GeneralDisorder

Poorly maintained carburetor. Time to take a trip into the ancient art of carb rebuilding. Or just get a Weber. GD

Mouse traps. Peanut butter. Or - seat covers, and a cat. GD

Anyone with a Loyale FSM that could scan me the ECU pinout? It's different than the 89 system, and my haynes manual is useless as usual. Or if you can't scan it could you tell me the names of the devices connected to pins 13, 14, and 15 of the F108 connector? Thanks. GD

Lots of threads on that! Here's some stuff from the online repair manual, and you should do some searches too. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49952 http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=54203 You should contact Bratsrus1 (Jerry). He makes a great little install kit that will make the whole process a breeze. GD

One of the corrections we are going to make to the manual for version 2 is to clarify the part about the neutral switch preventing the car from being started in gear. That's the job of the automatic transmission "inhibitor switch". I have the neutral switch installed in my Brat with SPFI, and I can start it in any position. Clutch in or out does not matter. For the car you are working on, it's not going to prevent you from starting it in gear - that part of the manual is mistaken I'm afraid. The neutral switch is there so the ECU knows when the car is in gear and can adjust the timing and fuel maps accordingly. It WILL affect your mileage - as stated in the quote I gave you above, the CEL will only light in U-Check when a component affecting driveability fails it's test parameters. Additionally, the ECU may never tell you about other system failures. It expects you to fix U-Check codes immediatly, and it's self-diagnosis programming will terminate as soon as it sees the neutral switch is missing or non-operational. Thus if you idle air control valve fails, the ECU will never tell you about it because it can't get past the neutral switch warning. By not installing everything as it was intended, you are circumventing the ECU's programming. Without downloading the EPROM in the computer and actually understanding every detail about the self-diagnostic procedure you are working blind. Don't mess with what you don't understand. I'm a software engineer, and I'm telling you it's very important to hook everything up. GD

+1 what Qman says I'll add that you should have someone step on the brakes while you loosen the HH cable nut - don't want a wild 83 wagon to roll off your trailer.... GD

Yeah - you are going to want new freeze plugs - usually once they have popped out they are not good to reuse. You don't want them to leak.... It probably froze with only water in the engine - the ice expands and blows the plugs out - it's a good thing because otherwise it would crack the heads or block. GD

Sadly, this indicates the governor drive gear inside the transmission is damaged. It can't be replaced without removing and dismantleing the transmission. Your best bet is to find anther tranny. Or even better - just put a 5 speed dual range into it. Easier to find, and many, many times more reliable that the 3AT. GD

You ever run this engine? Sounds like those are freeze plugs.... did the engine freeze at some point with only water in the cooling system? GD

The CEL is there to detect REAL problems. It won't even light up for most small things unless you put the system into D-Check. The only time the CEL will light while not in D-Check mode is when the ECU goes into open loop operation, and "driveability" is affected. Here's a quote from the FSM for you: "The U-Check is a user-oriented mode in which only the SPFI components necessary for start-up and drive are diagnosed. On occurance of a fualt, the warning lamp (CHECK ENGINE light) is lighted to indicate to the user that the dealer's inspection is necessary. The diagnosis of other parts which do not give significant adverse effect to start-up and drive are excluded from this mode in order to avoid unnecessary uneasiness to be taken by the user." The EGR sets it off not because of driveability concerns, but because the bunny huggers and the EPA mandated that the driver be warned of failures in the emissions systems. Not hooking up the neutral switch is stupid - it's extremely simple to do, only requireing the drivers plastic kick panel to be removed, and two wires soldered. The CEL will light without it every time the car is driven, and because you "think" the CEL is refering to the neutral switch, you will never bother to look at the codes, and could miss indications of impending failure of more important parts. The CEL is a warning and safety device. It's there to provide valuable feedback to prevent possible damage to your engine. Ignoring it because you *think* you know what code it's telling you about is just as ignorant as driving without your seatbelt on the wrong side of the road. And regardless what you "think" the EGR does, it's entirely passive. The EGR does not rob power, and there is nothing wrong with leaving it operational. Besides that, the solenoid code from the ECU is only telling you the solenoid itself is bad - it does not indicate anything about the EGR valve itself. You can replace the solenoid with a resistor and never have to look at that code either. GD

No - it's not that simple. The ECU looks for changes in the neutral switch corresponding to changes in the speed sensor. It takes a little while for the ECU to catch on, but basically if you are moving and the neutral switch continues to report you are in neutral, the ECU assumes something is wrong after a while. It won't do it right away as it doesn't want to complain about coasting, etc. But it will get angry, and when it did, it prevented the ECU from reporting the idle air code, and the purge solenoid code on mine - not cool. You would have to wire a switch to the dash and toggle it each time you let the clutch out. I really don't know why anyone would *not* install the switch - it takes about 10 minutes, and it's just one wire to the ECU and a ground. It's not like it's a huge deal or something. It's equipped on all cruise control vehicles for the cruise control, but unlike the speed sensor, it only exists if you really do have cruise control (or SPFI). GD

If you don't connect the neutral switch, the ECU will throw a code about it, and your CEL will be on all the time. This also causes the computer to ignore other potential problems. It's best to connect everything. GD

Correct - same for all Subaru's from 1982 on. 80 and 81 EA81's do not have one. All cars were equipped in case the dealer wished to install CC. The speed sensor is part of the guage cluster. It's a pulse signal generator atached to the speedometer. If you have cruise control, you can track down the CC computer, and tap into the speed sensor signal line from there, but if you do not, you will have to remove the guage cluster to get access to the plug. On the EA81's the speed sensor has two wires - the black one must be grounded. I'm not sure of the EA82 is self-grounding or not. Sorry - thought I got the right link - there's like three or four links floating around for it. I fixed it so now both work in the thread. GD

It's not real expensive to have a car shipped (around $700 give or take), and driving one back from out here is a possiblity too. GD

You shouldn't have "snipped" anything till you took the entire harness out of the donor. And even then there is very little cutting to do. Now it's going to be a real mess to figure out, as you probably don't have the dropping resistor for the coil, the diode pack under the dash, or the connector pin for the start signal from the ignition switch.... and maybe a mess of other things I can't remember right now. It's best to remove the ENTIRE harness from the vehicle, and sit down with the connector pin-outs and some wire cutters and carefully dismantle it. It's not as simple as looks. Snowman created a whole manual for this swap, and he and I are working to correct a few things, and add some EA81 information for version 2 of this document. Since you are doing an EA82, basically all of the information you need is here: http://www.mnchopshop.org/images/offroad/subaru/spfi_conversion_manual.pdf One thing I can tell you that isn't in the manual (yet), is that the Loyale ECU (the silver boxed version - older units were painted black) has some different programming, and requires both the neutral switch, and speed sensor to be connected or it will refuse to return accurate diagnostic data, and will not idle properly. BTW - you did get the oxygen sensor harness right? And you will need the 02 sensor in the exhaust of the new car. GD

Probably need to clean your idle air control valve. It's on the front of the throttle body - held on with 4 bolts. Download the partial 89 FSM that's floating around on here, and run the D-check mode and see what codes you get from the ECU. GD

My Brat has the same problem on both front wheels. I don't drive it much right now so I haven't got around to fixing it, but my assumption is it's probably a combination of bad leading rod bushings, control arm bushings, and loose ball joints. The net effect is that the bottom of the wheel tucks under too far in turns, allowing the tire to ride up on it's outer edge. I've bent EA81 struts, and they generally bend the *other* direction, and it pushes the top of the tire inward. That and I don't off-road the Brat so I know they aren't bent. One thing I've noticed is the 2WD EA81's don't seem to do this, and neither do the ones with power steering - the commonality there is the strut tops are reversed. I wonder if turning the strut tops around would help matters? Just a thought. GD

www.subaruparts.com www.1stsubaruparts.com Both are dealerships. GD

It's pretty small, only about 3" long or less, so I doubt you did anything to it. I've encountered several that have cracked. GD

The 85/86 RX sedan isn't very desireable. It's got the flapper-door MAF, and Gen 1 turbo heads. Also only has part time 4WD, not the AWD (Full Time 4WD) of the later 87 and up RX coupe. In the condition you describe, I would offer them $100 for it, and walk away if they want more. If it runs and drives real nice and looks good - maybe $500 tops. GD

ONLY buy clutch cables from the dealer. They are less than $20, and aftermarket are junk. See my write up for all the details: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/clutch.html GD

Sounds like the vacuum line on the back of the carb that operates the secondary barrel may have come off. Check it out. GD

Could be a coolant thermo-sensor code. Once you get the CEL light, just read the code off the ECU and that should get you started in the right direction. GD

There are two types of codes. The first type are the very serious codes that cause the engine to run "funny", or not at all. Those codes will light up the CEL, and the code will immediately flash on the monitor lamp of the ECU. No need to connect anything to read these. Generally if one of these is going to come up, it will do it in the first few miles of driving, or sometimes almost as soon as the engine reaches operating temp and trys to enter closed loop operation. The other type of code will only be set in "D-check mode" which stands for "Dealer Check Mode". You have to follow the procedure in the FSM for how this is done, but the first step is to read the stored codes, clear them, and then run the procedure with the green connectors ("test mode") connected. The procedure involves such tasks as reving the engine and holding the RPM's, returning to half throttle for a while, and driving at greater than 5 MPH for a set time period..... etc. It's not just a simple matter of running the thing at idle. It's the diagnostic mode the dealer uses to troubleshoot complaints that are do not immediately impact the operation of the vehicle. There should be a link around here somewhere to a partial 89 FSM in PDF that has the procedure in it. GD

Sadly, having worked with the same urethane, I can tell you that urethane has one big drawback to rubber - it does not adhere to metal. So with subaru mounts, it's not as simple as "filling it" since the mount is a rubber sandwitch between two steel plates. It just doesn't work. When the engine or tranny torques over to one side it will rip the urethane from the metal plate. There are of course more complex ways to incorporate urethane that involve using closed sided blocks with steel bushings running through them.... insert complete mount redesign here.... GD