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That looks great! Those are usually called wing nuts, that's what I'd start searching for.

Enough failed axle boot grease, engine oil leaks, and road grime in the mix has a nice sticky thick paste on the crossmember that holds things pretty well. Funny story related. I got my legacy with a bad engine, swapped in another engine that turned out bad. Swapped in another engine, that turned out bad. And finally take that out to swap in the current engine. I always thought the crossmember was black, you know, to match the car. WELL, I somehow scraped some goo off by accident, and it was grey underneath. I thought I managed in scratching it to bare metal. NOPE! It's actually grey!! I had no idea...

Went to replace an axle boot today, and found out that there was, in fact, a stray ball bearing in my axle. Someone must have dropped an extra one in when assembling it. The hole in the axle boot is perfectly bearing sized, it must have gotten tired of centrifugal force and exited the boot. Which is unfortunate. But random dumb luck landed the bearing on the engine crossmember. Which has about 1/4" of grime on it, so the bearing just sat there until I found it. Weird as hell.

What years to look for?

So the pass inner boot on my GL keeps getting cooked, probably the cat is getting too hot and cooking it, or whatever. I'll make sure it's not overheating and make a shield. But that's not the point here, I need to replace the inner boot. I could go buy the cheapest one on rockauto like I usually do OR... Is there a better choice? Is there a boot that has more flex, heat resistent, wear resistent, or whatever that I should try? Or are they all more or less the same Also, I know automatic axles have different splines, but are the boot diameters the same? Ie. will an auto boot work on a manual axle.

I can understand wanting to keep the ea82 knuckles, etc. They're a lot more simple, and changing out the wheel bearing is a lot more simple too. It's a simple system that works well.

The x-member would be fine with some welding. Especially having a hole that close to the edge. Link to said adjustable rods?

Brilliant! I'm going to definitely give this a try. Though, for the engine crossmember I'll weld plate over the hole and just drill a new one. I wouldn't feel comfortable with it like that, this car sees a lot of rallx and high speed logging road abuse. I can't have that stuff breaking out in the woods or giving me a DNF.

I have some friends who don't feel safe or some crap riding in my car. It's loud and bouncy. But I think it looks awesome, it's a really amazing car. Not only that, I beat a few modified 2.5RS's at a rallyX last weekend Old and junky my arse, I love it. OH, and over the 3ish years I've owned it, a couple people have asked if they could buy it. I said $8,000, and they thought I was kidding.

Stainless is stronger, but more brittle.

Yea, I think you're right on that one.

Unless she's older than 30, you need to mod her to US spec

Hmm, I hadn't thought of it that way. The way I was thinking of it was like this. When 1 is at TDC compression, 2 is at TDC exhaust. At the same time, 3 is at BDC intake. and 4 is at BDC after firing. Turning the pass cam 180 would cause it to run as the 2 cyl. But, now you have me doubting that. I can't visualize the camshaft lobes in my head very well. Next time I'm in the garage I have an engine with the timing covers off that needs a rebuild or something. Still has compression on all cyls though, so maybe I'll mess around with that and see if it's even possible to get the compression at the same time on opposing cylinders.

Mail order bride?

Since this thread has turned into general chat on axles... I had a weird axle situation yesterday. I was at a rallyx with my GL. Opened the hood for tech checks, and sitting on the engine crossmember was a DOJ ball bearing. And after looking, a hole in the boot just big enough for a bearing to escape through. I have no idea when it went missing, but the drive there on the highway at 80, the whole rallyx, and the drive home on the highway it didn't click, vibrate, or make bad noise. How the hell does a bearing escape the axle, and then how does it not make driving unpleasant?

I didn't say don't bring them to the machine shop to have them checked, I merely said it is doubtful they need to be planed.

Did a rallyx in my GL. It was awesome, and I did pretty well. Ended up somewhere in the middle of the highest mod all wheel drive class. But that morning when I popped my hood for tech I found an axle DOJ ball bearing chilling on the engine crossmember. And a hole in the boot it came out of. It was fine all day, an was fine going 80 on the highway going home... I have no idea how an axle can spit a bearing, and just be fine like that.... Yet it happened.

Maybe it's rare, but I've had a car that's lived in Maine it's whole entire life. And I had a strut bolt that was so rusted stuck I actually twisted it in half in a valiant effort to get it out. It took lots of cheater bar action.... I don't want to know what my ball joints look like after that one.

It's doubtful the heads needed to be machined the first time. You should be fine just cleaning them up.

no. 1&2 would fire. The next rotation they would exhaust, the next rotation they would fire. That's how a 4-stroke works. So while 1&2 were exhausting, 3&4 would be firing, and vica-versa. So every rotation of the crank, every 360°, you have a fire stroke. It's correct that each bank only fires every 720°, but both banks are a phase off, or however you want to look at it. So every 360 it fires.

So how is the axle shaft held into the race? How do you get it back in again? Or is that the tricky part...

I have to be at a rallyx 2 hours away from home at 7.30 tomorrow morning... Just replaced the wheel bearing in my car. HAH. Bout friggin' time!

My ea81 takes about a gallon, maybe a tad more in the overfill with a radiator pull. And that's in an ea82 car, I don't know if the rad/heater core is bigger there.

It would fire 1&2 - 3&4. The coilpack is wasted spark, so that actually works out for this quite nicely. Each bank would fire every other rotation, which means you'd get a power pulse every turn of the crankshaft.