GeneralDisorder

Nope - different cluster. GD

A short is when you have a direct path to ground on a power circuit. That will blow fuses or start fires. If it doesn't do either of those then yes it will cause the alternator to overheat. I think you intended to ask about poor grounds, yes? If that's the case then no - poor grounds increase the resistance in the circuit - that causes many things including excessive heat. It uses less power as full voltage can't get to the accesories. The one exception to this is the sense circuit through the charge indicator lamp - if that circuit has too much resistance the alternator's VR will put out higher voltage to compensate for a perceived voltage drop that doesn't exist. But there aren't any grounds in that circuit - it's a fused power circuit from the battery positive, through the lamp, and to the VR's sensing line on the alt. Sometimes corrosion on the terminals at the back of the cluster can cause this - leaky windsheilds or cars that sit for a long time in damp climates often have that problem. GD

If you don't know a lot about mechanics, then an RX is not a good way to start your learning curve. For several reasons: 1. The EA82 Turbo (EA82T) is arguably the worst engine Subaru ever made. To quantify that statement it should be added that as a measure of poor engines goes, the EA82T is still quite a bit better than many products produced by manufacturers other than Subaru. The engine has a poor head/block interface, weak exhaust port castings, a primitive timing belt system, primitive HLA's, and an overall weak cooling system. 2. The problems you are likely to have are not condusive to "learning". You likely do not have the experience to know what needs addressing first, to see problems before they become extreeme, and to address them correctly. This almost certainly will result is a very bad experience with the EA82T. Overheat it just once or twice and you are looking at tearing it down to the block for a HG job and possibly expensive exhaust port repairs as the heads are prone to cracking. 3. The car has very little performance potential as a whole without swapping engines to an EJ series. You are not ready for that, nor do you have the money or the time. Seriously - get an early 90's Impreza or Legacy. Leave the old school turbo's to us crazy old farts that have the time and exprience to work on them properly. Take a look at my post count - how many kids like you do you suppose I've seen with ideas like your's? I know what's going to happen, and I knew it when I read your very first post. Be one of the few smart one's and don't waste any more time - sell it and get something that will get you around safely and without major mechanical work on a regular basis. GD

It's not a grounding issue. They blow when the alternator puts out AC or the VR fails high. Poor grounds will result in too little voltage, not too much. And the fan is entirely different. I've owned over a dozen EA81's and never had one with a fan switch or had one that didn't have a working fan with either a cleaning of the contacts, replacing the thermoswitch, or fixing the radiator ground strap. GD

The Hitachi's aren't terrible carbs, but most are pretty bad off after 25 years. Glad you got it running. The feedback system will cause problems eventually. It's only a matter of time with them. GD

Cooling system pressure should be 13 psi. EA81's do not need an overflow tank. Remove it. The system will seek it's own level - which is usually around 1 to 2 inches from the filler neck. It should not be full - it needs room for the coolant to expand as it heats. GD

Check to see that the timing belts aren't loose. I had an EA82 SPFI that would bog on takeoff's randomely. Turns out the belts were loose and when they snapped I did a belt/tensioner/water pump job and it's gone. GD

SPFI came out in '86. Only on the 2WD GL-10's. 85 GL-10's were MPFI non-turbo (like an XT, but without the spider and serp belts). '87 was a mixed year. Towards the end of the 87 model year they stopped using the carbs as the phase out of their production began prior to the end of the model year production so there wouldn't be overstock of production carb components - that's my guess. GD

I would never do just one anyway. If you are having your lifters rebuilt you should be installing a new oil pump anyway. But the lifters making noise is just annoying. I always replace the pump first because poor oil pressure can cause internal engine damage and the oil pump is easier to get to than the lifters. The first step in diagnosing lifter noise is always to check the oil pressure. The pumps usually look pretty ugly inside after a couple hundred thousand. GD

I think he means it was leaking water into the interior. It certainly isn't clear from his post though. Not much is.... GD

Everything about you, your car, and especially your post indicates you should find a different car. You'll have nothing but problems with the RX. Sell it while it's still relatively untouched and get something you don't have to mess with. Sorry to be blunt my friend, but a finicky 88 RX is not the right car for someone who's 17 and just starting out. It's a good car for folks that have other vehicles, who can devote the time and money required to keep them going, and who doesn't have to rely on it to get to work/school. They also get terrible mileage. Get a motorcycle. - you'll be better off. GD

Nothing on exhaust studs. Red is for stuff that you don't want to take apart again without a torch. It has to be heated to release. Blue just requires some torque but holds things well. I don't find a lot of uses for the red loctite thread locker - mostly I use 248 (blue in stick form), and 545 which is for locking shaft sleeves and other close tollerance fitted machine surfaces. Also sometimes find use for the anerobic flange sealant. We have caulking gun sizes of it at work - boy they think a lot of that stuff - $178 a tube! GD

I don't generally torque them. Just remember to use locktite blue (242 or 248) on the bolt threads as they are open to the crankcase on the backside. Go with about 25 Ft/lbs if you want a torque value from outer space. It's not critical. GD

The ONLY company that makes EA oil pumps is Atsugi/Unisia/Paraut. All oil pumps from all vendors are the same. Some are branded with the FHI emblem, but they all come from the same place. I get mine through Discount Import Parts (http://www.discountimportparts.com/) - geniune OEM for half the price. Just bought an EA81 pump for $90 - their primary supplier was out of stock ($55) so they had to go through a Subaru OEM supplier in California. Still a lot cheaper. GD

Remove the flywheel and drive it out from the inside with a brass drift. That's how they are supposed to be done anyway. GD

Excellent - so we have narrowed the problem to a non-feedback issue (for the most part), and there's good evidence that the choke is at fault. Taking your whole situation into account, I think that possibly you have a bad choke bi-metal spring. Now the downside is that these are difficult to find in junk yards because they are nearly always broken, and they are ridiculously expensive from the dealer (somewhere north of $100). Pull it off and take a look. I think you'll find either that the spring is broken near the tip where it's supposed to form a hook, or you will find that it looks burnt, etc. I would pick up an $8 manual choke conversion kit from you local auto parts store and convert it to an old-school pull style choke on the dash. I did it with the Hitachi on my Hatch and it works just fine. As for disconnecting the duty solenoids.... your mileage will go in the toilet. It ran cooler because it went rich when you disconnected them. The added fuel cools the combustion - this same technique is used in turbocharged applications and is the reason turbo cars use more fuel when common sense says they should use less. To some extent the added fuel gave you more power (at a huge cost in fuel consumption I assure you), and running cooler allows the timing to advance without any ping. So your symtoms are right in line with a very rich mixture. To overcome that you would have to rejet the carb to non-feedback specs. Basically you would need a donor Hitachi that came from a non-feedback (non-california 4WD model) to pull the jets and air bleeds from - but you could just swap the whole carb a lot easier. GD

This is going to be very difficult to diagnose. You only get one shot to reproduce the symptoms every 10 minutes - that's a bummer. Well - I am of the opinion that you should try disconnecting the duty solenoids and seeing if anything changes. With them disconnected the ECU has NO control over the carb whatsoever. You're mileage will go in the toilet for as long as you have them disconnected, but this is just a test to see if for some reason the duty solenoids are being opened too much durring hot starts. If that changes nothing with respect to your hot start issue then you can safely assume that the feedback system has nothing to do with the problem directly (indirectly it does - It's existance in the first place changes the vacuum system in fundamental ways that are probably driving this issue) - in other words none of the "electronics" or "sensors" would be at fault. It could be a thermo-valve or thermo-vacuum valve that isn't controlled directly by the ECU. By FAR the best solution to all your problems (high idle, hot starting, acne, sinusitus, mother-in-law, etc) is to install a Weber. The price you will pay if you look for a deal is nothing compared to the satisfaction the little guy will give you, the performance increase, and the simplicity. I gaurantee you will spend less on a Weber and installing it than you are spending now wasting your time with an antique electronic carburetor. Your time is more valuable than a couple hundred bucks on something that actually works - and look at it this way - you don't HAVE to sell the carb when you sell the car. Keep the old system completely intact - buy a used manifold and pull the whole thing off in one swoop. That way you can put the Hitachi feedback back on it when you sell the car and either recoupe your money by selling the Weber to another member here or on eBay, or just put in on the next car you buy. GD

Beyond the basic work of swapping parts, lets not forget that one way or another you will need an alignment. If that means doing it yourself with some string or one of the gizmo's from harbor frieght it will have to be addressed. You will have a new rack and new cross-member so things will not line up the same as they did before. Replace the steering rag joint with a urethane one for a VW bug. EMPI makes them - about $8. GD

It's been retro-fitted then. Non-turbo Brat's did not come with power steering - ever. GD

If the CTS signals to the ECU that the engine is cold, then the ECU supplies too much fuel. The mixture is too rich, and the engine is hard to start. Now - that's an extreemely generic statement. It applies to a lesser or greater degree depending on how bad the sensor is, and how much control over the fuel system the ECU in question has. In the case of the SPFI for example, it would probably start and run very poorly if the CTS reported a cold engine when it was hot due to the position of the idle air control valve, the cold enrichment being applied, etc. But the ECU would likely figue out what was going on pretty quickly, ignore the CTS sensor input, illuminate the check engine lamp, and go on it's merry way using a suitable replacement sensor input - it pretty much knows the engine is warm once the O2 begins reporting so it can safely enter closed loop operation. Cold starting is more likely to be a problem as most times the CTS's fail to higher resistance rather than lower (indicateing the engine is hot when it is cold). In the case of the feedback carb the ECU doesn't have enough control over the idle circuit, and has no control at all over the choke, so it can't really cause difficulty in hot starting that I can see.... and if it's not throwing a CTS code then I can't see any reason to mess with it. The EA82 feedback is a mess of a system. You may have a thermo-vacuum-valve that is opening a vacuum leak when hot and closing it when cold. What symptoms do you have when it's difficult to start? Is it flooding or starving for fuel? Does it run rough? Are you pumping the pedal? Etc? GD

Rockauto should list them. They are listed many different ways so you'll have to dig - and make sure there's a picture listed. Why do you think it's bad? The ECU will throw a code for an out of range CTS. GD

The only Brat's that came stock with power steering are the turbo Brat's (83 and 84). If that's what you have then you are going to need some other stuff as well - the turbo Brat's power steering system is more like an EA82 power steering system than it is the EA81. GD

There's as many causes of the TOD as there are stars in the sky. That's awesome that you got your's to stop, but that same fix is not going to work for everyone. GD

First EA81's don't have overflow's. The engine warms up, coolant expands, and any extra is allowed to dump out on the ground. For this reason there will always be an airspace at the top of the radiator to allow for expansion when warm. I advise this because it is important to notice that there is air in the coolant at all times. Air dissolves into the coolant at the top of the radiator, and can form bubbles as it is churned up by the water pump. Now - there are several places you can be losing coolant. 1. Leaks. Upper and lower radiator hoses, thermostat housing gasket, carb base gaskets, manifold gaskets, heater core hoses, carb base heater hose (from heater core supply tube), heater core, heat control valve, and head gaskets (external). It's important to note that a leak of the size you are experiencing will usually NOT show up on the ground if it's near the engine. They will often evaporate due to engine temperatures before they hit the ground. The best way to look for leaks is with coolant dye and a black light - both are cheap. It's also helpful to use a hand pump system pressurizer so you don't have to run the engine. It is far, far more likely that you have a leak than a bad head gasket. 2. Internal leakage. Head gasket, manifold and carb base gaskets (burning it), and freeze plugs (into the oil). Head gaskets will often pressurize the cooling system resulting in VERY bad things - like splitting a radiator seam or blowing the tank off the end of the heater core - or blowing old hoses. You can do a compression test, but it may not show you anything useful if the leak is small. The best course of action is to do a hydrocarbon test of the coolant. That will tell you if cylinder compression is entering the cooling system. The cylinders have a LOT more pressure in them than does the 13 psi cooling system so exhaust gasses will always enter the cooling system if you have a compression leak into it...... If you had a leaking freeze plug you would probably know it already as the oil would be milkshake. GD

Now that you have a main board to sacrifice, it's actually not bad. Mine was a month-long nightmare because I wanted an '80 cluster with the vertical-moving needles . Turns out the circuits are different and the '80 cluster needed diodes added to some of the lighting circuits to properly interface with the car. You shouldn't have that problem. What I did was to cut the round plug's out of the main board and used them along with the connectors from an analog vehicle's cluster harness to build three adaptor harnesses. You will notice that the pressed-in pins of the digi's main board are convienently hollow on the backside. A bit of electronics flux and you can solder a wire inside of each pin very neatly. I used bullet connectors - all male on one side, and all female on the other side - to proto-type the harness. That allowed me to swap wires around if I needed to. I made color and pin charts for the two wireing schematics and I used small peices of heat shrink to color my wires from each plug. Two bits per wire of different colors gave me about 20 combinations with the various colors of heat shrink I had availible at the time..... now I would probably just cut lengths of color striped wire at work as I have access to it - or use 3M wire number tape. I had neither at the time though. Just keep it all organized and make charts of each wire, the circuits it feeds, and what color's and pins are associated with it on both the vehicle side and the analog side of the harness. If you need scans of any of the FSM stuff let me know. I have not only the FSM's but also the wireing troubleshooting book. GD