GeneralDisorder

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

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