Numbchux

When I had my yakima rack on my EA82s, I just pulled the whole trim off. Looks fine without it.

BAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA That's awesome. I needed a laugh. By that logic, shift to 5th immediately, and stand on the throttle....give it a try for a tank and see what kind of mileage you get.

Keep in mind, your donor has an even WIDER track than his. So you will have width issues. Wheels don't come in high enough offset to use the GD suspension but keep the tires under Brat bodywork. Just for clarification, you sound like you're going to build a frame under the Brat body, and then attach the GD suspension to that. Right? You will do yourself a lot of favors by doing that. Stuffing EJ suspension under an EA body is a huge challenge at stock (or less) ride height. Especially the rear, as the suspension design is completely different. Now, I'm not going to lie to you, with the number of times I've seen these kinds of projects talked about, and even started....the odds are against you. BUT, the plan of using a custom frame to adapt the stock Brat pickup points to the GD suspension gives you a prayer.

Very cool, I've never seen a patch of frame replaced with tube like that....but I've seen the whole front clip made of tube....so I don't see why it won't work. Pretty cool idea to make a little extra clearance! And it looks like it's given you quite a bit of room where you needed it. Excellent work

Front diffs are the same for all 5MTs. So anything listed for a Subaru 5MT will work. I have a Carbonetic clutch-type (listed for an '02+ WRX) for the 5MT D/R that's going in my Brat. The Carbonetic has a very large case, and it will not clear the 1.59:1 low range gears, but it does clear the 1.19 set (RX trans), so I'll be using that. You can see the difference here, when compared to a stock, open front diff: Arrow pointing at the spot where it hits. Now it looks like most helical diffs won't have that problem. I've heard first hand reports of people using the OBX diffs without incident. Sweet write-up on improving the quality of an OBX diff: http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17129 I keep seeing these pop up on Ebay, looks like an OEM JDM helical diff. Probably pretty high quality, and looks like a lot of clearance for low range gears. Used...but I'd rather use this than an OBX one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/JDM-Subaru-Impreza-Front-torsen-LSD-helical-GC8-sti-wrx-diff-differential-ratio-/140930015529?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item20d0156129&vxp=mtr Thinking I might grab that, and build a 3.9, 1.59, PT4WD trans for my XT6 for RallyX use..... Also, AFAIK the Carbonetic is the only one that uses separate and/or OEM stubs, which is one of the reasons I chose it, so I will have 23-spline stubs in my Brat.

Yea, I looked into it quite a bit many years ago, and from what I remember, the XT6 is the same ratio as a standard XT, but the maximum steering angle was less (which probably would have been a good thing, I had an XT rack in my Loyale, and the tire rubbed on the frame rail in the front at full lock).

Did this throw a check engine light? Was the AT oil light on all the time? Did the transmission act like this consistently? I have very similar issues with a '99 Outback, shifts are kind of hard, and torque converter occasionally doesn't unlock when coming to a stop. But it only happens with the trans is cold, and only sometimes. No CEL, no AT oil light...I'm about to buy a new Duty B solenoid, assuming that it's sticking, but before I do that, I guess I'll check the TPS.

Most of your questions should be answered here: http://www.numbchuxconversions.com/Files/Harness%20info.pdf That's the page I sent out with my harnesses. There's only one fuel pump power wire. The fuel pump relay should be in the harness GD gave you.

If it's a remanufactured one, it'll say Duralast on the box, but it's a cardone. Same reman stuff you get from most parts stores. Pretty crappy quality from them. I'm kind of curious about the new ones (Duralast Gold on the box). I'm not sure who makes them, but completely different story, we've had almost zero problems with them, and they're not much more expensive. I believe they are available for the rear of an EA81, so I may try some on my Brat (no core either, so keep the old ones as spares).

The difference is in the harness. If you've got a 5MT harness, it will have the AT/MT identification pin in it (which should be grounded), which will tell the ECU that the vehicle is a MT. If you have an AT harness, it will not have that pin...

You sure? All the convertible subarus I know of were aftermarket.

Aftermarket Coilovers can be made to fit. The actual coil springs are larger diameter, and would likely slip off the spring perch on an EA82 shock.

It's a phase 2. The fact that it's dependent on the temperature of the transmission, I don't think it's related to the TCU at all, I think it's either a sticking solenoid, or the converter itself.

Looks great. I have not changed it, but I've only had the car for about 1k miles. I looks like it's been recently changed.

Trying to flip this car and it's giving me problems.... Occasionally, when the transmission is not up to temp, the torque converter will lock up and not unlock for a while. It will even stall the motor if you stop. If I were still driving it, I'd put some sort of test light in line with that wire to try to narrow that down, but the car is on a used car lot. The transmission works great otherwise. Any ideas?

It would either require extensive wiring modification to use the OB ECU and harness in the WRX, or a GD Impreza 2.5RS harness.... I, too, would recommend against it.

I've done it both ways. Pull the engine. Don't have to remove the exhaust, just unbolt it from the engine. Don't have to mess with the axles. It's also substantially easier to install the new clutch on the engine with the engine out, instead of lying under the car. You can either disconnect the Power steering lines, and cap them, or a little more work to just unbolt the pump from the engine and leave the lines connected but no worries about leakage. Drain the coolant system, pull the radiator. Remove AC compressor from engine and set aside (do not disconnect any lines....), remove bellhousing bolts, remove motor mount nuts, remove motor. Here's me doing a new clutch behind the EJ22e in my Loyale: It took me 4 or 5 hours, including driving to Northern tool and buying the hoist, and then assembling the hoist, and I replaced the oil pan.

Have a peek here: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/104872-bg-on-31s/ They didn't do quite as much lift as you're talking, but same idea. They had to run 1.5" wheel spacers, as the struts no longer tuck inside the wheel, but that's about it. Great way to do it. My brat is lifted with the same principle, just re-engineered for the EA suspension design.

Pretty neat But it really irritates me that there is absolutely no listed photo credit for any of them. Just some guy with some blog space doing some google image searching and reposting as his own.

This is how people die. I'll walk before anyone gets anywhere near my vehicles with a chain. The rear bumper on my Brat has 2" square tube (1/4" thick, IIRC) pounded easily 18" into the frame rails where the rear bumper mounts, and bolted with Grade 8 hardware in 4 or 5 places on each side. Then 2 pieces of tube welded onto that to tie it together. Then the ends of that square tube have holes drilled in them for a shackle and recovery strap to be attached. Here's an old picture, right after we finished building it:

Well, the symptoms sound like a burst line to me. Are you loosing fluid since the pedal feel changed? I would start looking under the vehicle for brake fluid coming out somewhere, there are quite a bit of lines in front of the rear wheels that are exposed to the elements, so I'd start there. Also look for brake fluid on the inside of your tires to see if a caliper/cylinder is leaking. The reservoir would have had to get quite low (empty, in fact) to pull air into the system. Which it doesn't sound like you let happen, but if it did, and you've got a bubble in the master cylinder, that would be a serious problem, and could require bench bleeding the master to clear it up. But if you're confident that you don't have a leak somewhere, start with a traditional bleeding, if you got air in from the reservoir, it will require quite a bit of fluid to be pushed through to get it out. As for the starting issue. Loyales tend to run too much amperage through the ignition switch itself, so the plug in the steering column tends to deform slightly, and then you get a bad connection. When it gives you trouble, hold the key in the "start" position, and then push up on the bottom of the steering column with your knee. It'll probably start right up.....I know mine always did.

The 225s I ran were on WRX 16x6.5 wheels, +53 IIRC. Most of the time I ran 215/45r17s on 17x8 +48s, which were Ok most of the time, but would rub on the fenders if overloaded (and my rear fenders were rolled flat). The hub is what locates the wheel in the fender well...so it doesn't matter. But I was running XT6 backing plates and caliper brackets and 200SX calipers

I was running XT6 hubs, rotors, etc.

Than yours is shot. On a few occasions, I've had a stock EJ 5MT AWD high centered, one axle on the ground, one axle in the air, and they've both spun together like true 4WD. On one particular occasion back when Austin had his WaterWagon II up here in northern MN. He had it stuck with both front tires hanging in the air, and both rears planted firmly on the ground. And the back tires dug some pretty good holes. I don't do almost any real mudding. But in the snow, I've never been let down by the center diff, usually front and/or rear depending on the setup. Or tires....

GAAAHHH!!! You changed your screen name. I'm not sure I can handle that