GeneralDisorder

Yes - the binding should still be there with the wheels up - it may not be as noticeable however. I didn't replace the u-joint. It's still in the car. I took it out, and worked it with PB Blaster for like an hour till it was free again. Then I injected some grease under the booties to keep it from happening again. It's an off-road rig. If I replaced each little thing that broke..... I would be broke. GD

You'll need to pry it apart with either a chisel or a screwdriver - just give it a good pry to bust loose the locator pins. GD

It's a Justy RS - we got them in the states. But that has the JDM 1.0L engine instead of the 1.2L we got here. I've seen several, but the RS is definately more rare than others. The "sherpa" is just him comparing it to something even smaller that I've not personally heard of before - what's for sale is definately a run of the mill justy RS. GD

Jack the front wheels up and check the steering column again. It won't look loose, in fact it may not look like much at all. 1/2 the u-joint on mine was frozen with rust. GD

+1 GD

Most likely a few MPG, yes. The system is much better at using fuel. Typically they will get very close to 30 MPG on a stock 4WD, and 35 or more on a 2WD. That's with a new 02 sensor, and well tuned. Best I've gotten with a Weber is 28-29 4WD, and 32-33 2WD. GD

Grant makes an adaptor for the EA81 - part number 6596. Momo used to make one, but it is now out of production. Once in a while some old stock will show up on ebay. It was a 7302. 7303 is for the EA82 and is also no longer made. Another possibility would be to cut out the center of an old wheel and drill the holes for whatever pattern you plan to use.... probably be a lot cheaper anyway. Oh - almost forgot - a Justy steering wheel will fit the EA81's too. Something to consider anyway as it's a really cheap option. GD

To the heads? It's 22 ft/lbs. GD

Bearing isn't terribly hard. There is a ring nut on the back of the trailing arm that has to come out. There's a special tool for this, but for a one-off you can use a chisel or a large punch. The bearing has to be drifted out of the control arm with a punch (I use a brass punch), and then new one drifted in. They don't really go bad too often, and you may find that the axle nut is just a little loose - should be 150 lbs at least, and if it's loose, it will feel like the bearing is bad as the hub under the nut presses the parts of the bearing together. That make sense? Could also just get a whole trailing arm from the junk yard. That's just a few bolts. The bearings are about $50 each new. I had a steering issue just like your's once. It was pretty frustrating - I actually removed the PS rack and tore it down (ungodly hairy mess in there let me tell you!) all to no effect. Check the u-joint(s) in the steering shaft where it comes out of the firewall - one of mine had rusted partially and lost one of it's degrees of freedom. Each time the steering wheel was turned there were hard spots when the steering linkage would bind. Didn't have anything to do with the rack or the PS system at all actually. GD

It all boils down to this: 1. Weak head gaskets/weak heads - be it from age, mileage, crappy head design, what have you... this is the root of everyone telling you to NOT overheat it. Biggest problem with the EA82T by far, and the reason that holds nearly everyone back from getting more HP from it (can't take much over stock boost). 2. Weak stock cooling system. (see #1). Stock radiators are 20 years old, so that doesn't help. Heat agrivates #1 a LOT. 3. Weak timing belts.... this is probably somewhat debatable as many 80's cars had similar problems. The real problem isn't the belts, but how they are routed, and the lack of hydrualic tensioners. If the belts are tensioned properly, and kept that way as they stretch (you have to manually adjust the belt tension every 10,000 - 15,000 miles, which is a huge PITA if you leave the covers on) they can actually last longer than the recommended 60,000 mile interval. Again - debatable being that many other 80's cars had this same problem of going through timing belts rather quickly, but today it's common for t-belts to have intervals of 100k or ever 120k. Should note that engine is non-interferance, so should they break it's just annoying and expensive, but not fatal. Really if those three items don't bother you, and the very, very real aspect of a head gasket at some time in the future is no problem to you, then they are really great little cars. I love em to death, but I wanted to give you the bad side so you are prepared. Don't let me scare you too much, but also don't beleive that you have found the holy grail of 20 year old cars that will never die and can be passed down to your grandchildren having never seen the business end of a socket. Oh - and yes - very bad choice for off-road. Probably no low range, and turbo's are for the street. No low end torque + no low range = GD

There is no gear on the cable - it's a spade drive. The cable is probably starting to fail internally. Disconnect it from the tranny (unscrew it), and pull the cable out of it's housing. Replaceing it with an analog cluster, while possible, is probably one of the worst wireing disasters I've ever experienced. I did that with my 84, and got it mostly working. It's not just a matter of wireing - you need both schematics, and you will spend hours and hours mapping out the wireing, labeling etc. The circuits are different in some cases, and either will not work at all, or need diodes added to the circuit. GD

I'll have a look around my parts - I don't have an EA81 with a feedback setup anymore, but for the short time I did (replaced with a weber when I lifted it) I had purchased a brand new sending unit. Now that I think on it, it's the single pole sender that I've bought for around $10 - $15.... but my local discount parts store had the two pole for less than $25 I think. thepartsbin has it for $22.02. That's not too bad, and it's in stock: http://oem.thepartsbin.com/parts/thepartsbin/quote.jsp?make=SU&year=1984&product=P4036-29938&application=000362622&part=Water%20Temperature%20Sender&category=All&dp=false GD

take a look at the ignition switch harness - look at the pink connector and the wires going to and from the switch. If there is any evidence of meting, discoloration or burnt wires you may not be passing enough current to run the FPCU. Also - check the wires going to the negative side of the coil - I think one of those (maybe the tach wire) runs the FPCU - that's how it knows the engine is running and to turn the fuel pump on. GD

Very interesting - might have to try that myself. Give us a geads up if you blow some cooling system component apart. I would imagine it would be fine tho. GD

What are you hoping to gain exactly? Try megasquirt - all one word. Unless you are changing engine internals (compression ratio, valve sizes, cam grinds, etc) then there isn't much point in changing your fuel and timing maps. GD

Well - the FSM shows the FPCU (fuel pump control unit) as running directly off the ignition switch with no fuse at all. It's hooked into the supply line from the ign. switch that supplies fuses 12 through 16. Fuse #7 may actually be totally unrelated.... here's a question - did your wiper washer ever work? Sounds like either there is some strange previous owner wireing going on here, or the fuel pump control unit is actually dead. It can happen. Take a look at the wires coming off the unit and see if you can get voltage from the connector, and check the fuel pump power lead and see where that goes..... there may be a relay in the system supplied by the FPCU, so you might check those too. Turn on the headlights and find the relay that controls those - use that plug to test the other relays.... GD

nevermind - fuse #7 - me find. GD

What fuse is it? I've got my FSM open now..... they are labeled top left to bottom right 1 - 16..... like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 GD

The speedo on the digi-dash is still cable driven. The cable may be starting to go. Pull the cable off the transmission, and pull the inner drive shaft out - you can replace it by just slideing a new drive shaft into the cable. If that doesn't fix it, then the problem is electronic inside the dash unit itself. Would probably be easiest just to locate another cluster and install it if that's the case. GD

No - the 5 speed is a nice addition to the Turbo Brat.... no one likes the automatics they came with. EA81T's only came with the 3AT, so a well done install of a 5 speed is usually welcome. Being it's a nice vehicle - you may want to get a 5 speed install kit from Jerry (bratsrus1 on the board here). He lives around yakima and makes a complete install kit that will make the interior look completely factory (for a manual trans EA81). You will still need to aquire the consoles and such, but they aren't rare. A well preserved low-mileage Turbo Brat would easily command $5,000+ on ebay and they are only going up it seems.... so whatever you do be kind to it. The XT6 is not a good off-road choice - it has no low range, the engine is powerfull, but has timing belts, and is pretty expensive to work on. You would have to design your own lift for it, and it would have to be fairly large as they sit very low in stock form. The EA81 hatch is pretty much the ultimate subaru off-road vehicle to start with - it has the shortest wheelbase, and the best departure angle. Easy to lift, simple to work on - no timing belts to worry about. With a 5 speed or even the stock 4 speed D/R they do quite well off-road. GD

If you off-road a turbo brat, you will make a lot of folks very angry They are exceedingly rare (only made for two years), and if you value it at all, keep it on the street if it's in good shape as you say. The EA81T is a good engine - but not good for off-road. Turbo's are low compression, and haven't got the needed low end torque for crawling about - forcing you to keep the RPM's up in the 2500 - 3000 range for any decent power. This wears out clutches, and makes you take running starts at obsticles - furthering the chances of causeing body damage, and suspension damage. If you really want to off-road sell the Brat and with the proceeds you can easily buy a wagon (or even better, a hatchback), a lift, and tires. You'll have the same wheelbase (or less in the hatch), same drivetrain (except non-turbo) and same capabilities, while also having a dry place to put passengers, camping stuff, tools, equipments, etc. GD

Already been covered 1000x. I sugest doing a search for "Weber" GD

Start with #1. The 3AT is notorious for eating power. If that's not enough - carefully donate the EA81T to someone that will love it, and drop in an EJ22. The EJ20T is nice, but you'll end up with so much power you will have to upgrade suspension, brakes and a whole host of other stuff. You'll likely break the 5 spd D/R with over 200 HP, and so you would want the EJ AWD tranny - axle issues (custom), etc, etc. Plus the EJ22 is more common, cheaper, simpler to wire and route exhaust for. 135 HP is more than enough to feel very quick in a Brat. GD

Yeah - you need a new sensor. I've had the EA81 feedback carb temp sensors fail as well. The good news is the price is only about $15 for one. It's a double blade connector on it - one side is for the dash guage, and the other is for the ECU so you would NOT see anything on your meter the way you tested it. You need to test each side of the sender to ground. But if the ECU has detected it being fualty, it's most likely the thermistor inside is going out of range or has burnt out completely. It happens - might want to change the 02 sensor while you are doing sensor related stuff. Cheap, and they get old and slow. GD

Yeah - that's how I use it as well. I have always used it to describe engines that have a single belt driving all accesories with usually a single tensioner. I think you could say the XT6 is a serp system, and the XT just uses ribbed belts - which I must say I don't know why they would do this either. GD