GeneralDisorder

Depends - they made both 4 speed and 5 speed 2WD EA81 trannys. You'll have to run it through the gears and check. If it's a 5 speed, it's the same trans as the EA82 - they never changed them. GD

Their performance (mainly at idle) degrades considerably after 100 - 150k. The pump rotor wears internally, and can't produce adequate pressure. Seals help very little - by the time the seals are cooked - it's time for a new pump. The pumps are cheap - $65 for the OEM Parut brand pumps from a discount house. Easy to change - about 20 minutes start to finish. I've said this over and over...... you make the call. GD

Did something similar on my wagon, but had to build boxes for them as the power window equipped doors have the motor right where you would want to put the speaker :-\. Works ok if you build little bump out boxes for them. Oh - and on wagons, and sedans you will lose the map pocket. GD

I've adopted the general rule of replacing oil pumps every 100,000 miles. After throwing a rod through the block on an EA81 due to bad oil pressure, I don't mess around anymore. Do as you like, but I would replace the pump, and I'm on at least my 10th subaru. anything less than 15 psi at warm idle (and I like to see more like 20 - 25) and the pump needs to go. I don't reseal pumps - on the EA81 it's just an excersize in futility, and on the EA82 it takes so damn long to get the pump off and replace it that the extra $60 for a new pump rather than just a seal kit is well worth it in my opinion. 15 - 25 psi warm idle, and 40+ at 2500 RPM warm. Any less and something is amiss. Period. GD

I've been meaning to do this for a while - my stock 4 speed transmission mounts were flat like day old soggy cereal. I had previously filled them with urethane, but the rubber underneath was just too far gone, and they disitigrated on my last off road venture leaving my transmission sitting directly on the cross-member - I'm not kidding when I say METAL-ON-METAL.... disturbing to say the least. I abhor the design of these crappy EA81 mounts, and I was loath to spend $38 each on new mounts. I found some cheap aftermarket direct fit ones for about $10 at rockauto.com only to get a phone call from them saying they were out of stock, and they called the manufacturer.... who is also out of stock and has no ETA for more. That left me with little alternative but to design something new Here it is - the path to transmission mount enlightenment - EA82 mounts for the EA81: (lots of pictures and write up on the subject) http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/4speed_mounts.html Here's a teaser photo for those with slow connections: GD

No. The Brat is an EA81 body, so it's going to be just as hard as any other EA81 body car. Exhaust (engine cross-member) and wireing mostly - have to move the hill-holder, etc, etc, etc. Cleaner and more power to swap an EJ22. This has all been covered - use the search. GD

All 82 - 87 Brats (Gen 2) have the EA81 - the Turbo model (83/84) has the EA81T. 81 GL (Gen 1) Brats also have the EA81, 81 DL's were still the EA71. GD

That, and the fireing order is completely different - makes them run smoother too. GD

That's funny - I just put a whole wagon front end on an 87 three door like two days ago.... not specifically an RX, but they fit fine. I used the lower valence, hood, and fenders from an 85 wagon. Everything more or less lined up perfect (a few anomolies, but to be expected as this coupe was wrecked, and has a totaled title ). I had to pound out the front end to accept the non-crumpled body parts, and had to do a spot of welding on the upper radiator support. Car was hit HARD and it smashed the radiator into the timing covers, and snapped the upper raditor support in half. Can't tell now tho I don't see why the RX should be different than any other three door, and I've never heard anyone else say that.... but who knows. Too me it looks like your radiator support on the drivers side there has been pushed in, and you just need to massage it out a bit for the holes to line up again. I had to do that on the passenger side of mine - and had to use a few washers on the headlight bucket, and front of the fender to keep the panels lined up on the outside of the car. It was a good 4 or 5 hours of work to make the car look right on the outside, but it's worth it - the car was cheap. Looking at your pictures more - the lower valence (skid plate goes over the oil pan - that's your valence) is always like that - especially if the valence is bent at all - you just have to wrangle the plates together and get the bolts started - they will hold it together. It can be a biotch. My sedan was a pain, but then I didn't really take any time to try to straighten anything - I just wanted the fender on. This coupe I did wasn't bad, but still had a gap I had to forceably close to get them on. GD

I think I know what you are talking about - I ran into the same deal on my ?wagon? (I think - might have been the Brat) when I went to fix the shifting linkage on it. I had the transmission out of the car when I did it, and IIRC (it's been a loooong time) I got the nylon "clip" for the bottom of the shifter, but the hole in the trans was way bigger..... I didn't really want to go to the dealer so I just looked around my pile of junk, and found the protective plastic cover that went to the bottom of the 32/36 Weber DGV carb I bought (brand new redline kit). The plastic "feet" on it were the perfect size to fit into the hole in the tranny, and then the nylon clip just slid right inside of it (the plastic feet are hollow if you cut them off the thing). I doubt this will help you in any way, but I figured I would explain what I did.... might give you an idea . GD

Lookin good - I assume that bit in the front is for a winch? And the smaller holes for the turn signals? Looks plenty strong enough - my only sugestion from experience is to consider running your skid plate to the bumper as the radiator support on mine just keeps getting flatter and flatter :-\. I also reinforced the cross-member mount for the skid plate too - if you have power steering it unbolts, and I ran some 1/4" steel gussets on the inside of it to keep it from collapsing. GD

Nope. GD

Yeah - people slide into curbs and such - it can be the torsion bar plate or the actual control arm. Check the mounting tabs on the torsion bar tube. GD

Sorry - I stand corrected. GD

The Monroe versions have the adjustable spring perches like the stock units - the GR2's do not. GD

There is an issue I've noticed with the choke spring on the 85/86 Hitachi - the end of the spring where it attaches to the lever that operates the choke plates has a "hook" that wears through and falls off. The spring can then no longer close the choke plates at all, and the thing will run like poop till warmed up. If the carb has been rebuilt then the choke housing should already have screws replacing the original pop-rivets... anyway you'll have to either replace the choke housing with another, or rig a manual choke to it somehow. You seem to have some fabbing skills, so shouldn't be terribly difficult to make a manual choke work (can get "universal" kits from like autozone for $15 or so I hear). It's VERY hard to find junk yard replacements for this part as the spring is almost never intact. I've found a few that were presumably from garaged cars where the choke was rarely used, or replaced at some point. Once I went looking for one for a friend of a friend, and spent most of the day in three yards - I think I took at least 10 carbs apart - I found 1 in good shape, and another that was only partially worn :-\. It's definately a strike against the EA82 Hitachi, as this part always fails - and it's probably over $100 from the dealer. Maybe give em a call, but don't hold your breath. As for getting it running decent - an italian tune up can do wonders for sucking the crud out of the carb - run it up to 4k rpm, and cram a shop rag in the carb - that will create enough vacuum to suck out anything that *can* be sucked out. Beyond that if it's still fubar, you'll probably want to pop the top off the carb and blow out the passages with compressed air. Fixes in a can aren't my cup of tea - I prefer honest work with real tools . Have you checked for vacuum leaks? Spray around with some WD40.... I have an EA82 Hitachi that ran OK - that's not to say it ran perfect, but it did alright for the few K miles I had it on there. It was a feedback unit, but it should run without it - you can have it for shipping if you want, but I don't know if you would get it in time :-\ GD

There is nothing wrong with that - as long as it ran, the firing order in the book just shows one of 4 possible orentations of the wires on the cap. You just have to stab the disty into the block with the timing marks lined up, and the rotor pointing at one of the wire electrodes - as long as you run the fireing order off that wire, it doesn't matter which tower you start with. Does that make sense? Unlike a lot of engines that have a spade drive for the disty (like off the cam), the gear drive of the EA series engines allows for four possible correct orientations. I would attribute your smoother running and more power to all the other things you fixed/changed while in there. GD

Yes - the slight cable slack is important, as is the hill-holder cable, or a return spring to keep the bearing from riding on the pressure plate all the time. I agree - aftermarket cables suck - I've been getting mine at the dealer and strangely enough they are cheaper too. Like $13 for the last one I bought. $17 if your dealer doesn't do wholesale for you. And make sure to route the cable under the coolant hoses, and the steering linkage. GD

An 82 guage cluster is a direct swap for your 84, and is already orange/red in color. Just have to find one. Or the 80/81 cluster is also orange/red, and has really cool guages that sweep vertically instead of the usual arc style all the later soobs use. It will physically fit perfectly, but the wiring is different. I put an 80 cluster in my 84 wagon after the digi-dash blew. Had to redo all the wiring and make an adaptor harness, but it's possible. Would be a lot easier to go from analog 84 to analog 80. GD

Maybe from the dealer - pocket item at the JY... $279.79 from www.rockauto.com GD

Do you have the dust plate on the bottom of the bell-housing to keep out major junk? And do you have the rubber cover for the timing mark hole? And how's the condition of the clutch fork boot? Also - are you using a goodly amount of grease in and around the bearing? Should be on the shaft, and on both spots where the fork contacts it. They do go out more frequently if you are running through water and mud and stuff, but the rubber covers, and the bell-housing dust plate help a lot. Try using an OEM part if you have been using aftermarket stuff. I think a lot of the bearings are just crap to begin with. If you are running a 4 speed, I hear you can use the 5 speed clutch and flywheel setup, and run a Nissan 720 release bearing... so I've read in other posts anyhow. Might be more rugged - IDK. GD

Being these are in the rear, and only do about 30% of the braking duties, I doubt you will see any real improvement by using expensive pads and rotors. The stock proportioning valve is going to limit the line pressure back there anyway.... just get some decent semi-metallic pads and be done with it. Accept the rear discs for what they are - small, and an excelent self-adjusting replacement to the mostly crappy rear drums our cars usually were equipped with. GD

Just a sugestion for "next time", and I know it's really more money, etc.... but I think it would have been cool to have them powder coated black, and then spray the red over the top. Couple places around here that will do rims for like $20 each. But I do like the color scheme - reminds me of the 60's tires. Awesome color choice for your hatch. GD

I've noticed that by the time the muffler looks like that, the mid-pipe is usually shot through with holes too. Damn rusty thin metal is real hard to weld too - I got the job done, but my welder doesn't like super thin metal like that, so it looks like a mess. Whatever - it's under the car anyway. I threw on some paint just to keep it from doing it again but really the rust is from the inside anyway. For mufflers - you can find stainless steel stuff on ebay - buddy of mine put one on his Audi - pretty nice actually, and no worries about rust. GD

Nope - that's what I used - complete with lock washers and everything. I tightened it.... a lot. Any more and I would have stripped it out. The problem is there is no real interface between the rod and the sleeve. It's a smooth surface, and they WILL slip against each other - it's only a matter of time before it works loose again. The problem is not the size of the bolt, or how tight it is - the problem is the hole in the shift rod wearing out from friction against the bolt. One reason the original setup used a spring pin was to minimize the wear. The design is flawed, and repalcing it with a bigger, harder bolt will not fix it. The rod and sleeve need to lock together, and need more surface area to do it. Thus my idea with the set screws. Really not that hard. I've done the "mod" you are refering to on three transmissions - all have come loose eventually. Like I said - best to get the rod and the sleeve to interface on more than just a small surface - and grabbing into the steel of the rod is the only way I can see to do it. GD