ea2ej fingers x

*If you just want build details you may want to skip this post as I decided to introduce myself and give some background before launching into the build. Also, it's raining so I don't want to crawl around taking pictures When I was 19 years old attending the University of Alaska Southeast, I bought a 1984 subaru turbo wagon and I loved that car. It met an untimely death at the hands of the salt air of Juneau, Alaska and a weak head gasket. A penniless college student, I couldn't afford to fix it's blown head gasket, and didn't have to equipment or know how to repair its frame. I always thought those old subarus weren't appreciated enough and I was eventually going to get back to one. Late last year, as gas prices continued to sky rocket, I found myself near tears filling the two tanks of my 1976 ford f150 (also a sweet ride btw), and decided to invest in a runabout that I could use when I didn't need to drive the truck to work. I searched craigslist for weeks trying to find the right subaru to fix up and drive. I snapped up a rusted out 87 gl-10 for $800. Very practical decision right? Here I sit $7000 later The project started with the 2" lift (I think most on this site refer to it as the "sjr lift" even if we just stole the idea and fabricated it ourselves But many thanks to SJR I then ran into the issue all old subie modifiers encounter: With the 2" lift, I want larger wheels and tires, and I can't find anything with this bolt pattern (other than some pretty horrid Peugeot wheels). So I drilled out to 6 on 5.5. Got some used wheels off craigslist and started driving it. It was a fun little rig, but two things happened at the same time that ruined me for the next 8 months. I started having some fairly major mechanical problems at the same time I came across Numbchux's manifesto on the ea to ej conversion. I got the bug bad. Every day I told myself, "take it slow, wait till the time is right, you really can't afford this right now". Two weeks later I had an 02 wrx engine, 5 speed transmission, seats, and the car was up on blocks in my driveway with a tarp over it I've always been mechanically inclined, but really knew nothing about subarus. Depending on your point of view I luckily/unluckilly had enough experience with tools that I was brave enough to think I could do anything, and the adventure began. I promise actual build details next time and less wind

Fair enough I will follow up with more detail soon. Truthfully, I'm a little a.d.d. and I would get so focused on the project I literally never took progress photos. I'm a general contractor and have been trying to build my website for 3 years, but the same is true there Anyway, the interior is far from done and there are still some mods and other tweaks I want to do, but I took it on its first long drive today and it was really fun. Definitely the most rewarding project I have done in awhile. I think the funniest thing is how many of us there are out there. Some people find a car like this unremarkable. Some people recognize it as something neat and different. And then there are the ones who will stop mid sentence, or change direction, walk up and need to know what you've done. Usually they have their own interesting build they are into. Once again, it's a super cool community of creative kids we have on these sites and I'm glad to know you-ish I can't post more pictures right now, but feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Holy Amazing dude! I thought I was getting in deep with mine, but that is possibly the coolest little subie concept I've seen. I need to see this someday

Hey all, I'm not going to go into great detail at the moment as the cobwebs are creeping in, but wanted to share the (near) finished beast you all helped me build. It's got the 02 drive train from engine through rear differential, wrx rear cross member (rear sway bar yet to be installed), 2" lift, intercooler hood scoop, drilled out hubs to 6 on 5.5, blended pedal assembly for the hydraulic pull style clutch (and kick rump roast wrx pedals;), wrx shifter, wrx front and rear seats, exedy stage 1 clutch, blitz nur spec r performance exhaust...I said I wasn't going to get too detailed, but I wake up a bit when I start talking shop Anyway, thanks to all for the wealth of knowledge you share on the site and I intend to help pay it forward. More to come...

Hey Cougar, I know this is an old post, but just wanted to say thanks. I had this same thing happen to me yesterday. My radio fuse blew (the one in the panel) either just as switched the car off or just as I was going to start it again. Whatever caused the radio fuse to blow must have given the whole electrical system a good because I had nothing, bupkis. All I had power to was hazards. Although that in itself was comforting. I figured it must not be too big a problem because subaru designed it so we wouldn't be stranded with no hazards I always wondered what that box was, and I lifted it up off the reservoir and wiggled the wires and whrrrrrr, the fuel pump comes to life (I had left the key in the on position). I didn't ask questions, got my rump roast home. It's funny, this problem is reported many times on many sites, and nobody on any other site mentions the fusible link. Oh and to be clear, I was searching on my phone, stuck on the side of the road without my USMB log in information. Didn't want y'all to think I was looking elsewhere first Thanks again Cougar and USMB!

Thanks Gloyale! That's amazing. I did a pretty decent search without having any luck finding information on the system. In the end, I decided to go with the T. Btw, you and Turbone were correct about the two tires it works on (I made a mistake last time I traced the lines), both those wheels were hotter than a pistol last time I drove it before eliminating the hill holder. The weird thing was, the hill holder was completely disconnected (other than being a pass through for brake fluid), you could turn the top hither and yon and it made no difference. It still grabbed after a couple compressions of the brake pedal. Anyway, thanks again for dropping the knowledge!

Most definitely Shawn. My girlfriend has the same complaints about me talking through my problems I intend to be more active in the future and will post pics for sure.

Sorry Presslab, didn't see your post. Just disabled it. Technically it was disabled in the first place as I did a frankenstein blend of the pedal assemblies from the two vehicles (mostly to accommodate the pull type clutch with hydraulic ram, but also because I like the new pedals I still don't fully understand the hill holder mechanism, but something was fouled up and I have faith in my ability to start on a hill

I will for sure. I'm out of town for the weekend so won't be able to finish:( But I should have her all done by the end of next weekend and I'll post some photos. She's a beast!

Mother Father I did! Drives like a dream Man, I was all kinds of befuddled thinking I had just reduced my beautiful 87 into a pile of crap, but alas I don't have to surrender my wrenches just yet. The hill holder was the culprit. I spent the afternoon in the sunshine putting trims back on. Pretty awesome day. Thanks to all for helping trouble shoot. Just when I thought technology was just out to ruin us, this forum comes along to prove me wrong. Seriously though, I've mostly been a browser on here for the past few months as I've toiled and tinkered away, but there are many awesome folks on here that are incredibly patient and giving of their wisdom. I'll try to stay tuned in and pay back any I can. Clearly I have a good buzz on. Promise not to say "I love you man". But I love you man

update: So I followed the hydraulic lines out of the hill holder and they appear to be going to both front wheels. Anyway, I removed the spring and cable linkage and cracked open both front bleeders. The passenger bleeder spit a good bit out. I released the parking brake and the car rolled easily in the driveway. I realize this is not conclusive by any means. My going theory right now is that the twisted spring on the hill holder had it stuck slightly engaged and as I drove the brakes heated up and expanded creating more friction. Once stopped the static friction was too much to overcome until the brakes and wheels cooled down (well too much to overcome while being careful I'm going to test drive in a bit. We'll see

Excellent point Turbone. Though it got me thinking about how freely it moves in the air. Rears, totally free. Front, not entirely. I attributed this to the fact that, with the 2" suspension lift, the passenger axle actually contacts the crossmember when on jack stands. Now I'm thinking maybe it was more to do with the hillholder. I am going to do some research on the hillholder directly, but if it only acts on the front circuit of the brakes, I think this may still have some merit. Especially given your point about it being jammed forward as that is what happened when I installed the engine and trans (I actually had to bend the lever back into something approximating original form). Obviously, I want it to be the hillholder rather than gear ratios Beyond that though, it makes no sense to me that a car manufacturer would build two cars in the same year, make, model, engine size/type, trans type, and then make a sub group of two different trans/diff pairings. Anyway, thanks for the reply. I'll let you all know what I find today

Thanks Tractor Pole, I will look into it.

Maybe your rear diff was from a 4EAT equipped car? Sorry, missed this on first read. The differential was definitely from a manual trans, as I pulled it and the shifter/pedal setup myself. Thanks again for the reply.

Thanks. Yeah, it's a bit befuddling because I don't hear or see anything release when I jack up the rig. I thought I might just remove the entire propeller shaft tomorrow and see if it drives fine in 2wd. If it does, I'll know the rear end is f-ed, and if it doesn't, hopefully hillholder and not transmission