GeneralDisorder

Stainless steel hose clamps - Home Depot - $4 per axle, and you can reuse them forever. The cold hard truth is that often times remanufactured axles.... well.... aren't. Just because it's written, doesn't make it so.... etc. GD

Certainly - I would be happy to accomidate you if I can. Although Gen 1 parts are mighty scarce even here. I do have a 78 2WD wagon that I'll be disposing of in the next 6 months. I'm not sure if the axles are the same or not.... if they are, I could pull them for you. It can still roll enough to get it on the scrap mans trailer without them, so I should be able to give em up. GD

Sorry to say that it may not be that simple. First you have to figure out what the problem is. I wish I could help more, but I'm afraid it's going to be a matter of many long hours of pokeing at it with a multi-meter to find your real culprit. I have an 82 FSM on the way from the bay of E, but it might be a week or so before I get it. If you are still having trouble, I'll scan the wireing diagrams for you when I get it. In the mean-time, clean EVERY ground connection you can lay your hands on. They get nasty from age, and there's a LOT of them. Sand paper works well, as does a wire brush. Also if your battery terminals look crappy and corroded, you might replace them. Get the generic type, and cut the old ones off. Make sure to strip the wires back to where they are clean, and use some di-electric grease when you attach the new ones. Good idea to invest in a small tube of the stuff, as you will want to coat all the ground connections and any connectors you clean with it to prevent further corrosion down the road..... In case you aren't aware, you have an internally regulated alt. '82 was the first year. Just don't want you to go off looking for an external regulator.... GD

A short in the system will cause the alternator to work very hard, it will drain the power from the alternator and thus the alternator won't charge anything. It will also cause the alt to fail prematurely. You need to figure out where the short is that is causeing the alt to work so hard. Talk with McBrat - he had very similar problems that were solved by re-routing the fuse box main power feed. GD

Nope - we never got that. We had a GLF in the early 80's.... that's about as close as we came I think. And that was replaced with the GL-10 in '83. GD

'82's seem to be very problematic in this area. I spoke at length with McBrat about his wagon, and as I recall, he ended up running a new wire to the fuse box under the dash - you might talk to him about this. It could be your battery as well. A dying battery can really take it's toll on the alternator. GD

Rather than spend any real money on the ASV, I make a trip the to junk yard and grab two or three of the reed valves themselves. Dismantle the ASV and remove it. They probably won't charge you more than $0.50 or $1 for several of them.... they won't have any clue what they are if you do it this way anway. Now the cool part - normally I don't use used parts for something like this, but in this case it's alright because you will only have the ASV enabled for the emmissions test. After that, you just put a quarter in the valve body where the pipe from the head threads in. This will disable the valve, and it only takes about 15 minutes to do it. When you need to pass emmissions again, simply remove the quarter. This way, you don't need a new reed vavle because you are only using it for very short periods of time, and under those conditions it will never wear out. Get an aftermarket O2 sensor. The dealer wants a fortune for them. Last one I got was a Bosch I think. Worked fine. You can check with the dealer on the temp sensor, but those are availible aftermarket as well. I replaced both on my feedback Hitachi and the arftermarket ones worked just fine. GD

The general rule is that whichever direction you hear the noise while turning, or whichever direction the noise seems worst in, it will be the opposite axle. So if you hear the noise while turning left, your right axle is going. And vise-versa. This is only a general rule of course. It has worked for me quite a number of times. It's not impossible that a remaned axle is bad. I've even heard of people getting them without grease in the joints... I personally only buy either JY axles or brand new ones from Autozone. GD

'87 was the last year for carbs, so it's possible that it could have either one. Lets hope it's the FI though. I've been told it was about 50/50 that year. GD

Are you sure he didn't mean MAF sensor? Could this be a turbo wagon by chance? Just a thought.... GD

Yeah - it's the closed deck 2.2, so it's good to over 400 from what I hear. I may make some adjustments after it's been fitted - probably at least an IC - that's just easy power. First though, my friend who owns the car needs to decide what will replace it. Currently it's his daily. Gonna make some people sick when I cut the car up for it's drive-train. Hehe. Only has 110k on it. AFAIC, all Subarus are parts for my Brat.... GD

He should have a single ASV on the drivers side. Pretty much a fool-proof system. The reed valva can fail.... but that's pretty obvious when it does. Big increase in noise - smell of exhaust gasses. Not pretty. I do now recall that the ASV on the feedback's is vacuum operated.... check the vac signal to the top of the ASV. Or just replace with one of the non-vac style that work all the time. The Hitachi feedbacks run REALLY rich when they have a malfunction in the control system. The gas mileage will go in the toilet. As in you will run 20 MPG in a car that should be getting 35. GD

Next time: pull spark plug, fill cylinder with nylon rope (on compression stroke). GD

Just wait till they see my Brat with a 93 Leg turbo in it. I'm thinking I won't even bother lowering maybe..... just adds to the insult. 160 HP, AWD, and 50/50 weight distribution will launch a Brat HARD. I only *need* about 135 HP to top my friends Audi A4. :-p GD

Those numbers are way rich. Last time I had a feedback Hitachi tested it blew like 30 PPM in HC.... GD

Manifold gaskets don't usually drastically fail like that. Usually it's much more gradual.... certainly possible tho. Either way the manifold has to come off. Remove it and see. You should be able to tell from the condition of the gasket and the surface when you do. Cheap manifold gaskets are not good. Dealer or Fel-Pro only on those. GD

Actually, the O2 sensor being bad wouldn't neccesarily cause the engine to run badly, or set the CEL. It depends on how bad the O2 is. The ECU can only tell that the O2 is bad if it does not signal at all, or if it's signal is out of the allowed specs. If cannot tell if the signal is just plain wrong. The O2's get "dumb" after a couple years and their effectiveness is reduced considerably. Same with the coolant temp sensor. These are relatively cheap parts.... about $25 for the O2, and about $12 for the coolant temp. Checking the O2 output can be done with a simple mixture monitoring device - you can find plans all over the net. The coolant temp is easy. You just remove it, and put it in boiling water while watching the resistance value. Or even just check the resistance while the engine is running. If the carb runs good, then it's probably not the carb. There are only two adjustments on the carb itself - idle mixture and idle speed. If your idle quality is good, then likely the carb is fine. The signal it's receiving from the ECU however, makes all the difference. Without any signal, the feedback carbs natuarally run extremely rich. If the ECU thought the engine was cold, or that the mixture was wrong, your signal to the carb would be to run richer. GD

Depends on what size tires you want to run. The general rule for off-road tires is to use the smallest width you can get away with to keep the wheel away from rocks, and promote a stronger seal with the bead on the tire. Rubbing becomes an issue with certain tires - any wheel that is allowed by the size tire you choose will be fine in that respect, but as noted above, you want the narrowest rim allowed for the tire your are looking at. As for installing a lift, it's not hard. You need basic hand tools, a jack, and a set of jack stands. A BFH comes in handy for beating the fender wells and a nice long breaker bar is nice for the stubborn bolts. Basic wrenches and sockets metric are a must for any undertaking such as this. GD

Well - you do have a point there. I suppose it does serve both purposes - prevents icing of the carb, and gets the engine to operating temp faster. Which would indirectly effect the emmissions by changing the time interval that the engine was in open-loop mode. Interesting. Still stupid - aircraft pollute far more than cars. I hate emmissions, so I need to understand it as best I can to find the weaknesses in the system in order to fully exploit them. GD

Yeah - Subaru's have a reputation for leaking, but I've found that it's not really deserved. They don't leak badly until mechanics start putting in aftermarket seals and gaskets. A lot of them SUCK. I've had almost zero luck with any brand of gaskets besides Fel-Pro and the dealership. I bought some intake manifold gaskets online, and they started leaking coolant just a month after. When I pulled them out I was horrified at their appearance. It looked as if the coolant had actually disintegrated the gaskets. I also installed a cheap oil pan gasket. Not only is this a crappy job to have to do anyway, but the gasket leaked worse than the one I was replacing, and litereally fell apart when I tried to torque the bolts for the third time (kept loosening due to the gasket comming apart under the stress). The cork they used had zero protection from oil, and once it had soaked up the oil, the cork itself just came unglued and turned into a pile of cork-chips. Bad times. I could have saved myself a lot of effort and money just buying this stuff from the dealer in the first place. Actually - since my dealer gives me wholesale on all my parts, the oil pan gaskets are only $5.02 anyway. I think I may have actually paid MORE for the aftermarket crap that failed. GD

Well Moose, you're in luck. I am the proud new owner of this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7916131210&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT Rob is getting the engine, and I intend to use the cross-over pipe for a custom exhuast on my lifted wagon. As for the rest of it.... it's yours if you want it. Buy me a half rack, and pay the shipping.... The car is a hulk and will be crushed anyway. Didn't see any rust on it tho. I'll take a closer look at the exhuast tommorow when we pull the engine. Is there any differences between this thing's exhaust and what you need? This one is an '88 turbo FT4WD Auto... I don't know EA82's, so you tell me..... GD

Fel-Pro did their gaskets right on the EA81's - I have had great luck with them, and I know others that have too. Don't see why the EA82 would be any different. Fel-Pro is just as good as the dealer HG in my opinion. They are not terrbily cheap for the EA82's tho. Probably a bit cheaper than a dealer HG set. There's a LOT of little gaskets that go into the HG set for the EA82. GD

They can be found cheaper than that online. Around $35 for the rods, and $25 -$30 for the ends. GD

Download the service manual for the EA81 here: http://www.finleyweb.net/default.asp?id=142 Page 42 has some info that may be usefull to you. Find someone with an 83 or 84 FSM for all the gory details of testing the feedback system..... if you are really nice to a local dealer they may photo-copy the appropriate pages for you. My friend has an 83 manual as well. He's out of town till Moday. GD

It could be that you are running rich, but you have a cat that is cleaning up the extra HC and not the CO. It's hard with those feedback Hitachi's, but there are only really two sensors in there that matter - the O2 sensor, and the coolant temp sensor. You should check both of them for proper signal. Next you should check the feedback solenoids mounted to the manifold. They regulate the fuel in the carb, and need to be signaling properly. There is a HUGE amount of information in the FSM's about this system, and how to properly tune it. Have you changed the carb? If so, you need to completely retune the feedback system. Unfortunately it requires an exhaust sniffer to perform the proper tuning by the book. :-\ GD