GeneralDisorder

You have an EA81, so just always ask for parts for an 84. Non-staked in this case. The EA82's have the staked ones which are a real pain to replace. GD

No - 2WD's came with the EA81 in 80, but not the 4WD. The D/R didn't come out at all till 81, and so they had the single range, which had the top mount starter bell-housing so was coupled with the EA71 of past years. I imagine it to be some sort of house-cleaning operation to get rid of them, but yeah - 1980 is a weird year. GD

All 1980 model 4WD's came stock with the 1600cc EA71, and single range 4WD. There's my take: 1. Wrong engine, wrong tranny for off-road. Without the dual range, and at a whole 74 HP, the EA71 is both too weak, and the transmission lacks any sort of low gear. 2. 1980/81 have the externally regulated alternator - I hate those. 3. $800 is insanely high for something from 1980 that needs ANY type of work. Being as undesireable as the EA71+single range is, $100 would be generous indeed. 4. Sure - you can swap as much as you like - but $800 for a body you are going to trash, and you have to find an engine and tranny for it? Lotsa luck - hope you have a real thick wallet. 92 Loyale has the same problem - Single range transmission (pushbutton in the Loyale case, so more junk to break). It also has timing belts that have a tendancy to snap and leave you stranded at just the right time. And please - get it straight - these cars are NOT All Wheel Drive - they are Part Time 4WD like a truck. No center diff - 50/50 power split when in 4WD. GD

Frankly the EA82T isn't all that reliable. They blow head gaskets easily if you try anything fancy, and sometimes even if you don't. There is little to no aftermarket for them (in comparison to the EJ series), and the reliable HP you can get from one is not much more than they already had stock. The water jacket is very near to the exhuast ports and they like to crack in that area - that's one of the reasons there were three different generations of head castings - never did get it right tho. Look for an early 90's legacy Turbo - bulletproof EJ22G (Turbo), AWD 5 Speed. Lots of aftermarket, better suspension, and lots more wheel options stock. GD

That's an 83/84 GL 4WD..... In WA or OR not more than $100 - $200 if you are looking for a good deal. Any more would be extremely questionable with that much mileage. GD

They are easily replaceable on the EA81 shafts - get joints with zerks tho so you can grease them. I've done several. GD

Yeah - the senders are not going to work - unfortunately they have the wrong resistance values for any aftermarket guages that I know of. Plus you don't have an oil pressure sender anyway, and the voltmeter/ammeter is just wiring. That really only leaves the coolant temp sensor. A good parts store will be able to sell you an adaptor to 1/8" NPT, or you can make your own from a junk yard oil pressure sender - same thread for both the OPS, and the CTS, so grab two, cut the threaded end off and use your drill press to drill and tap the proper threads in the end of it. I tried this with a hand drill, but brass is so soft and "sticky" that it's difficult to do it and not hog the hole out a bit - if you do, use a vise, and drill from the bottom of the threads up as that will leave the exit hole pretty clean and round for the tap. GD

I know the feeling - I write a lot of books on here. In fact, out of my 5000+ posts, I think at least half or more are books. GD

No need to install a guage pod. You can just put the guage down in the change pocket of the console under the radio. It only matters that you HAVE it. I understand not wanting it to look rice, but it's more important to have the guage - even if it's not in your direct line of sight. You will be able to check it now and then. It's absolutely vital in the case of oil pressure that you have a reading for it - the idiot light will not come on till it's far too late - trust me. If you really can't stand the guages anywhere they can be seen, put them under the lid of the hand brake console. Or mount them IN the engine bay. You have lots of choices here, but you NEED the guages to verify that your efforts are having an effect, and to monitor important metrics not offered by the digi cluster. You'll kick yourself like I did if low oil pressure kills the rods. GD

Caleb is right - they aren't as bad as mine - mine was an EA81 version. Much worse. And he has a good point about checking the grounds. Still can't monitor oil pressure or put an honest number to the coolant temp. I don't like either of those. GD

The 4EAT is a Full Time 4WD (fancy term for AWD). It's actually just a legacy trans with an EA bell-housing. I've not personally seen a Full Time 4WD EA series that was not in a turbo car.... but it's possible. I don't know that they made a 2WD 4EAT for the EA series either.... I think they did for the Legacy, but I'm no expert in that department. GD

The digital dashes are utterly NOTORIOUS for incorrect readings. It's all about the solder connections on the printed circuit boards. Didn't know till your last thread you were running a digi. If there is only one peice of knowlege you take away from this thread it's this: The absolute BEST thing for a digi-dash is to add two aftermarket guages - one for coolant temp, and one for oil pressure. You'll have to plump the senders, but that's not hard. Even if you get $10 cheap wall-mart guages it's better than the digi-dash. I won't go into the whole story (if you search enough on oil pressure threads you'll run across it), but I blew an engine because I couldn't monitor the oil pressure with the digi I had. I've since replaced the engine and converted the car to analog (digi died due to alternator rectifier). When I replaced the engine I went with Autometer 2.25" guages for the water, oil, and voltage. I love em. GD

Get a 5 spd D/R, they are much better in the wear deparment. GD

The pump is made by Parut, and does not come with the paper gasket, or the block mating o-ring. You have to get either a complete engine gasket set to get those two, or the "oil pump seal kit" which is a seperate part number from the pump. The seal kits come with all the seals - 4 o-rings, and the paper gasket. If you are installing a new pump you discard (save for later, etc) the 3 unused o-rings. Incidentally, the dealer price is about $10 higher (wholesale price) than buying a Parut pump from a discount house. Same pump tho - last one I got I think was about $60 or $65 from a place here in town. At least with oil and water pumps, the OEM supplier makes them under their own name so you don't have to buy those from the dealer. We are not so lucky with other parts. GD

I'm aware of the 4EAT - briefly owned one - but I'm not aware of any difference in the starter's - can you be more specific? I think I have the starter from it around here, and I didn't notice any difference. The bell-housing's are the same, so mounting should be the same as well. Is the pinion gear different or something? At any rate, a 93 Loyale will have a 3AT, 5 MT pushbutton 4WD, or a 5MT 2WD, the only cars that got the 4EAT were Turbo 4WD models, and the Loyale only came in turbo for one year - 1990. So a 93 will not have this suspect transmission combination anyway. GD

Change the whole diff - you'll have to buy one anyway to get the ring and pinion, and it takes special tools to dissasmble them and change the gear set anyway..... yeah - get the whole diff. GD

I always do it with one up, and one down, but it does take knowing how that should look and feel - if in doubt do it the book way rotating between belts. The reason it's done this way, is because with the mark lined up, all the valves are closed and there is no tension on the cam from any of the valve springs. Just makes it easier to fine tune the belt alignment. GD

Use a length of heater core hose (a couple feet will do - about $2 from the parts guy) and put one end to your ear. Try to locate where the sound is comming from with the other end. When it's loudest you have found the area of concern. It sounds like the timing belt rubbing on one of the covers or something..... but that's a wild guess. GD

We never got anything like that in the states - although that inclinometer guage looks a lot (like almost identical) to the ones in the Dodge Raider... which was a rebadged Mitsubishi Montero... not sure if the Mitsu's had them, but I have a cluster from a Raider around here somewhere that I've been meaning to install in my wagon. It's got Oil pressure, Voltmeter and Inclinometer. Probably just the same japanese manufacturer for the guage tho. The altimeter is cool - haven't seen an anolog altimeter in any kind of american car before... Find another one and ship it to me GD

Well - not TOO tight, you'll ruin the bearings in the alt, and the water pump. Basically I make sure the belt still has some "spring" to it - when you put tension on it, the belt should spring back a little when you let off. Shows the rubber is still good. Hard cooked rubber will slip against the pulley instead of turning it. Then I tension it so that it's tight to where I can't see any "flop" in the belt when it's running, and there is about 1/2" deflection in the longest unsupported section of the belt (usually between the alt and water pump). I also use the twist test - you should not be able to twist the belt more than 90 degrees on the longest section. Another overlooked peice is the radiator cap - I can't even count how many of those I've had go bad. Don't cheap out on it too much, but I've had fine luck with the Senki or Stant ones. I think it's .9 bar, or 13 lbs depending on make. One thing that people overlook when trouble shooting cooling systems is the pressure - you may not have any "bad" parts, but if the system will not hold pressure (and this seems especially true with subaru) they will overheat quickly. A cooling system that will hold a good temp at still idle, but will overheat on the freeway at 3,000 RPM is a good indication that you have a pressure leak somewhere (could be other things, but pressure test should be done before replaceing parts). Taking a good pressure reading, and if you can get one or access to one, a pump to pressurize the system when it's cold can really help find leaks. GD

Lubricate the latch with lithium grease - lack of lube (hard to pull) is usually what causes them to frey and eventually snap. GD

The heater generally isn't the culprit - it's the fan. The higher you set the fan the more amps it draws out of the accesory circuit, and the resistor in the temp sender has a smaller effect on the sensor circuit signal. I've run into this a few times - all the guages will change - including the fuel level guage if you turn on more power eating stuff. Generally people will see a net decrease in the temp gauge - but it may initially jump up a little as the electricity is faster to change the guage reading than the heater core is at removing cooling system heat. If your heater core isn't working well (like clogged perhaps) you may see the increase but not get much for a decrease in temp. May also indicate an alternator on the way out as a good running alt, and decent electrical system will not always show this effect. Try just turning the fan on high without the heater and see that you get the same effect - that will confirm which one is at fault. One thing I've noticed on the EA82 is that the alternator belt needs to be NEW (soft rubber), and needs to be fairly tight to keep the water pump turning and the coolant moving. GD

Yes - there technically is a difference between Auto vs. Manual, but they are interchangable, and work fine. The only difference is gear speed as one has a reduction and one does not. But it will bolt up and work just fine either way. GD

You said in post #1 you have a Carb - your timing is correct at 8 degrees. GD

Problem solved! Jerry is without computer right now, but I figured it I would lay out the solution for everyone..... interestingly this applies not just to EA81 conversions, but to EA82 as well. Tested a few things - hooked up the noid light as sugested - adjusted the timing, and tested a few sensors. Got it to fire for a few seconds, and then it abruptly stopped and stubbornly refused to do anything but crank. Looked down the throttle, and no fuel. We had fuel before.... so thought maybe the tank was empty. Disconnected the fuel line from the pump, and with the ignition on and the test mode connectors connected the pump ran but no fuel came out. I was sure at this point that it must have run out of fuel, so added a few gallons. Nothing..... took the pump out and tested it with water and a couple wire leads hooked to the battery and it shot water pretty decent..... had to be the wireing. Swapped the wires in the connector under the car and it started right up. So the interesting thing we discovered is the fuel pump WILL run in reverse and sounds normal - it just doesn't pump anything. GD