Numbchux

I had a DOJ (inner joint) fail on my '88 on a camping trip years ago. It was a very strange thing, shook the whole car. It could be "felt" in the steering wheel, but it didn't actually turn the wheel or cause the car to pull at all. It was not, however, intermittent at all. Whenever I was above about 40mph, it started to shake. I ended up diagnosing it through elimination...it was obviously coming from one corner, everything else seemed fine....had to be that. When we got back to the campground, I pulled the axle, pulled out a maul and broke the outer joint, slipped the spindle back through the bearings and drove home in RWD smooth as could be. Now, there was no noticeable play in the axle, nor a torn boot in that case. BUT, that was on a car with about 5" of lift (4" kit, plus adjustable front struts for another inch), which put about 2" of strain on the front axles. I think similar failure would be very unlikely at stock ride height, but still possible.

So, you know OF the write-up, but chose not to read it, or even look at it? I have nothing to add here

the doj. Sounds like you're just trying to swap the cup itself. Have you tried the whole joint? From what I've been able to tell, you should be able to swap an EA82 inner race onto an XT6 shaft. And then the whole joint will swap over. of course, I'm sure not all EA82 shafts are identical. I think FWD ones are a bit more beefy and such. So some experimenting will be necessary to find the combination that works. Sorry, but answers like this are why this thread was created: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=119430 It's '93-'94 impreza FWD 5MT that have 23-spline inner joints, but the outers are partial to EJ knuckles (it's possible to mix and match EJ/ER knuckles and axles, but some fancy bearing seals will be needed).

Many different opinions....for sure. Pretty hard to go wrong with straight gear lube, but there are better options. +1 for GDs #1.....Subaru Extra-S is amazing! Expensive, and hard to get, but amazing. I think subaru only technically sells it by the drum. But I've heard of people getting together and splitting the cost. Also, it'd be worth asking your local dealer if they'd be willing to sell it by the quart. 2 of the dealers in the Twin Cities do it that way, although we've got a number of enthusiasts in the parts departments there. They have to pump it into other containers, so you might even consider bringing some clean 1-quart bottles. If you search around, and hear about something called Uncle Scotty's Cocktail (there's a member on NASIOC who's screen name is uncle scotty), STAY AWAY. It's 2 quarts of gear oil, a quart of pennzoil synchromesh, and a quart of red line lightweight shockproof gear oil. I repeat, DO NOT USE THIS. The synchromesh and shockproof are too lightweight. Your shifting will be like butter, but your bearings will be crying soon. I used it in 2 transmissions, and began hearing bearing noise within 10k miles. I've had very good luck replacing about 1/2 a quart of the gear oil with some Rislone engine treatment (yes, you heard me right, it's an engine treatment). My dad's '94 Legacy would not go into second gear when we got it. Fresh oil didn't do it, then some fresh oil with rislone, and he got about 100k miles on it after that. To be fair, it was transmission failure that finally killed it (well....the rust made it not worth fixing...). But it was listed as needing a transmission when we bought it. As for straight off-the-shelf gear oils, I've run many different things, and I've become pretty partial to Castrol HypoyC 80W-90. It's pretty heavy weight if you're in a cold climate, I had to let the car idle for a couple minutes before I could get it into gear, but it took great care of the bearings and gears, which is what's important.

false. Nothing wrong with it. Besides, even IF it were to fail, what's the worst that could happen? It's not a strut, it has nothing to do with the alignment. If that lower spring perch broke, the spring would move about an inch or 2 and rest on the trailing arm, and the car would be just fine. It'd make some racket, but certainly not dangerous.

Yikes, those A-arm angles are scary before you hook up any springs or anything, cycle that through the travel a couple times and see how much your camber changes. Also, with the upper arm that short, you will probably still have issues with that upper joint binding. Ideally you should move that pivot point in and up. The upper and lower arms should be pretty much identical and parallel. yep coilover shocks are dirt cheap compared to struts of similar quality.

The High Clearance kit that AA did was for an EA82 only. EA81s require torsion bar reclock to do the same thing (possible, but was not an AA kit The diff is still dropped some, but the suspension crossmember is not. The goal is to avoid this (BYB/Ozified 3" lift on an EA82): My brat thread is here. Most of the info on the lift is in the first post. It doesn't live at my house, so I can't easily get more pictures. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=123367

I'm curious about the transmission compatibility. It's been awhile since I had the shifter off my W56 transmission, but I didn't think it looks like this: mellow65....that looks awesome! Should be sweet.

fair enough. do you know what the compatibility of that shifter extension will be? Off the top of my head, I'm thinking that looks a bit different than the shifter on the W56 that came out of my '86 4runner.....

IAC is the Idle Air Control Valve. Some more information, please. What year/model was the donor? Did the ECU/harness/engine all come from the same car? Was it a running car before you pulled it apart? Does it change if you touch the throttle? Help us help you. Shooting in the dark, though. If something in the intake isn't hooked up right, this kind of thing will happen. You'll get a bunch of un-metered air coming in the engine, and the ECU won't be able to correctly match the fuel, and the engine will stall. Here's an '86 wagon with a '96 impreza 2.2. The first startup in the video (the one with no exhaust) was without the IAC hooked up. You can hear the engine cutout when I touch the throttle, and then it dies.

it could maybe be plugged, but it looks like it overlaps the stroke of the piston....which means if it's not perfectly smooth, it'll chew up the rings. ideally, it would be welded shut, and then bored smooth...... Sorry Kosta.....that sucks. Wish I had something helpful....

I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to fit it to use a cable shifter. I started looking into using a Subaru transmission in a mid-engine/rear-drive application, and found a number of people that adapted cable-shifter setups without too much difficulty, which gives you just about infinite flexibility as long as you have cables long enough.

No, they will create zero bump steer problems. Honestly, it sounds like the problems that Uberoo is describing are symptoms of really abused, out-of-whack and worn-out suspension, and as the alignment changes through the travel of the suspension, it is getting "better". "Better" saying more about how bad it is at ride-height, than how good it is at compression I would take his experiences as an isolated incident. I daily drove 4" and 3" lifted EA82 wagons for years. The combination of oversized tires, and more control arm angle (better roll-center) means the body-roll is not bad, even without sway bars. It is worse than a stock car, and takes a little getting used to the feeling, but they're very stable and safe, even at freeway speeds.

IMO, flipping just the TRE over is a bad idea. If both sides compress simultaneously, the tires will toe-in equally, and it will stay fairly stable. But if one side compresses (you hit a bump on one side), that wheel will angle in, and the other will stay straight. Some simple geometry calculations could tell you exactly how many degrees the toe would change. It might only be half a degree, but it might be 2 or 3. Full disclosure. I have not tried it. I love suspension geometry. I play with it in simulators (common driving games like gran-turismo and forza, and I do some ground-up vehicle design for the open-source PC game Rigs of Rods), and in real life. I love having soft suspension with a ton of travel. I run 17x8 wheels with low profile summer tires on my celica, and the only suspension mod I've done, is disconnect the front sway bar to reduce understeer. And as crew-chief for a stage rally team, I have some experience with suspension tuning. This is not something I would even consider on a vehicle that I planned to drive more than about 20mph. I might do it on a go-kart or something....but that's it. Nothing easy. Honestly, IMO if you're reaching the edge of the TREs travel on a fairly simple build (nothing like what this thread is talking about), you have too much suspension lift. Having the control arms at that angle will help your roll center, but effect the way the suspension transfers force into the body, and amplify the positive camber on the front end (none of these things are dangerous, but will hinder the way the suspension works). Also, you're probably pushing the range of the axle joints. Couple options, but you're getting into drastic fabricating territory. The fundamental idea behind the front geometry is that the control arm and tie rod stay parallel. So if you want to ease the angle on the tie rod, do the same to the control arm. You could flip the TRE like that, but then modify the crossmember to lower the control arm pivot the same distance to keep the 2 arms in phase with each other. You could also raise the steering rack. Obviously engine/oil pan clearance will make that a challenge, but I think some changes could be made. You could combine both. If flipping the TRE raises that by 2". You could raise the steering rack by 1", and drop the control arm pivot by 1". This would ease your angles AND improve the tie rod clearance without sacrificing control arm clearance much. Another option, would be to cut and re-weld the TRE tab on the knuckle with an angle so that the TRE itself doesn't need to compensate. This is no small project, and IMO only for a VERY experience fabricator and welder. But I have seen someone shorten that arm to effectively increase the steering ratio and range (IIRC it was on a RWD-converted subaru for going slideways). Or, use a heim joint. This would be the easiest to do, but you would gain no clearance, and you'd also gain the noise of having heims in the suspension. As well as the increased maintenance (keeping them lubricated). This is not a viable option for a Daily Driver, especially if you're in a part of the world that uses chemicals on the road to combat ice.

The tie rod and control arms move on an arc. If they are in 2 different places on that arc, the toe will change over the course of the suspension travel. In that picture, your control arm is still angled down, so as the suspension compresses, the ball joint will move outward. And the tie rod is level, so as the suspension compresses, the tie rod end will move inward. See how this could be bad? The angle of the control arm is what keeps the roll center of the suspension high, which is crucial to the handling of a car. And having those 2 arms parallel is crucial to maintaining the alignment. there are numerous companies that make spacers to lower those pivot points so that when the car is lowered, that geometry is maintained.

how could this "help" with bump-steer? your tie rod and control arm are obviously on 2 different planes now.

recovery? Strap or 2, GOOD Come-a-long, Hi-lift, Shovel or 2. These things live in my car all winter. those revo1s on my celica. last year was the 5th season I've owned them (they're on subaru steelies), first was not on a daily driver, but easily 40-50k miles on them and they look brand-new. The key is not to use them unless the ground is frozen, once the pavement is over ~40* they wear out quick. I run 3 different sets of wheels/tires throughout the year. Kumho Ecsta AST Performance summer tires, BFG Traction T/As for the Months where it might snow, but probably not too bad, and Blizzaks as long as the ground is frozen. It's true though, Hakkas are the only DOT snow tire with the same soft tread compound through the whole tread depth. Blizzaks are usually about half/half. But my next set will be Blizzaks, and I'll take the 25% savings to the bank. "Jack of all trades, master of none". The BFGs are better than most, but no A/T will ever hold a candle to a true snow tire. Tread compound is completely different, and the soft compound is what make snow tires work. From Tirerack BFG A/T http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=All-Terrain+T%2FA+KO Blizzak WS70 (Nokian isn't sold anywhere....so no tirerack reviews. And the revo1s were discontinued in favor of the WS70) http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Blizzak+WS70 We took WS70s and Yokohama AO34s to SnoDrift rally last year, and probably will again this year

Nice! I see full-floaters. Is that the FROR setup?

What kind of snow are you usually driving through? Heavy and wet? deep? What exactly are you trying to accomplish with your modifications? Some 205/65r15 Blizzak Revo1s slapped on my otherwise-stock Celica made it pretty unstoppable last year. I kept to the roads, but I went looking for un-plowed ones, and TRIED to get it stuck....with no luck. This was after a storm just before christmas last year. I was wondering around town, having a blast, and I dropped into the domino's pizza where I used to work (I now work at a different store in the same franchise) and their drivers were all whining about the road conditions. So I was the sole delivery driver there for the rest of the night. The hardest part of getting up and down the hill here, was finding a road that didn't have some stupid SUV stuck sideways in it. My point is, of your list of proposed modifications, only the tires will actually help you towards a "reliable, capable winter rig".

How did you like that rear suspension setup with the single leaf spring? It obviously articulates pretty well....but it looks kind of....unstable

IMO, that's the way to do it. Loved that setup on my blue '88. Only difference between it and the BYB kit of the day, was the rear crossmember was left up against the body. The rear suspension arms are run at an angle. AA lowered the diff by putting 1" blocks under the mustache bar. I had issues with rear axles then until I added a 2" diff drop block from SJR to drop the front of the diff as well. This is how my Brat is lifted as well, crossmember in stock position, torsion bars reclocked.

I used those NAPA reducers on my first swap. Every one since then, I just cut about 2 inches off the end of the 1.25 hose, and slip the 1.5 over the top of it. Done. I've just used whatever generic radiator fan is on the shelf at whatever parts store I'm at. These fans tend to come with zip-tie kinda things that pull through the core of the radiator. These transfer the vibration from the fan directly to the core of the radiator. That was the last coffin nail in my Loyale rad. Go to your favorite hardware/home improvement store, and buy about 4 feet worth of 1x1/4" aluminum. Cut it into 2 lengths to span across the radiator. Drill holes in the end to bolt it to the edges of the rad, and then holes in the middle to mount the fan to it (zip-ties work great here). This will save your radiator, and space the fan out, which makes it a bit more efficient.

I don't know anything about the head design on the older ones. but it sounds like it's still coming in through the intake. Any way that manifold gasket could leak and not get any into #3?

This alone would cost more than the parts for an EJ22 swap. And this goofy hybrid EA turbo thing would be much more complicated, less reliable, and probably less powerful than the EJ22.

Very nice. Awesome start! Any reason you went with ball joints instead of heims? I think that will be your limiting factor travel-wise, and since you've already got heims all over the place, you'll still have all the noise. The stock toyota BJs get thrown out the window with the JD Fab long travel kit in favor of heims.