GeneralDisorder

The dual range is superior in most people's opinion. The single range in the pushbutton is high range only, plus the added complication of wiring in the 4WD pushbutton solenoid..... GD

You could, yes - since truck class is basically unlimited you can modify anything you want. But the rampage, and the rabbit would still be eaten alive by the Brat - neither are 4WD - let alone D/R. Interesting that you mention the rampage - saw one just the other day. Weird vehicle, and from what I understand a huge peice of junk. Too bad, they look neat. The Rabbit is work horse for sure - especially with the diesel. GD

Check out the sending unit - they get old and start to leak, and read low. GD

Brat's are cool cause they run (or did last I knew) in truck class. Nothing in the truck world can compete.... there are some supercharged durango's with 350 HP that can give em a run, but largely it's totally unfair as the Brat is a car with a truck bed. GD

Just got a whole donor loyale, so I'll be working on this too in the next couple weeks. I'll write up a conversion manual when it's done. GD

Snag it - those are neat, and fuel injected. It's worth it for the low mileage MPFI engine it has. GD

Well - as for adjustment, there shouldn't be any. Just the idle speed adjustment. The mixture on the Hitachi is controlled by jets that are not adjustable. There is an idle mixture adjustment screw as well, but it will be blocked with a roll-pin preventing adjustment as it is set from the factory where it needs to be. Just start it, and set the idle speed to about 700 - 800 RPM. GD

It's amazing how reliable they really are - just picked up an 86 Sedan that's been in somone's yard for 3 years (under pine trees - yuck). Started right up with a jump and drove 10 miles to my house. Owner broke a screwdriver in the ign. one day when he lost his keys, and just left it. GD

Why do you have to tighten in a star pattern? I have never heard that before. Never done it either, and I've changed a hell of a lot of Subaru clutches. I mean - it's not as if there is a gasket in there, and neither of the parts are aluminium. BTW - cool trick - leave all the PP bolts really loose so the disc can move around in there. No alignment tool needed, just slide the engine on, and tighten the PP bolts through the starter hole. As for re-use, if it was working before..... should still work.... the same does NOT go for the bearings however. Change them as they are cheap and will cause you a headache if you don't. Generally yes, you should just change everything, but in reality, a subaru is not a swiss watch, and we Subaru owners are not the richest in the land. Turn the flywheel? I usually don't. Replace the PP? Unless it's really bad, not me. I generally get a not-to-worn disc from the junk yard, and new bearings. For my off-roader anyway. For my daily I might actually buy a NEW disc. They are reasonably easy to change if you have access to a cherry picker, and usually give ample warning before anything dies completely (bearings can be the naughty exception). GD

You are probably going to have to start looking at factory service manuals for this info - sorry but I don't have any that are appropriate. Thing is, the Subaru PS pumps are near indestructible, and so are the racks. I think that possibly they could outlast the engine and the body of the car several times over. I have never seen or even heard of one failing (not talking XT6 here). It is quite the mystery as to exactly what magic the Subaru gods put into the PS system - probably have a power steering fairy that sprinkles them with magical fairy fluid as they roll off the assembly. GD

RTV is good if you are re-using old gaskets that are getting hard. New gaskets should not leak if the surfaces are properl cleaned. The o-ring is just that - a simple o-ring. the Fel-Pro kits come with them. They are NOT flat when you buy them, they just end up that way after years of being installed and getting hard and crispy. Any o-ring of the proper size and heat specification should work fine. To be safe tho, they are cheap so might as well get them at the dealer. GD

Ah yes - the infamous 4 spd shifter slop. Basically there is a roll pin "yoke" down there, and the pin is harder stuff than the shifter or the shift rod into the transaxle. I've really grown to hate the design. I've tried a number of things to fix it. Best bet is to drop the tranny down a bit and drill out the roll pin hole to 3/8" and run a new bolt through it, and reef it down as hard as possible. My next attempt would have been to tap two holes in the side of the shifter, and grind two flat spots on the tranny shift rod. Two bolts, or most likely two hex set screws on either side would probably fix the problem permanent. I say would have been because I'm going with a 5 speed, so the fix would be a waste of time. I might do it just to show people how tho. By far the Best (not easiest or cheapest) way to fix it, is to install a 5 speed and it's linkage. They shift a lot nicer anyway. GD

I have used the Krylon Fusion plastic paint very succesfully on things such as that - use it to make the mudflaps on my Brat look new. The Red is a perfect match for the 4WD lettering. Back is nice on bumpers and trim and such. The clear plastic over the chrome.... that stuff just flakes off and I don't think there is any fixing it really. Looks terrible, and I'm probably just going to remove the strip completely on mine and bondo the holes before it goes for paint. GD

Yeah - tach signal comes from the coil, so if it runs, then either the signal isn't there (wire) or the guage is frozen up. Usually a bad disty will jump around a lot, and give very high readings - mine was reading 7,000 RPM at idle when it needed bushings GD

Best to get them from the dealer, yes. They are not expensive. Aftermarket ones tend to not work correctly for some reason. Lots of people have reported oil being sucked into the air filter with them. Best to spend a couple dollars more and not worry about it. Carb kits - Napa sells the Elgin made kits (will be Napa branded, but Elgin is the OEM). People sugest these are of good enough quality that you should not be dissapointed. Be prepared to spend approx. $40, and a solid afernoon doing the rebuild. Get a nice clean work area - old white sheets are nice as you are not likely to lose anything. Also make sure you drain the coolant a bit before removal as it runs through the manifold to the bottom of the carb. Be careful during dissasembly to not lose the plastic accelerator pump check ball - it's small - about the size of a BB. The kit will come with another, but you should note it's location for reassembly. It goes under the accelerator pump spring. Also invest in one of those carb dip cans - the ones with the basket built in. Very usefull if you can afford it. GD

Actually, the EA82 is just an EA81 with different heads. The rest of the differences are there to accomidate the OHC design - the oil pump and water pump were changed to run off the timing belts, and some idlers and tensioners were added. But basically the engine is the same at it's core. Remove the heads from both, and it's easy to mix up which is which when the shortblocks are laying in the garage. Have to look for the cam on the EA81. There is almost no increase in HP from the EA81 hydro lifter to the EA82 hydro lifter (carb). The EA81 solid lifter with smaller intake valves makes 72 HP, but the hydro lifter engine with larger valves makes considerably more when coupled with a bigger carb and better flowing exhaust as the EA82 got standard. In reality, they both are the same engine just with different valve systems. The HP ratings are so close as to be dependant on things other than the core engine. GD

Sounds like you need to rebuild the carb - definately have some problems there. The EA71 Hitachi carb's are not as bad as the EA81 versions - pretty simple. The "shift boot" looking thing is just the seal for the accelerator pump, and they usually look a little wet from fuel when they get old. First thing I would do is replace the PCV valve (get from the dealer only)- you probably have pressure building up in the crankcase and it's blowing oil out from everywhere. Powerwash the engine bay at one of those DIY car washes. GD

EXACTLY what I would love to know - if they somehow improved the axles to take more punishment all of us off-roaders would surely benifit from seeing how it was setup. But more likely I suspect it's probably just a VW trans. Those look very much like VW transaxle CV's - perhaps Porsche 930 joints. Very popular upgrades for Baja Bug's and such. GD

Subaru max states .015" off the heads. That's what I took off mine. I've heard .020" is possible and the intake will still bolt on. Any more than that, and you *could* make the holes in the manifold a little bigger and get it to work, but you are decreasing the sealing area between the intake runner and the coolant passage. Even stock this is a weak point, so I wouldn't make it any smaller than it has to be. If you want more comp. then you can install SPFI pistons, or EA71 pistons for a little bit. I calculated it out once, and with the heads decked .015", and EA71 pistons you should be around 9.3:1 - 9.5:1 or so. SPFI pistons would give you 9.5:1 with NO decking of the heads, probably close to 9.8:1 with the heads decked. GD

The cracks between the vavles are normal for EA82 heads and are not a cause for concern. Be more concerned about how flat the heads are. There was a TSB on the cracks, and it has been noted by CCR as well that they don't make any difference. I've heard of people closing them with a punch, but they will open back up again anyway. Best to just leave it alone. GD

This flange: The flange bolts, and the CV joint can clearly be seen (ie: no DOJ is present - this is very un-subaru-like): GD

Not sure, but have you considered locating the electric power steering from an XT6? GD

IIRC, the pan bolts are rated in inch pounds. GD

Just for the record - I have done that too. Found that it was due to cheap aftermarket pan gaskets. In fact, the pan gaskets are one of those magical items that I get from the dealer only. The dealer ones seem to have more glue, and the aftermarket ones absorb the oil and begin to breakdown and get mushy - then the bolts are loose. I've even tried RTV - the bolts just loosen due to the gasket getting oily and mushy. They are like $8 from the dealer.... GD

From the pictures, you can see that the front axles are bolted to the tranny with a flange. Now either this is a seriously modified Subaru trans, or they did the bad dance, and put in a VW tranny with an adaptor plate. So I think it's FWD. I sent a question the auction winner to see if he would be willing to answer some questions about it once he takes possesion. We'll see. Also in the same picture is a blue hydraulic looking device - I suspect that's a hydraulic clutch setup for the VW tranny. At any rate, I want to find out more GD