GeneralDisorder

Oil pressure? Did you prime the system before starting it after the HG replacement (crank without plugs till pressure comes up)? If the lifters are complaining, then you have oil supply issues. Did you replace the o-ring's for the oil passages from the head to the cam tower? Did you use the metal-reinforced o-ring from the dealer? GD

If there's not much to grab now, drill some holes in the bits that remain and screw in some self tappers. Use them to turn/pull it out. Pipe wrench to get it turning again? Slide hammer? Without pics, It's hard to give good advice on your situation now. I understand it's broken, but without seeing the actual damage, I can't come up with much of a plan. GD

I see what you mean - 2WD EA71 Hatchbacks were 4 speed's (STD) - that's why I didn't understand your last question there. A 2WD Hatch with a 5 speed would be an EA81 (GL or DL). But yes - that combination works. That's how you put a side-starter tranny into a gen 1 with the older top-mount EA71. But you have to find the late model EA71 bell-housing to do it. GD

You'll wedge stuff forever and break things all day if you just try to pull or pry it straight out. Pound it back in, and carefully pull it out while TWISTING. You would be surprised what a little twist will do with closely fitting components. I work on a lot of German made pumps at work, and the tollerances are often less than .001", and you can't break stuff because the parts are both expensive, and often weeks or months out from Germany or Switzerland. You MUST learn to be gentle with stuff - especially aluminium parts. If it doesn't slide right out, stand back and asses the situation. Larger hammers are not the solution. As I learned from my older and wiser co-worker - "DO NOT hammer on German vacuum pumps - put the hammer down and walk slowely backwards". I kid you not - you'll feel incredibly silly when you twist it right out of there. Same goes for EA pushrod oil pumps. You wouldn't beleive how many posts there have been in the past about breaking the oil pump trying to remove it. If you grab and twist they come right off. I've NEVER broken one, or had a distributor stuck in the block. GD

In brass you can get those all day with compression fittings for tubing. Common and inexpensive. You could use copper or steel tubing but you need the right ferules for steel. With a bit of searching, you could get stainless I'm sure. But yes, you essencially want a bulkhead fitting. Although it would be better to just weld in a bung and use a compression fitting with a slide in tube - that would allow the inner tube to be adjusted for depth (I'm assuming you want a pickup tube). Cut the end of the tube at a 45 degree angle to keep it off the bottom of the tank. I'll ask at work after the exact nomenclature of the slide-fitting that I'm thinking of. We use a lot of stuff like that, but I'm not sure of the exact name if you wanted to buy one. GD

Got me. Someone with a finely tuned seat-of-the-pants dyno I suppose. I've ben trying to dispell that myth for years. GD

Sadly that's not worth fixing. Glad your father was relatively unharmed. GD

There is no way to make it work. There is no bell-housing that will adapt an EA81 to a top-mount starter transmission. The EA81 was introduced as a side-mount in 1980, and all transmissions were changed to use that style. The early 80's (80, 81) EA71's were kept top-mount to use the remaining stock of those style transmissions I would assume. 2WD makes no difference - they were side-starter too when the EA81 was introduced. GD

Have you checked the valve timeing and ignition timing? Compression? I had the same problem with my 86 - the stock carb was just gutless. Replaced it with a Weber and all was happy. GD

The curve for all distributors is the same. This is the '84 FSM, but the '83 I have is the same (even simpler, it's got a single curve set). (the bottom one is the EA81T curve). GD

You and me both. I rarely set foot in an aftermarket store. I buy from a local place called Discount Import Parts that is VERY good (mosly OEM parts - catering to a lot of VW stuff - EMPI, ect.), and online places.... besides my dealer of course. GD

If you like.... you could start a GD fan club if you want. I can't stop you in any case as I'm not a mod around here Glad your problem got solved and I was able to help. I hope things are well with your family. Sounds like life has been hard, and you don't seem like you deserve it, although I don't know you beyond the board or what karma may be following you - hopefully good things. GD

It's probably a negligable difference, but the higher temp thermostat is what the engine was designed for. Likely if you take temp readings with a more reliable gauge you will see that it's just the guage or sender that is reporting high - they are notorious for being incorrect. The temp guage on my Brat reads 3/4 to right below red when the fan cycles on. It's right on the money according to both the NEW fan themo-switch, and my DMM using a k-type thermo-couple. Just the nature of old guages. Also, non-OEM thermostat's don't flow as well. I only buy mine at the dealer now. Take a look (OEM on left): GD

Yes - fixed. GD

EA71 and EA81 bell-housings are not interchangable. The bolt/mating pattern is different. There are 3 different bell-housings from 1980 through 1989 - EA71 top-mount, EA81, and EA71 "fat-case" side-mount (late model STD hatch). In order to use a side-starter transmission with narrow-case EA71 you MUST have the EA71 side-starter "fat-case" bell-housing. The EA81 housing will not work. Thus, the EA71 bell-housing will no more work on the EA81 than the EA81 housing would work on the older EA71. Additionally, the EA71 would not accept the EA81 flyhwheel. There's probably some mish-mash of clutch components that would make it work, but you would be limited to a 200mm clutch disc rather than the desireable 225mm from the 83+ 4WD's as they never made a 225mm flywheel with the EA71 crank pattern. GD

An EA82 two-peice from a yard will be cheaper than a custom single peice. It fits without modification. The carrier bearing is what gives you the added clearance. The front 24" or so of driveline is horizontal off the back of the tranny. there is nothing to hang down. The rest of the driveline tapers down from the carrier bearing to the diff. An extended solid driveshaft (remember - it has to be longer) will hang down farther than your original single peice - noticeably outside of the tunnel. Subaru knew what they were doing when they went to the two-peice. The carrier bearing is easy to mount. It doesn't require specific placement (it's a CV joint), and doesn't need anything robust for it's mounting. Simple sheet metal mounts bolted or welded to the tunnel are all that is required. It doesn't support anything but the weight of the shaft. Take a look a the EA82 mount and you'll see what I mean. It's actually astoundingly thin and wimpy looking. But the truth is they never fail and that's all that's required. The clearance of a two peice is like this: ~~~~~@\ \ \ Where the tild's are the straight section, and the @ is the carrier bearing. While a single peice is like this: \ \ \ \ \ Exagerated of course, but you get the idea. That's why the two peice is superior in my opinion. But do as you like. Edit: Ascii art just doesn't work on this system. But I tried. Take my word for it I guess. Maybe I'll take a pic under my Brat some time. GD

Yep - that is correct. Those hoses often crack due to the crazy bend they make. Put a hose on the actuator and suck on it. GD

Bought an 86 sedan for $100... sat for 3 years with a broken ignition lock. I drove it for 10,000 miles - never bothered to change the belts. I figured since it had a redundant belt setup (double v-belt - same size), everything would be cool if one of the two went. So one day I was idleing in a construction zone. Not just any construction zone - one of the really slow one's where you have to follow a construction worker in a pickup through the zone. Each direction takes a turn.... ect. So while waiting for the other direction of traffic to finish, ALL my indicators light up. Alternator has gone I figure, or the drive belt. Obviously I can't get out to look. Temp starts to climb so I shut it off. Our turn comes and I fire it up and slowely creep through the zone, and about 1/2 mile farther. I pull over as the temp is pegged. What do I find? ONE of the belts broken - a peice of it slipped under the remaining good belt and popped it off the pulley. I have no 12mm - in fact I haven't got a single tool in that car - just my luck. I limp to a muffler shop and borrow a 12mm to put the good belt back on. By this time I have NO coolant. Once you get that hot, it just boils out the overflow bottle. I filled it up with water from the adjacent supermarket and head home. The next weekend I drive 500 miles to the next state, and 35 miles from home on the way back the water pump blows. I call AAA. I replace the water pump. Too late - the head gaskets have had enough. At 220,000 and two severe overheats they are toast. As an experiment (this is a $100 car after all) I try some of the magic head gasket repair in a bottle. What a freakin mess. It doesn't work. I buy a Fel-Pro set and do both HG's one afternoon. Great - perfect running temp. Sadly the magic HG in a bottle has clogged the heater core. I pull the entire dash to replace said heater core, and put it all back together. Awesome. Good heat, good temp. Never better in Sedan land. Traded the car to a friend's kid for an 83 hatch she found but needed too much work for her use. I gave her the 86 sedan, with about 5,000 miles on the new HG's and heater core. She drives it for one week, gets rear ended - car is a total. So - moral of the story: 1. Not replacing old belts is expensive, and time consuming. 2. Just because you have multiple belts, doesn't gaurantee you redundancy. 3. If you want a pretty decent EA81 hatch for your trouble - don't replace and belts GD

You checked all the fuses I'm hoping? Low voltage reading from the guage means nothing. The EA81 guages are notorious for reading incorrectly. Usually it's corrosion on the back of the cluster. If the charge indicator lamp doesn't come on, then you have more voltage comming out of the alternator than the battery has on it's own - which means (assuming a battery with no dead cells) the alternator is putting out at *least* 13 volts. See what I mean about the guage? Did you check for power at the coil? If you aren't getting power to the coil, you'll never get anywhere with throwing parts at it. If you are getting power to the coil, then it's either the pickup/ignitor in the distributor, or it's the coil. Running the nippon disty with the Hitachi coil isn't an excelent idea so you may have run into the failure potential of that combo. If the coil is a new Hitachi branded coil, then I would lay odds you have an ignitor failure on your hands. It's a good thing you ordered in the disty already if that's the case. Don't be too sad - that's a lot better price than I have heard quoted at some places. Warantee is nice too. Next time you'll know to carry a spare disty/coil under the seat eh? That's one of the few things that can really make all the difference if you have an extra that far from home. GD

It's FT4WD, which is different from regular 4WD, and slightly different from AWD as well. If you want to be completely precise about it. GD

That is the usual opinion of someone that is "vehicularly infantile". You have also yet to learn that blanket statements will get you in trouble. The problems with your argument are: 1. You can't compare anything Honda has made to anything Subaru has made since 1996. That's was the last year for 2WD Subaru's. 2. You fail to realize that BOTH Honda and Subaru have produced crap at one time or another. Sometimes simultaneously. Comparing a genuine Honda POS to a Subaru POS won't get you far - won't work the other way either. 3. You clearly haven't learned that brand loyalty is just plain dumb. It's all about picking the right model, made at the right plant, on the right day of the week, and previously owned by someone that cares (should it be used). It's got nothing to do with the brand, and everything to do with the model and year. There are just as many crap Honda's as there are crap Subaru's. 4. Honda and Subaru target different markets. Honda makes very few wagon's for instance. They also churn out gargantuan quantities of cookie-cutter cars for the masses. 5. Even if it were... say.... 50% more reliable. I wouldn't own one because I do my own work. Even doing 50% more repairs, I'll spend less time, and throw fewer tools because Subaru's are NOT transverse. I absolutely abhor the transverse design - most jobs take more than 50% longer to do. So even if I have to do 10 jobs per year instead of 15 - at an average of 30 minutes each for a Subaru or an hour each for a Honda - I still have saved a net of 2.5 hours labor (7.5 for Subaru, 10 for Honda). And this is by no means typical of only Honda - that goes for any transverse design except for VW - add 200% additional in the number of jobs per year column for them 6. Because of the transverse design, Honda's are not symetrical with their 2WD. Subaru's are. Thus Subaru's 2WD system is superior from a weight and power distribution standpoint. My years of experience with automotive in general keeps me on the Subaru side of this argument. Please - present your facts so I can shoot them down. GD

You can only lead a horse to water. My work is done here. GD

The knuckle is what you describe - more technically correct it's a "steering knuckle". It holds the bearings, and connects the steering and suspension to the rotating components. The hub is the splined part the mates to the axle, and bolts to the wheel, and the brake disc (or drum on very old models). The spindle would be the end of the CV shaft on a Subaru (in many vehicles it would be a seperate peice), or in the rear of an EA series you can see what would be refered to as a spindle by itself as the CV is splined and pinned in place to it. GD

Jesus - you people are dangerous. Tell him to think before he does things, and not to do anything to your vehicle till he understands what it is he's doing. That is the air intake for the Air Suction Valve. The plastic peice you are refering to is known as a "silencer" and is a muffler of sorts as it keeps the exhaust noise from getting into the engine bay. If (more likely WHEN) the ASV's reed valve fails, as they are very prone to doing, raw exhaust fumes will be allowed into your engine bay. Although the silencer wouldn't prevent this, it and it's connection the filter box prevents foreign objects from entering the reed valve assembly, and subsequently the exhaust and the catalytic converter. Removing it both opens the possibility of sucking in stuff that will adversely affect the matrix of the cat, and definately shortens the life of the reed valve. If you remove the reed valve assembly, and install a quarter in the valve body then put it back on you will have effectively plugged the system. It can't fail when plugged in that fassion. It doesn't make "cool noises", but if you want those do it right and replace the muffler with a straight pipe. GD