GeneralDisorder

The 4th setting passes un-resisted power to the motor - looks like your switch may be bad. GD

Could be the control arm or bushings too. My wagon does this on one side, and I have come to find out that the bushing is worn because the control arm mount is slightly bent it looks like..... EA81, but your setup should be similar. On mine it's not really a knock, just a much louder transmission of noise when that side hits something going down the freeway - like those reflectors in the road. You can "hear" the passenger side a LOT more than the drivers side. Hard to say really. Front end noises are always a bitch to figure out. Could be ball joints too. The ball joints on my Brat make noise when I take off hard.... hell - could be almost anything - but those are a few ideas. GD

Yes - the low beam bulbs have two filiments. Check your fuses for one thing - there's a fuse for each side (right and left). If your bulbs all work when you turn on the brights, then you might have blown the low beam filiment on the outer bulbs.... but likely your blew the fuses for them if the fuse was the right size. GD

Bad temp sensor? Thinks the engine is warm and isn't enriching the mixture enough to start it..... Sort of like a malfunctioning choke on a carb. Well - that be my guess anyway. I'm not an FI expert by a long shot tho. GD

The EA82 Hitachi is a 28/32 on the manual trans cars (28/30 on the A/T). The EA81 is a 26/30.... so you gain about 2mm in bore size in both the primary and secondary. Also the EA82 carb manifold flows better, so there's some gain there as well. The linkage mod I was refering to is the one you already did - wireing the primary and secondary together for progressive linkage. I think that an EA82 Hitachi with the linkage mod should perform similarly to a DFV. Won't have the massive punch of the DGV, but it will be an improvement none the less. Cheap too. The EA82 manifold has to be modified a bit to fit, but it's mostly a bolt on. I'm not the one to ask what exactly needs modifying, as I haven't personally done that swap. GD

Yeah - it helped him "meet an end" - he bought another soob with profits GD

Man - I couldn't possibly fit all my (small) subaru parts in that tiny thing GD

HEY! My Brat is going "street" (I'm a city boy too...) Yeah - I hope to see it again on the trails up there. Keep it in the family ya know. GD

All Turbo Brat's had Power Steering. No regular Brat's had it. You can swap it in, but you need the entire PS assembly from an EA81 car including the engine cross-member.

Yeah - my mom says my cars are "junk", and wonders why I got rid of my Volvo 850 turbo. But at least she can't yell at me for my choices anymore.... and she does concede the point that my Brat gets a lot better mileage than that volvo ever got. Once she calms down, he should extoll it's virtues - such as cheap to repair and maintain, economical (well - better than a lot of things he could have picked), reasonably safe because of the added height, NOT fast (she should like that).... increddibly slow in fact. Don't talk about how "cool" it is, or how fun it will be off-road - that will only make it worse. Focus on the points she will understand as a parent, and try to get her to look past it's ugly exterior... He should have put sissy tires on it for the trip home.... Is that his only rig? Too bad if it is... never good to only have an off-roader. People with only one rig don't like to try and follow those of us with multiple. Comes down to us not really minding if we break stuff. I mean - I care, but it's not the end of the world if I do, as it's not my transportation to school and work. It's actually hard to find Subaru people to go off-roading with around here.... plenty of jeep people tho. GD

That's either a DCP-306-24 or a -26. Both have that style of vacuum choke pull-off. The 24 is a feedback version, and the 26 is the non-feedback. I've become quite intimate with the Hitachi's over the last few months. Rebuilt the one on my Brat about 5 times before I figure it out and got it right. Done my homework on this one! GD

I recall that the 86/87 5 speeds were the best - I think because of gearing changes, so you want one of those. Now - you can't use the turbo one without a lot more work because it has 25 spline front axle's.... thus you should use the 86 transmission. Choose whichever drive-line looks to be in the best shape from the ones availible. Same with the rear diff. Damn - wish you were a little closer. I would help you with the swap in exchange for that 85 D/R.... ah well. GD

Right - I believe I said that - my point was simply that you would have to do it. A Jet kit is an added expense along with the adaptor plate, and the frustration of having to rejet it. The ones from the smaller Ford carbs might be close. I know for a fact that the Jets from a 5200 off some 2.3L ford are the same as the jets supplied with the DGV for the EA81. However, since the venturi's are smaller in the DFV, it would run rich (makes sense - it's for a bigger engine), and thus needs smaller jets. But it's a good source of correct Jets if you need to rejet a DGV correctly for an EA81.... just an interesting coincidence. Still have to find a DGV for the information to be useful at all... which is painfully hard to do. None of the carb shops I've called even have any used ones for parts. They just are not that common being that they are not technically street legal. DOH! Hehe - you edited your post! I guess I'll leave this tho since it's good info anyway. GD

He sold the blue wagon - he's got an EA81 now. GD

Watch what you do with the DOJ cups - with that much crawl, if you weaken it with machine work, they will explode like a ripe mellon. I have an idea I've been toying with.... I'll PM you about it. GD

It's 1/4" thick mild steel flat bar - about 1.5" wide I would guess. I just bent it to the shape of the bar, and welded it in place - making sort of a half I-beam out of it. Gives it rigidity in more than one direction. The original bar is very strong up and down, but extremely weak forward and back. The other end (and the center) is no different, but I can take a picture if you want.... GD

I'm sure we could find a cheaper tranny than that. I know some JY's that are pretty cheap..... 650 sounds expensive to me. If she wants, I'll do the manual conversion for pretty cheap... cheaper than a shop for sure. Heck - I'll put in the automatic if we find one for cheap too.... only take me half a day. PM me. As for swapping the front diff guts....doesn't look like an easy job. You could attempt to pull the front diff out of a JY car just as an experiment, then you would have a cheap diff, and the knowledge to pull it and replace it.... GD

Yes - you need to beef the diff hanger. They bend if you even look at them cross-eyed. Even the one on my stock Brat that's never been off-road is bent.... Pictures of the massive reinfrocing I did (before paint): As for turning on asphalt - that's a no-no. I turned into my driveway (fairly wide street), and busted one. You can't turn tight at all with big tires. The bigger the tire, the less you can turn before you snap one of the joints like a twig. Rock will probably be the same way. Gravel and Mud are fine usually, but high speed even on these can snap one. GD

While it may be true that a spool is stronger, the way we welded ours, there's just no way it will ever break. I'm breaking axles, and Tex broke a stub... so did Ken as I recall. When they are that strong already, what's the point in paying for a spool? Pull axle = jack up car (tall jack, or a block of wood since the car is so damn high now), knock out inner and outer pins, pull off axle. Simple. If everything goes correctly, I can do it in 5 minutes. GD

Tex - you'll have to see my reinforced mustache bar! It's pretty knarly. I too bent the sn!t out of my bar, and had to redesign that peice. Did it myself with a little help from a friends welder, and some direction on how to bend the 1/4" plate steel to the shape of the bar. Bugaru bent the hell out of one of his front lower control arms a while back.... the stamped design is pretty strong, but we fail to understand why they didn't plate over the last 4 inches of it up where it bolts to the cross-member?? weird. At any rate, he plated over the replacement arm just as a precaution. Looks a lot stronger now. We just keep breaking things and each time more reinforcement is added durring the repair.... GD

Again, the 5200 series bolts up the same as a DGV weber. No - neither one will bolt directly to the EA81 - you'll need an adaptor plate. You can buy one from Redline Weber for about $30-$40. If you are really crazy, you could make one, but I personally wouldn't bother as they aren't that expensive. The throttle linkage is tricky as some of the 5200's have a bolt on throttle, and some are welded or peened on. But for low-budget I'm sure you can figure something out. A bolt on style would be easiest. Weber sells jets for them, so rejetting is no problem. The DGV and DFV (5200 style) are quite similar, and even use many of the same gaskets and such. The venturi's are considerably smaller, and while you may in fact see a performance increase over the Hitachi, my bet is it will be pretty small. The only realy performance increase that a DGV gives you is increased throttle response due to the progressive linkage, and the torque from the BIG barrels. The DFV still has the progressive linkage, but the smaller venturi's coupled with it's lack of proper jetting for the soob engine will probably negate any real performance advantages you would otherwise gain. Also - the EA82 Hitachi's are bigger, but you have to use the EA82 intake manifold. That's the route I would go if you want a bigger carb, but don't want to spend a lot. Do the linkage mod on it, and bolt it down. GD

I agree. Buargu and I have some nice footage of us attempting a short hill climb where it's all covered with slick under-brush, and grass. I think he took about 5 runs at it with the open diff, and I went up it a couple times in a row with the welded diff. He's totally a believer now, and welded his too. We did a hill climb on our last run that NO ONE without a welded diff would have made. Even with the welded diff, His hatch had to make 4 runs at the hill to get up, and finally made it in 4 hi. I took one run in 4 lo and made it, but I do have better tires which I think helped me out. I have broken 3 rear axles so far - 1 on pavement (I had to see what it would take!), and 2 off-road. 1 of the ones off-road was because of a bent mustache bar. The other I just plain busted doing a nasty hill climb at high speed. While I have never personally used an LSD in my Subaru off-roader (used them in other brands over the years), my review of the technology, and the design of the Subaru LSD's specifically led me to beleive that they wouldn't work all that well for off-road conditions, as they were tuned mostly for rally style racing, or even track racing. IE - high speed, with both wheels in contact at all times. Some types of LSD's work well for an off-roader, but the Subaru version wasn't really designed for low speed, or situations where one wheel is totally free from the ground. That said, it's of course going to better than and open diff. But since my choice was welded or LSD, and the welded cost me nothing but the sacrifice of an open diff, which are plentiful, I just went that way. And pulling an axle is no biggie as Zap said. It only takes a few minutes, and besides it keeps them from rust-welding themselves to the hubs! Besides - it's right there in the name! "Limited Slip" - screw that! I don't want ANY slip. GD

He's probably talking about Malcolm Bricklin - the guy who brought Subaru's (and Yugo's!) to the US market (late 60's actually). He did have a lot of trouble getting dealerships to carry them. The dealerships didn't want to anger the american car manufacturers, and were reluctant to sell the mini-cars. Although I remember hearing that for a time, you could get a brand new 360 with the purchase of every new Buick! Hahahaha. (something along those lines anyway) GD

The 5 speed D/R won't bolt to the EA71 unless you aquire a late 80's or JDM EA71 bell housing. I sugest you get a used EA81 if you want the 5 speed. As for suspension lift's, you can do it on the rear a little, but I sugest you swap in an EA81 model rear end with, and then use EA82 coil-overs to lift it. Your camber will be pretty wacky, but that doesn't matter so much for off-roading. I have about 3" of suspension lift in the back of my EA81 wagon using this method. As for the front, I'm sorry to say that with the stock axle's, there's not a whole lot you can do. I was just talking to McBrat last night, and with the suspension on his 82 Brat all the way up, and using RX springs, he's eating axles like mad. They just don't have the travel for any kind of suspension lift in the front. You could get about 1" maybe 1.5", but your axle life will be dramatically reduced. Gen 1's are notoriously difficult to lift. It's been done, but not many times. It's just too much trouble, and Gen 1's are getting rare. Get yourself a Gen 2 wagon (80-84 body style) or hatch and lift that. You should be able to easily trade the Gen 1 to someone who will love it for what it is, and not beat the hell out of it. GD

Your fuel pump delivers 1.35 to 2.06 psi (http://usmb.net/albums/albun40/scan.jpg), and probably less than that due to age. I have heard people on here test out at less than .5 psi. Weber's need anywhere from 3 to 5 psi depending on who you ask. Early model fords had the holley/weber 5200, which bolts up the same as a weber (actually IS a weber). It's a 32/36 DFV series, which looks like a mirror image of the DGV. However, the venturi's are smaller in the DFV, and it won't give you as much torque.... One thing that people have failed to mention here - the 32/36 DGV *never* came stock on any car - it's not street legal. Anything you find in the yards was most likely adapted. But since the carb has been made for a LONG time, you can sometimes find them anyway. GD