GeneralDisorder

I am not of the opinion that the cam was causing your problems (or mine). I had excelent power, and it's never had overheating problems (new radiator). I think the rough idle could be related, but I think it more likely that it was bad main bearings that caused that as well. The cam wear looks ugly, and the flaking surface metal probably contaminated our oil, but it doesn't appear to have worn out the lobes. I never had any valve train noises, but I have hydrualic lifters and unless your 84 is an automatic, it would be solid. I haven't checked the cam journals, but that may also be the culprit of my knocking noise. I'm curious - did your engine make any noticeable noises? GD

In this case I'm using oversized bearings, and I need to double check the machinists turning work. I'll not be putting it together to find the machinist undersized my crank by .050mm, and my bearings are .025mm over Would much rather spend the few $$ on some plastiguage and find out before I try to start it.... GD

They are supposed to rotate, and while the bottom of the lifters is not pristine, they don't look like the cam either. They are dished, and the cam lobes are set off at a 4 degree grind to fascilitate the rotation. They did not tick at all, were not stuck in their bores, and do rotate freely. Looked alright really.... I can't explain it. GD

Yeah - might have bent a/the control arms and leading rods, or the rim. Did you have the rim inspected carefully? No surprises - other than the HTKYSA is wrong about needing a "shop" to get the axle out. GD

No wonder they last so long - when they hit 100k miles, they are mearly broken in to the specs that GM started with Seriously tho - I'll be running 30 weight in all of mine now Any thoughts on the cam? Anyone? GD

But you are missing a zero..... the range is .0004 - .0012.... even the green doesn't go low enough to measure the limit of the tollerance, although it would at least tell me it's within spec I suppose. Jeez, that's close. GD

So..... where do I get the plastiguage that the FSM calls for? GD

Hhhmmm - don't think it's a typo - both the FSM and the Haynes manual I have list that spec. GD

Yeah - something like that - 12" rims - really small. GD

Bad times - so do you have any clue as to what might have caused this series of unfortunate events? Looks like you have a communist gnome making weapons out of your piston there..... GD

Point #1 - He says in the auction it's a Justy, and says it's "wider than a Sherpa" Piont #2 - You can read on the tailgate the sticker says "Justy" GD

Not a "sherpa".... whatever that is. Like I said - it's a justy. GD

Tearing down the EA81 out of my Brat. Approximately 175,000 on the engine. Previous owners were none too kind to it, and I've flogged it pretty hard for the last 40k. Anyway, it's never idled right, and while it did have a lot of power, it also had a rough idle that I couldn't get rid of, and a knocking noise that you can feel in the shifter, and hear very clearly and distinctly when the oil fill cap was removed. I always assumed this was probably a main bearing knock. The knock was not like a rod knock, and persisted for many thousands of miles. The oil pressure wasn't great when I got the car, and I promptly changed the pump - after which it was 25psi hot idle, and over 50 cruise. Although I think it was too late. After doing a lot of work to put on the SPFI and comming up with an idle quality that was too poor for my needs, I decided it best to tear the engine down for a full rebuild. The mains are scored, and pretty far out of spec. I haven't removed the rods as it doesn't really matter at this point - I already have a turned crank and full bearing set ready to go. My quandry is I can't find any place that sells plastiguage that measures down to the tollerance of the EA81. It's extremely close - acceptable being .010mm - .025mm. The smallest I can find online measures *down* to .025mm but no smaller.... and the stuff I had on hand (red) seems to indicate the old bearings were somewhere around .075mm or more - anyone think that could confirm my analysis of the noise and poor idle quality? The cam - well the cam lobes look just aweful. I imagine lack of oil delivery was probably the cause here, but wow - I've taken out a few EA82 cams with far more mileage and probably just as bad or worse treatment that don't look anything like this.... Looks like some severe oil deprivation caused heating and spalling of the surface - maybe just for a short time it was run without oil or something? GD

No - the computer is not part of the system. I've converted carbed engines to SPFI, and I am intimately familair with the ECU fuctions, and wireing. It is not related in any way to the wiper system. GD

Headlights don't really play a role - for EA82's that's a GL/DL thing, and I've seen plenty of 87/88/89 DL's with four headlights and SPFI. SPFI and MPFI in 85/86 was exclusively a 2WD thing except for the turbo models, and the XT. At least that's been my experience. There's an 86 GL-10 2WD sedan in the yard right now with SPFI, and I've got pictures of an MPFI non-turbo 85 wagon. Both with single headlights as they are GL's. I also own an 87 2WD SPFI coupe. GD

86 was the first year for subaru SPFI. MPFI was already being used in the US market in 83 on the EA81 Turbo. GD

If the heads aren't shot, you could put the turbo pistons in the carb block, and put the heads on it. The pistons are the only difference in the short block besides the hydrualic lifters... but those aren't needed if you keep the solid lifters adjusted. Would be a shame to see yet another EA81 turbo get wasted when the parts are right there to fix it. GD

I meant you have two "u-joints" in the column. My EA81's only have a single joint, but IIRC, the EA82's have two. Rag joints suck - in fact in my off-road wagon, I've even eliminated the rubber donut as well. Mine is solid all the way down except for two u-joints like an EA82. If the joint bearings in yours are totally shot, then I would get new or used parts. It's only going to get worse if that's the case, and if the joint fails completely it could be pretty dangerous. GD

There is an "intermittant wiper unit" located way up under the dash burried in the back somwhere. As mentioned it's sort looks like a flasher unit. I don't know if your harness would even have the plug for it however. Worth a look I suppose, but since no DL ever came with Int. wipers, I would imagine the harness support for it wouldn't even exist as I also doubt it was even a dealer option. You may have to run the wireing yourself. GD

You have two of them right? I could snag some from the yards here. No rust so should be pretty much like new (but greasy, heh). Mine only rusted from off-roading and getting them full of mud and dunked in filthy water. Or you could check a local VW performance shop..... something like one of these should work (check sizes first - I've not personally tried one yet): http://www.mooreparts.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MP&Category_Code=SUSUJNT And while you are in there, snag a "urethane steering coupler" direct bolt in for us subaru types. Round donut to replace the sloppy rubber junk you have now... EMPI part number 16-5150 (about $8): http://www.empius.com/2006_catalog/empi2006_pg135.html GD

There's just no sense in us repeating ourselves - your problem IS either: 1. Axle nut is loose (most likely). 2. Wheel bearing is bad. We cannot ascertain which one for you, no matter how many ways you describe the noise. Get out there and pull the thing apart. It takes 10 minutes to check the axle nut, and it has to come off anyway if the wheel bearings are suspect. GD

Two pinch bolts, yeah. The trick is sometimes you have to undo the rubber donut in the linkage to get enough room to pull them free. GD

Might have ground the splines out of the hub too - seen that a few times. GD

Yeah - the EA81 is the one I did with the diode stuff (which I suspect is partially because I really wanted the '80 cluster instead of the 82-84 cluster) - but the later models have some circuits that are different in other ways that make them similarly complex to convert. Things that expect a ground control, but all you have are 12v lines.... stuff like that. I spent probably a solid 30+ man hours over the course of a month converting mine, and I had FSM's for both years. One real problem you ARE going to have is the fuel guage. There aren't any aftermarket guages that can handle the stock sending unit. You will have the change the sender in the tank to something else - not impossible on the EA82's, but will requre some hand wringing and teeth gnashing. GD

+1 - LSD's are for street. They suck off-road. And don't bother with AT's - they don't self clean in this neck of the woods. GD