GeneralDisorder

I disagree (and they don't call me "axlemaster" around town for nothing ) The inner joint can be dissasembled on the car, and if you have a lift doing the boots is much easier than doing the whole axle. A couple bolts, a roll pin, new grease and boots, and reassmble. Don't even need to remove the tire. GD

Should be running more like a 30" tire with a 6" lift. I have 4" and am running 28's. GD

That's exactly the case actually. Unbolt the control arm from the bottom of the coil-over to get the room you need. GD

SB-8004 just like the first post. GD

Don't know if you have had this thing out yet, but at high speeds the first thing to go will be the front strut tubes. The McPherson strut gas shock tube is weak and the bottom will bend outward like a bannana right where it enters the knuckle. You need to add two or three more gas shocks on each control arm to absorb the impact from high-speed off road. The front will dive too far otherwise - bending the strut tubes and causing too much load to the strut spring - which will in turn toss the front end up in the air - bouncing you all over the place. If hit too hard, you can bend the tube so badly it will jam the strut cartridge in the down posistion - leaving you with no suspension travel at all on that side! I've actually done this to my lifted wagon, and I know others that have as well. It helps that you have lightened it somewhat, but at the speeds you are going to encounter I fear it will still be a problem. And.... I hope that thing has a Weber?? Stock Hitachi isn't going to give enough punch..... GD

83.5+ are factory vented on EA81's. GD

Hhhhmmm - yes that could be. Last one I saw broken looked like it had rusted. But I didn't look real close either. I assumed that's one of the reasons they tell you not to bend them beyond a certain degree. Either way - steel or fibre - eventually they get stressed to the point of breaking. GD

Well - the Subaru OEM spec is 12 ft/lbs. Not a lot really. I think with proper coating (copper, or thin coat of RTV and allowed to dry) they would probably be alright for a while. Perhaps a lower torque as well.... but I would be concerned about the bolts working loose. The problem with the cardboard ones is that they absorb coolant and turn to mush so some form of sealant would have to be used. Sadly that just doesn't work as well as the OEM design. I conceed that they would last for a time, but they can develop leaks leading to further tightening of the bolts and crushing of the gasket. A properly installed OEM gasket should last the life of the head gaskets. GD

That's what happened to the legacy I got for $750. Water pump froze. the belt is STRONG. Jumped several teeth and didn't break. GD

He's got 19 posts.... I think he's just ignorant of this engine design, and probably has experience with other makes of cars that exhibit this phenomenon, or has heard of it occuring. It's a pretty commonly held belief by the general public that a broken timing belt will damage valves. I would say that it's only actually true in about 50% of cases if you take into account the 20% of the time that interferance designs DON'T bend a valve, and the percentage of engines that are non-interferance - there's actually quite a few - especially older ones where timing belt maintenance has been neglected or forgotton. It was common when belt intervals were short and belt designs primitive to build the extra precaution of non-interferance into the engine design. GD

HHhmmmm - I guess you could read that into his post. I figured he found he has a broken belt and someone might have mentioned that he probably has bent valves and is asking here on the board for us to confirm or deny this claim. At least that's how I read his post. That he is asking if that's possible or not. Heck - maybe he replaced the belt and now it runs like poo so he's asking if it's possible a valve was bent. It's hard to say since the post is just a bunch of question marks GD

On the EA series engines the amount of mecanical damage required to cause a valve strike would be far more concerning than a bent valve. Only time I've seen it happen was once when a valve stem broke clean off the head and the valve was sucked into the cylinder. Cracked the piston into three peices and scored the cylinder up badly. A broken timing belt alone could not cause a bent valve unless there were some pretty severe circumstances going on. Also if mechanical damage caused the belt to break.... well that would mean the belt was already about to go because a decent belt will either skip over the cam teeth, or strip the teeth right off the belt. It generally won't break unless the internal steel belts are ready to fail anyway. 99.99% of the time with EA82 series engines a broken belt is just that - not something more sinister. GD

Yep - sounded electrical to me. Glad you got it fixed. GD

Yep - that's why you don't use aftermarket gaskets. That's what they turn into in a few thousand miles. OEM gaskets don't disintigrate like that as they are held together with metal. Cardboard doesn't cut it with these. Not even Fel-Pro has realized this. GD

No. You would have to reset the backlash and pinion adjustments in order to do this. You may as well replace the diff as it will be cheaper to just get a used one. GD

A geniune Subaru thermostat will cool as effectively as an aftermarket 160 thermostat. The Subaru one's have a much larger opening on them. There's been several posts explaining this. For the $13 I'll take the genuine article anyday. Aftermarket 'stat's are junk as far as Subaru's go. GD

Well - it's mostly the mental "reprogramming" I was refering to. The brainwashing sure works well, but it's just not for me. Too dangerous. We use the Marines to scare the enemy, and use up their ammunition. They are shock troops. Not that it's a bad thing per-se, but they do instill a certain amount of "honor" in dying for "your country". Personally I'm of the belief that the objective is to make the other ba$tard die for his.... GD

Try McMasters for some two part urethane. You should be able to remove the mount and cure the urethane in an oven. Should be hard as nails, but will cost a pretty penny for the urethane. Might be worth the cool experiment though! I've wanted to try that stuff for a while. GD

The difference is 10mm, and using the wrong pump will cause the belt to wear badly. You can use a shorter pump on a long-shaft engine by spacing it out, but not the other way around. They should have asked you when you bought the pump but a lot of places don't know there's a difference. Half the time I get the wrong one the first time. Always compare new parts to old to make sure they are the same before installation. Both use studs to my knowledge, but you could substitute bolts if you were not installing the clutch fan (non AC models don't have one). GD

I've heard of that happeneing before, but never seen it in person. I would guess that's a dealer only item. Possibly the old one was destroyed by a partially frozen u-joint? Just a guess. There's good used ones to be had around here if you need me to pull one. GD

There are two temp sensors - one is for the guage, and the other is for the computer. Sounds like you need to check the computer's temp sensor. I have no idea why your mechanic would be lost. There is nothing special about the early Subaru throttle body injection system as compared to other brands from this vintage. Chevy TBI is similar. GD

The "Check Engine" lamp you have seen would indicate a fault in the feedback carb system. It illuminates to indicate a code is availible at the ECU. To get the codes, you have to remove the kick panel and the LED on the computer will flash them in morse code. Long and short flashes. For example, three long flashes followed by four short flashes would indicate a code "34" which can then be cross referenced through the service manual. The problem with the codes for the feedback carb system is they are not "remembered" by the primitive computer after the engine has been turned off. Once the code fires, you have to remove the kick panel and read the codes before shutting down the engine. It's an extremely complex system for a carbed vehicle, and sadly there's very few of us around that can work on them successfully. When you take into account the expense of feeding the system manifold pressure sensors (MAP), O2 sensors, coolant temperature sensors, and the obscurity of the Hitachi carb used for this system it's always cheaper to replace it with a Weber 32/36 DGV series and get more power, better econemy, and easier, cheaper maintenance. I happen to own an 86 equipped exactly as your model (4WD feedback carb sedan). I went through about 6 or 7 used MAP sensors before I decided I wasn't going to find a good one. I rebuilt a used Weber DGV to like new condition, and all told it cost $190 for the complete rebuild, and the manifold adaptor. The car is a dream to drive, and gets 2 to 3 MPG more than it got before the carb swap. And you can even pass with it now! The gain is mostly on the torque curve, and throttle response is much improved because the Weber is a progressive linkage carb, while the Hitachi has a vacuum operated secondary and runs very weak directly off-idle. Top end is about the same, but throttle response is much sportier and passing is a lot easier. If you would like, I would be willing to assist with the conversion. I'm in Portland. If you order the kit the conversion takes about a day. GD

Try cleaning the MAF with brake cleaner. Sometimes the elements get dirty. Replacement is not often neccesary, but cleaning often helps a lot. It's pretty easy to test them too. You just look for a resistance drop across the sensor element while blowing air over it. GD

Kids these days. No respect for property or possesions. When I take over, folks like that will be involuntarily drafted into the Marine Corp. They make good bullet sponges. GD

Those pictures are somewhat misleading. Subaru engines, due to the horizontal nature of the cylinders, are prone to burning slightly more oil than other designs. The plugs usually have a light carbon coating from this. I would still be checking the PCV system - did you use an OEM valve? The aftermarket ones are known to suck oil. GD