GeneralDisorder

That's no problem at all Ed. I have become very intimate with the vacuum system of late. Fixing vac leaks and such on my Brat.... I think the poor thing was built on a Monday. It's got so many problems that I work on it a couple times a week it seems. GD

I did try it - I got less top end from it - for the reasons I stated above. I tried it both ways, and although I am not saying that it is totally wrong to do what you have done, I AM saying that what you have done is incomplete, and ignorant (of the principles of operation) at best. For it to run correctly in this manner, a recurve of the mechanical advance, and a redesign of the vacuum mechanism would be required. Your "modification" is making your idle smooth in spite of another problem I would guess. This is what I experienced - the engine would run with a high amount of advance at idle in spite of a quite large vacuum leak that I had not discovered. It ran MUCH smoother with the manifold vacuum because it MASKED the other problems that I had not fixed. But after doing some research on the subject, and reading a lot of FSM's, I determined that this simply is not correct, and switched it back. I looked for my rough idle elsewhere, and did in fact find, and correct the problem. Now it runs just as smooth on ported vacuum as it did when I had it switched to manifold for a brief test run. Why is it so difficult to understand that the engineers DESIGNED the friggin distributor to run on ported vacuum? Do you think that the exact same design and configuration would work for both a vacuum source that rises in pressure as RPM's increase AND a source where it drops? No - of course not. The same design could not possibly handle both, as it has no way to know which it will be using. It may run, but it is not running correctly. You sir, are wrong. And a simple "switch of the hose" proves exactly nothing - other than you can switch a hose. Where is your technical data to back up your claim? I have provided mine for all to see and critique.... please prove me wrong if you can - I want my Brat to run better too. That's what this forum is for. I don't, however, like disinformation - intended or otherwise. GD

The 5 speed won't be any more effecient than the 82 D/R. You will never use 5th gear, so you have a 4 speed just about the same as the 82.... GD

Ok - so I've done a bit of research on this one, and I've come to the conclusion (like I thought in the first place) that ported vacuum is what we want for a stock distributor on an EA81. Some people have claimed that full-manifold vacuum is better, however this just doesn't make sense. The problem is that the disty's mechanical advance mechanism will only advance a total of 15 degrees. Full manifold vacuum drops off at high engine speeds, and the mechanical advance is supposed to take over. But with a distributor designed to accept ported vacuum (where the vacuum rises with higher engine speeds), the mechanical advance is not great enough to reach full advance. You will only reach about 23 degrees of advance (8 plus 15), versus the 33 that the engine was designed for. Thus you will not be running nearly as effecient as if you had the extra 10 degrees from the vacuum advance - which you will only get if you run ported. Maybe the disty could be modified to run correctly with full manifold vacuum, but a stock one surely is not designed for it. The drawbacks of never reaching full advance, and of having higher idle emmissions from haveing TOO MUCH advance at idle (which will make the engine appear to run smoother), are not assets to the EA81. I suspect that this goes for EA82 carbed engines as well, but I'll leave that one up for discussion. Any comments? I would like to know if my logic is somehow flawed... GD

Big tires bring the mileage to it's knees. But the Weber does better than the Hitachi. I have 28's on a wagon, and I got 17, and Bugaru has 27's on a hatch (lighter), and got 16 with the Hitachi.... Seriously - my wagon is not a my daily drive despite it's having a better sound system, and power steering... because frankly it's a slow pig on the freeway, has the acceleration of a cement truck, and I have to redline it before every shift. I can't shift to 4th gear till the speedo READS 60, and my actual speed is about 72. And I'm running the 82 D/R with the lower 3rd and 4th gears. Bugaru has the 83+ trans, and basically can't use 4th at all unless he's on the flat and level and then he still has to get out and push.... GD

Hook it to the same thing your disty is hooked to. You can tee it off that line if you like. I'm not totally sure that both the ports on the front of the Weber are ported. I think one is under the throttle plate, and one is above. Basically, you want the one that's above the plate for both the disty, and the EGR. Despite some claims that have floated around here about using full-manifold vacuum for the advance, this is NOT a good idea. You will actually lose about 15 degrees of total advance this way, and your idle emmissions will go through the roof.... GD

Daily driver? Gas is expensive, and my wagon gets about 17 MPG. Bugaru's hatch got 16 MPG on the last trip to Medford. You might want to rethink that. GD

The 4WD clutch fits nicely on the 2WD 5 speeds. I have done it. No issues. And yes - 4WD conversion is possible.... take a look in my album for pictures of my wagon before and after..... GD

Yes - the EGR does not play a critical role in the emmissions equation for EA81's. You'll just burn the hell out of things if you don't use it. Actually - it does sort of - it acts as a measure to prevent destruction of what little emmissions equipment they have in the first place. There are two types used on EA81's - those with a connection for the anti-afterburn valve, and those without. The one without is better suited for use with a Weber, as you don't have to worry about that pesky valve, and trying to hook it up right with vacuum lines and such. All you need is ported vacuum to the valve, and your good. No need to block it off, or disable it. GD

Basically, it adds a small amount of exhaust gas to the intake stream (above 2k RPM's or so it begins to open) - the exhuast gas has a negligable amount of oxygen in it, and so cannot burn, and cannot therefore lean out the mixture like regular incomming air could. It maintains the same volume in the cylinders, and thus the same compression, but just with a less volatile mixture. Less stuff being burnt = lower combustion temps. It's a balancing act.... what's really funny is that the EGR removes oxygen durring the stage where the gas enters the combustion chamber, and the AIS puts the oxygen back in afterwards in order to assits the cat in converting the remaining HC's. As to placement on the EA82.... that I couldn't comment on. On the EA81, it's centrally located on the manifold. GD

Well - it depends on what's leaking - it could be the grease from the axle itself, in which case you just need to change the axle out. Or it could be the stub axle seal on the transmission. Either way you need to pull the axle. Do a search on the board here and you will find TONS of info on that. Both are pretty easy to fix, but if it's the side seal that's gone, you should inspect the front diff for any play, as that will be the deciding factor on weather you will be replacing the tranny as well.... GD

I would leave the EGR connected. The weber has ported vacuum for it, and all it does is reduce combustion chamber temps - which will save your exhaust valves, and your cat from being burned to a crisp. I suspect a bad EGR valve was the start of all the problems I had with my Brat - it took out the cat, and the AIS valve - which subsequently wasted my carb with molten plastic. And I think on my Weber'd wagon I have burnt the exhaust valves from running high RPM's with a non-functional EGR. She's started to smoke a bit under hard acceleration..... still has plenty of power so I'm guessing it's a valve issue. No biggie, since I'm building a better engine soon anyway. GD

Same basic situation, yes. Lines and hoses may be in different locations, but the tank is still located above the rear diff, so removal is pretty much identical. GD

The bearings are pretty easy to get in and out - last two sets I've done, I did with the hub still on the car. A brass punch helps a lot. If you have to, get a grease needle, and squirt fresh grease in the bearings (remove the seal to get better access). Or just pull them out, grease them good, and put them back. I just grease needled the ones in my wagon, as the grease in there looked pretty munched. The bearings aren't making noise yet, but it sure gives me a little peice of mind to know there's decent grease in there. And I was changing an axle anyway, so it was a natural thing to do. If you had to do it, changing them on the side of the road isn't out of the question, as long as you have a copper or brass hammer, and a brass punch to drift the old ones out, and pound the new ones in. And all the other usual tools to change an axle.... Used ones from the JY wouldn't be a bad idea to have as spares for your trip.... GD

That's not a bad idea with the copper tubing. Glad it worked out for you. For the most part, Subaru made them pretty easy to work on. There's only a couple thinks that are really a pain - the heater core is one, and the gas tank isn't great either. Still - both are things that you don't mess with too much, so not a bad trade off. GD

Front or rear? GD

Usually the way it's done is to have a custom cable made that has a gear reduction spliced into it. It's not cheap, but better than trying to mess with a guage cluster. I personally just know what the percentage difference is, and just deal with it. GD

Sure - come on down, and Ian and myself will help you install it. You can give us each $25 for our time . He has a welder, and all the tools to cut the steel. I have access to a welder as well..... GD

I think it's your tranny - especially since you didn't have this problem prior to the swap. Inspect that diff closely. GD

If the vibration is worse turning right, then it's your left axle, and visa-versa. At least that's the way it's always worked for me. You can also dissasemble the axle's inner joint and look for wear - spalling on the bearing surfaces and what not. Likely you won't be able to tell tho, and you'll just end up guessing. Check that diff too.... GD

I can confim that a bad DOJ *can* cause serious vibration. It happened to me one time on my wagon. The car was completely stock at the time.... in the space of about 3 or 4 miles, the joint went, and I thought the car was going to fall apart from the vibration. I pulled over about 4 or 5 times to make sure I still had all four wheels. It was REALLY BAD. So bad that I was scared to drive it after this, and changed the axle immediately. The other possiblity is a bad front differential in the tranny you installed.... check for play in the stub's with the axles disconnected..... GD

You could, but I would carefully inspect the boots and see if they really need it first. Look for cracking of the rubber in the valley's. The iner boot on the pass. side usaully goes because of heat from the exaust. Yet another reason to have a good working EGR valve. Also I don't think that raising the height another 1" in the front would have caused the failures. They just tend to rip all by themselves. My Brat isn't adjusted up, and I know the boots were good about a month ago.... I just recently looked, and found that another one has torn. But I have tons of spare axles lying around with a torn boot on one side, so I'll just steal another used boot and slap it on there. Remember that the outer joints do not come apart, but the inner's do. If you have an axle with a bad inner joint, often times you can replace just the inner joint with the joint from a JY axle. The ONLY reason a front EA81 axle is really bad, is if the outer joint is failing (clicking loudly, sloppy, both!). The boots and the inner joint are easily replaced, so a good outer joint, is a good axle in my book. GD

I think my 78 wagon that I drove away for $1 probably beats it..... but only because it was *extremely* cheap. That DL is more desireable, so that somewhat evens out the comparison.... still.... ONLY $1, AND I DROVE IT AWAY. HAHAHAHAHA Only thing I really miss on the DL's is the Oil Pressure guage.... the EA81 pumps tend to want a reseal every now and then to keep the pressure on, so the guage really helps to know what's up. You can always add an aftermarket one tho. Other than that, I really like the DL's - something about the simplicity makes it attractive. GD

Actually - it's faster and cheaper to build a lift than it is the beat the hell out of the fenders and go at it with a sawzall. All you need is 10 blocks for the front made from 3.5" square tube, two bits of 3x2 angle iron for the rear EA82 coil-overs, and then the front stut tops, which is just some C channel, and a couple pieces of flat steel. Takes about 1/2 day to install, and the cost is about $50 for the materials, and another $15 for the bolts and hardware. Oh - and a bit of 1/2" ID tubing for the steering extension - about 3" of it. You just cut the steering shaft, and weld the tubing in-between the two peices. Seriously, lifts are not that hard to build. GD

What do you need it for? Seems like a lot of work to me.... GD