GeneralDisorder

Contact GCK directly. They might be willing to make it right for you considering the warrantee is through them and not Autozone..... OR - buy a new one from Amazon ($50, free shipping!), and then wait a few months and return the busted one for a warantee replacement..... and just have the extra axle for either a spare, or to sell here on the board, etc. Could be a freak occurance with a defect in the race or something. Myself and Chef Tim have been running them for years without issue as have others around here. I've got 4 EA81 GCK's in use - two on my lifted wagon, and two on my Brat - no issues with any of them. ....I've only seen an axle fail like that once before, and it was with like 150k on a 2WD axle in my lifted wagon. Blew the outer joint apart while just taking off out of a drivway. But that was with 28's taking off uphill in FWD while trying to merge into traffic.... and those 2WD shafts are weak.... GD

Heh - sure. GD

Well - No sales tax in Oregon, so that helps I suppose. As to how you go about getting the parts counter to love you long time...... not really sure but I'm sure it has at least something to do with the management. Could also be related to the laid-back attitude of people out here.... the Hyundia dealer was very good to my friend when he needed 8 quarts of tranny fluid at $12 each - got them for $6.45 each wholesale. Must be something in the water PS - not trying to be an rump roast..... just very concerned about how badly other dealerships are treating people. It certainly doesn't make you want to go there to buy a car knowing that all they care about is making an extra $7 off some poor guy with a 20 year old car. In my opinion it would be better all around for them if they weren't so bitter and tried to create a customer rather than just a guy with a broken car. GD

Could be the float sensor inside the reservoir. They are in a pretty hostile evironment. Test the leads coming off it and see if it's got continuity. Should just be a simple on or off type of deal. Also could be the connector as Rob sugested. GD

Ran across this..... receipt for 4 EA series single port manifold gaskets. Just to give you an idea of just how badly your dealership screwed you on parts: $2.66 each is what I pay at my dealership! GD

Yeah - he doesn't know how to time it. 1. Line up the middle of the three lines on the flywheel. NOT the ignition timing lines with the numbers (0, 10, 20) but the OTHER lines. They will be off by themselves, and only three lines about 1/16" apart from each other. These are the VALVE TIMING MARKS. 2. Drivers side cam mark (small hole on outer edge) points straight up. 3. Passenger side cam mark points straight down. 4. Throw the belts on. It's that simple really, but the first time it gets people. It's 4 simple steps - don't think about it, just do it and drive it. Make sure he has the crank sprockets on in the right order. The one with the groove in the back goes on first. GD

For the idle, you should remove and clean the Idle Air Control valve (IAC). It's on the front of the throttle body with a 5/8" hose coming off one end, and a two pin round electrical connector. The leaking PCV was supplying not only oil, but also creating a vacuum leak that increased your idle speed. GD

The early SPFI's had a recall issued some time in 90 or 91 I think for the PCV system sucking oil on long right hand turns. You should apply the recall kit (not real expensive) to keep it from using oil like that. Also clean all the lines out - there's probably a lot of carbon in them. GD

Remove the old carpet and use it as a pattern. Find some scraps from a carpet store..... GD

Um - no you pull the axle off the transmission, THEN you dissasemble the DOJ. But yes, you have the basic idea of how the boots go on.... See above.... and yes. You remove the inner lower control arm bolt, and the sway bar link. Two bolts, one roll pin - then whole assembly then can swing away with plenty of room to drop the axle down and service it. Whole axles ARE cheaper than just boots (GCK's are $50 and free shipping on Amazon), but someone paying for LABOR will pay more for axles because there IS more labor involved in swapping the whole thing out. Removal from the hub is not required for boot jobs. GD

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