Mike W

No R180 LSDs? Kinda expensive but here's one: http://www.purenissan.com/r180_lsd.htm

I haven't confirmed this with the ARB guys, but as I understand it, a C200 air locker can be installed in a R200a or R200. I looked and looked but could not find my pictures of the dual e-brake installation and no digi camera was available to snap new ones. What I did was really simple though. I just mounted the two levers so they more or less lined up with the cables and then I installed a little fork like thing on the threaded rod to pull the cable end lug.

Ok, I'll try to find my photos or take new ones but no promises. Another use of this system is that locking up one front wheel allows for some interesting slides on gravel and has also helped negotiate tight turns on trails. In some earlier thread on this topic somebody floated the idea of a joystick type lever to pull the cables. Seems like it'd be cool but I couldn't see an easy way to pull that off and figured if I was going to fab something that wild I'd put my time into dual R200 diffs with ARB air locks. That's where I was headed when I had to put the car in mothballs.

Hmm, that's an interesting way to pull the cables...I hadn't thought of that. Any pictures of that part of it? Here's what I did on my dual-e system. First off I relocated the original lever a bit to one side and to the rear by an inch or so. Then I mounted the second lever next to it in the space I created. To pull the cables, I eliminated the yoke gizmo and instead made two little brackets that are basically like a fender washer with forks sticking out to pull on the cable lugs. These gizmos were then mounted on the adjustment rod that used to pull the yoke. So now each lever has an adjustable mini-yoke thing that pulls on it's own cable. I have pictures of this installation somewhere but I can't find them. As for the center console, the one with an armrest had to go and instead I installed a low style console with an enlarged cutout for the extra lever.

Yeah that arrangement looks very familiar. And man I'm very envious that your's get to play on slickrock and all those Moab trails. I certainly dig the buggy and hope to see lots more action shots. As for operating it, I did find the dual-ebrake a bit challenging but that's just because when I finally needed to lock the front diff, the trail was super gnarly with roots and all that and I was kinda busy driving. So I guess what I'm saying is that after messing with levers for a while an air locker starts to sound like a nice good idea. But it does do what it's supposed to and I would recomend it for the trail crowd even if you only get to use it on rare occasions. I mean of all the mods to car it was one of the easiest to actually do and cost nothing (thanks to Zap giving me the spare lever.) By the way, I had no problem getting used to pulling two levers at once for normal parking or releasing two buttons to take the brake off. Unfortunately my car has been in mothballs for a couple of years now but for the first time 'm really looking forward to going through the emmisions test. Wonder what the technician will say about two brake levers?

Interesting photos. So what year were they taken?

Nope. BMW touring bike.

Mr. Spitz should also get credit for being an attendee and supporter of the first West Coast Subaru Show. And I believe it was he who talked the SOA guys into driving up from Oregon to attend. Without his support this event might not have started or continued. Trivia question: What kind of boxer did Joe Spitz drive to WCSS1?

I had that happen on my Hatchback the last time out. Combination of old age and abuse. A ratchet tie down strap held it together real well for the trip home. I forget who's idea the ratchet strap was but it worked sweet as a bandaid.

Hey I have one of those. And yeah it works and I like it. Freaked me out the first time the low temp warning beeper went off. Didn't know what the heck was beeping at me. In the summer you can move the temp sensor around and keep track of underhood temps. $25???!!! Yikes! I got mine in the after-holiday clearance sale crap at Target a couple years ago. It was in one of those cheezy red gift boxes and cost me under two bucks!

A couple tricks I picked up from the "down under" web sites: Rubber glove over the disty. Wires come out the finger tips and secure it on there with wire ties and maybe some silicone. Moisture does need to vent out of disty so don't leave it totally sealed up forever. A breather snorkle hose for the disty solves that problem. I've seen pics of the Aussis using a blue tarp bungee corded over the nose of the car for deep water crossings. Seemed to work as long as they kept that bow wave just right.

Sad to say that my S4500# is still in it's box and the Hatchback has been in mothballs for 2-1/2 years now. I had all the materials to build new bumpers, welder, etc ... and then my girlfriend got sick. Everything's been on hold ever since. In case anyone has wondered about 1500# Superwinch that came stock on Subarus in the late '70s... the pulling capacity isn't even enough to pull a Subaru up a 40degree hill. I have used it to pull my car sideways using a snatch block when I wedged myself between trees, but other than that it's pretty lame. But that shouldn't be a surprise since now it's sold as an ATV winch. As for how the pulling capacity of the 4500# Superwinch, maybe Qman can chime in since that's what he's been using on his Brat and I believe he's recovered some larger vehicles with it. Ken's setup with front and rear hitch recievers and power connectors is what I was basically going to copy. Regarding weight (and I do feel that's an issue with Subarus,) the sythetic wire rope has come down in price and shaves major pounds. Even with a winch, come-alongs are still very handy and the extra snatch block can be usefull for pulling at odd angles. Well I hope he buys the big Harbor Frieght winch so we can find out how it works. I've seen them on a few Jeeps but it's always on those too clean poser city Jeeps, you know the ones that have seen mud.

I temporarily owned a HF 3000# winch and was impressed with the overall quality just looking at it. However I didn't get a chance to try it out because I returned it and bought a 4500# Superwinch instead. For my purposes I figured the 4500 would be enough for all but winching it up a cliff and yet it's fairly small and not too heavy. My plan was to keep it portable with power plug-ins in the front and rear of the vehicle plus and extension cord so I could anchor the winch to a tree if needed.

Thanks to Subieman and John for this info. I too might be going down this road, so thanks for the low-down. Oh yeah, how was driveline fit? Same length? Tranny crossmember fit ok? Thanks!

Just a couple weeks ago I was wondering if it had been done yet. There was a decent sounding SVX for sale for $1000 with a bad tranny. (Is that the same car you're swapping John?) Anyway it had me wondering what an "Unhatched" SVX might look like. Kinda wide and heavy but somebody needs to do it, even if it's just to piss off the purists.

Some guys up here in Lynnwood have reported that the inspector looked under the vehicle to check for the presence of a cat converter. They also report that their gas caps get pressure tested. Anyone know if this is happening in North or South Seattle test stations? How about looking under the hood? If the inspector wanted to look, do they have the legal right to lift the hood?

Hey thanks guys, that's answers my question. Also thanks Josh for your info on Legacy Central...that's a cool resource I need to spend more time reading.

Ok so I have 93 Legacy wagon with AT issues. What year transmissions will work? How about newer units, say from '96 or so...will they bolt up? Any computer or other issues? I know some of this have been covered before but a quick search didn't get my questions answered. Thanks guys.

First off, lots of guys have installed the EA82 coilovers on EA81 cars lifted for offroading. So sure you could do that. But from the pics of your new car, I'd guess that it's spongy back there because the torsion bar is sagging. The common cure is to "clock it"... that is rotate the arms by a spline or two thus increasing the spring rate and restoring it to stock ride height or even boosting it up a bit if that's what you want. Be warned that jacking it up too much will cause camber issues. Hope that helps.

Some years back I was researching the EV stuff and came accross some dude on Whidbey Island that built a ghetto hybrid Brat. FWD EA81 and batteries in the bed powering some kind of electric drive to the rear end. That's all I Know but it sounded like it worked and used stuff he found for dirt cheap. Lately I've been thinking about doing something like a FWD Justy and adding some cheap golf cart batteries powering a motor to one rear wheel with parts canibabilized from a golf cart.

So what is PK offroading these days? For whatever it's worth, while driving my '93 Legacy, a sneaky telephone pole ran into me going at least 6-7 mph... and no air bag deployment. I haven't hit too many things offroading that hard.

If you have removed all the bolts that seem to hold it in and yet it still won't come out of the engine case, do not twist it around excessively trying to get it to come free. Twisting might cause it to gaul(sp?) and become even more stuck. Instead, slightly loosen the nearest bolt holding the two halves of the engine case together and this should allow the oil pump to pop right out.

When I imported the first BYB kit from Oz, it was a huge leap of faith sending $$$ to a guy on the other side of the planet. It took forever the kit shipped to the States but Bret was very cool and handled questions and concerns and marketing issues just like this guy is doing. Professionalism builds and maintains a relationship but a good product pretty much sells itself. So if this lift kit (or any other) functions better than earlier designs and doesn't infringe on the BYB design...then I guess that just natural evolution in the market. I should also point out that we'd have a lot less lifted Subes, if not for guys getting a look at the BYB kit on my car and saying ah-hah, now I know how to fab my own kit. These people weren't exactly copying Bret's design, they were emulating his concept, but doing it their own way with different materials etc. Some even went bigger than the original 3/3 kit with 2" blocks under the tranny. You might argue that these do-it-yourselfers were stealing Bret's idea, but I would not say they were outright pirating his design. To actually offer a product forsale on the market, I would say that the kit and especially the strut towers would need to be substatially different in design or else there could be patent infringement issues. From the sounds of it, these folks have taken a different approach. Hope to see more info soon.

So what did the outside diameter turn out to be??? I still haven't measured my old Kuhmos but I'll try tomorrow. I'm just curious if the new tires are identical to the old. How about de-studded ice racing tires? Would the officials allow those on the course?

If this is purely for offroad abuse, there are also agricultural tires that will fit stock rims. Tractor tires have been used for racing by a number of guys including Bret (BYB) in Oz, that XT6 at WCSS3, and that WRX powered Hatchback in the Czec Republic.