GeneralDisorder

No... REALLY! At least the parts department anyway. Man I love those guys. Very helpfull, and always treat us old school types like family. I just had to share: Intake Manifold Gaskets. 1stsubaruparts.com: $2.39 + $7.95 minimum shipping subaruparts.com: $2.53 + $1.99 shipping (and god forbid you need more than 1 - the shipping goes up to $8.95 immediately!!) *Note - these are small enough to send probably 4 or 5 with a standard stamped envelope no problem. Gee - I wonder where they make their money GD

Gonna need a welder to fix that mess. Reinforce the holes on the floorpan, and modify any seat that you like to fit. There are no direct bolt ins other than another EA81 vehicle. EA82 seats will fit without too much modification. The easiest seat swap I've done was with a set from an Isuzu Impulse. Three of the 4 bolt holes line up more or less. Just have to adapt for the fourth one with a bit of steel to make a bracket. The EA81 seat rails seem to be very weak (well - at least for me being 6' 2", and 200lbs). I've had to weld some reinforcing steel to them to prevent failures near the bolt down points. GD

Actually, there is no air pump. The Subaru Air Injection System is passive. It uses the force of the exhaust pulse to open a reed valve and suck in fresh oxygen... so blocking the valve body where it connects to the pipe that runs to the exhaust is all you have to do. A quarter in each valve (usually there is one for each head) will solve your issues most likely. Almost always does in my experience. You have to wonder why other manufacturers didn't figure this out... The air pump is such a complicated solution... not to mention uses HP to run it. Belts, pumps, lubrication, etc. Man what a waste huh? GD

When will you people get the message?!? There is NO relationship to a Suzuki, or Geo in the Justy. It is a 100% FHI design. The ONLY thing they have in common is they are both 3 cylinder engines. Jeez - the engines aren't even the same size, and the Suzuki/Geo don't, and never did have 4WD, or the ECVT... GD

Well - the extra bolts are a way to tell what heads you have (large intake or small intake), but doesn't tell about the lifters. 83/84 solid lifter engines have the large valve heads too. Mick - you are right, but the gasket sets come with the lock washers, so someone could have added them. Best way to tell is to remove the valve cover, and look at the pushrod itself. The solid lifter rod is aluminium with a steel tip on the end, while the hydro lifter is a solid steel rod with no special tip. You will see the that the last 1/2" of the rod has a bigger diameter tip if the engine is solid lifter. Perhaps someone changed the valve covers, but likely it's a solid lifter engine. Good to check tho as the adjustment procedure is indeed different. GD

Probably the case. I had a DL with a dual range for the same reason. Trans was swapped because 3rd lost the syncro (common on the 4 spd). If your Brat has t-tops then it's a GL. GD

I'm down. Wheeling I can do - scappoose has some good spots.... GD

Hadn't they switched to the 4EAT by the Loyale times? I had an 88 AWD Turbo Automatic with the AWD 4 speed AT.... So is it 4WD, or is it really AWD.... since it has the button I'm guessing 4WD, but maybe someone put a 4EAT in it? Lots of wireing for that tho so probably unlikely. GD

Cool - thanks for the info! GD

I've said all this before, but.... The horizontally opposed engine and rod shifted transaxle driving all 4 wheels combination was used succesfully by VW (Dr. Porsche) for the German army back in WWII. By the time Subaru and Audi started building vehicles for mass consumption in the 70's and 80's this stuff was in automotive design reference books for all to see. There are lots of good designs out there, and Subaru picked this one, but they clearly did NOT invent anything original. The low center of gravity, good ground clearance, and symetric / balanced layout were good reasons for picking it. Subaru took a basically sound engine design and improved it with water cooling (both for engine AND passenger comfort). Thus for proper cooling, the whole drive had to be turned around.... easy since you flip the differential to do that. AWD and 4WD is simply adding a differential between the front and rear - nothing special there, just application specific. A point more minor than water cooling the engine, and putting it in front of the passengers really. You have to step back and see the forest for the trees here. Same design - we all drive logical decendants of the VW Beetle. Just because you people don't like that doesn't make it not so. GD

Lets see, carb (could both be Hitachi, but will be different model usually, and could be different even if cars are otherwise the same (feedback/non). C/W only had a single model), distributor, coil, vacuum routing (different for 2WD, 2WD Auto, 4WD, and 4WD Auto).... those are the major ones. Starters are different sometimes for auto/manual. One is a different reduction. If you are talking Hitachi carbs, they are even different models on different years... get the number off the float body on the carb to get an exact match. In reality they are pretty much all interchangable, but what you DONT want is to accidentally get a feedback if you don't have it. Non feedback can be alright, but you'll have to plug off stuff, and disconnect things to make it work if you have the feedback gear and ECU. GD

My pleasure - glad it worked for ya. GD

Only time I've borked one was putting it back in after replaceing the gasket..... too tight. Oops! GD

Sounds like perhaps they are one in the same problem - maybe a bad drum cylinder on the rear brakes? Bad times - take a look to see if the same wheel that is locking up is covered in brake fluid? GD

Eliminate the AIS. Just block the valves with Quarters ($0.25), or cut the pipe and weld it up where it bolts to the heads. Don't need it anyway. GD

Man - where are you shopping? Last I checked EA82 HG's were $35, and heads are like $40 each to have resurfaced. You'll need the O-ring for the heads too, so another couple dollars. That's around $200 in parts figuring an ample amount for various fuilds and RTV and stuff. You may not even need to resurface the heads. Check them with a straightedge first. You'll need at the least a metric socket set with a good selection of deep sockets, and extensions. And access to a torque wrench for the head bolts. The process isn't that difficult if you follow the directions carefully. Depending on your skills you may want to seek some assistance from a friend with some experience as you will need to remove the timing belts and put them back on. The timing procedure isn't difficult, but it confuses people the first couple times. If you want help, I'm close to you it looks like. I've done HG's more times than I can remember. Tow it to my place and we'll do it in an afternoon. Wait - is this an EA82 or EA81? Doesn't matter I've done both. EA81 is easier. GD

Is the battery tied down well? Might be flopping around and creating a short at the fusible links somewhere. The lights run on a different link than the stereo so I would look for something in that area. Just a guess tho. GD

Those are manifold gaskets, but definately crappy ones. The good ones (such as the Fel-Pro's) are multi-layer metal and are difficult to bend by hand. The cheap ones are kinda floppy. Fel-Pro's are availible on a lot of web sites for not a lot. GD

No - actually that's why I asked if it was a manual or auto. Only automatics got the Hydro lifters on the EA81's from 83/84. 85 and later were all hydro. Check the valve covers for a gold or silver sticker that reads "do not adjust vavle clearances". That would indicate you have a replacement engine with hydro lifters. If it's stock tho, it will be solid lifter. You most likely have solid lifters, and they require manual adjustment every 15k miles. Pretty easy to do actually. Get some new valve cover gaskets for the job (or lots of RTV). Haynes manual will cover it, or if you need the specs I have them too. BTW - ticking is NOT normal for the EA81 hydro lifters. They generally never tick in fact. Only time I've had them tick is right after doing head gaskets and the lifters had air in them for a few minutes. Perfectly quiet now. NOT like an EA82 at all in this respect. Makes sense since the valve train is the major difference in the engine designs. GD

The gear is "pinned" on with a roll pin that usually has to be drilled out. New hole has to be drilled for the EA81 gear as the hole is higher or lower IIRC. EA82 gear is plastic I think - EA81 is steel. SPFI runs at 35-45 psi, while carb runs at 3 psi. Stock fuel lines in an EA81 aren't up to the pressure. Hard lines might be (I don't think I would chance it tho), but the soft lines surely aren't rated for it. GD

Automatic or manual? GD

Other than attempting to repair the choke, there is no manual adaptor availible for them - just as there are no rebuild kits really. Best bet is to find a spring at a hardware store that is similar and try to repair the "sticking". Other than that.... you could use some ether to start it every time I guess. GD

I think that is an option, yes - but the problem is availibility. The SPFI disty has the advantage of being readily availible, and already wired with the right plug. Have to change the drive gear and the mounting tabs, but for $20 for a JY disty, and even if it cost me another $50 to have a distributor shop change the gear it would still be the cheaper of the two. But yeah - if I happened to have an EA81T disty lying around that would be the way to go. Oh - and the EA81T disty has the vacuum advance... that's going to be different on the later SPFI so I'm not sure how that would work out. GD

Blocking them is easy - just unscrew the pipe going to the valve and put a quarter (yes - $0.25) in the vavle body and screw it back together. Removal is also easy if you have access to a welder - just weld up the port in the spacer under the head - where the pipe going to the valve attaches. I cut the steel ends off the pipe, and use a washer for filler - weld it up, and then thread your new "cap" into the spacer. The repair manual I was refering to is the one on this site - it's a "forum" all to itself, you just don't post there. Check it out. There's an article on the AIS valves, and how to repair the reed valve inside it. Personally I wouldn't repair it, but it's your choice. Blocking them takes less time and is 100% effective. Removal requires some welding which not everyone has the ability for, and repair is more costly.... and they could still fail again in the future. GD

And use OEM gaskets for the manifold ONLY. They are a lot better. Otherwise you'll probably be doing them again soon. GD