GeneralDisorder

They should be the same, but beware when ording clutch kits. 80 to 82 4WD's used the same 200mm clutch as the 2WD's. 83 on used 225mm for 4WD, and 200mm for 2WD. They could have a glitch in their computer parts system, and one or the other might in fact be a 200mm instead of the proper 225. Also with cars this old you never quite know what you'll find - best to open it up and see how big the clutch is before you buy one. GD

The oil can cause insulation of the sensor wire and failure due to overheating from the hot-wire in the MAF. Cleaning them is not the issue - the issue is the deposits causeing undo strain on the electronics. There's no reason at all to use them. Paper filters better, and the surface area of the stock element is larger than it needs to be for the EA82. It's all gimick - just like PTFE additives, headgasket in a bottle and all the rest of the junk sold to those with no sense of scepticism. GD

That falls more into the "feeling good about greasing things" catagory. Also a lot of heavy equipment joints are built in such a way that they will "belch" out the added grease - they have replaceable boots that can be squeezed to remove some of the grease when you force more in. But that is a totally different world from consumer automotive. The small Subaru u-joints use lip-seals, not boots.....Once upon a time I was a heavy wheeled vehicle mechanic in the Army so I understand what you are saying. But this topic was on regular 4-wheeler "automotive" components - not heavy over-the-road gear like tractor-trailer systems. GD

Ball joints and tie-rod ends.... drag links and the like are not high-speed, but they are load bearing. Friction creates heat, and you can get your friction different ways - light loads at high speed, or heavy loads at low speed. It all makes heat regardless. And u-joints actually do rotate quite fast - they also change direction rapidly and tend to wear uneavenly because of it. I agree with what you are saying to a point - there are definite difference between a C3 (motor rated) bearing, and a u-joint's pin bearings. But over the time they are required to operate (in hours) they are not all that different. And either one will fail if there is nowhere for the grease to expand to, it overheats, and loses it's lubrication abilities. Grease must expand and contract - if it's contained then it will exert pressure on the bearings and drive out the lubricating film. Adding good, new grease to grease contaminated with particulates of burned grease creates a "compound" and grinds away the metal in the assembly. It may quiet it down, and it may help for a short time, but overall it was the over-greasing that killed it in the first place. To some extent, once you have over-greased them the damage is done unless you dissasemble them to remove some so you might as well keep adding grease - at that point it can't really hurt you anymore anyway. GD

All that really just isn't true in the grand scheme of things. Cars last LONGER by far (with less maintenance) than they ever have before. A car in the 1960's was basically shot at 100,000 miles. Now people complain if they can't get to 200,000 or more. And that's with NO greasing of chassis components as there are no zerks and it isn't called out in the schedule. Sure a component fails from time to time but by and large suspension components last the usuable life of the car without even a glance from a mechanic. You have to see the forest for the trees here. Parts are expensive because fewer are needed in the replacement supply chain (less repairs means fewer parts are produced). It's also much faster and easier to redesign components now that all the engineering and proto-typing is done on computer. Lets not forget that grease has come a long way in that time as well. The grease of 30 or 40 years ago often may not have outlasted the life of the component as some of todays finer lubricants will. People that turn wrenches on cars are very rarely in the posistion to do proper failure analysis. They fix it and move on. Their business is volume. They are of a breed that often has very rigid rituals with regards to lubrication - ones that they can't always quite explain. You have given me no reasons other than anecdotal evidence to support your claims. I would now like you to offer some concrete reasoning behind your posistion. Just because a bunch of wrench monkey's wanted the zerks, and because you have seen some failed joints that you suppose failed due to contamination does not indicate that greasing zerks every 3,000 miles would have led to this not occuring. Indeed is it not possible that regular greaseing could have contributed to the contamination and actually sped up the failure process? There are good, concrete reasons to beleive that it might have, and there have been studies indicating that's exactly what happens in the vast preponderance of cases. Is in not possible that what you suppose was "contamination" was actually failed lubricant that had changed from a semi-liquid to a solid and contaminated itself? Were they any chemical analysis done on the supposed "contaminates"? This is the stuff I do on a daily basis. Failure analysis is a big part of some of the work I perform as my employer is the factory service center and we process warantee claims for equipment and components that can be in the 10's of thousands of $$. We have chemical analysis done at times by independant labs, ect. This stuff is rarely done in the autmotive world (or if it is it's done at the corporate/factory level as we do) because it's easier to just throw on a new part (possibly updated ), pat the customer on the butt and send them on their way. GD

Aftermarket components are known for being poot quality. Has nothing to do with the maintenance when the components are built in pakistan and handled accordingly. One good drop from a few feet and a bearing's life will be cut by 2/3rds easily. Everything from quality control to handling in these cut-rate manufacturing facilities is extremely poor - many of the workers aren't old enough to be attending high school in the US. It's got nothing to do with maintenance my friend. Heavy equipment is a different application. It moves slowely - often heat is less of a concern (ie: 5 to 10 MPH *maybe*) thus over-greasing isn't a problem. It also suffers from the same ailment that I discussed in relation to manufacturers of electric motors - the buyers/owners/operators *feel* better about having something to zerk - regardless of weather it does anything or not. I have taken apart MANY motors that had zerks on the bearing covers and inside were SEALED bearings. Silly, but it's common. GD

Compressor should be fine, but I would replace the shaft seal - that's usually what fails on them. Problem is that removing and re-installing the clutch will almost always kill the bearings shortly after so doing a rebuild on it or getting a new one is adviseable. GD

You question makes no real sense. There are no fans that come into contact with refrigerant, so R134's working pressure has nothing to do with fans of any sort. It's purely a matter of hoses, compressors, and evap/condensor core's. GD

Doesn't hurt anything really. It's switching to synth on older engines that usually results in leaks. But switching in and of itself is perfectly safe provided you can keep the oil INSIDE the engine. GD

The key words are "change" and "repack". The problem with a U-joint is that you can't do either without truely dissasembling them. Thus over-greasing is a problem and one that manufacturers have solved by removing the zerks. You won't find them on u-joints in any new vehicles (or ball-joints, tie-rod ends, ect). Forceing grease out through the edges of the seals breaks them away from their sealing surface and when the grease heats up and cools down it will suck contaminates (water and particulate) back into the joint. You are seeing water and dirty grease come out because you have broken the seals by continually pumping grease into them. If you leave them alone they will last far, far longer. The best way you can care for the u-joints is to keep them clean on the outside so dirt doesn't have a chance to work it's way under the seals. I was just talking about a similar thing with one of the older techs at work. 35 years ago he worked for a Ford dealership and had a customer that insisted on having his oil, oil filter, and air filter changed every 3,000 miles and did NOTHING else to the car. He specifically made it clear that he wanted nothing on the chassis greased or lubricated. In the time my friend worked there he went through 3 cars - sold each of them at 200,000 miles (all without a single failure). The 4th one he brought in at 100,000 and my friend thought he would do the man an extra special service and greased the chassis (for free) - adding zerks to the joints (Ford did not put them in stock) and the man was so irate that he sold it immediately and bought a new car. Regardless of whether the bearing was made in china, the ukrain or Austria it will last longer without contaminated grease. Adding more grease is not better and will not make them last longer - it will break down the grease that's in there (through heat, friction, and pressure), and will cause further contamination and degradetion of the lubrication. The only time I've wantonly pumped grease into u-joints is when they were completely frozen and I needed to get to home/parts store/out of the woods, ect. But that's also when you pee in the radiator and pour engine oil into the brake reservoir too..... emergencies will call for drastic action at times. GD

It's not simple if that's what you want. First you'll have to find all the components. There's quite a bit of wiring and relays that go with it, as well as all the lines, the alternator/AC pump bracketry, evap core, condensor core (with houseing, and associated components under the dash), drier (new), pressure switches, ect. You'll have to replace all the hoses with R134 compatible, and all the o-rings as well. Then you pull a vacuum for several hours on the system, charge it with nitrogen and check for leaks. Once all that is done you can charge it with refrigerant and go to town. Of course unless you have access to a vacuum pump, nitrogen, manifold and gauge set, and all the neccesary tools to perform work on MVAC systems you are in for a large and tasty bill from someone that does. GD

You don't EVER drain Scotty's. You leave it in there for good. If you want something to flush and drain out use straight Dexron ATF. GD

To do it right you would want to heli-coil the threads. Sounds like they are shot. Best if you remove the head to repair it. Otherwise you risk getting metal into the cylinder. EA71's are easy to remove the head anyway - just pull them both and do a full reseal of the engine while you are at it. GD

The vibration definitely could be the u-joints if it's 4WD. I just replaced one a few weeks ago on my hatch due to vibration. If you notice a slight lessening of the vibration when you put it into 4WD at whatever speed the vibration is worst at you'll know for sure. Vibration can also be the inner Double Offset Joint on the front driveshafts. It's similar to a CV, but allows for axial movement of the joint for suspension flex. They usually cause more vibration than worn outer CV joints - which often just click and pop when they are worn. I've seen plenty of bad joints right out of the box so even one that is "a couple years old" is suspect. The boot does not need to be torn for them to fail. I would replace it on general principle. GD

Re-read my previous post. GD

Bearings are a very, very tricky business. I deal with some very expensive bearings in the vacuum pumps I work on as well - SKF, made in Austria type stuff. It's amazing what I see come into the shop - there's still lots of customers that will overgrease anything with a zerk attached to it. Baldor motors for a time removed all the zerks from their motors larger than 100 HP and opted for sealed, non-greaseable bearings. They had so many calls to their customer service hot-line they put the zerks back in just to shut people up. Over-greasing, and contamination are the two biggest causes of failure. Just .002% water contamination will reduce bearing life by around 50%. 6% will reduce it by over 80%. Over-greasing is much more sinister because people always think they are helping. It causes more friction, and the added heat decreases the viscosity of the grease, causeing even more heat as it loses it's ability to support the load. It starts to form a varnish and then begins to "coke". This destroys the ability of the grease to lubricate the bearing and also introduces solid particles into the lubricant. Would you just keep adding oil to your engine without draining some? Same goes for bearings. The ones designed to be greased also have a drain plug - you are supposed to add grease and run the bearing till the old grease drips out and it reaches equilibrium at operating temp. Of course the zerk is on the top, and the drain hole is always on the bottom where people can't see it. GD

Really, that's a bad idea. The ones without the zerks are best as they really shouldn't be greased at all unless you dissasemble them and regrease them. You'll overheat the bearings and cause them to fail much quicker if you keep forcing grease in like that. By FAR the biggest cause of bearing failure is over-greasing. A 10 year study of bearing life was done by a major industrial manufacturer and they found on average, the most life was had from bearings that were never greased at all. A thin film of grease is all that is required and continually forcing grease into them will stretch and pop the seals, and allows no air-space for expansion. Remember - most bearings run around 175 to 250 degrees durring operation. More grease means more friction = more heat. GD

You would need a donor car. Engine alone is maybe 1/2 of the stuff you need for a swap like that. The EA82T is not a good engine choice - only 115 HP, and not much room for improvement. Do a search. GD

The fuel filter is under the car next to the pump. They are both on a shelf forward of the fuel tank. Sounds like you should change it on general principle. I haven't had the surging like you sugest, but I have run out of fuel at WOT with a partially clogged filter. Do the cheap stuff like that first before worrying about the altitude compensation. GD

All of the carburated models had something availible for altitude compensation. You will want to ask a dealer directly. As for the surging - it's possible that it could be related but I couldn't tell you for sure. I live at sea level and all my experience with the Hitachi carbs is at lower altitudes. GD

You might check at the dealer and see if they can still get you a "high altitude" kit for it. They made them when these were sold new. It will probably just reroute some hoses - they may even be able to tell you how to accomplish the same thing with off-the-shelf components if you ask them to look it up in the factory service literature. GD

Yes - always replace the water pump at every other timing belt interval. All parts are inferior to the OEM. Dealership = most reliable. Probably wise to dedicate some time, but you won't need to resurface the flywheel. Just thow in a new disc and plate and it will be fine. For what you are doing - pull the engine. It will save time. When you reseal it do the oil pump seals and check the oil pump internals are within spec. Replace the front main, cam seals, and cam o-rings. Replace the valve cover gaskets with new ones, and replace the oil pan gasket with a new one coated in RTV. Replace the entire timing belt set - both belts, both tensioners, and the cogged idler. Many of us run without belt covers - you can make your own judgement, and you can search out the debate in other forum topics if you like. Suffice to say the timing belt job is 3 hours with the covers on, and 20 minutes with them off. GD

Just noticed it's an 85. If the engine is original, then the valves are hydraulic and don't require adjustment. So disreguard my former advice. GD

You are better off keeping a Brat stock. Any mods you do will likely hurt the value more than anything. They are collectors cars now, and by far the most valuable of the EA series. They aren't fast, but the EA81 is an excelent engine. Do a valve adjustment. Other than that love it for what it is - don't hack up a good Brat for some crackpot EJ swap till you have done several swaps to other, less valuable, less rare vehicles. Your swap will benefit from the knowledge you gain screwing up something cheap. Expect to do a lot of tinkering - the EA81's were meant to be worked on and they require someone to care for them. They can leak a substantial amount of oil due to the old-school cork gaskets so watch your fluid levels. The rear drums brakes must be manually adjusted every few thousand, and the valves must be adjusted every 15,000. You would be wise to do the front main seal and throw on a new oil pump first thing. The pumps get chewed up by debris on it's way to the oil filter. Looks like this one already has a Weber on it. Look things over carefully - sometimes previous owners do weird stuff. That coil looks suspect to me for one - the stock ignition modules are sensitive, and aftermarket coils are prone to killing them. GD

Under the "depression", on the manifold, you will find the coolant passage. The coolant is in the manifold, not the carb. It's designed to heat the base of the carb to prevent iceing. Often the gaskets under the carb do not have a hole for the coolant (they don't need to), and removing the carb will not always remove the gasket. My guess is that you removed the carb and the gasket came off clean and stayed on the manifold side? If that's the case, while you were busy rebuilding that carb a bunch of coolant could have leaked out from under that gasket and down the manifold into the engine. You may not have noticed a small stream comming from under the gasket like that. GD