GeneralDisorder

Sure - just don't try to turn, cause it's not going to happen. Straight line on pavement and you will be fine. Don't hit a speed bump, and please - no turning...... at all. McBrat had 30's on his turbo brat with a 4/3 BYB lift..... but he said the amount of cutting and beating was considerable.... and they still rubbed. GD

Too big, Too heavy, and not that great off-road. Although they do look cool. Hard to find parts for, and I doubt you could get one as cheap as a Sammi. A friend of mine got one for $300. Cost him another $250 to get the fuel injection computer rebuilt.... GD

If you want cheap - get a Sammi. They can be built up with all sorts of straight bolt-ons and are pretty tough little buggers. Heck - I would get one myself except that I really want IRS/IFS and I can't afford a hummer. Besides that - Hummer's don't have the travel I want anyway. GD

The casting on the EA81 thermostat housing is not like the casting of the EA82 - it has a spot carved out for the jiggler pin to sit. It's at the 12-o-clock position in the houseing, which sits upright on the manifold. On the EA82 the housing is flat, and the thermostat sits such that there isn't a 12-o-clock position anyway..... or I suppose you might regard all positions as 12..... at any rate for your car it doesn't matter. There is no cut-out for the jiggle pin in your houseing, and thus it doesn't matter where you put it. Besides that it's just there to allow air to escape when the thermostat is closed. Once the thermostat opens, this becomes a moot point as the air can go right through the thermostat anyway. Without a doubt you can rule it out as a source of your overheating. GD

Yes - probabaly best if you re-made the whole gearset and shafts from chromoly..... but a tranfer case is cheaper. GD

Yep. I agree - easy-outs suck IMHO. I've never got one to work properly, but have managed to break off several. The best thing to do is first take a dremel and grind the top of the bolt as flat as you can get it. Try not to mess up the mating surface for the manifold, but if you have to you can fill it later with JB weld or somthing. Get a good quality center punch and punch the exact center so you can drill it out. Start with a small bit and use a LOT of oil to keep your bit from going dull. Buy decent bits, cheap ones will not just frustate you, they will probably not even work. They bend, the snap off, and make your life hell. I've had pretty good luck with craftsman bits in the past, and they aren't real expensive - you might try those. Use three or four sizes and work you way up to the bolt size. Then run a tap in there to clean the threads of any remaining junk. If you do it just perfect (hard) you might even get away without makeing the hole a size larger. If you do have to make the hole bigger, find a standard size that's just a little bigger than what you have and try for that. If all else fails go with a metric size one bigger. Most of all - take your time. Measure twice - drill once. GD

I doubt that 4:1 would fit inside the casing, but it's worth a look inside to see. You might still achieve it tho by making first gear a creeper, and modifying the low range as well... GD

The wagons had power steering, and the castor is changed by rotating the strut tops 180 degrees. In fact it's marked on the top of the strut how it's supposed to go. Wagons, and vehicles equiped with power steering were one direction, and all the others were the other way. GD

It's a Japanese farm truck with the transmission from a wagon in it, and big tires.... what did you expect? Mine doesn't crawl enough either, but I'm using it as a platform for further development. I personally wish to keep the IRS/IFS and see how far I can go with it. My suspension won't be stock at all. I'm thinking a hybrid custom/VW suspension and a transfer case. I'm done with the short travel Subaru stuff. If you want to rip open the tranny, it might be possible to have custom gears made for the low range, and first gear. Then have the other 4 gears redone to the specs of the original 4 speed. That way you would have an ultra-low when you are in 1st gear low range.... expensive tho. GD

If there wasn't any obstacles, then you could have hammered it up them, but really I suspect you just need time to learn to drive it. You have to use the clutch a lot. No way to imrpove the gearing except with some sort of reduction box - like a tranfer case from a truck. Need about 8" of body lift to fit it properly tho. A lot of fabrication. Look around on the board and you will see what others have done. unless...... do you know if the 5 speed D/R is a 1.5:1 low gear or a 1.2:1 low gear? Maybe you got one from a EA82 Three Door.... GD

Forest Green??? I have like 4 EA81's here and none of them look even remotely Forest Green..... or at least what I consider Forest Green to be. They are more of a light blue/seafoam color. I suppose it depends on what you consider "forest green" to be, but all the cans of forest green that I have ever bought were a very dark green. GD

What's a "Pillow Block" Ken? Never heard that term used before.... maybe a pic would help. GD

That's nice and all, but I've already started me own private yard so to speak. I have an associate with acreage.... we haul the cars out there an part them at our leisure..... no need to keep them indoors as we don't have that whole..... uummm.... what do you guys call it..... oh yeah! Rust. Yeah - none - zip - nodda! Hehe That, and we have tons of Subaru's out here anyway - I don't really need to stockpile anything except Brat parts. The rest are everywhere and plentiful for the most part. Oh - and Wyoming doesn't exist - I'm a firm beleiver in that. GD

Really the ticking doesn't damage anything. It can continue indefinately. It's just the sounds of a loose valve train, or portion of the valve train. What you are hearing is the tap of the lifters compressing slightly when a valve opens..... basically they are not pumping up due to either insufficient oil pressure, cloged lifters, or just plain worn out lifters. If they have ticked as long as you say, then probably the only cure for you is going to be to replace those lifters that are worn out. The ticking causes the lifters to actuate a lot more than they normally would when fully inflated, and so when left in a ticking state for a long time the lifters just eventually fail from the added wear. There is no cure for this but to replace the lifters with new ones, or good ones from another engine. GD

Just add another steering u-joint - this allows you to have a weird angle and still attach to the rack... GD

Very nice! Treat that rust before it eats the whole thing up. GD

I recall that "Chrysler Engineering" (Mopar), used a very similar color on their race cars of the late 60's and early 70's. They had two different colors actually - one was called "Blue Fire Metallic", and another called "Corporate Blue".... might have a look at those, as they are close but might be little more interesting to look at. GD

Well - it's pretty difficult to say what might have transpired. Not being an expert on EA82's myself, but having worked on them a bit, I still can't see that anything to do with the water pump would cause it not to start later. The knocking noise is somewhat disturbing..... it sounds like possibly you have coolant in on or more cylinders. Not sure how that got there by just doing a water pump, but I imagine that you filled the system with coolant, and possibly you had a blown head gasket and the water seeped into the cylinder after you fully filled it. I would pull the plugs and crank the engine over to see if you have any coolant in the cylinders. If not, then double check all your vacuum lines, and any electrical connections you might have disconnected. My guess is that you simply put something back together wrong..... what that might be I have no way of knowing without having been there. Is this engine carbureted or fuel injected? At any rate, for any engine to run, you need 4 things - air, fuel, ignition (spark), and compression. One of those is missing for you, and you need to figure out which one it is. Process of elimination can help here. I'm guessing you have air (air filter isn't dirty is it?), and you can check for spark easily enough with a paper clip. Compression you shoul have if it ran before, so that leaves fuel..... It's most likely a fuel delivery problem that is preventing it from starting. Either you have coolant in the combustion chamber, or you have a fuel delivery issue (vacuum leak, etc). GD

Legacy's came out here in the states in 90, and are technically "new gen", so you might ask this in the other forum. But basically axles and wheel bearings are common maintenance items on any vehicle. The engine if it was properly cared for is almost new at 166k. That's nothing for an EJ22. GD

14 pugs will fit without a lift at all.... just depends on what tire you put on them. 15's will fit too. With a 3" lift, you could probably run 27's without a lot of trouble. Although I haven't lifted a Gen 1, and I'm not sure where or how much you would have to cut or beat. GD

I have pretty much stopped going to yards except the "chain" yards up here. They have a set price list, and rarely have I been quoted less at the "dicker" style yards. I pulled a set of seats from an Impulse the other day and brought them to the counter. The spanish individual at the counter asked what I thought they were worth in broken english. I said $10 each. He shook his head. So I said $15 each.... at which point he laughs at me like I'm some sort of moron. I told him I could get any seat from the yard up the street for $15 each, and that was my price or I leave. He didn't really take me seriously till I started walking away - he called to his manager, who said he would take $40 for the pair. I told him he had his chance, and that I would take my business elsewhere. I left the seats sitting in his office. Another yard wanted $35 for a freakin axle shaft. I tossed it on the counter and left. Incidentally, this really screws them because the part you just pulled is now basically scrap. They aren't going to know where you got it, or what it came from so not only did they lose your money, but no one else is going to be buying it either. I think they see a clean looking white guy comming, and think they can bend me over. I know the mexicans and the asians aren't paying what I am, and that's enough to make me stop shopping there. The general principle I have found is that the more stuff you come to the counter with, the cheaper you will get it all for. I've made some awesome deals. One time I spent about 5 hours in a yard with a friend and ended up with a whole wagon load of parts (had to make 4 trips to the car with the stuff) for $80.... basically there was so much stuff in the pile that the guy only charged us for the big stuff, and then said $10 for the rest... GD

Oh - and as long as you are looking up stuff..... what kind of deal can you get me on an 84 Turbo Brat? I think sticker price was around $12,000..... GD

I concur - FSM is the way to go. The Haynes and Chiltons are so riddled with incorrect and incomplete information that they do nearly as much harm as they do good. I'm hoping that the 85-89 EA81 Manual is about the same price as that 82.... *crosses fingers* GD

Yes - 81 is Gen 1 for the Brat. Brat's didn't get the makeover that the other models did until 82. GD

Hhhhmm - my 84 wagon's power windows don't operate unless the key is on. Strange. Take pics if you can, and please post any info on the wiring you had to do..... GD