stinky

ended up getting something newer ... now have a showroom condition 03 WRX wagon, 60k in my driveway ... just over $8k

thanks Will. Some excellent info. I drove it for about 15-20 minutes and had it idling for about 10 beforehand while I was checking it out. I might take a meter with me and try do some voltage measurements to get a good guage of the alternator/battery. I think battery had a bit of fur built up around the connections as well, so that wouldn't help. Will definately check the FWD fuse, I remember seeing it in the engine bay and I thought it was a button, had no idea it was actually a fuse holder.

Just test drove a '96 Outback ( auto, 2.5L ). It's got 130,000 miles on it. Super clean in the engine bay and had what looked like new leads going to the coil packs. CVs/boots looked good all round. interior was pretty clean. Heaps of power, I test drove a '02 legacy just before and it was a wet rag compared to the outback. BUT there was a pulsating noise at anything over 40mph, but sounded clean revving right through in neutral. Also with all accessories turned on while at idle it would occasionally have a relay click and the following would happen: ABS light on, tacho to 0, radio cut out, every time revving up would bring it all back. Price was $2950 which is a bit cheaper, but not much than average. I'm leaning towards walking away from it and waiting for a better one to come up, but if anyone has any thoughts on the problems above I might reconsider if they seem easy to fix and/or harmless. Suggestions I've had so far on these issues are :- - Pulsating noise could be the tyres too. ( flat spot from sitting ) - tailshaft out of balance or dud uni joint or a wheel has thrown a weight. -earth and battery connections, when the alternator isn't making enough power at idle to drive everything the battery should make up the difference, but if it's a bad connection you'll see what you're seeing now, usually worse if the headlights are on too. Originally I was thinking of walking from it... but I've test driven a few newer cars at a much higher price, and every one of them had some issues, at least if I buy it cheap I can spend some money fixing it ( probably at mechanics as I don't have tools or space right now ) and still be better off.

Brilliant info! thanks phiz! a quick question : can I remove the low range from the front of shaft or does the whole lot need to come apart ? Also the tab that bolts to the front of the box on it has a snapped section so only has 2 bolt holes. Can it be pulled off the front to be swapped out with a good one. OOOh, also can I swap the dual range gear for a dual range from 4spd gearbox? I assume the dual range gear is the bigger of the two.

What I have there is an abandoned project that I bought from ebay. It consisted of a fully intact single range fulltime box. an empty gearbox ( with a fulltime rear attached to it ) and the internals from two gearboxes, one fulltime ( assume single range ) and one part time ( assume dual range ). I found a 3.7 sticker on the empty gearbox. I'm trying to make a fulltime dual range box out of it. At this stage I'm not too concerned over the low gear as it's for my road car. I don't even need the dual range, but figure I might as well if I can. btw, I don't suppose you could photoshop one of the images and put arrows to which bit is what?

A few weeks back I acquired 2 gearboxes from ebay. 1 was a single range ea82 Fulltime box. The other was an empty shell with two sets of internals, 1 part-time, 1 full-time. This is the second gearbox with some gears in it. What have I made ? I'm hoping to end up with a dual range fulltime box, but in reality have no idea what I'm doing. Gearbox photos

Thanks! I missed one of the bellhousing bolts. is apart now

I've pulled off the rear casing, unbolted all the bolts holding the two sides together. I can't split it though! The rear splits okay but the front is stubbornly staying together. Do the CV splines need to be removed somehow? I think maybe they're holding onto the diff keeping it together or something ? help!

The dude that runs SubaruBrat has a great writeup on custom rear hanger. write-up

I'm running 10psi boost on in mine using the turbo from a ea82t , a Wolf3d ECU and TMIC. as I said earlier 120HP at the wheels, anyone know roughly what that would be at the flywheel ?

Almost exactly like mine!

oh and of course the old cut down screwdriver for a CV pin punch.

I've got a hollow tube with a long bolt ( well more like threaded rod, there's no head on the bolt ) through it and a castle nut either side of the tube ( one end is closed up with a hole for the bolt ). The nut on the inside of the tube is welded to the thread of the bolt. It pulls CVs through the front assemply by threading the welded nut onto it, and then using the nut outside the tube to wind the bolt back. I also have a tool for doing up the castle nuts, it's a long piece of hollow square welded to a piece of metal with the appropriate socket cut out of it. It's long enought that almost no effort is needed to crack a castle nut.

There's a lot to be said about keeping the car as stock as possible, especially in places where the modifications rules are nice and strict. I've got an ea81t in my brumby (brat) with an aftermarket ECU (wolf3d) I get 120HP at the wheels and all that's been done to it is a TMIC, better cat back exhaust and turbo from ea82t. Oh and 5spd d/r gearbox. At some stage I want to put in custom headers ( like the TWE ones ) custom dump pipe, and good mandrel bent piping for the IC. I can spin the front wheels all the way into third gear. I love it, gives me plenty more juice, but stays completely legal. However, If I was doing it from scratch with what I know now, I'd definately be putting in a worked EJ22, or an EJ turbo depending on what was avaliable.

Yeah, zip ties work alright, I've used them before with no dramas. just get the big chunky ones that you can swing off to get it nice and tight. Never tried big hose clamps, might do so next time I need to open a boot.