GeneralDisorder

Why do you need negative The whole body of the car is negative..... that's how automotive wireing is done. You only insulate and run the positive that way. Anyhing that needs negative just gets screwed to the frame somewhere. GD

It's just a large single terminal. You screw it down to the firewall, etc and run a single big wire to it - then other smaller wires to points on your terminal block or whatever. It's just a place to hang wires that's not cluttered up like the battery terminal. GD

Distributor bushing failure most likely. GD

What I do when there is more than a single device that is needed is to setup a "main junction" with a stud block such as this (and an inline fuse of course): http://order.waytekwire.com/productdetail2/M50/47213/JUNCTION%20BLOCK%20STUD%20TYPE%20RED/ Then from there I shoot over to a terminal block: http://order.waytekwire.com/productdetail2/M50/47355/5%20POSITION%20TERMINAL%20BLOCK/ Where I then distribute power to the various places I need it. This is excelent for having accesible power whenever I need it to run (for example) my wideband O2 setup or whatever. I have taken to using the Painless Wireing relay/fuse panels for lots of my installs. They are awesome - for like $80 you can get them with 3 to 10 circuits in both constant hot and relay controlled configs. Anyway - that's what I do to keep a ton of wires off my battery terminal. This way I only have one large wire to the stud block and then possibly a couple smaller one's to a terminal strip or to a circuit breaker that feeds a painless fuse/relay panel. GD

Yes but it will probably be cheaper to find a 4EAT at the junk yard (look for a car that already has the engine pulled) and then remove the diff and buy that. A diff is probably half the price of a whole tranny. I think my yards charge $45 for diffs vs. probably around $100 to $150 for an automatic tranny. If you haven't got the money then you have to sacrifice the time. My sugestion was simply to save him money on the repair - said he needed to be frugal. GD

Yes - that needed to be said and I overlooked it. The cat does not hurt performance. But I have found that most of them are either clogged, broken up and rattling, or straight burned away leaving on the metal straps and wire mesh (clogging the outlet because it's a jumbled mess). That, in conjunction with not having to test my rigs, has led to them being gutted to regain lost MPG and eliminate rattleing, etc. On my hatch where the contents were gone and the mesh/strapping crammed into the outlet I gained at least 3 mpg after removing the "blockage" from the cat housing. GD

There's only a single cat on Brat's - the other is a resonator. Unless one has been added of course. You can gut them - doesn't affect anything. All mine have been gutted for years. It will not cause backfireing if done correctly. That's generally a symptom of exhaust leaks. GD

Sounds more like someone just filled it with ATF. I would imagine the seals are accesible but I'm not sure on that one. I haven't had to change one. GD

Yep - there's no silver bullet for performance on the EA82's - cams are probably your best bet followed by exhaust to match. In stock form the best intake and exhaust in the world will net you maybe 1% performance increase. Not worth the expenditure for either. I agree with Noah - your car is old, automatic, and only had 90 HP to begin with. It's not a race car. GD

Pretty sure that's the same one in my truck . Super cheap to work on. If it didn't get around 10 mpg I would drive it daily. GD

You don't need a whole transmission - the front diff can be removed and replaced without dissasembling the whole thing. You will have to remove the transmission from the car and then find a good used front diff to put on it. Shouldn't be too hard - they don't fail very often. GD

If two different mechanic's have said the turbo is going out then there might indeed be something to it. Mostly you should check inside the intake piping from the turbo to the inlet. If there is lots of oil present here then that would indicate a possible turbo seal issue. A good used VF11 goes for about $100 or less. With some relatively simple modifications (inlet and outlet piping - no exhaust mods) a TD04 can be fitted in it's place and these are very common in the used market as they are often removed from WRX's to install something else. Again $100 or less will buy a good used unit. I'm sure you know some board members in the area that can change out a turbo for a couple hundred right? The seal replacement for $700 is also rediculous. That's a timing belt job with a cam seal replacement. Something that could again be accomplished by a board member in the area for well under $500 even if you replaced everything t-belt related. If she wants to drive to Portland I'll do the work GD

It fits the EA81 console without any ugly adaptors. That's why we use them. It sounds fine for my purposes. GD

Yeah - the head surface is typically flatter than the exhaust flange so that's how I install them as well. That's my logic anyway though I don't know the official policy on those..... I've never had an issue installing them that way. GD

If you like the styleing and don't mind an engine swap - they are ripe for installing an EJ22 (2.2 non turbo). With an adaptor plate and drilled flywheel they bolt righ up and give you a 20 HP increase with NO turbo. . Plus being that the RX's are already setup for fuel injection you don't even have to change the fuel pump or worry about the tank not being baffled, etc. It works out nicely as a swap platform. But otherwise - stear way clear of that engine. GD

Being it's aluminium you can just use a flat peice of glass (or wood if you choose carefully), wrap some 120 grit wet/dry paper over it and with WD40 as lubricant you can "resurface" that yourself. But I think the major problem is not the pitting - it's that your pipe isn't fitting right. You shouldn't have to force anything. That's probably the source of your sealing problem much more than the pitting. GD

They get passed around like a fat blunt.... The EA82T's are hideous engines. You don't want one. Do some searches here on the board of "EA82T", etc. You especially don't want an '85/'86 RX sedan. That will have the old flapper-MAF fuel/ignition system which is a pain to work on and parts are rare. Take it from the ad - the guy is selling that POS because it's cracked a head (not at all uncommon with that engine) and he's tired of the foolishness surrounding that engine. Do yourself a favor and buy a nice 90 to 94 Legacy. Trust me you will love it. If you want something older find an EA81 sedan - or even an EA82 sedan with the 5 speed D/R. Anything but the EA82 Turbo. You will just hate it if you buy it and you'll be the next guy with a posting like that on craigslist. GD

If it's not leaking then don't touch it. First you need to find a shop that's willing to replace it (lots won't touch it because it's a pop-in style) and then you will have to get a new gasket and probably new chrome as well. It's a messy, nasty job. But as I said if it's not a horrible crack and it's not leaking - don't touch it. The chances of having some kind of issue if you mess with it are high. GD

The booster could fail eventually from the brake fluid eating the diaphram, etc. Replacing them as a set would be wise since the best opportunity to get bolts loose is going to be the one's inside the car that attach the booster to the firewall and pedal assembly - this avoids that half of the "rust" equation and then you just have to deal with the brake lines. If there is a lot of rust there then there might be some cutting/flaring of brake line to accomidate the new MC but not too bad. The good news is that used boosters are a good option here since they almost never fail (extremely rare). If your specific case both the leakage into the booster and the rust on the MC bolts both are good reasons to replace it. Still - find a used one from a west coast car without the rust. Post in the wanted section or use www.car-part.com to get one from a yard without the rust. The MC's are cheap - get one from www.rockauto.com If her brother can do it - and I don't see why he shouldn't be able to - this should cost no more than $100 to $150 in parts if you buy a new MC and a used booster. GD

Exhaust leak would not be the head gasket - that would be the exhaust manifold gasket.... they are about $6 to $8 at the dealer. Surfaceing is not typically done here but you can hit the head and header flange with a wire wheel (not too stiff on the head side) to remove carbon and such. A new gasket should seal it up and that's a pretty simple fix - just drop the header down. GD

Seems to be just simple RPM related with the PS. Getting slightly louder as the revs increase. Starts at about 3800 and goes up from there. Something to check anyway.... GD

Glass 5MT transmission Great for us mechanic's that just need the shell . They wash and wax them, blow them up, then I get them . GD

I've also seen this exact same scenario with bad power steering pumps. I just replaced one on a '99 OBW that would whine at above 4 grand - sounded like a faint timing belt idler bearing noise or a "ghost turbo" like Gloyale mentioned. Now I just bought a '97 with the same thing going on. Both of these have leaking PS pumps (to varrying degree's) though I don't imagine that's a neccesity for the noise. In both cases the operation of the PS is unaffected - just noisy. GD

No problem - that thing totally deserves a Weber and I'm glad you got realistic and went with this DL. It's completely perfect for what you want/need at this stage of your life. Not too fast, not a cop magnet, and excelent mileage/reliability. If only other young people your age were gifted with that much foresight . The Weber makes a fabulous addition to the EA81/FWD 5 speed combo. It will be much quicker and fun to drive. But of course compared to everyone else on the road you will still be slow so you won't attract much attention from the constabulary. GD

It could, yes. But removing the quarter is easy enough when/if you need to go through DEQ and here they do an idle and 2500 RPM test with no dyno run so the backfireing wouldn't be an issue for the test. Then just replace the quarter and drive on for another two years..... Also - installing a new, $69, ebay 3-way catalytic converter would take care of the emissions and you could just remove the entire ASV system as the modern cats don't even need it. GD