GeneralDisorder

It's going to depend on what kind of load the battery was putting on the alt. Generally speaking, the battery is just another load like a fan, light, etc. But if the battery is low - especially if it's really low or dead - it can and will draw the FULL capacity of the alt. That is very hard on them - they are designed to run accesories and to top-off the battery - not to charge the battery. Yeah - you should have alternator voltage on the BW wire. That would seem to indicate a bad regulator as well and if it were hooked up properly to the dash you would see the charge indicator lamp come ON as the voltage at the battery would be higher than the voltage off the BW wire on the alt..... which is what you would expect with a burnt regulator. I would replace the alt first - charge the battery fully before installing it. Forget about the wireing on the car side - just use the EJ's wireing. Yank the EA regulator and run the EJ's large white output wire off the back of the alt straight to the fusible links. Then the BW wire through a lamp on the dash and back to positive side of the fusible links. I wouldn't even scew with the gauge cluster warning lamp - I would just mount a new one somewhere. GD

There are things you can do - if you are using bolts that go all the way through the blocks you could sleeve the bolts. Get some tubing that the bolts will fit inside of and then drill the holes in the blocks to the OD of the tubing. Then you can cut lengths of the tubing and weld them to the inside of the blocks. I'm not as much of a fan of this as it still uses expensive, long, metric bolts that tend to flex with the block and can tear the capture nuts out of the relatively thin body sheet metal they are welded to. But that's how most of the early lifts were designed and it worked well as long as you get under it and tighten all your lift block bolts after every off-road run. A lot of the PK lifts were built this way and members are still running them. We do still hear of the occasional capture nut being ripped loose though (mostly after folks fail to re-tighten stuff). You could also box-in one open side of the block, or half of each open side. That would allow enough room to slip a socket in and tighten the bolts but would increase the strength of the blocks by a lot. I can't find the pictures that we took of the failed blocks on my friends wagon - it was quite a few years ago. The problem area is the engine cross-member. It was an EA81 wagon with 28" tires and a 4" lift. The lift was built jointly by Mudrat and a friend of his - the story goes that John told him to use 1/4" wall tube, but he wanted to save money and bought the 3/16" wall instead. He sold the car to my friend who beat it hard. When we swapped the lift over to a new wagon (old one was a lost cause after a dunking in the ocean), we found the lift blocks to be very unhappy about the stress they had been put under. We had to replace them. GD

Looks good - functional. Although - why is it that you were burning out stock switches? I would be looking for a reason as that might indicate some other wiring problems. If there are too many circuits comming off the ACC side of the switch (too much current through it), maybe it's time to off-load some of that work onto relays. I happen to be doing an EJ swap in a fellow member's Brat right now and we found the legendary "burnt pink plug" due to poor wiring, leaky glass, etc. We are off-loading all the EJ's wireing as well as his stereo and probably anything else we can easily move to one of these (and we replaced the ignition switch and repaired the body harness as well): http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRF-70217/ It can run 7 circuits - they are all relay controlled (so virtually no extra load on the ignition switch), and has auto-reset circuit breakers on the battery leads (so no need for extra fusible links, etc). I mention that one since you obviously have a few extra circuits going on in your rig there...... GD

Yep - the EA82 rear sway's are cheaper and just as effective. GD

Not likely. I run the yards here every week and I haven't seen one in ages. Craigslist, etc would be a better bet. Or decide what model you want an IC from, find a forum for them and ask for a used one. As far as the thermostat - it's well known that the OEM one's are better. I took a similar comparison picture and posted it..... probably 5 years ago. GD

The electric fan is always included on the EA82's - it's the mechanical water pump driven fan that is not included if the car didn't have AC. All of them have the thermo-switch activated electric fan though. And from your pictures you don't have the mechanical fan or AC either. So you NEED to install an electric fan. It WILL overheat if the car isn't moving without something to move air across the radiator. That's a gaurantee. GD

I've seen it happen - just wanted to save him some grief. Perhaps you boys just aren't hard enough on your machines . I suppose if you just bounce around in puddles then it will be a-ok . I hear you on breakage - if I don't break something I'm not doing it right. Thinner can work - but it's got to be reinforced. It's a lot less fab work to just use 1/4" wall. You can't just cut 2" lengths of the thin stuff and drills some holes. By themselves they won't take the punishiment. GD

The charge light also excites the field - so that needs to be hooked to the positive side of the battery (through the indicator lamp). Or you have to hit a critical RPM threshold for the alt to self-excite. Though the alt should self-regulate..... 19v would seem to indicate a bad regulator inside the alt. It should never get that high I wouldn't think. GD

Cars are not built with all the connectors used. Options that you do not have will still have places to be hooked into the harness - they don't build a custom harness for each car - they build a handfull for all of them and just don't use the wireing for accesories you don't have. As mentioned the twin green / twin white are the diagnostic plugs - don't connect them unless you are pulling/clearing codes or entering D-Check. Yes - all cars have some form of radiator fan. If you don't have one it's missing. GD

There is no seperate frame - they are of uni-body construction as all Subaru's are. GD

If it's not destroyed you can try gluing it back on. 3M makes some urethane in a caulking tube that's really sticky and dries pretty hard - I would probably use that. GD

For off-road purposes, you want an EA81 hatchback. The wagon's are too long and too heavy. EA81 hatch, SPFI or EJ22 swap (or Weber - but not as fun), 5 speed D/R, 4" lift. That will get you where you want to be in a hurry. Anything less..... you'll be wishing you have followed my advice in the first place very soon after taking it off-road. GD

I would pitch the VR and rewire the main junction to use the EJ's alt wireing harness. I think the VR runs the stock fuel pump wiring on those old models - but you probably aren't using that anyway. GD

Adaptor plate, flywheel, pitch stopper, radiator fan setup, etc. Anything that's been modified and looks like it worked out well..... There's plenty of ways to do things, but many fewer ways to do them right. Inspect carefully. GD

Going rate for EMPI's is $55 to $75 each. Your pricing is a bit high. My local dealer in EMPI parts sells them for $65 and I get another 10% off that. GD

I don't know of a pictorial on the EA rear wheel bearings.... I'm assuming it's a 4WD? It's not too hard - the biggest problems most folks run into is getting the ring nut off the back of the bearing pocket and properly installing the bearings without damaging them and shortening their life. Pressing bearings into pockets or onto shafts can be a tricky business and if you don't have the tools or the ability to make them it can get even harder. Not to say you can't get it to go together, but the application of force in the wrong way can mean the difference between 250,000 miles from the bearing and 10,000 (or less!) from it. If you aren't skilled in the ways of bearings - remove the control arm and take it to someone with a press and some bearing knowledge. GD

They are likely very cheap. Probably a couple dollars each from the dealer. It would be easy enough for someone to make the one's you need if you can't get them from the dealer. It's just 6mm OD brass stock with a specific sized hole drilled in the middle. Any machinist could make one in a few minutes. *edit* - you mean the cost of the FSM huh? They show up on ebay from time to time. I think it's a 3 or 5 volume set for the EA82's. To buy them all would probably be several hundred $$. Your shop probably doesn't have one unless they are very Subaru oriented - but if they are a decent shop they should be able to get the info from Subaru or buy an FSM. Ask in the wanted section and check ebay - they show up from time to time and are usually very cheap compared to new since they aren't all that desireable. I have FSM's for 1980 through 1984 and I didn't pay over $40 for any one of them. I think I may have paid around $40 for the 1984 version but it's more desireable than the others. I've paid as little as $10 for some of them. GD

You sure the clutch is releaseing completely? - if it's dragging it could make it hard to get into gears. Otherwise - you probably need to redo the whole linkage. GD

They are known as "orifices" and are most prevelent on carbed engines. All years have them to one degree or another - the size of the hole in them is measured in hundredths of a millimeter. Sizes are dependent entirely on the purpose of the orifice. If you have an FSM for your year it should list them and their sizes or the dealer can probably look up such info for you. They are put into the end of a hose before it is slipped on to it's intended junction in order to restrict flow. They do not block the flow - they simply restrict it to a smaller size. Since building teeny-tiny hoses would be difficult and prone to breakage, etc - the orfice insert does the job instead. Finding the right one's for your particular vehicle will be a matter of getting the info from Subaru or from the FSM for your car and having your hoses checked for which one's are still present so the hoses can be replaced, etc and ordering those that are missing from the dealer. GD

Unfortunately they aren't real desireable and are pretty common. If you can find someone that wants it you could probably get $50 for it since it ran. Last one I had I sold to a fellow member for $25 - also ran fine but was no longer needed. GD

Did you remake the blocks out of something thicker or are you going to run the thin square tube? GD

If you are looking to replace the mechanical fan (I hate them from a maintenance standpoint - really hard to work with/around) - I have a few EA81 A/C fans that will fit in front of the water pump on the radiator. EA81's used dual-electric fans like EJ's. GD

The condensor off the coil is to eliminate radio interferance - it's not critical to ignition operation. I will leave them if they are good, but don't sweat it if it's not - just yank it. Ultimately - if you have consistent spark from the coil - then it's either a cap/rotor/wire/plug issue, or the timing is off. The coil can't fire unless the distributor's module tells it to - so that is working it sounds like. Now - if you get to a point where you know the timing is good and you have spark but it still won't fire and stay running - the distributor may still be bad. I've had it happen - where the module is borderline and can't keep up with normal engine RPM. It is possible - but it's relatively rare. Sorry I haven't replied to your PM yet - just been busy. You can come get that engine anytime and it's got another distributor on it - might be a points/condensor style - I'm not sure. GD

Ok - so taking a look at my '80 FSM.... the vent and return lines are never tied together - only in as much as both of them eminate from the tank. But there are two other devices in the vent line - there is a fuel seperator behind the passenger side wall in the rear cargo area - it's like a mini fuel tank that drains back to the tank from the bottom and releases vapor from the top. Then under the car there is a 2-way valve that maintains constant pressure in the tank - allows vapor out, and fresh air in, but is closed unless there is a pressure differential. I would surmise that the fuel seperator or it's tank return line are clogged - it's likely full of fuel and the pressure being created by the FI pump is enough to force said fuel through the vent line to the engine bay. One thing that concerns me is that the system does not show a filter back by the tank - only the 2-way valve in the vent line. Are you sure it was a filter you removed and replaced with the pump and not said 2-way valve? My FSM is an '80 and your's is an '81 so maybe there was a filter that my diagram doesn't show - but I figured I should mention it. GD

As I recall - when Jerry (Bratsrus1) did the SPFI on his hatch (80 or 81) he ran a new fuel return line back to the tank. Didn't your friend's car have the fuel pump in the engine bay? I'll have a look at my '80 FSM and see what the deal is with the lines. You may end up having to do a surge-tank setup where the carb pump fills the surge tank and the FI pump pulls from and returns to the surge tank. GD