GeneralDisorder

On the contrary - your information is very informative, and goes against some of what I was tought back in school. I shall look into it further. My point was simply that the systems (including the advance mechanisms inside the disty) were designed to work as a team. The carb provides ported vacuum because the disty accepts ported vacuum. Any change in this configuration needs to be dealt with on both ends. Simply plugging the disty into a source of vacuum for which it was not designed is just as bad as putting an improperly jetted carb on the same engine. It may work quite well, or it may not run at all. It would be interesting to see what effect it has, and also what effect it has on emmissions, but I wouldn't want to sugest to others on the board who are not experienced mechanics to go and experiment with a system that they don't understand in the first place. But I do see your point, and I think I may do a little experimenting myself. I would also like to add that a lot of the disty vacuum advance "cans" are in need of testing.... the one on my 84 wagon was toast when I bought the car. Still ran fine - passed emmissions even. But wouldn't hold vacuum at all. They can be rebuilt by a good distributor shop. They are rubber impregnated cloth on the inside, so they do break down..... and they're all nearly 20 years old here in states.... GD

The engine in question is the EA81, not the EA82. He drives a Brumby - Aus version of the Brat. And the fact remains that the engine WAS designed to use ported vacuum. Be it crude or not. GD

Beleive whatever you like - it will not run as it was designed without ported vacuum. There is not supposed to be any advance to speak of at idle. If you are running higher octane fuel, then more advance is possible, and having the vac advance unit running at idle might be alright. It could, however, cause pinging and therefore is not reccomended. Go read a book on engine theory if you like. It's nothing new, or Subaru specific - been that way on most cars since shortly after the beggining of time. GD

Use the EA82 driveshaft - you just have to weld the carrier bearing in place since it's a 2 peice shaft. But it is the right size. GD

You shouldn't have to trim the front at all really - but it looks better if you cut the fenders up a ways. With 27's, you will have to BEAT, not trim inside the wheel well where the body seam is on the inside rear. Remove the plastic liner, and you will see. You may have to trim a bit too in order to clear them for turning, but it won't be much with 27's. I had to trim a little to clear 28's on 15" rims, but mosty I had to beat the hell out of the front wheel wells. I had to beat so much that when I was done, the front doors didn't close right anymore. I had to put a jack under them and straighten em out again. GD

It gives "ported" vacuum to the disty. This is basically a hole into the carb that is ABOVE the throttle plate. Thus it only receives vacuum when the throttle plate is open past the idle position. That was the vacuum advance on the disty doesn't come into play till the engine is running faster than idle. It is just fine to run a line directly from the "ported" vacuum port on the carb directly to the disty. It is NOT ok to run a full time vacuum line (from the manifold, etc) to it, as this will throw off your timing in big way. GD

The diff's are not different, unless you are talking about the fairly rare, RX full-time 4WD dual range. But it's low range is only 1.2:1, and it has a 3.7 diff..... which makes it useless for off-roading. GD

That's just weird. I can't imagine what might be different??? GD

The adaptor works just fine - file on it a bit if you like, but from what I've seen it doesn't matter. Works great for me. But yes, I agree in principle that the design could use refinement. Just keep telling yourself that you won't be able to see it once it's installed. It DOES do the job. BTW - they are ALL DGAV's. Never seen one stamped DGEV. Mine is stamped DGAV, and it's electric. Probably wasn't "substituted" - it's stock. GD

If you can find one cheap, with good syncro's, then yes. But that's hard to find, and the 4 speeds eat syncro's like crazy. 3rd gear mostly. Mine is on the way out in fact. And 2nd gear on my Brat is too. 82 and older 4WD's used the same clutch/flywheel as the 2WD's. 83+ went to a 25mm larger clutch, and thus a lighter flywheel. But the two are NOT interchageable. You want the 83+ one. Without the larger clutch, big tires will NOT BE GOOD. Been there, done that too. My wagon was 2WD when I started, and I didn't know the clutch was different..... yeah.... bad times. GD

Maybe you had a different adaptor, or bad motor mounts or something. Also - the DFV carb, and possibly that "28/36" may be a different height. I'm talking about a DGEV 32/36...... talk to Caboobaroo - he can elucidate the differences that we noticed comparing the Holley 5220 to my DGV sitting here. BIG differences. MY experience is with THE OFFICIAL kit from Redline on my 84 wagon (VERY good motor mounts), and when I closed the hood, it bent the filter frame. You could tell where it hit, and driving like that would be BAD. I'm guessing you would need another 1/2" or so to be safe from it hitting on vibration. You say you got it from a JY - what is it? If it's a Holley 5200 (DFV), you'll be dissapointed with it compared to a true DGV..... The venturi's are tiny in comparison. In fact, it only widens out to the same "32/36" as the DGV at the bottom of the carb. Pretty silly really. GD

You have failed to mention the shorter 3rd and 4th gears for the 81/82 4 speed's. Specifically, Eric ONLY uses these (me too, although a 5 speed would be fine in my opinion, but the direct bolt-up of the 82 4 speed is very nice, and I can see his point there). The rest of the 4 speeds everyone agrees are bad. Beleive me, the gearing for 3 and 4 (on a post 82 4 speed) is NOT COOL with big tires. You will be THE slowest thing on the road, with the possible exception of a 360. GD

No - it's simpler than that. Just did this the other day on my Brat. Took 30 minutes to swap everything. The glass is bolted to the regulator with two bolts - you'll see them at the bottom of the metal plates that are bolted to the glass itself. Remove them. Then at the top of the door are two "stops" - basically a right angle bit of metal with one end dipped in rubber to prevent you from cranking the window up too high - you'll notice they are adjustable by loosening the bolt. Remove them, and the glass with now slide right out the top of the door. Do the same to the other door, and installation is the reverse. The lock is as stated above - very easy. Assuming your new doors have working handles and latches etc. For the installation of the new door DO NOT remove the hinges from the car. If you do you may never get it aligned properly again (PITA). Remove the bolts that hold the hinges to the door itself, and bolt the new door to the old hinges with them still on the car. This method is also nice because you don't have to remove the fender this way..... GD

No - it won't. Been there, done that. And your right - the low-pro doesn't breathe as well, but there are bigger low-pro's availible around on the internet. The 1.75" one will run alright - the difference isn't that noticeable really. Really irk's me that the stupid redline kit comes with the tall filter - makes you spend another $10 on a filter, that your supposed to get with the Kit. I personally reccomend against the Kit. There was a post a while back from a place in Canada that will do a "custom" kit for $325 shipped. Including the linkage kit (doesn't come with the redline kits), the air filter of your choice, and a brand new carb. Pretty good deal if you ask me. GD

Sounds like you could use a bigger alternator. GD

$500 or less - depending on condition, how it runs, syncro's, etc GD

Fill the rear diff to the top of the hole. You don't need a pump. Just a funnel, and a peice of tubing will work fine. Use cheap 80w90 in your diff, and Redline gear oil in your tranny. Will save the syncro's. GD

The issue is that the disty and the ecu MUST match. The 87+ disty doesn't give the correct signal to the 85/86 ecu, and vise-versa. As for using the rest of it, I couldn't tell you, but I'm sure that some parts are the same..... GD

When I first started getting soobs, I couldn't find anything but silver! At one point, I had three EA81 (one EA81T) silver wagons at my place.... GD

I seem to recall that there was something about the 87+ disty that wouldn't work.... but I can't remember what. GD

It's been done, and I plan on doing it as well. You will need the disty from an 85 or 86 SPFI EA82. You have to put the drive gear from an EA81 disty on it, and also cut off one of the mounting tabs on the side of the disty casing. The manifold will bolt on, and all you have to do is wire it up. Which shouldn't be a huge deal. The wiring harnesses usually come apart into "engine" and "accessory" bundles anyway, so an EA82 SPFI wireing harness should work without a lot of modifications. You should mount the fuel pump under the hood, and just have your stock fuel pump feed it. Since the lines in an EA81 car are not designed to handle the SPFI pump's pressure. GD

Yeah - you can leave all those valves - they won't do anything if they aren't hooked up. The vapor seperator you can either remove the line, and plug it, or just replace the fuel filter with an aftermarket one that doesn't have the vapor line on it. It's probably supposed to T into the return line - since there's a possibility of liquid getting into it. But either way really - liquid gets into the bowl vent line on a hard turn as well, so I don't think it matters. Your objective here is to simplify the system - just start pulling stuff off. But make sure you know what it's basic purpose is before you remove it. When your done, the only major vacuum lines you should have is the disty, the EGR, the brake booster, and a couple others that snake off into the firewall to operate the heater controls. The rest is garbage, and can be pulled off. The Hitachi will run just fine without any of the evap system. GD

Why not just clean the manifold up, and fill the hole with JB weld? Ought to do the trick. It's not like the hole goes anywhere special. It's there to heat the carb for emmissions. GD

Yeah - more or less. The hard lines are very confusing, since they split and branch all over the place. Hard to tell what does what. I would blow air into the disty tube, and see where it comes out.... same with the ERG. GD

ON the carb - the stuff under the manifold is crap - remove it if you want (have to reomve the manifold tho). GD