years and just about every one has resulted in a broken window when its about 80% out...So what are some tips and tricks for pulling the windshield out of an ea81 without breaking it.

So I am getting ready to start rebuilding my subaru.I found a shell to begin again with. Anyway when I remake the strut lift blocks I am curious what angle to have them at?The plan is to put EA82 control arms/struts/axles on the EA81 front cross member. When I built the strut extensions originally it still had EA81 suspension. I angled the blocks at 7.5* and it was about perfect. When I swapped in the Ea82 suspension it was full on dorifto negative camber. I didn't mess with it because it was an offroader primarily, and secondly I was too lazy to cut apart the welded 1/4" steel extensions and start again. So for this rebuild what angle do I want for the blocks with the Ea82 suspension to have roughly 0* camber at static ride height(1.5" suspension lift)? *the crash that destroyed my car also destroyed the lift,even the passenger side strut block bent.So for this new car I have to start from scratch. Also would it be worth it to pull the front axles out of the wreck? the impact angled the crossmember towards the passenger side and shoved the passenger tire clear out of the body lines.Not to mention twisted the crossmember to the point that the steering rack is visible from the front of the car and bent the steering rack as well.Physically it looks like the axles might have survived but I don't know if it messed up the balls/cages/cups.

RX7 bolt pattern is 4x110, so there really is NO option of wheels other than rx7 wheels.

the small pumpkin is nice but they don't really have lockers or different gears.The Rx7 rear end has a limited slip(no locker) and only a small range of gears. Besides there is a big difference between spinning 25" tires with a 350 vs 31"+ tires in rocks,tree stumps,etc. a 350 in a street RX7 never really has a chance to hook up and grip,On the other hand offroading, a tire may spin, then quickly catch traction, then come to an immediate stop,repeat the process until something blows up.It takes alot of force to stop a heavy offroad tire really quick,then spin it right back up again.That force goes into the axles and diff.The process creates a twisting action that if strong enough or the metal fatigues enough will snap a part.

I found a 1" lift for 10-12 outbacks.Looks like just a couple of aluminum spacers on top of the struts.I don't see that a '14 outback would be much different. A metal skidplate wouldn't take long or cost that much money to fab up. here is the link for the lift. http://www.subtle-solutions.com/product_info.php?products_id=225

what is wrong with the tempo springs?can you post a pic of them?I have lifted my car with springs before.

the torque spec for old stub shaft bolts is tighten it until it snaps,then back it off 1/2 turn

I was meaning more a typical 4x4 build with 10-40K invested not so much money is no object kinda of builds.As for the jeep truck,If I wanted strong durable, capable truck I would get a dodge power wagon for 1/2 the cost and it already has similar specs.lockers front and rear,5.7 hemi,winch...

those are for new bolts,it is less for old bolts,especially the soft stub axle bolts.Jess(jbbvw) broke the head off a stub axle bolt while tightening it with a 1/4" ratchet while helping to fix a broken stub on my car at Evans Creek.

how close are you to the budget? $2013 or $2014? if you have the cash to spare a EJ22 and its AWD transmission would work far better,A donor car could be found cheaply, especally if it has high miles or was wrecked in some way that didn't break the engine or transmission.You would also beable to scrap/part out the donor to recoupe some of the cost.The EA82T is an unreliable POS daily driving,racing is a sure fire way to kill it quick.The FT5 speed is bad because as said above if ONE wheel looses traction then all the power is sent to that wheel.Hell for reliability sake I would swap in an EA81 if a EJ22 would be beyond budget.I for one would not stake my chances of competing/winning on a POS EA82T

more like cut it off at the firewall.The strut towers are crushed,at least on the passenger side.Through my years of wheeling these things Ive discovered that the lighter something is the better.My first Tcased vehicle was a beat to hell and back EA81 wagon,I cut the roof off after the C pillar and it wheeled alot better.When I got the hatch it wheeled better than my wagon could ever hope to.My problem is I can't find a hatch, or brat for any price,the best I can do is a EA82 wagon with a blown engine,from wheeling both EA81 and EA82 vehicles I know the EA82 wagon is a pig offroad compared to a hatch or even a EA81 wagon.take this resent trip to evans creek for example, there was a spot on the trail that every single wagon had a little bit of trouble with,but both hatches went right up first time. so I guess the point of that was justifying my reasoning.Right now I am still not sure what to do with it,Right now I am even considering joining the air force because I am at exactly the same place in my life as I was 4 years ago-broke,unemployed,and living with my mom...Only now I have an AS of Engineering..I dunno I have an appointment with the recruiter on thursday..