GeneralDisorder

When your wallet recovers a bit - watch craigslist. Pick up a used 90 tp 94 Legacy for $200 to $300. Dremel the flywheel yourself. Pickup the adaptor for $100 from Rguyver at the show in August. Strip and install the harness yourself. You can have an EJ for less than $1k if you do it smart. With new timing belt, seals, etc. GD

To the PCV valve. GD

2" isn't even worth the effort on an EA81 - that's why no one really makes them. Go with the 3". To effectively fit a 27" tire (the smallest traction tire you can really find) pretty much requires a 4" lift on the EA81's. To make it easy and not have to cut and bash out the fenders by a ton. GD

Search - it's been covered numerous times. Several times by me. GD

If you enjoy chunks of metal covered in milkshake then by all means - rip it up. EA82's are fragile enough. EA82T's are so rediculous that most of us won't own one. A high-comp. EA82T is simply a recipe for disaster. Think holes blown in pistons, collapsed ring lands, etc. Your crazy for even considering keeping the EA82 - even as a non-turbo. They genuinely suck. GD

Well - hopefully they gave you the base Weber jetting, which seems to be the setup I listed above. But not always. I had to dissasemble my brand new Redline carb many years back because they screwed up the choke linkage..... just pop the top off and read the numbers on the air bleeds - then remove the mains one at a time from the bottom of the float bowl and read the number on the side of them. Being a new carb it should be a snap to dissasemble and reassemble. Just don't lose the e-clip that holds the arm to the choke plate lever. The idle jets are accesible from the front and rear of the carb. There is a large brass flat-head screw on the front - remove that and in the end of it will be the idle jet. Again read the number on it. 50 will probably be what you have and may work fine - but a lot of times I find that I need one or two sizes larger. GD

That's why I told you to get the short filter . I mentioned this specifically because the Weber and Redline people don't know from beans about Subaru's and I wanted you to know that you should NOT buy the kit they offer as it contains all the wrong parts. None of them have personally installed one - I've done dozens and this is alway the case with EA81's. The kit they offer is a waste of money since you end up having to replace everything but the adaptor and the carb and they don't come jetted right anyhow. GD

Yeah - if you have one that is in good shape, not cluttered with extra emissions junk, and you have the time to do some tuning and messing with jets - definitely can be better than the Hitachi. GD

To use an EJ setup you would have to machine a 13mm spacer to move the EJ flywheel closer to the transmission. It's the inverse of using a redrilled EA flywheel on the EJ engine. But that does bring up an interesting option for running the EJ flywheel and clutch with the EJ engine and adaptor plate for an EA82 5 speed D/R. You could, in addition to the bell-housing adaptor, space out an EJ flywheel by aquireing a second flywheel, torching out the center, and turning it to proper dimention on a lathe. Get some longer bolts to mount through the flywheel and spacer and presto - EJ to EA flywheel. No redrilling required. You could even put some 1" welds around the perimeter to join the spacer to the flywheel in a more permanent way. GD

The adjuster bolt is on the back of the backing plate. Bottom center. It's a square drive - like a 6mm or an 8mm - can't remember. You screw it in till the drum just barely binds while turning it by hand and then back it off one "notch". You'll know what I mean when you feel it. You might want to pop the drums off and clean out everything, lube up the pivot points/adjuster mechanism and check the wheel cylinders for leakage. It happens. To get the drum off, back off the adjuster bolt discussed above till the drum can be pulled off - otherwise any lip on the drum will catch on the pads. GD

I've seen three pumps with various degree's of that type of wear. Admittedly the picture is of the worst one I have ever seen - so bad it warranted a picture to document it. The original pump from my hatch was worn but not to the same extent. I replaced it and have been driving it for several years now. It had - I would say 25% of the wear the one pictured has. Even at that, replacing it bumped up my pressure a good 25% or more. I agree - either no oil, or WAY too long between changes. Once the filter clogs up the oil bypasses it and there is nothing to keep small particulates from eating the pump so it could be caused by people never changing the oil - and with an older EA81 it might be that it leaks and burns so much that people just keep adding more and never bothering to change the filter. Speculation though - I have never had this happen to one of mine that I have owned and serviced. I've only seen it on newly aquired vehicles that have had unknown maintenance. GD

When they are chewed up - you can see the damage. And the fit between the parts will be very loose. Here's a rotor from a damaged EA81 pump: Close up of damage: I just bought two new ones from the dealer (for spares) - it took 1 week to get the first and another week to get the 2nd (I ordered them at the same time) - $78 each. That is the only source for now. My new one's are not made by Atsugi so it looks as though Subaru has gone to Hitachi to have them made. That looks good for us since it means they took enough intrest to have them made at all. Also I know for a fact the EA81 was produced in some countries up till '94 so it doesn't look like they will stop making them anytime soon. The problem is that Subaru of America only imports about a dozen at at time so if they are out you have to wait till the next shipment arrives. But so far it doesn't look like they are going to dry up supply wise. No problem. GD

It's likely a Holley/Weber "5200 series" which is a licensed copy of the Weber 32/36 DFV. They very often have smaller venturi's and are harder to work with on EA81's due to the mirror-image design of the cafb vs. the Weber 32/36 DGV and the smaller venturi's mean more playing with jetting - the jetting for the DGV's is widely known and rattling around in my head. I have no idea what to jet a DFV at because I don't use them and haven't tuned one. I don't lilke them personally. There's a variety of reasons. But ultimately they were clone carbs equipped with a lot more "junk" for use on 70's Ford products. Pinto's, Cortina's, etc. GD

Just make sure the flywheel step is ground to .815" and not .900" for the XT6 PP. GD

Dissasemble the oil pump and inspect the internals before you commit to reusing it. GD

The male/female stub thing will swap around. I needed a 4.111 diff for a transmission swap into a '96 legacy and the one I got was a male (90 to 94 5MT diff). Rather than change the axles I dissasembled both diffs and swapped the spider gears - that is I took the 3.9's female style spiders and installed them into the 4.111 diff in place of it's bolt-in male style spider's. Worked just fine. Didn't have to touch any R&P stuff or reshim anything. When you are talking about open diffs only, all the parts seem to match up pretty well over the years. GD

So the difference between your job description and that of a "crash test dummy" is only the part about the actual crash?? Not saying you are a dummy.... well you get my meaning..... Pretty funny though - I have this strange image in my head of you blowing up air-bags with safety glasses on. . What happens when they don't do what you expect? GD

It's similar - you will just have to remove some of the interior trim peices and then you can access the bolts that hold the retractor and the upper belt loop to the frame of the car. Just screws and such mostly. It would give you more room to work if you unbolted the seat and removed it - trust me they are pretty light and only 4 bolts. It can make a lot of interior jobs easier to remove the seat(s). GD

Pretty much worthless. Every Subaru nut has half a dozen of them kicking around. Maybe someday they will be rare, but right now they are only worth their value is scrap metal or how much it cost to have them powder coated, etc if they have been redone. I routinely throw them away and they keep multiplying like rabbits. GD

Boo! I've had a few apart (rust-frozen Brat jump-seat retractors) and got them functioning again. Also - if you are careful you could probably lube them without taking them completely apart. But used would be the easier option for sure. Seat Belt engineer?! Really? Noah.... FTW. GD

I've noticed that the parts stores I frequent the most and that are the most reliable with getting the correct parts are the ones that have the actual books as well as the computer. The one I frequent the most (Discount Import Parts in OR), has a computer system that allows them to lookup parts through at least 3 wholesaler's and then they have a ton of old parts books at the counter which they have refered to for me on more than one occasion. It also helps that I know what I'm looking at so when they hand me the wrong part - 9 times out of 10 I hand it right back and ask for a redo. GD

More on-topic, but I *think* the legacy disc's are basically the same as the 5 speed disc's so you could probably just order a disc for a 90 to 94 Legacy AWD - those are definitely 225mm and most parts sources should have the right info for those. Oh.... wait you need a 4 speed disc.... nevermind. Also - have you tried looking at a later '80's GL hatch part listing? I find with rockauto.com that there are often differences where you wouldn't expect any. Like the listing for '84 will have parts that the listing for '83 does not even though you are looking at the exact same car - same with late 80's GL's and early 90's Loyales. Sometimes it just takes a bit more searching and a good knowledge of interchangeability between years and models. GD

Usually it's just a matter of removing, cleaning, and lubricating the retractor mechanism. If replacement is needed then it's either used or the dealer for those - you wouldn't like the dealer price. But typically they don't fail so I wouldn't imagine you would have any trouble at all finding a used replacement. GD

This is why they invented the circuit breaker. Fuses too! GD

1: He already solved the problem. 2. EA81's and older (that's all models through '84) are all rod-shifted. They did not make a push-button except for the automatic's. GD