daeron

the weak point of this engine is headgaskets. The headgaskets' weaknesses are usually brought to light by an episode (sometimes more than one) of overheating. Check your radiator. Get the car fairly hot, and (be safe about it) feel the face of the radiator with your hand. you should NOT find ANY cool spots. Cool spots indicate that an area of the radiator is blocked off. A good radiator flushing is GREAT preventative maintenance. I didn't notice where you live, but rust is another major issue with these cars. If you live in an area where snow and ice forms on the roads, see if your local authorities use salt to de-ice. If so, blast the undercarriage with fresh water come springtime. If you want to do it more often than that, go right ahead. change your water pump when you do the timing belts too. While I am thinking on it, I have often considered using some coper anti-seize compound on the various plugs for all the FI sensors/switches/gadgets and components. This should prevent oxidation and poor connections, as well as ensure that they are all easily unplugged. anyone have any thoughts on this? I have never tried it, but it SEEMS like a great idea.

They were trying to avoid high cost. Hence my Junkyard suggestion, IF the fan is determined to be the culprit. Are aftermarket fans all that expensive? I have never even looked at them, beyond something in a relatively specialized catalog.. (motorsport auto, they sell Z-car stuff.. and things like POR-15, radiator fans, and other non-vehicle-specific type stuff, I presume they are [/i]probably[/i] more expensive than most.)

if you are having strange problems with the little java applet used to type up your posts on the board here, try this. Hold down the shift key, and click on "Refresh/Reload" in your browser. This clears the cache, and fixes little problems like not being able to click on one of the buttons in the text editor and have do what it is supposed to. I like to highlight any text I have already entered and copy it to the clipboard, just in case refreshing might make it disappear. Regarding your problem.. I know nothing about justys, BUT it sounds to me like you probably are on the right track in thinking you were initially wrong about which component was the thermoswitch. The thermoswitch is just a little plug that, at a certain temperature, flips "on" basically. the whole "paperclip" method basically just replaces the switch with a soild wire. A simple check to see whether replacing the thermoswitch will fix your problem, would be this: 1. take a short piece of wire, and crimp terminals that will plug in to the car's plug for the thermoswitch. (OR just use a paperclip, or bare ended wires.. just makes sure your jumper has good contact with the harness plug) 2. Take this jumper wire and plug it in to the car as if it were the thermoswitch. 3. Turn the key to "on" and the fan should come on full blast. If the fan does not come on full blast with this jumper wire installed in place of the thermoswitch, then the thermoswitch is NOT the problem. If your car is carbureted, it shouldn't have an ECU. Unless, of course, its the feedback hitachi carb.. but again, here we reach a point where my knowledge gets fuzzy. did they PUT the feedback carbs on the justy? i dont know. In any case, i highly doubt the ECU would control the fan.. this is an '88 justy, after all.. NOT exactly the "cutting edge" of automotive technology. Just being honest Anyone who knows more about the Justy care to chime in with a junkyard source of a fan? I know the EA-82 cars all had fairly good units, and the EA-81s with AC had skinny fans, right? any chance that a fan from another car would bolt up?

there are two seals behind the camsahft pulley, and make sure you read up on the procedures. for alot of these parts, it is highly recommended to go OEM only; the oil pump in particular comes to mind. intake manifold gaskets seem to be thought of the same way. The headgaskets on these engines are the biggest weak point, so you might even consider going THAT far.. but thats only to avoid the possibility of a problem in 20,000 miles, and wishing you had done it now..

http://spacecoast.craigslist.org/car/266642169.html just saw it and thought I would post a link. If this is the wrong forum, I apologize. Since it was such a low mileage car for 800 bucks, I thought I would put it here to grab attention. the location is near cape canaveral, pretty much dead in the middle of florida's east coast. EDIT thanks for pointing out that it said hatchback GD

Thank you, Skip!! I should have thought of doing that myself. Not only is it a kiloword, it crosses language barriers. The image was alot nicer than trying to find a way to say "I hope your english is good enough to understand me." Soft metal fasteners is a good idea as well, I hadn't thought of that one..

post deleted, on account of me being.. pointless..

the fuel pump is a high pressure pump.. just like a pressure washer. It spits fuel out in spurts... PFF PFF PFF PFF PFF PFF PFF PFF..... (a little quicker than that, though....) the fuel dampener takes those spurts and smooths them out to high pressure flow. pffffffffffffffffffffffff..... I dont know what the "symptoms" of a bad fuel dampener are, in my experience "bad" means rusted out and leaking like a sieve I was also under the impression that there were two of them, but that impression came SOLELY from reading here on the forum, NOT the FSM, and NOT from working on my car. I suppose it might want renewal, though.. if you can easily access a JY spare to swap in, I guess its worth a shot. As you said, you really think its a fuel issue.. so who knows? not me BUT as I said, I could see the sense in trying that.. we both know that your issue is PROBABLY not with any of the 99% of the things that it "might" or "could" be... but heck. If you have (or can easily get) a JY spare, throw parts at it!! it just might work!

look into your FSM and find the page on calibrating the TPS, as well. It involves using a feeler gauge to open the throttle like 1* and then 3* or something like that.. and tells you what resistance to anticipate from that. The most difficult parts of the procedure are managing to get your feeler gauge in position.. and also, removing the clip on the TPS plug without it springing off into the void My thinking is, MAYBE the tps is "floored" and its feeding too much fuel?? you drained the FF, causing a fuel "starvation" situation, which almost let it run?? Thats only a possibility.. and it might not even be that, for all I know the ECU may well "ignore" the TPS when the vehicle is cranking or not running... I do know one thing. I had problems with MY tps.. so maybe you do, too.. The way I see it, throwing my ideas out there cant hurt nothin. They may be without much real value, in the end.. but at least im helping you brainstorm and rule things out at the same time

I strongly agree. Did you catch what he meant by that? I hate to be a jerk about it, but technical terms like "countersunk" and "flatheads" (ie, not pan-head or hex head) are the types of words that might be misunderstood by non-native english speakers.... I mean, your english is fine, and I applaud you for it.. but I also try to be aware that not everyone on this forum was bron speaking english. Just trying to make sure everything is clear

Thats pretty bad.. but I worked as a veterinary technician for eight years. Feces, pus, tooth decay, tumors, puppies with rivers of crud oozing out of their infected noses, you name it, i have been up to my elbows in it. Try explaining to a chick at a bar that you look at $hi+ all day under a microscope.. and they say they want honesty, pfft! The bright side is immune exposure.. to quote Sir George Carlin.. "My immune system has been tempered in raw sh*t!"

you could also have a mess of stuff built up in your heater box.. this would prevent the air flowing over the heater core from picking up much heat (indeed, from flowing over the heater core at all.. it would all move through whatever holes it could find) I have heard many horror stories about rats' nests etc insied there, it might not be a bad idea to look into trying to clean that out. definitely check your coolant level, too.

mine is sun-battered and looks like CRAP, but i LIKE the blue interior...

at least now, next time you have three or four more things you can check first

I was more concerned about the relative impact resistance of the glass than the structural aspect that the glass had on the car overall.. but you say even the impact resistance is not lessened? Hmm, I wouldn't have thought that. I had a job making hurricenae-proof sliding glass doors (4'x8' panel, big sliding glass door, could withstand a 280mph impact from a 2x4 ) and 90 percent of the impact resistance came from stiffening the door members and deepening the channel that held the glass.. the four door members were assembled around the piece of glass, which is what made otherwise ordinary double-paned safety glass so strong. However, if you say so.. far be it from me to say you're wrong.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the windshield frame is a bad place for rust holes to form. It is not an easy place to fix at all, and any compromise of the sheetmetal frame holding your windshield, makes the glass less resistant to shattering from a stray rock or something.. Rust around the windshield is bad juju on a car, needs to be taken care of pronto. It is one of the reasons I didn't think twice about trying to "save" my car from the rust.. I gave up for windshield rust, along with plenty of other things...

See, a junkyard isn't a JUNKYARD to me if it isn't you-pull-it... the used parts yards, where they do all the vehicular stripping, in MY area all suck for oddball cars. They are fine, if you drive a 1990 cavalier, or a saturn, or something... but for an old soob, or an even older datsun?? yah right, they arent going to hold on to THAT!! besides, they are more expensive. I must say I feel bad for you, I couldn't imagine life without my junkyards..

Well!!! *crickets*chirping* I'll shaddap then :-p

quick question, I''m obviously not as brat-saavy as I could be.. where would this tonneau cover attach in the front of the bed?? I mean, in a straight profile, the front edge of the bed is defined by the rear window line.. it kinda shifts planes, unlike a more standard pickup truck bed.. so where would it attach? I ask because it seems to me one could simply cut most of the height out of the camper top and use the bottom as well as the top.. but when I get to the point of imagining what to do behind the doors/at the rear window, I have no idea what "should" be done. Is there a place to mount a flat tonneau inside the bed, at the same height as the side of the back? Did those questions make enough sense?

I find that I am ungodly good with work like this... I'm only 5'8" (173 cm) and about 140 pounds.. ive got skinny arms and small fingers, and have gotten quite adept at tightening fasteners based upon touch alone.. I absolutely hate it, because it means I get called whenever someone needs help on something like this. Fortunately, such work hasn't come up as much as it could.. I hate it.

I think my area operates under similar auspices.. All this is speculation, but I have been watching and thinking for a long time about it.. My junkyards all have two separate yards; one to walk through picking through the cars, and one that we are not allowed to enter. I have been told in the past that there were legal issues regarding entry in that area, beyond them simply wanting to organize and examine the cars on intake.... Also, in my area it is REALLY easy to have any "junk" car that you have a title for towed off, and the tow truck guy usually pays 50-100 bux, IF you have and sign the title over. They just hand the car and signed title over to the junkyard, and make a profit there, I am sure. Non-titled vehicles, however, they simply haul away for free. My idea is that all a junkyard can do without a title in my area, is crush it and sell it for scrap (which is not unprofitable, they just watch the weight and know what any given car is worth. Apparently, enough for the truck driver AND the JY to get a slice before the steel goes to the recyclers..) The only vehicles allowed out in the yard are vehicles whose titles have been legally transferred to the junkyard. Thus, a titled vehicle gets there, goes into the B yard (no customers) alongside the untitled vehicles, which are just being picked over (maybe some stuff removed for sale anyhow) and then sorted aside and crushed. Meanwhile, the titled vehicles watch this happen to their neighbors and new friends, while awaiting the title transfer, upon which they get to go out into the A yard and get picked apart by the likes of us, sawzalls, BFHs, crowbars, and torches in hand, I may be wrong, but I think I hit close to the truth. as for the sale of vehicles, the consensus seems its alot easier to just get to know your local tow truck guys and make sure THEY know who to call when they get an old subaru to pick up

I still vote that the 185 tires would help. I had a very similar issue, and i simply could not believe it was as simple as wind.. but it sure went away with wider tires. not that there arent a whole slew of places in the suspension that this kinda crap might come up..

soobgoob: is your car a sedan? apparently, the body style may have an impact on this, according to heartless. Im sure all of my body rust doesn't help my aerodynamic situation much... the other side looks about the same.

I switched to 185-70 r13 tires from the 175-70s that came on my car.. and noticed a great deal of the above 60mph instability vanished. I had experienced it, and could not believe the car might be actually THAT sensitive to wind.. but it made it go away for me. The question is, are we perceiving the same thing? I think I know what you are talking about, and I think I have come to the conclusion that the skinnier tires (175s) allowed my sedan to be blown about by the tiniest breath of wind (okay 10mph or so, but thats not much.) Of course, you should make sure that your steering and suspension are in good repair.. the HTKYSA book has a good breakdown on how to check it all out for yourself, or you could just take it to a mechanic and ask for a front end alignment, and see what they say. Don't necessarily take their WORD for it, but see what they say. Or you could just try picking up a pair of used 185-70r13s sometime (i guess not during winter? i dont know snow) and see if that makes a difference.. then go all four.. buying used tires makes it a cheaper thing to go back on, you arent 250-300 bucks into a set of tires to find out you dont like it.

have you read general disorder's write-up on installing the EA82 SPFI on the EA81? not the same, but not wholly different, from what you were talking about.