diluded000

The red wire goes to ground. Without it connected the RPMs would surge about every 2 seconds, but when the red lead is connected to ground everything get smooth. I adjusted the throttle cable after I connected the solenoid and it is back to running just like before I pulled the motor (tick tick tick drip drip). Now I have something to drive while I pull the dash out of my Nissan to get to the A/C guts. Hopefully that will go quick and this weekend I will be able to pull a turbo motor (or two). Thanks. - James B

As chance would have it I measured the jackstands at 21". My jackstands are getting a bit unsteady, and I had to make a 2" plywood sandwich to rest them on to get this high. I have been eyeing the 6-ton stands that go up to 24". With the lift I have to use spacers on the jack and jackstand just to get the wheels off the floor, so I need to upgrade. Getting the assembled unit back in was a major PITA. It was tilted at about 45 degrees, and went in with much twisting, cussing, and prying. I left the transmission xmember attached for doing this. Since I had the engine hoist, I should have dropped the motor/trans assy and put a chain on my tube bumper to lift the body off of it. But I learn the hard way. I just wanted to get the motor back in enough to test the new D/R, and drive it while I work on a turbo motor. So how would you recommend I get a turbo motor pulled at the pick-n-pull? Do I need to drag that 200 lb hoist through 100 yards of dirt to get to the motor, or can I strap the motor to a 2x4 and wrestle it out that way. I think either way it is going to be more manual effort than I like to undertake in direct sunlight. - James B

On my tranny,visbie under the spare tire, there is a green bracket attached to the transmission that holds the clutch cable.. You can tighten down the bolts on the threaded shaft attached to the cable end to a bit put more tension on the cable. If you go too far it might act like the clutch is slipping. - James B

Thanks for the info. Being a red wire I suspected it was run to 12v with the circuit closed by an ECU transistor to ground, but didn't want to fry anything testing this theory. Randomly hooking loose wires up to 12v could unleash more electrical gremlins and let some smoke out of things . IIRC my wiring diagram shows 12v run to the black w/white stripe wire on the opposite side of the three prong connector, so I can hopefully just piggyback onto one of those and get my throttle adusted a little better. After I put the motor back in with the new (to me) D/R transmission - it runs, but it is idiling poorly at about 4K RPM. When I backed it out of the garage for the fitst time in 4W-lo, well lets just say it got going a little faster than I was expecting. thanks again - James B

Thanks for the replies. I put a picture of what I am talking about below. It is hard to see, but there is a round thing with wires comming off it coming out of the passenger side of the carb when looking under the hood from the front.

I'm not positive, but I guess if you knew the frequency range of the ripple (static?) on the 12v supply, you could design a first order filter to block some of it. There might be some really slight chance that the inductive and capacitive load placed between 12v and ground by the stereo could filter some ripple out, but I really really doubt this could happen. I think the engine static you hear over the speakers is being radiated into the air by the ignition wires, picked up by the antenna, and amplified by the stereo. I really doubt much of it comes from the 12v side, and if it did the mere fact that you can hear it with the stereo on means it is still there, and not filtered out by the stereo. - James Brauer

bump (if anybody could look at their Hitachi and see where this wire goes it would be vastly appreciated)

(dust cobwebs off old post here) I just swapped in a D/R tranny for my pushbutton 4WD and did it a little different. I got an engine hoist and pulled the motor and transmission as a single unit, then swapped transmissions on the floor. I needed help putting the mated assembly back in, but it worked for me. Never having done it the other way, I can't say if this was easier or not. I don't think I could bench press a transmission in or out by myself. I would most likely lay a 2x4 across the fenders and move it with a strap clamp and jack, like I did when I aligned the mounts. - James Brauer

I got the cutting discs at the Home store in the hopes that it would be a little better. I found the HF tools do a lot better with good blades/bits, but I dunno how much better the one I got really is. My HF woodcutting bandwaw was like a completely different tool when I swapped the stock blade for a Timberwolf. - James B

I picked up a $59 Harbor Freight 14" metal cutoff saw about a month ago. I just put in a D/R transmission, and with the 3" lift had to fabricate new shift linkage for the Hi/Lo shifter in the 85' wagon. It really knocked the new off this saw. I found the saw really works well for the price. This saw replaces my 10" woodworking saw with an abrasive blade in it, so it was a nice change. The big 14" wheel really gets to a higher velocity at the cutting point. It does bog down a bit depending on how the stock is orentied (flat or vertical) but picks back up quickly and powers through steel in a shower of sparks. If anybody is interested I will review the 4 1/2" angle grinder. Out of five possible stars: ** quality **** value *** performance - James B

This was originally posted as mystery wire and received some helpful responses from MorganM, but I have a more specific question now, and . . . get this: I figgured out that I do indeed have a Hitachi carb and not SPFI as I originally thought. RTFM After looking at my Haynes book I found a picture of both carbs, SPFI, and MPFI and located my idle air control solenoid on the picture of the Hitachi. Now the picture of the carb shows both leads from the solenoid going to a single connector, and the engine wiring diagram doesn't show any idle air control solenoids. So I am still stumped. What I have going on is a single red wire coming off this solenoid that is hanging loose. The black wire from the solenoid goes to a rectangular connector that has two vertical pins with a third pin horizontal over the other two. All three pins on this connector have wires run to them. The other side of the connector has a couple of black wires with white stripes, and I am guessing runs up to the ECU or a relay somewhere. But I am still stumped as to where the red wire coming from the solenoid attaches. If anybody has an 85 Hitachi EA82 and could look or knows off hand, it would be a huge help. The good news is I did my transmission swap, got the motor back in the car, and started it last night. This is the first time I ever pulled a motor out of anything besides a laser printer, so I was pretty fired up. It was pretty dang loud without the exhaust pipe hooked up. Hopefully tonite I can get the CVs attached to the transmission (any tips?) and get the linkage working at an unnatural angle from the lift. - James B

I used a shovel in some of the local mud, then used the same shovel to stir cement. The cement rinsed right off. Having got two tickets in the mail since I moved to this, ahem, safer state; I can understand why somebody would want strategic mud on the tag. Now I would just go dig some out of the yard, but hey you never know. Maybe a bottle of this stuff will go for big bucks on ebay in 20 years. What I was really thinking of to electronically cover a tag number was making license plate holders that are full of high output infra-red LEDs. I saw the LED from my wireless keyboard on my webcam, and they make a big white spot on a digital camera. So 50 of LEDs those around the edge of a tag would likely obscure the tag number to a digital traffic camera, but not to the naked eye. Its just that these things cost like a dollar each, so it is almost cheaper to pay the tickets. But, think of the stale yellow lights that could be driven through with such a device! - James B

Makes sense to me. I will get under the hood (figuratively since the hood is removed) after work tonite and let you know how it goes. - James B

Morgan, Based on the idle sputtering and stalling, the Idle Air Control sounds like what this is. So I guess the red wire should be going into the same connector as the black wire? Mr Red wire is hanging loose right now, so I will see if there is an open space on the connector that the black wire runs into. Thanks for the info on this, I couldn't figgure out what that thing was from the FSM. Hopefully I can at least start the motor tonite, then get the different D/R shift linkage worked out. - James B

I have my SPFI (thought it was a carb until I saw the picture in the FSM) EA82 bolted back in the wagon after the transmission swap and am in the process of connecting all of the wires and hoses back up. I mostly labeled them with a paint marker and/or tape, but have at least one mystery wire so far. If you are standing in front of the car facing the driver, you are facing some sort of round sensor that goes into the throttle body just below where the air cleaner cover attaches to the throttle body. There is red and black pair of wires coming from this sensor that go about 8 inches to the right. The red wire has about a small flat spade connector on it, and is just hanging loose. I looked hard for a place to connect it, but can't find anything. And I'm not positive this is a sensor, it could be a solenoid or actuator. If anybody has one they could look at, or knows off hand where this plugs in, it would be a huge help. I can get a picutre up if it would help, I just didn't want to get my greasy paws all over the digital camera last night. This thing ran like it was dipped in shi. . . (ahem) honey, before I pulled the motor. I suspect this wire has been loose for some time, and might be why I had such bad cold performance. thanks James B

My main goal in making a lifted Subaru is for the 50 mile round trip to work when it is snowing. My 01 Nissan is an open diff 2WD and makes for a looong trip when the roads are slick, but the V6 with power everything is sure comfortable the rest of the time. So my lifted Subaru is tagged, insured, and street legal, but not a daily driver. - James B

I've got my carbed motor bolted up to my new (to me) D/R tranny sitting on the floor of my garage. When I get it shifting with my lift and field test it a little I am going to the u-pull for a turbo motor; while I still have access to an engine hoist. My big questions are about fuel delivery and electrical. Do I really need to pull the wiring harness and ECU with the motor, or is the turbo jumper on the ECU more than a myth? And do I need the instrument cluster as well? I want to keep my gauges mostly to avoid whatever implications arise with The State from changing my odometer. I was thinking of hard wiring an inexpensive digital volt meter onto the wire that feeds the boost gauge to make this digital. How did you handle fuel lines, etc? I was going to pull out everything between the fuel tank and the engine, and put in aftermarket hoses, filter, and fuel pump. Will it run with the carbed plumbing so I can test out the motor, then do the upgrade after the fact? If you (or anybody else) can help me out with any of this, it would be a huge help. Thanks. - James B

Having had my butt cheek cut into twice to insert and remove a rod in my femur, stiches on the back of my right thigh, occasional hemmoroids, and a broken cossix that I never had looked at, I am a still a little sensitive in that area myself. I found some seats from a GL-10 that were in really good shape and put those in. The adjustable height and lumbar knob are great. You likely know this, but you can guess by how worn the fabric on the seat is, how much spring and cushion it has left in it. I think somebody skinny used the seats I put in, or it wound up in the junkyard at an early age. They are in really good shape for being 15 years old. A seat cushion type device I used when I did a lot of driving for work was one of those wooden beaded seat covers. They don't look all that comfortable, but they worked pretty well for me. The beads are pretty tightly linked, and I think they distrubute the weight over the cushion a little bit more. The beaded cover also gets good air circulation in warm weather. - James B

Thats no fun, been there myself several times. Could you run a loud siren from Radio Shack off the 12v that feeds your overhad light? That way when the car door opens the siren goes off. Sort of a budget car alarm. - James B

I made a new bumper for my 85, but need to get a little more polished at welding and fitting before I could justify charging just what it would cost to ship one of these. If you aren't too picky about quality tools and the end result you can get everything you need to make one yourself at Harbor Freight (see below). I used the HF pipe bender, but my other tools came from elsewhere. This sort of metalworking is really fun, and somewhat addictive. After I get my D/R tranny and maybe a turbo motor installed I am going to make a back bumper and run rails underneath between the front and back bumper to sort of 'cradle' the whole unibody. (90 amp flux welder) http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=44567 (12 ton pipe bender) http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=32888 (tubing notcher) http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=42324 (drill press) http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=44506 Prolly need a $15 (USD) angle grinder and a good drill to. Here's a picture of the one I made out of schedule-40 pipe: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos/showphoto.php?photo=5184&sort=1&cat=500&page=1 - James B

Dang I miss living in Burke County, that is such a nice area. Back in the late 80s we used to like driving up Burkemont mountain at night, and the back side of High Peak. I like the ghost/conspiracy theroies about the Brown Mountain Lights. We used to go up and stare at that mountain from the overlook, but never saw anything. - James B

I had a similar problem with my 85 DL, and wound up pulling the whole vacuum actuator out, and plugging the hoses. You can trace the hoses from the actuator up to the solenoids that are up-top on the drivers side, a little ways from the firewall. Mine was actuating just fine, it was just the transmission was somewhat binding up and wouldn't go in and out of 4WD. I could get up under there with a screwdriver and force it to engage, but then the snow would melt and I could barely back out of a parking space for the binding. I finally fabricated a linkage that goes through the transmission hump, and has a shifter arm in the passenger compartment. I can really feel it bind up and not want to engage sometimes. I found the best time to engage/disengage is to gas it a little, let off the gas (still in gear), and pull it in and out of 4WD. - James B

I had all sorts of problems lifting my wagon as well. I'm guessing its one of those things that if you have done it before, it seems easy, but the first time is tough. I was building parts for the lift as I went along, so the strut tops took a week of evenings, and still aren't all that great. If I recall, when I did the engine and transmission crossmembers I put a piece of plywood between the oil pan, and a jack, removed the crossmember bolts, and dropped it all down. I think the I got hung up on the radiator hoses, when I did it. A long, soft, prybar (read 2x4) can be good for shifting things around to get the bolt holes lined up. I had a really tough time with the steering linkage as well. You may have already seen that the bolts holding the collars to the shafts have to come all the way out to clear the groove on the shafts. I wound up putting one of the collars on half way, then drilling through both the collar and shaft, and pinning it with a good bolt. For me, the linkage is hard to see, hard to get leverage on, and hard to get a wrench into. Finally, I tapped a couple of bolt holes for 1/2" coarse thread, since that was the easiest replacement bolt to find around here. This might work for your stripped holes. Hopefully this is some help. - James B

My lift gives quite a bit of (positive? top-out) camber. I was thinking of trying to mill a slot where the traverse link attaches to the crossmember to get rid of this. I would likely add on some kind of threaded rod and adjuster nut between the xmember and traverse link to keep if from sliding in the slot. The xmember and strut tops already have lift spacers so the CV angle is about stock, I just need to get the bottom of the steering knuckle pushed out a bit so the wheels are vertical again. Is my logic right on this? - James B

I thought that bolt was frozen and grinded half way through the thing before I tried to put a wrench on the back side. Oops. I just went ahead and grinded it all the way off and put new nut/bolt pair in the hole. For lots of other things the only way I learn, is the hard way. For instance: a 2WD truck will get stuck easier than a 2WD car, the road to work doesn't get shorter because I want to sleep longer, metal stays hot for a long time after being welded, drinking too much results in a hangover for which there is no cure, a two year degree isn't a shortcut to a four year degree, putting things on a credit card to pay off later is a really really bad idea, and projects always take longer than expected. - James B