wb 86

Seen EA82s run the derby many a time at the Sussex Fair back in my NJ days. Not a bad rig by any means. Generally an excellent car for the compact class. I would assume you can only use FWD as most of your competion has no other option. Its all in the driving skill and a Sube gives you a bit of insurance. Never doubt the construction of your car. As mentioned earlier thats why you drive in reverse. In the '99 fair competion the winner was driving an '86 Yugo GLX, the one w/ the cute little turbo. In the end he was the last car running. Doing do-nuts on the field making a fool out the rest of the competion. Nothing left of the rear, but he had 2 drive wheel moving him around and kept up the defence of his front end. Good Luck in Aug. Craig

If it is what I am thinking of, little canister plumbed in-line right in front of the tank by a bracket, then you can remove it w/ no adverse effect. The lines were all rotted so I removed it and re-did the lines w/ out it. Called my mechanic to verify that it wouldn't be a problem and ran the car like that for 2 yrs. until I sold it. Craig

Thats a clean brat for road salt happy PENNDOT. Lights look good, they affect cooling at all? The fairing, eh, it turned out OK in theory. However I don't know if it works on the brat either. Nice work overall:headbang: Craig

That was the first pic I saw. Looked at the componants, then the van, and smiled ear to ear. Looks good, like it coming out of the hood. A different take on snorkels. Craig

Lookin good. nice to see a sedan getting the treatment.

I like the attention to detail in the bed. Real clean looking vehicle. The Imp in the gallery doesn't look to bad either, a little rice, but a nice color. Craig

I think it would be kinda cool as well. If its yours do what you want with it. Who cares what others think. I've seen a lot of, IMO mind you, stupid things done to cars that were much worse than this idea. However since the cars weren't mine who am I to say "I can't believe they ruined a perfectly good......." . I say go for it. If you like it thats all that matters. Craig

^^ I've only seen them work by using the switch Craig

Don't waste your time with the converter, it won't last long. Spend your hard earned money on some POR-15. Follow the directions to a T and your rust worries will be over. Had a rust bucket that resembled a Trooper when I bought it, redid the frame, wheel wells, and the floorpanels with it. Then sold it to a guy in Poughkeepsie NY before I moved south. He has yet to see any hint of rust on the undercarriage. He gets compliments regularly on how nice and clean his semi-gloss black frame is.

The company uses base line of standard parts then modifies them for different vehicles. They can make kits for alot of cars cheaply this way even non-conventional rigs like brats. They also (I believe its them) make a universal kit that can be added to almost any car. You pretty much just replace the hinges and a few other door parts, ie. latches etc., w/ theirs and off you go. I unwillingly learned about them at Carlisle a few years back at the rice show. Used to be a guy had to fab parts for this on his own and that kinda made it cool and original. Now I've seen a few civics w/ this mod locally. To each his own I guess. Next gull-wing Subies . Craig

In my old Isuzu Trooper I used a RV leveling guage. I can't find a pic but it was flat with a pin that went from side to side depending on which way the rig was tilting. I got it at wal-mart in the rv aisle. It was cheap and looked cool (to me at least) but it was no where near as nice as the guages. Did the basic job though. It also was easy to calibrate, my Zu leaned a tad. Craig

I kind of like it, but I'm partial to the faux woody look, I had a 80's K-car wagon with similiar trim. The styling is so ugly and yet it grows on me, however far be it from me to comment on style and taste. Craig

Yes I was thinking as a consumer and not looking at the whole picture. All I was referring to was how bad Isuzus non-commercial division is partly due to GM and partly due to their to little to late actions. Comparing Subaru to the Isuzu consumer line. The commercial division and the high sales of the D-max pick-up in Asia is one of the few things keeping the company afloat. As to what Subaru could gain from this I don't know. Seperating Subaru from FHI for a second I don't see much for the car company either, but I'm not as educated in this matter as some of you. Perhaps, and I am just blerting this out off the top of my head, Subaru could benefit from Toyotas established racing division in some way. Again just a quick thought. Thanks Craig

I couldn't agree more. As a long time Isuzu owner I have seen what GM can do to a company through its poor partnership skills. See any Isuzu dealers in your town with a slew of new 4x4 models? Nothing but a rebadged Trailblazer and a few 04 Rodeos if anything on the lot at all. Fortunatley Subaru and the rest of FHI didn't become the next Isuzu. I will never bad mouth GM or the quality because I don't have much experience with them, although my new DD is a 99 Saturn SL and my first car out of college was a 97 SL2. Both of these were my only 2 GMs and they served me well. Simple A to B trasnportation Mon-Fri. However when it comes to GMs ability to merge/partner with another automaker I am more outspoken. The teams in charge of partnerships need to think more clearly before drawing up negociations. GM spent decades "helping" Isuzu gain a foothold in the US and gave little in return. The end result was Isuzu now has a worse reputation than when it began selling in the US and GM has a small pick-up (Colorado/Canyon) that is superior to its S-series based on Isuzu engineering (D-Max pick-up) which it gave Isuzu little in return.

Just got my copy today and was blown away, a great pic IMO. The fact they took the time to print it and give it a spot in the mag is a sign to how broad the mag is. As stated earlier they generally do an excellent job of covering "off-road" topics rather than specific rigs. The mag usually has a section covering ATVs, dirt bikes, and boats as well. A few months ago their cover vehicle was an Isuzu Amigo and they did a nice write up on the owner and his rig. (My first love is my 86 Trooper LWB) and prior to that I had a difficult time finding anything remotely related to Zus. Now Subes are getting some attention and perhaps the playing field will be a bit more level. Not that Jeeps, GMs, etc., are bad but most of us have seen them before and personally I feel its time for a positve change. I enjoy all rigs from a base Wrangler to a worked Nissan Patrol but we Subes need some more positive attention such as this article. My only hope is that ORA won't be getting a lot of "hate" mail for running that letter. Craig

my loyale has a slew of names, it seems like it gets a new one every week from my friends i.e. subcuker, lucky lindy, lagwagon, stokey, keg support, S.S. Rosie, greasel, roof rack jack, toolbox, the hearse, skeep, ingrid, lil' hottie, bandwagon, gig bag, liquor control board,the list goes on and on, most are not appriate for this board and over the years i've probably forgotten more than i will ever remember. However since my girl trashed her Daewoo in Nov. she has been using the loyale more than me and lovingly refers to it as her little pet "Turtle". Its wierd when random chicks come up to me and ask how the turtle is doing. I do like the extra attention from her friends though . Craig

I'm looking at purchasing a friends Legacy to use this summer while I do some minor body work and engine work on my Loyale. Since I'm pulling the motor and only get 2 days off a month, I need a daily driver while the Loyale sits in my garage. This will be my first EJ22 car and I have a few questions regarding it. It is a 2wd auto sedan. I know the motor is very reliable but what about the tranny? Any major issues? What was the first year for the legacy? 1990? Pros vs. Cons in general? Anything to look for with ej22? I know there has always been a lot of support for these motors, but is there a problem that stands out? Overall I liked the car when I drove it, a big change from my ea82 wagon, and am looking to buy it in the coming weeks. Thanks Craig

Well what ever it was its gone at least for now. I let my wagon sit in a garage and thaw out overnight and it seems to run fine and the noise is gone. The pump kicks over when I turn the key to the acc. position and then when it starts the pump is barely noticable and sounds like it has for the last 100K. Must of had something to do w/ the cold. It was 57 deg and raining on wed and thur Now its 9 deg and bone dry. Thanks Craig

I just got in to my hometown and thought I might check out a short trail that runs along the delaware river, bout a 1/2 mile loop, but has a bunch of deep ruts and frozen mud puddles. Much to my dismay roughly 100 yds in the trail is blocked with old telephone poles, prolly closed by the park service. So I just ran through the two deep puddles by the parking lot then turn around and headed home. I didn't flog my wagon to hard but on the pavement I heard a loud whirring noise that remained constant all the way home. It hasn't ever made this sound before but it sounds like a loud electric motor, possibly the fuel pump? It ran fine the 25 mile ride back to my rents house, no loss of power or stuttering or anything that might suggest a bad pump. Do fuel pumps make a noise before they go? Its after midnight but in my driveway I think I narrowed the noise down to the rear end of the car which led me to believe its the fuel pump. Can a pump be loud but still function properly? This may be irrelevant but its 10 degrees out and most of the under body got wet and there is some ice on the underside. I have all day tomorrow to figure it out and any suggestions on what could be making the noise are appreciated. After it sits tonight I'll start going over it on sat. before I make the 160 mile ride to my apt. Its a bone-stock 93 loyale w/ 168K on the odo. tia Craig

I did one on the left side when I replaced the CV shaft. I used a pit man arm puller to remove it and it was'nt to bad 10-15 mins. The hard part was getting the other end into the steering knuckle and getting everything to line up so it could be bolted back together. Got a lot of use out of the prybar. Craig

Mastercraft is the discount brand for Cooper tires. I forgot to mention this in my last post. The tread pattern is almost identical to Cooper's Discovery ( I think thats the name) tire. I think the side wall is only 4-ply as well, which I can see being a problem for some. I have yet to tear a side wall. I like them because they are a good all purpose tire and fit my broke college budget. Craig

I've run nothing but Mastercraft tires for the last 8 years on my 86 Trooper and have loved every set I've had. My mechanic gets them for me at his cost and the quality can't be beat IMO. Great traction off-road, in the winter on unplowed roads, and work great when it rains as well. My 'Zu gets roughly 48-50K out of a set, but my 4 wheel alignment is slightly out of whack. The Courser is an awesome tire as far as I'm concerned. Craig

Thanks, thats what I thought as well until I talked to his mechanic. I am all to familiar with the head problems on the EA82 and the cooling issues. I believe my friends car was not well taken care of before he bought it. Thanks Craig

What about head problems on the EJ22? Until recently I was a fan of them but a friend of mine just swapped motors because the 1 of the heads on his 91 Legacy cracked. The garage that did the work (we were pressed for time and couldn't do it ourselves) is run by a guy who loves Subarus and was recomended by a lot of Subaru owners. He said he does 2-3 head/motor swaps a month on early EJ22s because of regular internal cracks in the heads, something with a flaw in the casting on early EJ22 motors. Are there any years that are better then others? I am under the impression that this is a common problem on the early ones, so is it something that was corrected later? Overall I think it is a great motor but the head problem has me steering clear of them until I learn more about them. Thanks Craig