Numbchux

That much I know, but I have never seen these axles, nor have I looked closely at nissan or toyota axles to compare, I just don't know what's closer to what I want. I'll pass on these, and buy some good ones when the time comes McBrat, if you've still got that at the midwest sub meet, and I've got some money, we'll talk

I have a Garmin GPS 45 mounted (velcro!!) on my dash for a automatically recalibrating speedo. It's kind of a beast, with a big external antenna, but it works very nicely. it just so happened that my uncle had bought a new one recently and had his old one sitting around, so I managed to get it for free. But try ebay, or a pawn shop, I bet you could find a good deal. After a couple weeks of driving with it, I only find that it's worth waiting for it to start up when I'm making a long freeway trip, I drove with it for awhile, and I've become very used to the adjustment, and don't bother turning it on.

:lol::lol:

So, I've been talking about doing solid axle(s), and I know it won't happen for at least a year or 2, but my buddy just stripped a Bronco II, and is trying to get rid of the axles. offered them to me for $10 each! We figured they're about the right width, but I haven't even seen them, and have no idea what's involved in tcasing/solid axles on a subie, I know it's rare, and involves lots of custom work. but for $10 each, I might be willing to put some ford in my car! Talk me out of it!

UH.....what?!?!

I know they did....but I know them (this whole subaru thing's my fault anyway)...and it is possible. no snow emergencies up there, year-round weekly alternating street parking, except for a few main drags. And if worse comes to worse, he can park the project car up on my slab (that's cool with me! ).

after thinking about it, I'd say get another wagon! get a non-turbo, 5-speed, D/R 4WD one, probably the simplest combanation out there, and lift it. And let your wife drive the turbo... I know you've got street parking, but what's the worst that could happen? you might have to park one of them a block or 2 away? Get Another one!!! and I'll help you lift it.

I know where I can get some pre-stolen road signs! (there's a stop sign in my parents garage that came with the house when they moved in), and I bet some chemicals and a saw could make it pretty hard to identify!

So I noticed about a week and a half ago that I had a headlight out. pulled out the bulb, and noticed the bulb itself was broken. but it's a 'new to me' car, so who knows right? well, I put on a new one, and it lasts all of about 3 days before it blows up too! What's going on here? I do have a cracked lense, but my '85 did too, and it never broke a bulb....grrrrrr......

see! I'm not the only one to ever think of roadsigns!

you mean drilling out your 6 lug wheels into our 4 lug pattern? right??? he's talking about knocking out all 4 studs, and remounting them closer together to fit other 4 lug wheels

I'm not going to tell you no, but in the week I've been driving with oversized tires, I've found that lo range is SOOOO nice. and freeway speeds are tough (might be easier with the turbo/mpfi). it's up to you guys

You can try them late this week if you'd like And it isn't exactly an easy swap, there are a couple ways to do it, I like mine best, but it involved welding, and plasma cutters and stuff. I can help you, and show you a couple things, otherwise, you can have my old GL seats, which are a bit better fabric than yours, without the height adjustment. your seats look really cheap and crappy compared to EITHER set of GL seats I have, maybe it was an option you didn't get....

ummmm, check your calender again.... another cheap bump! (ahem...enchained...)

he could leave it at my parents place, though I won't be there, and it's possible they won't, but it'll be easy to find with the 2 parts wagons there. and close to excelsior! If you don't find a better offer, we're happy to help.

yep, that's what mine looks like too, I too have the rear gate lock switch in the other location.

it's probably possible, but the advantage to redrilling to 6 lug, is you can use 2 of the lugs to make sure it's centered. to pull them all out and start over would make it very hard to center the wheels on the hubs. Also, you'd have to make sure to get a wheel with enough room in the middle for the axle nut. it's worth a try, but be very careful, and measure it out a ton. Good luck!

All 'normal' 4WD trannies have a FWD and a 4WD setting...i.e. PT4WD, or 'part-time...' before 88-89 (unsure which) they also had Dual Range...like yours after that, they were push-button single range....FWD, push the button, 4WD, no low range...FOR THE LOYALES.... Legacies are AWD, which started in 90, no lo range, no FWD, BUT....TONS more power. I bet 2nd gear will be plenty low enough, or 1st gear in an auto would be similar to your 2lo now. I think the '85 and later (EA82) wagons have more power too, but with a 5-speed, which means slightly lower 1-4 PLUS 5th. WJM is talking about the Full-Time 4WD trannies, which came mostly on turbo models, and all RX's, and I think all XT6's. none of these have a FWD setting, some have a center diff lock (good for off-road/imperfect conditions), and some, I think almost exclusively RX's, have a reduction gear (lo range) All this being said, I think you'd be good with anything that has a dual range 4WD tranny, or a legacy (since the newer, 'EJ series' motors have so much more low end torque). I like the EA82's, but I'm bias, I have 3. I'd recommend an '88 GL wagon, but again, I'm bias good luck!

yep, my '85 had that 'switch' but I gave it up for matching toggle switches on the dummy plate under my stereo (I have 3 sets of lights wired, and none of them stock). besides, I wanted something that wasn't wired into the high beams or ignition, if the switch is on, the lights are on!

yep, found and installed that other bushing, checked everything over, tightened a couple things, tapped/replaced that crossthreaded bolt, and drove it 3 hours from my parents house (where the project took place) up to mine. and only found that with 27" tires, and a bit of a headwind, 80mph is kind of tough, and certainly hard on the mileage. only problem I've encountered (besides the torn front CV boots that came on the car, both have failed) is the front seal on the rear diff leaks, or I think so, the diff is always wet, and is now starting to make a grinding noise, like it has no fluid, so that needs to be addressed, soon. And yes, I'll watch for bent stuff.

My AA lift looked like it had some strange camber stuff going on, but now that I've put about 600 miles on it, including a couple muddin trips, they look pretty straight. As said before, older soobs have no camber adjustment, and are supposed to have some positive camber from the factory. so don't sweat it too much, a lift and oversized tires make it look worse than it is, especially right after you set it on the ground.

Yea, check the sticky (and if you haven't figured it out by now, they say "sticky:........" as the title of the thread/discussion) BUT, that'll probably have more information about tires that one would use after a lift.....so, I'd say, call/shop around, see what local places have, and for how much, tires for 13" wheels are a bit hard to come by, so unless you plan on ordering them, you may want to see what's available locally. I went to my local discount tire (MNAudi club discount......don't call me a traitor, so I used to drive an audi), and they had a nice set of All-Seasons that fit my wheels, they even happened to be stock size too, and they did some pretty impressive stuff this spring, and now, after my lift, I've got some more good, name-brand all-seasons. Makes for good driveability, and good traction!

yea, the wheel diameter doesn't matter all that much, it's the tire diameter that does, the tires that came on my 15" pugs were shorter than the tires on my stock 13" steelies, and I ran both before lift. the thing you have to watch for, is the pugs are wider (I don't remember if it's offset, or backspacing) and hang out of the fenders a bit, so if the tires are too big, or the load is too much, the tires will hit the fenders, instead of tucking up inside them. you may want to put accord springs on the back to give yourself an inch or so.

Well, here's the deal....I ignored the fact that I asked here for help (usually a bad idea, but in this case.....it worked), and took them to a friend who happens to have a pretty impressive tool set. I didn't take any pictures, and I'm not taking the seats out if I don't have to, BUT, let me say this, it isn't exactly a "bolt on" conversion, it involves welding, cutting, drilling, etc. here's the scoop, and I'm not sure about EA81's but, the rails are the same distance apart on xt6's and GL's (or at least the ones I have, I'm not sure what year the XT6 seats came out of, but it was '85 GL brackets on an '88). and the mounting points are the same arangement, just in different places. The rails are about 17" apart crosswise, and the mounting points are about 2-3" farther apart along the rail (lengthwise). The passenger side was the easy one, we simply unbolted the brackets from the passenger seat on the GL, and bolted them on in place of the ons on the XT6. the boltholes were slightly different, so we mounted the back ones, then drilled and used bolts/washers to mount the front, then the handle had to be lengthened to keep it from hitting the seat, we extended it a bit far, so it looks a little crazy, but it works. now the driver side is the hard one, because of the height adjustment the GL brackets can't just be bolted on, the XT brackets must be modified to fit the GL mounts. SO....we lined up the front tabs on both brackets, and marked the XT ones were the GL tabs would go, than we cut/ground/melted/pryed etc. the tabs off of the GL brackets. and welded them on the XT ones in front of the existing mounts. It worked great, this isn't for the inexperienced or the unskilled, as far as materials go, it's easy, but if you don't know your way around a welder (and that plasma cutter came in real handy too), then this isn't for you.

I know it's been done, but how? I just got a pair of XT6 seats at the local junkyard, and want to mount them in my '88 GL....but I have a couple questions, I took out the seats on my '85 GL parts car, and see that they are different, but will the '85 and '88 have the same brackets, so if I mess with the rail swap using the '85 brackets, they'll fit in my '88 when I'm done? and what exactly needs to be swapped, I see a number of things are different about these mounts, what do I need? I'm going to go look at/try to make them fit, but help would be nice. I'll be using this info, and pics I take of the process to do a writeup about it.