skishop69

Back and forth (in and out) movement is normal It's called endplay. If you have access to a dial indicator, it should be .0004-.0037 in. If it's more than that, the #2 thrust bearing is worn. End play won't cause a leak though unless it's terribly horrific. There should be no up and down play (lateral). If there is, the #1 (and most of the other) bearing(s) is toast. Pull the seal back out and inspect the crank snout like John said. Look for a groove in the snout. If it has one, go to NAPA and tell them you need a sleeve and seal kit for your car. That will take care of your problem. If there's no groove, check the case halves and make sure there are no nicks or gouges where the seal seats. If there are, you can apply a little Permatex Ultra Grey to that area and the same section on the seal and install. Let it cure 24 hours and you should be good. Remember, when you install the seal, you need to use only enough force to get it to move inward slowly. Try using a 3/8" drive extension to install it. If you're not experienced installing this way, it's possible the 1/4" drive cupped the seal and popped the spring off the back side (+1 again John) Keep it as level as possible when installing. Don't let it get cocked off to one side or the other. Once you get it started, tap it in in a circular motion around the perimeter of the seal.

Yes. Bring it back to TDC and zip tie the t-belts to the cam pulleys. Mark the position of the belts on the crank pulley with white paint or similar. Take the tension off the belts and pull the lower drive gear. Remove the seal with a small pick tool and reinstall carefully with a 12/4" drive extension and hammer. Seat it flush to the case. Install the crank sprocket lining up the marks you made earlier. Good to go.....

It's an internal failure of either a capacitor or the time/frequency ROM on the clock circuit. It might even just be a bad solder joint. You could look for a cold (cracked) solder joint with a magnifying glass, but the other two require test equiptment, schematics and experience troubleshooting down to the component level. There are still one or two places in the country that work on older digital dashes (or at least 'were' last year). Have to do some searching to find them though.

Is it Ft pr PT 4wd? If it's part time (and it should be) you will see no gains in fuel economy and would be wasting your time pulling everything. Should you want to continue, yes, the rear output shaft will leak. You can't just stuff a plug in it as there is nothing to keep it from popping out. Yes, you will have to install rear stubs to keep the bearing preload. IE, stop them from flying off the car while you drive. Either way, if it were FT, you might see maybe 2mpg. Still not worth the effort in my opinion.....

Awesome pic Subaruguru!

I agree. Too many people have zero clue how or what to drive in this weather and should STAY THE HELL HOME! Driving in the snow and ice requires correct FORWARD momentum. You don't drive slow around a banked corner covered in ice. You WILL slide down sideways and get stuck. You also don't come creeping up a hill from the bottom at 5-10mph. You're NOT GOING TO MAKE IT!!! You will then proceed to try to back down and do it again at which point during one of the attempts, you're going to slide, pinball, and most likely wreck causing more idiots to slow down, freak out and repeat your artistic parking job. If you start to slide on a corner or fish tail, let off the gas and make small corrections. DO NOT: Jam on the brakes and yank the steering wheel! That is as smart and effective as giving yourself a root canal. In fact, you should use your brakes as little as possible on snow and ice. Downshift (even you autos) or put it in neutral and cost down with minimal braking. If (God forbid) you own a rear wheel drive, ALWAYS put in neutral when coming to a stop on compact snow and ice. It will stop your engine from overpowering the 60/40 split to the rear brakes and keeping the rear wheels moving while the front wheels lock up, slide, point you in the direction of the nearest immovable object and strike said object with no regards to your intentions. Thus concludes winter driving 101. Next time we'll look at how to drive home with a cell phone lodged in your rectum....

Well, we got our usual Seattle snow that has shut everything down causing people to abandon there vehicles everywhere. Yes, 3" of snow shuts everything down! I grew up in Montana driving in this stuff so I love to watch the mayhem and whip around having fun. I had to go shopping for T-Day last night so as usual I took the Brat. Something about the weight/power ratio and traction makes it stick to damn near anything. I was passing people stuck everywhere including guys in trucks a SUV's. We all love our Subies and this is one of the reasons. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Frickin awesome! lol So I guess my 136'' Cats would fit in the Brat. And, I'd be able to use one to pull the Brat out after I get stuck at the sno-park. Tried a small trailer and sled one year with not so good results.... Turns out there's this weight/traction ratio thing working against it. The sad part is our sleds have more HP than our Brats.

Did not know that trick! Filed for future reference.....

Order online. You'll have to do a search for automotive wire. No one I know (local) carries more than 4, maybe five colors.

Ok, different matter then. It'll set codes, but won't affect the overall performance with anything notable. So no biggy.

Best thing to do with that IF you are going to build one, is this. Take the whole mess to a Subie dealership and ask them if you can go through their terminal selection to find the right ones for all the different connectors. (a GM dealer would work too as I have noticed many of our terminals are the same as the older Subes) Get yourself a terminal removal tool, correct crimpers, a sh*tload of wire in multiple colors and a soldering iron. Lay out the old harness and remove one terminal at a time. Crimp on a new terminal to a new wire then solder to make sure it's secure. (An unseen poor crimp can wreak havoc and make you pull your hair out trying to find a problem.) Follow that original wire to it's other terminal and crimp the correct new terminal to the new wire and plug it in. Repeat for the rest of the harness. Be sure to have at least two extra of each type of terminal. Probably a good idea to have a bottle of Captain Morgan (or some such equivalant) at hand as well. Restringing and building harness' from scratch is frustrating.

Not 100% sure on the EA82, but if Subaru followed federal emission standards as they would have had to, then no. The systems are designed to monitor egr flow and control via any of the following: O2 changes, vacuum changes, DPFE feedback or MAF. You may be able to do away with the EVAP because I don't think they had a fuel tank pressure sensor or similar device. Best thing to do on that one is leave the purge canister and valve in place and hooked up electrically. Just cap off the lines to disable. If you unplug the solenoid, it will set a code. Bear in mind a few things here: This is considered emissions tampering and is illegal. No, the emission police aren't going to come after you, but there is always the possibility. Second, if you are in an emissions attainment area, you would fail a visual inspection and not be able to get tabs until you returned the system to original OPERATING condition. And last, even if the just do a sniff with no visual, disabling either will affect tailpipe readings at both idle and cruise depending on which one you disable and conditions during the test. I'm not saying don't do it, just giving food for thought. I have an '85 lifted Suburban with a '78 SB400 retrofitted with TB injection and no emissions equipment. 350hp and a separate PROM for said testing to de-tune it so it passes. Of course, it just passed the 25 year mark so now I don't worry.

SJ, I fully understand you're point. As I said earlier, it's your rig and I agree everyone's taste is different. I have seen lowered Brat's before. Someone posted that restored Brat that was slammed, lambo doors and metallic green. I loved that. I still think it was sacrilage, but it was sweet. I do tend to be strong in my opinions, and for that I do apologize if it came off harsh. Carfreak: "Qman and I are saying the opposite. I reclocked the rear torsion bars by a single tooth." So, reclocking the torsion bar in the housing is not the same as reclocking the trailing arm on the torsion bar? Is the spline count different from the inside to the outside? Rides rough you say? That's the reason I won't lower anything. I like my spine straight and my a** not beat flat....

Which is what I put in my other post. We moved it one spline to lower it and had bad results. We had no intention of leaving it that way, we just had too much time on our hands and were screwing around. To Caboobaroo.... My eyes! My eyes! Oh the humanity!!!

I know about the adjustment, though I don't consider the 2" you get from that to be lowering. When people say 'lowering', I think slamming. I have nothing against lowered vehicles in general. A lot of them are pretty damn sweet. Just kinda purist on the Brat is all....

Ok, so how did you lower the rear without modifying or changing the position of the trailing arm on the torsion bar? The reason I ask is that I toyed with changing the positions both up and down with my second Brat years ago and found that when down (lowered) that it rode on the bump stops, had no spring tension in the rear equating to a lot of 'slop' and when driven over 40 mph, any bump more than slight caused the thing to swerve all over the road. And to answer the impending question: No, there were no other bad suspension issues. New shocks, struts and ball joints. And BTW, I currently have four Brats and would never think of turning any one of them into a 'rice burner'. Yes, it's true I believe it's sacralige to lower a Brat, put on coffee can exhaust, oversized dash tach, shopping cart handle on the bed and whatever else. I didn't voice my opinion in the first post because I do believe everyone is entitled to do as they wish. It's their taste and vehicle. I hate to see a Brat ill modded to a point where the resale and intrinsic value are all but gone due to the amount of work it will take to return it to 'stock' form. To paraphrase something GD posted the other day, excellent condition Brats are bringing close to $10K at auction. I haven't seen a one that was lifted, lowered, screwed, glued, etc. that's come anywhere close to what the stock ones go for. These vehicles have reached icon status and are scarce to come by in good shape and only getting fewer and farther between. I have one that's almost beyond restoration, so it's going to get lifted with an ER27 conversion. The cost to bring it back is too much compared to making it sake for wheeling. In the instance you possess a rig like that, go for it. It's already toast. Sorry, didn't mean to go off and don't mean to sound hoity-toity, but Brats hold a value far higher than any other EA81 and it's clearly reflected in the resale prices. JMTC... it is his Brat...

Sorry, but +1..... And I already know it's coming... "To each his own." Without permanent alteration to the rear suspension, thus destroying it's value, there is no way to lower it. You COULD *cough* take the trailing arm and move it counter clockwise on the torsion bar, however this would result in no rear spring tension and you would be riding on the bump stops. It would also pose a definite safety risk. In short, PLEASE don't....

Your idea to back flush is right on. You can have the cleanest coolant in the world, but you never no how bad the last monkeys abused it. All it takes is a fine layer of silt on the core passages and there goes your heat transfer. Just did mine for the same reason, and I'm cookin' now!

+1 And, if you're going to swap to a manual (which is a given considering a turbo automatic is utterly worthless...) you should get hold of an EA82 5spd d/r and swap that instead of the 4 speed. So worth it, especially with the turbo.

Using a vacuum bleeder and having air being 'pulled in' around the bleeder screws is normal on older vehicles. The bleeder screw seals against the caliper at the bottom of the bore. It doesn't seal with the threads. Chances are you've now got air trapped in the master cylinder since you left the line hanging open. Get someone to put the brake pedal to the floor, then crack open one of the MC lines. Have them keep the pedal on the floor for a few seconds, then close the line. Have them release the pedal and repeat until you get steady fluid from that line. Repeat the process for the other line on the MC then bleed the brakes at all four corners in this order: RR, LR, RF and finally LF. I know you only opened the front, but it's best to be sure.

Because you can't do a rear end slide (drift) with front e-brakes..... DUH!

"i need a beer for even posting something so ridiculous you are wasting time as this is all covered in the owners manual." Well, I think you had plenty of beer before replying. Not to mention, we Brat owners are aware of the t-torx anyway, so again to quote.... "i need a beer for even posting something so ridiculous you are wasting time as this is all covered in the owners manual." Why is it someone is always getting pissy about something that is usually insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I'm guilty too, but I usually go off AFTER someone has tweaked my nuggets.... BTW, good job on the brackets Jon!

Thank you GD!!!!!! Someone who knows you don't add sealant of ANY KIND to factory gaskets. I get so tired of cars coming into the shop where somebody used blue or orange rtv on a water pump, valve cover gaskets or worse yet, on silicone or neoprene gaskets. If it didn't come from the factory that way, DON'T DO IT!!!. Not chewing anyone here out, it's just my pet peeve. Sorry to jack the thread.......

They were welded in place at the factory. Quick release can be done by retrofitting hinges and hook pockets from any GM with removeable rear seats starting with the mid 80's Suburban 3rd row. You'll need some fabbing skills to do it, but it's not bad. The other way is a piece of 4"x4"x1/4" plate steel drilled and tapped for the appropriate sized bolt. Put the seats where you want them and drill in 4 places through the mounting frame and down through the bed. Put the plates on the underside of the bed and run the bolts through tightening them to the plates you drilled and then stitch weld the plates in place. Four bolts and they're out with no help. I've dome it both ways. I prefer the bolts. Less fabbing. And use grade 8 bolts with plenty of anti seize....