GeneralDisorder

Yeah - he means unscrew it to check/change the jet. Nice job in the install. Your PCV is wrong though - there should only be a 5/8" line from the air cleaner to the passenger side valve cover. The line from the driver's side should go to the "F" fitting and then the 1/4" line goes to the air filter and the other 5/8" line goes to the PCV valve. The 1/4" line is a vacuum breaker that allows it to not suck oil into the filter but still retain a positivle flow from passenger valve cover, through the crankcase, then out the driver's side cover. There won't be any positive flow the way you currently have it. GD

That will almost certainly have rear drums. The one in my driveway that I'm about to sell does ('96 L sedan). GD

Watch out on the brakes - some of the Gen 2 stuff had rear drums. The gen 1's only had rear disc's that I've seen but perhaps there were low end models with drums.... I've always figured the Loyale was in that niche. GD

'83 EA81 hatch ~240k, Weber, one cylinder with low compression..... 26 MPG in mixed driving. Drive it like I stole it everywhere I go. 32 MPG freeway only, 55 to 65 MPH. I don't drive like grandma, but pretty sane. My '85 Brat, EA81 w/Weber was better in mixed driving (27 to 29), but a bit less on the freeway (heavier, poor drag coeficient). GD

Pull the sending unit and take a look inside. You may be able to do a partial clean through the sending unit hole on the back of the tank. There is also a drain plug on the bottom of the tank - that will help. GD

I've never needed a regulator of any kind with the Weber's. Typically the common cheap regulators need 10+ psi on the high side to work at all. I've used Subaru SPFI pump's on Weber's with a regulator. 50 psi down to 3 psi at the carb. Leave the EGR and hook it to the late ported vacuum port on the front of the Weber (if it's a newer one, the port will be blocked with a small brass screw). GD

1. Pull #1 plug. 2. Rotate engine till you feel the cylinder compressing air past your finger (comp. stroke, both valves closed). 3. Rotate flywheel till marks come into view and set pointer on 20* BTDC 4. Install distributor with rotor pointing at whichever plug tower you wish to be #1. 5. Install wires starting with #1 and working in a counter-clockwise order. Fireing order is 1,3,2,4 6. Start engine (put the #1 plug back in dummy!) and fine tune with timing light and diagnostic connectors plugged together. GD

You can't do that on the front. u-joint's are NOT constant velocity. That means they have to be run at equal but opposite angles on either end of the shaft in order to cancel out the velocity changes that the joint experiences. You MUST use some form of constant velocity joint on the outboard end of the front axles or you won't be able to steer the car without severe and dangerous vibration. That's pointless. Then it's not a Subaru anymore and you might as well USE the CJ5/7 in the first place. The whole reason the Subaru 4WD system is innovative and different is exactly because it was one of the first independant 4WD systems that was mass marketed and inexpensive. Take that away and you have a rather mundane example of Japanese engineering that's not nearly as refined as similar vintage products from Datsun/Nissan or Toyota. If I were going to put solid axles under a Japanese car I would rathe it be a Maxima or something. GD

One of the Chrysler divisions called it "Sublime", but I can't recall which at the moment. GD

I would do a used clutch, but my time is valuable too, and the time to pull one vs. the cost..... I paid about $65 for a new disc and I used a used PP that was on a car at the yard that had the transmission already out of it.... worn disc though. I wouldn't use used pilot or release bearings unless it was pretty obvious they were fairly recently replaced. Too far to go back in and replace them and again - not enough profit for the potential backlash. I did use used axles - rebooted one of the original's ($24) and put in a used one with good boots on the other side. But there's no way I'm going to put in a used timing belt, water pump, or idler/tensioner bearings. I can't give the buyer the correct maintenance interval if I do that. If they are due to be serviced or are failing (as is the case with this car), and I install used parts here - I can't give an honest idea of when they should be replaced in the future. That's called integrity - something I'm not willing to sell at any price. If I end up doing a lot of these, I suspect much of my business will be word of mouth. And any potential savings from using used/substandard parts will be eaten up in poor reviews of my product. I want people to come back to me for repairs and to send their friends and relatives to me for some business. You don't build a customer base by selling a mediocre product.. That's my philosophy. We'll see how it works in practice.... GD

Like I said - don't sweat the Loyale. I've cut up a few nice examples just out of pure spite. Nice starter car for you, but the EA81 you are getting is a much better Subaru to be in. You'll want a 5 speed swap and a Weber. Those are going to be your two most pressing needs with it. Jerry (bratsrus1) in Yakima makes a kit to put the 5 speed D/R in the EA81. Nice guy - he'll set you up right. GD

And you go to school with the kid! Hope he's not too bitter. Don't want another Columbine Get yourself a Weber with some of the money. You'll be wanting it - trust me. GD

That's great. No great loss on that Loyale. One less EA82 (and a high mileage one at that).... no one will notice. You are in a much better rig now. That kid is going to love his insurance rate's after that stunt. I wish one would plow into me too..... GD

The bell-housing is part of the engine, not the transmission. Or were you talking about swapping the transmission to the side-starter? GD

Yeah - someday I'll be geared up to do it. Let me think on the tool list. I'll try to come up with something. I generally take several tool bags and sometimes a caddy (the woman) to help carry them. GD

You can make it work with the EA81 flyhweel, EA82 disc and PP. You have to have the EA81 flywheel resurfaced to the EA82 specs. The step is different - thus why you have no clamping force with stock parts. Any shop that resurfaces them should be able to do it. Otherwise you have to use flywheel/PP combinations that go together (EA81/EA81 or EA82/EA82) and only swap the disc. But as Bill noted above, you have to use a very specific EA82 disc in order to fit into the EA81 pressure plate..... GD

A 5 speed cable will work as well. They are very similar if not exactly the same. About $15 at the dealer. GD

I'm not 100% on this, but I beleive the bell-housing's can be swapped between some of the later EA71's with side-starter's and the early one's with top-starters. So, in theory, you could put the top-mount starter bell-housing on the later hydro lifter engine and have a compatible setup. And before someone asks - no, you can't do this with an EA81. The top-mount starter bell-housing won't fit the EA81. GD

Axle (CV) strength is directly proportional to the angle and speed they are run at. They are strongest at 0 degree's and weakest at their max angle. The joint at the diff is not the problem - you can easily replace those with u-joints in the rear. A set of modified Z car axles could be used and are proven on the Baja circuits at upwards of 20" of travel. The front joints are a whole different animal. The compound angles required to steer the car require that a CV style joint be used. The trick is to run them as flat as possible most of the time. That will take care of 90% of the problems most people have. GD

The shifter on the push-button 4WD is a bit different than those used on the EJ series transmissions. The 4WD shift assembly uses a "shelf" that contains the pivot point for the shifter as well as the D/R shift lever for the older non-pushbutton style transmissions. If I were you, and wanted to use the kart-boy stuff, I would probably just switch over to the entire EJ shift linkage system. You would have to mount the rubber "sling" for the pivot rod but that wouldn't take a lot of fab work. Being that you don't need the shelf to mount the D/R lever to it shouldn't be that big of a deal. GD

Subaru already solved the stub-axle problem for us. The '95 and up diffs don't use stub axles anymore. They use a male axle that snaps into a c-clip inside the diff. Here's the problem with CV's in general - the higher the angle they are run at, the less torque and speed they can handle before breaking. Currently, one of the best designs out there that's readily availible and reasonably priced is the Porsche 930 CV joint. They can handle angles in excess of 45 degrees and are proven in baja racing with travel of 30" or more. You have two basic options - use the stock axles and work towards a portal setup that can yeild less stress on the stock axles and thus allow both higher ground clearance while running the axle flat as well as larger travel both due to the stress/speed reduction and the fact that you can flex them both up and down equally by running them near flat. Or, you can work toward completely custom axles using something like a 930 CV joint, completely customizing the suspension, etc. This doesn't change the stress factors and you still have the problems related to not enough gearing in the Subaru transaxle. You still have to take a running start at most things as there isn't sufficient gearing for crawling. Larger tires are only going to make this worse. To my mind, any solution that doesn't include better gearing either using a second transfer case or by running something like a portal hub at each wheel is not going to acheive anything more than what folks have already done. I did some of the math, and it would only take a 1.6:1 reduction at each wheel to dramatically reduce the stresses on the driveline and to still allow freeway speeds with a 5 speed D/R. Off the shelf sprockets and chain aren't difficult to source. It's just doing the machine work - cutting splines and building all the custom peices needed for it to work. This also allows use of the Subaru transaxle's because it still uses both the front and rear output's - most people are dissapointed by the divorced t-case setup because you end up eating the rear output gear set on the transaxle. GD

I guess I was about 21 or 22 at the time. Got an EA81 wagon for $400 at a dealer auction. Not exactly. No one in my family owned a Subaru prior to me. And my father never worked on a car that I can recall. He worked 35 years for a lumber yard though so I grew up no stranger to tools. He was a C-130 mechanic in the Air Force and I later joined the Army as a generator tech. I took everything apart that I could get my hands on as a kid. Used to fix lawn mowers and tillers as a young boy. Bought them for a few $$ each from the city dump. My education history is long and varied. Everything from Software Engineering to Industrial Machinery.... I get bored with stuff fast. I soak up information like a sponge but don't ask me to remember anyone's name. . It's got to be some kind of disease or brain damage - or maybe I just don't find "people" or their problems very interesting. ZatAoMM...... yeah. GD

Hhhhmmm - you can't really take a measurement of a crank journal effectively with a caliper. They won't give you a repeatable, accurate reading. Also the fit of the crank to the bearings (mains and rods) should ALWAYS be double checked with plasti-gauge. More than once in the history of engine rebuilds has a replacement part been mis-packaged. One oversized rod bearing insert and the whole game is lost..... The tollerances on these engines are quite close. You really need to measure crank journals with a metric micrometer. Trouble with sae measureing devices is they measure typically down to .001" - which is larger than .01mm.... metric mic's and dial indicators are actually more accurate (and typically more expensive here in the US) than their sae counterparts. A metric mic., telescoping gauge set, and plasti-gauge should be on the "must have" list for rebuilding these engines. A bore gauge is nice too but an inside mic. will also do the job if you are careful. It is expensive stuff, but how much is it worth to only have to do the job one time? GD

By "long travel" - I take that to mean 30"+ *at least*. You won't achieve that with stock components. The stock travel of an EA series is about 8" to 10". You are talking at least Porsche 930 CV's and this is not just fabrication territory, You need a full machine shop at your disposal. I'm not going to the trouble of building something like that unless it's going to have a real good chance of surviving Paris to Dakar. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. I can't do the concept justice..... yet. Which is why you haven't seen one roll out of my shop. Someday perhaps. But before I do a long-travel setup I'm going to build chain driven portal hubs. They would be the perfect addition to a Subaru. GD

And the guy only had the car since 105k. So the first 105k (presumably) was his sister. I only have suspicions... but there is a spot on the leather shift knob of my SS where the leather is nearly worn through - exactly where a woman's ring would sit..... 165k - melted cylinder liner (no joke!), blown turbo, blown radiator, blown heater core . Beutiful interior and exterior . GD