Scoobywagon

Zeppelin and Floyd are my general purpose wrenching bands. If I'm having trouble with something, I go right to Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, etc. Also like the ZZTop and (sometimes) Bob Segar.

Just to point out...the previous posts assume that your dash harness is in decent condition. Mine was not. I didn't want to rewire everything, so I ran a fused line from the battery to the deck's power wire, tapped into the 'run' side of the ignition for switched power, and replaced the speakers. Scosche makes a dash kit to help retain your deck. Shouldn't be more than $15-20 at your local stereo shop. You'll want to make sure you get that because your radio console is not deep enough to get a modern deck to seat properly.

Well, while it COULD be construed as murder, the car had a bad tranny and, as such, was technically dead. It could, therefore, also be construed, not as murder (or vehicular homicide), but as a simple Post-Mortem operation. Sort of like harvesting viable organs from a donor. People do that all the time.

The Merkur XR4tI had, IIRC, a reversed engine. It was FWD only in north america, but I believe there were some Euopean examples to be had with AWD...

Assuming I can get my wheel bearings done (right), wife and I are DEFINITELY in!

Those aren't bad, but I suspect you won't be terribly happy with their performance in snow/ice, either. The close tread pattern will tend to pack the snow (my experience, anyway). Had a set of those (31x10.5-15) on my 85 Suburban 4x4. Good general purpose tires and they worked pretty well in the snow so long as it wasn't very deep (less than 3-4 inches). I've forgotten what I replaced them with, so I guess I really don't have a good alternative for you....guess I'll shut up now!

Since you have now launched yourself on the path towards self destruction, please print out the first post in this thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12938 and give it to your wife/girlfriend/significant other. He or she will greatly appreciate it! oh yeah...welcome to the board, and abondon all hopoe of recovery. Subaru addiction is usually terminal.

There is a bearing in the top of your strut that allows it to turn as you crank on the wheels. If that bearing is dead, it would explain both the effort required to turn the wheel as well as the grating and thunking noises you mentioned. The problem lies in the fact that a replacement strut will not be adjustable, so you either have to replace both struts or find an OEM strut that's in better condition than the one you have.

Every time I get to this point, I have to look at my alternatives. Currently, my 83 is in need of 1 CV shaft, all 4 front wheel bearings, all 4 tie rod ends, and a BUNCH of suspension and steering bushings. It'll cost me about $215 in parts and 2-3 days of work (never done most of this). Or, I could spend ~$700 and one day to take it to the local tire shop and have them do it. The other option would be to take the money I would spend on repairs and put it towards another car. However, $700 isn't much of a down payment on anything and the only thing it'd buy outright would be something nearly as old. I'd just be inheriting someone elses problems, some of which I'd be entirely unqualified to fix. IN this case, I already know what has gone into this car. I know what has been fixed and I know what is likely to break in the near future. So, I'll blow a couple days of vacation to get the car fixed.

Well, I've finally decided to find a wagon for my wife. The question I have is about interior space. Which has more, an EA-82/Loyale or a Legacy? The legacy looks larger on the outside, but somehow looks smaller inside. Any thoughts? BTW, whatever I get must have 4wd (or AWD) and a manual trans. She's german and, as such, has a genetic hatred of auto's.

AS far as I can tell, Subaru has never released a van to North America outside of the 360, which really wasn't a van so much as a really big lunch box with wheels.

Does anyone make a set for the EA81 wagons? Almost all of mine are shot (both cars) and the 83 is REALLY bad. I'm gonna have to take the front end apart at some point in the (relatively) near future to replace one cv shaft, both ball joints both outer tie rod ends, brakes, and I'm probably forgetting some other stuff. Anyone have a good part number? Thanks!

The addiction strikes again....another life struck down before its prime...oh wait...what am I saying? Congratulations on the new car and welcom aboard!

I can help, too. Not much of a graphic designer, though. The backend stuff is more my domain.

Those things are just snake oil. Utter crap. And just so you know, yes, they do show impressive HP gains on the television. But many times, the way they do it is they will do a dyno pull with the car in fourth gear. Then they install their little device and do the pull again in third gear. Of COURSE you're gonna get a higher HP number!!!

Well, I'll start by apologizing to anyone who may have shown up at the Issaquah McDonald's to wait for me. We were sorta running late...got there about 9:30. Ooops. Anyway, no one there by then, so we went on up the Highway to Tinkham rd. Found a nice spot to take a quick pic. And throw the dog in the water. Had some fun, but nothing real serious. Just enough flinging the car around to get the fenders a tad muddy and bend/break something in the steering. Not sure what that's about, but now something is a bit loose up front. Anyway, we got done playing around on Tinkham and decided to go up the mountain a bit further and try to find some snow. Got to the summit, still didn't see anything, so we decided to head over towards alpental and just hike the little trail up to Snow lake. Apparently, the roo was offended by this and chose to eat its alternator belt. No problem, I'll just slap another on there....except I didn't bring one...and the nearest one was 25 miles away. Fortunately, we had a convenient tow service! Anyway, thanks to the help of an Issaquah local (driving a Tahoe), I got my new belt and was back on the road in no time. Anyway...had a bit of an adventure, and yes...the dog actually pulled the car. Well, ok...not 25 miles, but he still pulled the car!

not sure where we'll go, but my wife and I decided to go find some snow anyway. So...we'll be at the Crackdonald's in Issaquah about 9. We'll have a dog with us, so we're planning to go find some snow and then play in it! We'll hang out for a short while at the micky D's, and then head on out. If you'd like to join us, we'd be pleased to have you!

Well, I'd love to come, but if you guys are gonna go out on Saturday, I can't come at all. I'd hafta leave kinda early on Sunday anyway, cuz I gotta be at work by 4. Oh well...maybe next time.

I'd love to come, but I'd be the slow one. Bone stock 83...oh wait...its harleyfied, so thats good for like....25hp, right? Anyway, My wife and I will be there. McDonalds, Enumclaw, 9:30 am, 7 Nov 04! Got it,

In an 81 wagon, you should be able to just pop the center horn pad off. Its just sort of press fit. After that, there's a 19mm nut that retains the wheel. Just make your alignment mark, remove the nut pull. YOu might have to tug at the wheel a bit, as they sometimes get a bit sticky.

What year is the vehicle? My 83's have the fusible links in a little gray box mounted just behind the battery on the passenger side fender. My 81 just has them hanging inline on the wiring harness off the battery. Don't know about the links on the EA82 cars. IF you sparked the battery wires, odds are you cooked a fusible link. Check to make sure you have power at the little spade connector with the key turned to start. If you do, then odds are you have a bad starter (been known to happen). If not, then you've probably got a bad fusible link (assuming that all the fuses are good, and they should be).

My 83 had that problem. I'd be driving along and all of a sudden, power would just go away. the car would start bucking, like it wasn't getting fuel. But if I let off the gas, it would go back to idle very nicely. Sometimes, it would just up and die. It turned out to be a combination of a dying fuel pump and low voltage at the connector for the pump. Things got a little weird here, but I replaced the pump and went looking for my voltage drop. Turns out that the connector on the fusible link box was loose. The copper wire had corroded to the point where the connector wouldn't hold it any more. That has a tendency to exchange amps for voltage, which caused my fusible links to start burning. And with the car running, it was drawing enough power across this mess that voltage would drop to between 6 and 8 volts at the pump. I bought a set of marine battery terminals and ran 4ga to the starter, 8ga to the fusible link box. Problem solved.

the ONLY way I'm paying $3200 for an unmodified brat is if somebody just scrubbed 20 years worth of cosmoline off it. Probably help if the body was gold plated or something....

Brian jacked 2 packs of blades from his job. There will be some more cutting, I'm sure, since I still can't seem to figure out a non-destructive method to extract the wiring harness. Still want the tranny, or can I experiment on it?

Ok...well, I got my 83 T-wagon almost completely stripped down now. Gonna pull the motor and tranny tomorrow, I hope. Engine is looking kinda rough, so I've decided to tear into it and put a fresh rebuild on it before I try to put it in another car. But I've been thinking that if I'm gonna be tearing into it anyway, maybe I should do some nice go-fast stuff to it while I'm in there. I'm not looking for 4000 horsepower or anything, but I'm thinking I can get up towards the 150 range. So...I'm looking for opinions. Anybody ever put an XT6 throttle body or MAF on an EA81T before? My thought was to use the larger throttle body and MAF along with a TD04, intercooler and boost controller. I think that would deliver enough air, but fuel becomes a problem at that point. Anyone know how much fuel the stock injectors can deliver? Would it be better to upgrade the existing injectors or simply add on some additional injectors upstream (top or the manifold, maybe)? I think I'd want to upgrade the fuel pump either way. More fuel pressure and more volume. Heck this is probably already getting beyond my skills. I'm having enought trouble getting the wiring harness out of the car. *sigh* one more long term project, I guess....