Numbchux

sweet! how tall is that? I'm tight for cash now, but just applied for a couple jobs and will be settling down for school so this is pretty good timing!

I have the high lift kit (straight 4") and had to adjust the linkage a bit (read: loosen a nut, then tighten it again) and beat fenders (depends on tire size), and that was it!

agreed, sounds like something outside of the CV broke, it almost sounds like the axle stub broke!

Well, if nobody knows we'll know soon, it's bolted up (did the 'tighten the pressure plate through the starter hole' trick, since the alignment tool they gave me was wrong), I'll be messing with the wiring/linkage tomorrow and hopefully try 'er out tomorrow night, or friday morning!

long version: I'm doing a clutch replacement job on my '88 high-mileage (225k) wagon, and just recently stripped a low-mileage (140k) but rusted out '85 wagon. both EA82's. well, the '88's synchros aren't very good, and the '85's are, so I thought I'd swap the trannies, I lowered the one out, and rolled it out next to the "new" one, and found some differences. I know it'll bolt up, it's exactly the same in that aspect, but there are a couple electrical connections that the '85 doesn't have. short version: tranny swap....'85 EA82 D/R 5-speed into '88, same setup....different electrical stuff. passenger side: right next to 4WD linkage, 2-wire connection....I assume for the lo-range indicator, as the '85 had a little switch on the handle that the '88 doesn't driver side: next to the regular 5-speed linkage, another 2-wire connection, this one's a mystery to me I don't think it's anything to worry about, but it's gotta do something! am I gonna regret it if I just don't do anything with those 2 plugs? I have the 4WD linkage from the '85, if I swap it over and splice the switch into the plug on the '88 wiring harness, will my lo range indicator work?

I'm sorry....:-p agreed, however, it IS gorgeous!!!

AA kit's pretty basic...but yea, you gotta worry about bolts, I stripped out one in the origional install, and another today while doing a clutch... if you're worried about rust, just use lots of wd-40, and if the bolt starts to bind, reverse the ratchet to loosen it up, and work in the wd-40...it should work well.

unimog's are incredible, and much of that is because of the planetary reduction gears at the hubs, wouldn't that be awesome?! however, I really like the fact that my entire drivetrain is tucked mostly up in the unibody, t-casing is way down the line for me. but I'd still like better gearing. The Jeep guys would laugh at a regular ol' stock wrangler, and he's still got a much nicer crawl ration than I I'll be in the market for a rebuilt/reworked tranny before too long (my synchros are not good) and was considering getting a front LSD from mudrat, but if someone finds a way to drop the gearing, I'd much prefer that!

These lifts *mostly* retain stock suspension geometry, enough to make for a very carlike ride...the only thing keeping me from 3 digits, is lack of power, I spend alot of time driving back and forth from my parents place in Minneapolis, to my college home in Duluth (about 3 hours), speed limit's 70, and let's just say I'm not the slowest one on the road the only thing that makes it scary, is my disconected sway bar, and bad shocks, it kinda wanders, and bounces, but that's not a result of the lift.

I torched my clutch last week offroading with a wrangler...I need lower gears too! If you find a way to do this, and I can afford it, I'm in...

definately DO IT!! and it would need more pink to copy austin...:-p

I don't see what you people are talking about....I've gone through a bunch on the front, but the axle angles on the front are no different than the BYB...I've only actually destroyed one, and dismantled another (which I'm still using, btw), and I blame that, mostly, on the fact that I had the blocks adjusted up almost another entire inch...it's a 5" lift that eat's rear DOJ's, or a pretty sweet 4" kit!

you find it (here!), I'll buy it..well, I would have when I bought this one, now I don't have any money. I do like them better than the wagon, but I've sort of become attached to these, and rust-free subarus at all are hard to come by here, I can't really be picky about my $150 subarus!

maybe they say it's harder cause they're the only car (that I know of, but I'm sure there are others) that have the e-brake go to the front. They're VERY easy to work on! The best way to think of it, is that time really is money, I have hundreds of hours into my car, but now I have basically the car of my dreams, for about $1500! And a solid running car with almost 230k miles on it!

I'd drive it!! does that mean I'm....weird?

yea yea, I know, I gotta start cuttin!

yea, we understand the lack of power as a result of oversized tires...my wheels are 2" taller than stock, and my tires are total 6" taller than stock! take our word, a solid running EA81 will be able to get you up those hills fine (not alot of power to spare...but you'll make it fine), some performance upgrades, or even an EA82, and you'll be set! <still one vote for you keeping this beauty!

w00t!!!! that's EXACTLY what I want! I'm thinking 2" would be perfect! then I could leave my 1" blocks on the mustache bar, and be a ton better! keep me in mind when you get it figured out!

sounds to me like it's just downshifting to 2nd...

well, I was asking myself the same thing, except in my car it's 70mph, full throttle in 5th, or 1/2-3/4 in 4th, don't remember rpm's but 1000-1500 difference... anyway, my dad brought up a good point, cars with taller gear ratios, tend to get better gas mileage...our 3AT loyale got horrible mileage, considering it's a 4-cyl, FWD car... the latest issue of Road & Track has a full-mile acceleration test of a number of sports cars. In it, they dest a Viper SRT-10, and note that it's top speed is in 5th gear, and that "6th gear must be geared for about 300mph," the reasoning behind this is it's "overdrive 6th gear is indeed a fuel economy ratio that bumps the EPA highway mileage figure up to a surprisingly good 20 mpg." soooo, the assumption gathered from that, is a higher gear = lower rpm = less fuel consumption...right?

my '92 loyale, on BOTH trannies :-\, shifted early, and SUPER slow, dragged alot, I think that was a result of the torque converter though...I'm not sure

I used better switches with no light, and that mount in holes...that I drilled in the radio adapter plate...they work great, and I've got a bunch of things running on 'em.

well, the front ones that were in it had been driven on for a couple thousand miles with torn boots, so they failed pre-lift, but post-abuse...but not including those, 1 on each side on the front, and 2 in the back on the same side, the second was the only oem subaru axle that I had problems with, and it turned out the ball's and cage had slipped off the inner race and fallen into the boot, I reassembled it at camp in about 3 minutes... so 4 total, not including the origional 2. and now I have another oem one in the front that's working much better.

come on man, a stock EA81 isn't going to have alot of poop, but there are things that can be done to make it better if you want a bit more power, drop an EA82 in it and do some mods to it too (also a 1.8L, but newer and a little more powerful) my EA82 pushes 28" tall tires pretty well, it's not fast, in fact it's probably the slowest car on the street I've ever ridden in, but in lo range 4WD, it'll walk through anything, and still cruises at 75mph pretty comfortably you're '2.1L'...probably mean a 2.0 or 2.2, is an EJ series motor...and won't bolt right up to your transmission. so it will be a very expensive swap, if you can find somewhere to do it. but if you want to, the guy for the job is mudrat79 (board name here), he's on the west coast (oregon somewhere I think...), and does great work, as long as you're patient... I say, put in a replacement motor (if you must, I bet you're motor is saveable, and cheaper to pay someone than any swap), and do some exhaust work, a weber carb...a few other things, and it'll have plenty of poop for the road. besides, if it didn't quite make it home, it probably wasn't running right before anyway...

that's how I pulled my engine and tranny out of the parts car today! it's being scrapped in a couple weeks, so I had fenders, bumper, headlights, grill, radiator, A/C everything out already...but I lowered the front onto a board, unbolted the four crossmember nuts (after everything else was already disconnected), then literally just lifted the shell up off it (no hood either, balancing on tires under the b pillar). Then I just dragged the whole thing out from under it. worked awesome!