spazomatic

Oh yeah, lack of power sucks. My baja was beat from 0-60 by a prius! And the ol' GL has trouble getting out in front of an unloaded cement truck. Its better now with the 5 speed in it, but geez its still pretty pokey.

I dislike that the parking/E brake is on the front and that they no longer carry a high/low trans. (At least, here in the states) I love love love driving in the snow with either of my subarus. And no car can take a leadfooted teenage male drivers abuse like a subaru can.

I seem to remember reading of a factory recall, related to the fuel lines toward the rear...

I think you really need to do some reading. I recommend using google, type in your key words, as well as "usmb", and the threads seem to come up easier than using this sites search function.

Ive been dealing with the rodents that think my GL is section 8 housing. Its usually chipmunks that wreak havoc, but this time I caught a packrat (picture a mouse but 10x the size) that was living in the plenum, with an old Victor rat trap... Now i have the seats and dashboard out...havent quite got the plenum disassembled for cleaning. And im going to replace the 30 year old heater core while im in there. Freakin rodents. I talked myself into attempting to refurbish the dashboard since its out as well. Its in such bad shape. Huge cracks across the top and all that. Im going to try filling the cracks with low expansion foam, level it all out with coarse sandpaper, skim the foam with caulking, level it all out again, then apply a few coats of duplicolor bed liner, then finish it all off with matte/satin tan paint. Hopefully it'll turn out okay. Cant look much worse than it does now. And ill take pics!

Another option is to convert the rear brakes to disks that have an e-brake (theres a couple write ups here about that) and then add a 2nd parking brake handle, and separate the cables. So you'd have one handle per rear wheel, and could manually lock up one side or the other, on the fly.

I once assembled a 2 post "Rotary" brand lift, and it came with a bunch of nylon blocks to level it with. I was thinking, "youve got to be kidding me", figuring that nylon was in no way going to be able to bear all that potential weight. Well guess what, it works just fine, and is impervious to petroleum products. If reducing weight were that important to me, i would totally do it and not give it any more time worrying about it.

Im not sure of the numbers, but i know that Isuzu (what im using), and most toyota 6 lug rims do stick out further. Roughly 1.5" more. If you go that route, be prepared to use a sawzall! The tires WILL interfere with the fenders if ya dont cut. Im of the opinion that using wheels that give you a wider stance, increases the stability of the car too. I swear i can take corners faster than i could with the stock size. Attached is a pic to show where the tires end up in relation to the fenders (and just cuz i like this pic)

Not trying to sound like a wiseass but, tape measures or vernier calipers come in handy for this type of dilemma.

I drilled and tapped that water port for a pipe plug, then used a 2 part epoxy over that. So far, so good.

I got mine at rockauto. They were even the right ones!

About 1 quart total, (about 2 pints for you metric fellows) over several minutes. I dont know if thats "correct", but thats how an old gearhead showed me. I always thought it sounded odd, pouring water through a carb, but it works! I still will use seafoam, added to the fuel as maintenance, to help mitigate the negative effects on the E-85 (ethanol mix) we have to use around here.

Seafoam will work, but water works just as well or better for removing carbon deposits from the combustion chamber.

Mine started puking oil out through the shift shaft seal...and i quickly found out that parts for the old 4 speed just arent available. At least, not the seal i was looking for. Have you checked rockauto or local parts houses? I bandaided mine by taking the seal out and filling its void on the back with RTV, then reinstalled. I had no hope it would leak less, but it did! Still leaked a little, but bought me some time. This is yet another reason to consider swapping an EA82 5 speed in.

Using a sealant on the gasket is fine, but if the surfaces are true, you do not need it. The only time I'll add some sort of sealant to a gasket is when there's a coolant crossover. And again, they do not need to be overly tight.

The weber i bought used wasnt exactly flat on the bottom, and neither was the adapter. The adapter i trued up with sandpaper taped to plate glass, and with the weber base i carefully went over it with a broad flat file. Both the adapter and carb really only need to be a snug fit, i cant remember the actual torque value....but if you're tightening them so much that you are worried about breakage, that may very well be part of the problem.

Pics would be helpful...but yeah, i probably would. You could make out like a bandit if ya wanted to fix'n'flip it.

Beat me to it

Awesome! I love those random adventures old cars put us through! I had an incident (though not nearly as dramatic) right after i got my 5spd put in. I was roaring down a curvy dirt road testing it out, and i went to slow down and the throttle was stuck! Hit the brakes with a corner coming up, but it wasnt enough to slow me down so i killed the ignition....and locked the steering wheel up! My ignition switch is really freakin picky about how far the key is inserted, and i couldnt get it unlocked. Locked up the brakes, slid sideways-ish into a ditch. No damage. It was the vacuum idle compensator for when the AC or defrost vents are on. Id modified it to work with my weber, and it did work, but this time went way way too far. (I blame the brand new vac hose i installed) So instead of fixing it, i went ahead and just disconnected it. We dont need them fancy doodads. I was thinking fixing the ignition switch, but nah. Its a good theft deterrent!

im curious why it has such low mileage. be sure everything electrical works, and is intact. look for amateur hackjob electrical repairs too. otherwise, if it runs and drives and isnt making any death noises...for $625, buy two!

its making me rethink the transmissions i have in other vehicles too. the old NP435 in my beater Dodge could be upgraded to an NV4500 (the 3-4 shift on the 435 is a stupid long stretch) I could replace the C4 in my old bronco with a ZF or NV3500. (3 spd automatic to 5 spd manual) damned snowball effect is gonna be the death of me. I have too many projects

Im sure its so they arent assuming a "hypothetical" liability. They make their money on the meat and potatoes of new sales and installs, so see no need to cater to the rare exceptions where the situation is less than ideal. I see their point from a legal standpoint, doing business in a world that is so freakin litigious! But still, you'd think they could offer a liability release form that a customer could sign, to cater to us in the real world living with less than ideal situations.

Well in my case, i didnt have a 5spd crossmember to use. I usually make all my own mods, but in this case i really just didnt feel like it to be honest. I have irons in too many fires really, so didnt have a whole helluvalot of time to mess around with it. That, and i still need to replace my mig welder that went belly up several months back. So many excuses! And it doesnt get much easier than cleaning the parts and shipping them out with a check! Maybe im just getting lazy(er). But Gloyale, that does sound like a solid, simpler way to go about it

I used the 4 speed crossmember, modified by bratsrus (jerry) to accept modified 5 speed rubber mounts. I have no idea if the automatics crossmember is any different.

Are you driving an older sube with a 4 speed manual? If so, then whatever it is you are doing at the moment, put it down and go put a 5 speed in your car right now! Took mine out to stretch its legs last night; i have to say that this is by far the best modification i have done to this car so far. I thought the 4 speed was okay, i tolerated it alright and wasnt worried about it...figured id just upgrade once the ol' 4 speed went belly up. And thats what i did. But driving the car now with the improved gear spread is so much better. Words cant express how nice it is to have gear ratios that actually put the engines RPMs where they need to be! Had i realized how great an improvement it would be, it wouldve been one of the 1st things i did. Im not even kidding. Do yourself a favor and make it happen!