GeneralDisorder

2" buys you very little on an EA81 - they don't have the wheel well capacity that the EA82's have and as such 4" is almost a minimum for decent sized wheel/tire combo's. Mine was originally 3" and to fit 28" tires I had to beat the wheel wells so hard the doors didn't close when I was done. Had to jack them up with a floor jack and wood blocks to realign them. The door seals have leaked ever since.......:-\ Time frame is around this summer. They will be done long before the WCSS and I may even bring a few sets to sell at said event. GD

Not questioning your abilities or anything here..... but for a 4" lift the strut tower's are a LOT more complex than the steering extension. The steering extension just requires adding a bit of tubing or rod to the existing shaft - the strut's have to drop and move inward at the same time to correct the front camber. I'm just offering to do both of the components that require welding and such so I mentioned the steering shafts as well. Just the upper and lower plates of my strut towers took many hours of measureing, cutting, grinding, drilling, fitting, etc. I went through three design changes before actually assembling and fitting them to a car and even after doing that I still have changed the design in slight ways yet a fourth time. The labor is 10x what a steering shaft is and thus the reason my final strut block design is being laser cut - if I had to build them by hand the labor would be too expensive to even consider building more than just a set or two for myself. GD

No problem Bill - glad you got it sorted and can drive it for now. GD

Most of the ports can just be left open. Post a picture of the carb and we'll see what we can do for you. Since you are using the carb from an older engine the ports won't even be the same anyway as the newer model carb so the manifold and lines won't be entirely compatible. Most of it you can just ditch and get it to run just fine if you know what the ports are for and how to treat them. And yes - DL's had EA81's just like GL's in those years. 80/81 DL's had the top-mount starter (narrow case) EA71 and then were switched to the EA81 in '82. The only USDM car to use the fat case EA71 was the STD model Hatchback from '82 to '89. GD

The motor on my Legacy is located near the bottom of the B pillar IIRC. I think it drives the whole mess with a cable system or flexible drive shaft of some kind. GD

I disconnected the motor that drives the thing on my Legacy. The passenger side belt started doing that and I haven't the time to mess with it. Without it's motor it can't move the slider anymore. Not a "fix" per-se, but it works for now. GD

I will consider it at some point in the future. For the moment I haven't the time to do the EA82 design and I find the body's to be inferior to the EA81 hatch for off-roading - they are just too heavy and long unless you go higher than 4" and add more power. For a 4" lift, there is nothing more perfect than an EA81 hatch - a bobbed Brat is a close second. The departure angle, shorter wheelbase, and light weight make them quite effective for a "small" lift like the 4". GD

Do you already have a lift and do not like the existing steering extension? Depending on the amount of cross-member drop it will require a different steering extension length as well as being different for power vs. manual steering. There are a couple EA81's in the yards around here. I'll try to find a shaft for you depending on what you need. EA82 parts can often be used as well. For example - my wagon's extension consists of an extra EA82 u-joint coupled to the stock u-joint with a modified and lengthened spline section from the end of a column. None of the parts used came from an EA81 with the exception of the original u-joint assembly. But mine is power which makes it easier to adapt in this way. GD

I may produce a small run of my strut tower design and offer steering extensions as well for EA81's - The idea being that the rest of a 4" lift is easily accomplished by heading down to the local steel mart and having 2" blocks of 4"x2", 1/4" wall tubing cut and then drilling them. The strut tower blocks I'm building allow camber adjustment via slots in the lower plate - the proto-type set is currently installed in my lifted wagon and the camber is perfect at exactly 4" strut extension and no adjustment of the lower spring perch (full soft "low" setting). The final product will be laser cut by a respected machinist and fellow board member and welded by me. I'm thinking of offering the two strut extensions for about $150 and maybe a bit more for a steering extension (with core shaft exchange). I'm not doing this for a huge profit - I just see that the biggest obstacles for most people are the strut extension and making the camber correct, and then the steering linkage. I would likely be doing a short run of around 10 sets. I do not want to produce full kits with hardware, etc as the rest of the items are easily sourced locally and thus it doesn't pay to waste the time and expense of shipping some blocks and bolts. Installation in the towers will require only the same minor beating of the "lump" at the rear of each tower that all other kits require - the difference is that the camber is adjustable for fine tuning on a specific vehicle. Any interest or shall I just make a few for myself and friends? GD

Contact rguyver - he makes them and usually brings half a dozen to the west coast subaru show. His are proven on his daily driver - a WRX swapped Brat. CNC laser cut, pre-threaded, with alignment holes properly reamed. A beautiful peice IMO. His employer (where he runs these same CNC machines daily IIRC) allows him to use the equipment and since he already has the CAD file for the plates it's a simple matter of loading the stock, pushing the button, and walking away. Thus his excelent price. GD

What specifically do you want help with on the vacuum routing? EA71's only came in the STD model hatch in the US. DL's had EA81's. GD

Why not just drill and tap your existing manifold or adapt a PCV valve that's designed to go inline with the hose and simply T it into the brake booster? GD

Probably not - valve stem seals is much more likely on Subaru's. GD

Sounds good - 220 is a bit high but not terrible. The thermostat opens fully at 190 that is true, but the fans won't come on till 200 or more so 220 isn't that big of a deal really. Extra cooling fans are never a bad idea though. The infrared guns can be had at Harbor Frieght and places like them for around $30. Never a bad idea to own one if you are a mechanic. There are tons of uses for them - even checking the temp of the grill before you plop down the steaks . You will wonder how you ever got along with that ancient K-type themo-couple and DMM . GD

Post a picture of this "shim" if you can - is the dust/rock sheild present on both sides? Brake pads will be loose in the bracket if you don't have the anti-rattle clips. They are often missing though and shouldn't affect brake performance - they can be replaced - Beck/Arnley has a kit with all the clips for pretty cheap, etc. Check rockauto.com, or order from the dealer. GD

The drawback is that you don't have a PCV valve in the manifold so any oil that gets sucked into the system ends up in the carb and air filter instead. Plus it's probably not as effective for removing crankcase gasses since the two pipes are fighting each other and trying to suck on both sides of the engine. With the PCV setup as talked about in this thread you have an IN and an OUT side of the engine creating a positive flow from one side to the other. With the hose going into the soda can you have NO flow - so that's completely innefective. You might as well just leave the valve cover port open...... GD

That's because you have a bad or missing check valve between the accumulator tank and the manifold or leaks in the HVAC control system. Has nothing to do with vacuum leaks as the system doesn't *use* vacuum on a constant basis if there are no leaks and a check valve in place. If the goal is trying to lighten your wallet for no apparent reason at all, then yeah I suppose so. GD

Yeah - all they had to do was look at any engine parts breakdown for ANY EA82 and that would have given them the number. Plus it's all computerized now. What a pile of morons. GD

If you remove or disable the purge solenoid then you may as well remove the entire charcoal canister, etc and all it's associated lines and tubes. You can install a 33 Ohm, 5 watt resistor right near the ECU between the pin for the purge/EGR solenoid and ground. You can remove all the lines for the EGR valve as well as the valve itself if you do the resistor on both. GD

I've noticed that Ford thermostats tend to fail open and thus overcool the engine. You may get good heat still but it's probably still the thermostat. Both of the Aerostar's my family has have done this and a new thermostat fixed em right up. GD

I'll see if I can dig it up - but thepartsbin.com and probably rockauto.com has the reinforced o-rings. They aren't a dealer specific item per-se, but the dealer is usually the easiest place to get them. GD

Belts are no problem - you can get ribbed belts in any size you want. Just look around online for a guide to measureing them and you'll be able to generate a part number for the belt based on it's dimentions. The 1/2" diameter difference is no concern really. That just means it turns a bit slower (larger diameter on the Maxima alt right?). As long as it's sufficiently fast for it to make enough current for your draw at idle it will be fine. GD

The dowel pins serve a singlular pupose - to take the weight of the engine when installing it in the car. If you assemble the engine to the transmission without the pins then the weight of the engine rests on the input shaft bearings and the pilot bearing. With the 5 speed D/R this is *less* of a concern than it would be with the EJ 5 speed because it actually has a front input shaft bearing where the EJ's do not. I would guess that this fact alone is why we haven't seen adaptor plates without the dowel pins causing bearing failures. That and there may already be so much play in the worn 5 speed's people are using that the lower studs take the weight and it doesn't really load the transmission bearings all that much - the pilot is less of a concern as it doesn't even turn when the car is in gear and moving. As for cost - that depends. I bought my adaptor as I didn't have the tools at the time to make my own. I chose one that does have the dowel pin locations and is proven on a DD application. It happens that the cost was $100 which I find more than fair. Unfortunately he doesn't actively sell them online and he's not a big fan of shipping things down from Canada so it's not so easy to aquire one for most people. GD

Engine is easier. Transaxle is heavy and awkward if you don't have a transmission jack. As you mention it's not neccesary to pull the engine entirely - just foward enough to remove the clutch. GD

They are widely used in the car audio world. You can get any size you want - manual or automatic reset. Just do a google search for the size and style you want. GD