GeneralDisorder

It will hit the engine cross-member. Leave the spacer as it's iron, and you can tap threads for 7/16"x20 into it for a more secure fitment of the flanges. Also cut the threaded end off the ASV pipe and weld it up using a washer, etc. That will effectively block the port on the side of it. GD

All the 4WD's are in the 27/28 range for manual, and 25/26 range for auto. That goes for EA81's and EA82's both. I get 27 regularly in my Webered EA82 sedan. GD

If you jack it up, you'll see a 1" thick round rod going generally backward from the control arm next to the ball joint to a plate where the transmission crossmember is located. The bushings are on the plate. Also make sure the bolts holding the rod to the control arm are tight. Check the sway bar bushing at the control arm as well, and the control arm bushing itself at the engine cross-member. GD

Good times. You probably start with better examples than me - I'm poor . I've done WAY too many things in my short life. It's sad really, but I'll find my niche eventually I suppose. GD

Right on. You'll love it. GD

Take a look at the leading rod bushings..... and the mud splash guards aren't loose hitting the tire are they? GD

That's related both to the mileage I put on them, and their initial state of (dis)repair. Almost without exception I bought them inches from being scrap because I'm not afraid of repairing anything. My current DD was $100 out of someone's front yard. I also put about 25,000 - 30,000 miles on my DD every year. And none of this is considering all the local's (board members and otherwise) vehicles that I work on, the modifications I've done, the swaps, lifts, repairs, etc. Or my experience as a mechanic in the Army....etc, etc. But yeah - sure, whatever you say old man. GD

It entirely depends on the size cat you use. Flow is related to size - WRX's have cat's, just as all newer high performance engines do. Cost is related to how ghetto you want the job done. Cheaper exhaust shops would probably do it for less than $100 but the welding will probably look like a$$. GD

You can be tired of it all you like - that's your perogative. However as long as my expereince contradics what you say, I'll continue to do so. Nope - I'm the guy that's owned twice as many soobs as you, and has 8,000 more posts than you do. GD

It doesn't work that way in practice. The ball joints generally fail because of lateral force from cornering. The wear is on the inner and outer sides of the sphere. All the worn ball joints I've replaced showed no play using the pry-bar method. They do however have a lot of play in and out when you grasp the wheel and pull. It's true that it is possible for them to fail as you describe, but it takes contamination from road grit or sand to do it. If the boot is good they fail the way I describe. Regardless they rarely make noise as he describes - they cause odd steering behavoir which he makes no mention of. Also your "weight transfer" theory doesn't work on a Subaru as the sway bar holds the control arm to the knuckle tightly. GD

Even very worn ball joints rarely make noises in that manner. Their slop is horizontal, not vertical. Same with tie rod ends. Also at that mileage it's not likely unless a boot is torn. Generally tie rod ends and ball joints cause the car to wander or to steer with the gas pedal and brake. I would look at the bolts attaching the leading rod to the control arm, and the leading rod bushings. Also the control arm bushings, and the strut tops as well as the strut to knuckle interface. GD

Dealer only item. But you don't need it. DL's came with a big spring instead. Dealer can order you one I'm sure. GD

Entirely uneccesary. You only need to remove the inner lower control arm bolt, and the sway bar link. It's all very simple: 1. Make sure the parking brake is ON. 2. Remove cotter pin from 36mm axle nut. 3. Break axle nut loose either with air impact, breaker bar, or my personal favorite - VW bus rear axle nut tool. 4. Break loose the lug nuts. 5. Jack and support the front of the car - BOTH wheels off the ground. Use jack stands on the frame rails. 6. Make sure the parking brake is now OFF. 7. Remove wheel 8. Remove the brake caliper and tie it to the strut spring with some bailing wire or twine. It's one 12mm or one 14m bolt on the bottom slide and then the caliper rotates up, and slides backward off the upper slide pin. 9. Remove the brake caliper bracket and brake pads. It's two 17mm bolts on the back side of the knuckle. Don't loose the pad clips (if it still has them ) 10. Remove the 36mm axle nut, convex washer, and cone washer. Sometimes a sharp smack with a dead-blow or copper/brass hammer is needed to dislodge the cone washer from the hub/rotor. 11. Pull the hub/rotor off the axle. It will just slide off. Inspect the splines to make sure they aren't worn or damaged. If they are replace the hub with one from the junkyard. 12. Unbolt the inner lower control arm bolt - the 4" long 14mm one that bolts the lower control arm to the engine cross-member. 13. Unbolt the sway bar link - it's a 12mm bolt that holds the sway bar to the lower control arm. Don't loose the rubber bushing and the metal insert for the link. 14. Slide under the car and using a 3/16" pin punch pound the roll pin out of the inner axle joint (Double Offset Joint or DOJ) where it's pinned to the transmission. 15. Pull the axle off the transmission and let it hang down and to the rear (on the exhaust if it's the passenger side). You may have to hold the knuckle out or push on it slightly to get it to slide off the tranny - that was the purpose of removing the control arm bolt and sway bar link. 16. Using a copper mallet, or a block of wood and a small sledge or heavy hammer pound the axle inward to remove it from the knuckle. This is a friction fit so they are often fairly tight. Sometimes they just fall out, but this is generally not the case. A few sharp blows will get it moving. NEVER hit the axle directly with a hard metal hammer - you will damage the threads. 17. Remove axle from the car by pulling the knuckle outward and the axle inward till it's free. 18. Inspect the wheel bearing while you are in there. 19. Put the new axle in place and slide it as far into the knuckle as you can by hand. 20. This is the tricky part - start the axle nut on the threads and use two large flat-blade screwdrivers to pry the axle into the knuckle. Don't hurt yourself. Use the cone washer turned backwards and the conical washer to get more depth to the nut past the threads. More large washers might be needed depending on how stubborn it is. Sometimes the axle will get a little crooked - make sure it's straight as you are pulling it through or it will jam up on the edges of the bearings. 21. Once you have gone as far as you can using the screwdrivers, use the hub to get it the rest of the way on. Slip it on the axle, and thread the 36mm nut on and tighten the nut to pull the axle the rest of the way through the bearings. Tighten the nut a bit more than hand tight - we will tighten it to spec once the car is lowered. 22. Slide the inner axle joint (DOJ) onto the tranny so that the holes for the roll-pin line up. They only line up one way so if the hole isn't perfectly round when you look inside you need to turn the joint 180 degrees. 23. Pound the roll pin in place. 24. Reattach the inner control arm bolt and sway bar link. 25. Bolt on the caliper bracket, pads and caliper. 26. Put the wheel on after verifying that everything turns smoothly. 27. Lower the car to the ground. Remember to SET THE PARKING BRAKE. 28. Torque the axle nut to either 150 ft/lbs, or AS TIGHT AS YOU CAN BY HAND. Do not use an impact as it will not get it tight enough. Tighter is better - 200 or 250 ft/lbs is fine. 29. Tighten the lug nuts. Mind you that's all from memory, but then I have done it as many times as anyone here with 8,000+ posts :-p GD

Shop rate for an axle is around $250 including parts usually. You can do it yourself in about an hour or two (less if you have done them before - my reccord is about 25 minutes) for around $75 to $100 for a new or rebuilt axle. GD

It's in the fel-pro kit. It's a specially shaped o-ring thing that slips into a groove. The block halves use an anerobic sealant. GD

Yeah - your flasher module has probably got wet inside and failed or just failed from age. It's under the column. GD

Weber's do not have anti-deisel solenoids in stock form. They can be added for about $40. But they are NOT required for our purposes. None of mine have had them. I initially had problems with dieseling too till I learned how to tune the carb, timing and idle speed. #1. Carbon has nothing to do with it. #2. You need to reduce the idle speed to about 700 RPM. #3. The timing needs to be set properly at about 7 or 8 degrees AT 700 rpm. #4. The idle mixture scew needs adjusting to bring the mixture to lean-best idle at 700 rpm. All of these things work in conjuction to prevent dieseling. It's a matter of tuning ONLY and has nothing to do with carbon. I've run engines with over 300,000 with enough carbon that the timing had to be reduced to 5 or 6 degrees to prevent pinging while pulling hills - even they did not diesel when properly tuned. GD

What do you want pictures or info on? GD

It's not *just* the belts that the covers deny access to. It's the tensioners, idler, water pump, and cam seals - all of which I have had to replace and they take hours less time without the covers. If taken as a whole the belts are an insignificant portion of the price of all those parts together - even purchased at discount you are looking at about a $200+ parts collection JUST to insure you don't have a premature failure. In reality the water pumps will last 200,000 or more with properly tensioned belts, but if going off the sugested maintenance they *should* be replaced when the timing belts are done. Which I agree with IF you plan to use the covers. That's a lot of wasted money but when you ride out the part lifetime to it's extreem you *do* run the risk of an over the road failure. But it's cheaper for me in the long run to have my AAA membership and just replace the occasional failed part than to replace things needlessly that are still good. That of course is a preference thing but I don't like like wasting my money or my time - thus no belts saves both. GD

Do as you wish, but your experience counts for nothing as you have never run without covers. Let those who have done so speak from their experiences - your loud denouncing of a practice you haven't tried adds nothing to the debate. We all know the reasons for the covers and we choose to take the chance because our EXPERIENCE (which you lack, but seem insistent to substitute normal maintenance, and the ownership of a whole 7 gen 3's.... I've owned and maintained more BTW [i've lost count] - not that it's in the least bit germain to this discussion) tells us the benefits outweigh the costs. You seem stuck on the very minor possilbility of a failure when the true issue is that we are trading that minor possibility (with full knowledge of it's consequences) for easier maintenance and repair. We are not all rich people that can afford to replace every bearing, seal, and belt exactly when it's required - if I could I wouldn't be driving a 20 year old POS. As such your prostelitizing is both wrong-headed and insulting. It's not the big deal you seem to think it is. That isn't the definition of consensus. Try a dictionary. GD

Due to the aformentioned complexity of the swap, the TT front clips aren't as expensive as domestic STi or WRX clips. On the whole I would expect that an entire clip would be in the $2000 to $2500 range - meaning that $800 seems a bit steep considering you are only getting a few bits of exhaust tubing and some used turbos. Especially with the work needed to actually use that stuff. I've seen pics of those TT's put into RHD postal legacy's though. GD

Basically you reinforce what you have left, lengthen the Sammi frame, fab some brackets and some steering column modifications and bolt the Brat to the Sammi frame. Being that the Sammi isn't uni-body, has solid axles, and a low range transfer case it's similar to what your guy sugested with the jeep but the Sammi axles are aready the correct width and the frame is much better proportioned to a Brat than a Jeep frame would be. As you say - automatic lift, and lug pattern swap - although in the case of the Sammi it's a chevy/toyota 6 lug pattern. Figure on about a 30" tire when it's all done. GD

No - the spline's are completely different on EA81's and Justy's. On those the wheel just slides right off without a puller required. Kinda nice but our upgrade options are limited unless you like the Justy wheel. GD

It's not a relay - it's a circuit with specific logic. It runs the pump for about 3 seconds when the key is first put in run, and runs the pump while cranking, and while the engine is running by tracking the tach signal. It's got nothing to do with the relay - that's a seperate entity. GD

Make you life needlessly difficult if you like - but don't comment on running without covers when you admittedly have never done so. I've put over 50,000 on coverless EA82's and broken 1 set of belts due to my own mistake of dropping a rag into them. With proper skid plates debris isn't an issue - without them you are just as likely to puncture your oil pan as catch something in the belts. That said, I don't consider the EA82 worthy of anything but street anyway. I wouldn't take one off road simply because of the added mechanical complexity. You aren't going to convice anyone anyway, so stop trying. This has been hashed out many, many times before and the consensus is that they are generally more of a nuisance than the small amount of insurance you get out of them. GD