GeneralDisorder

Hey - where are you in the willamette valley? I live in West Linn...... edit - duh, in your sig it says Canby. hehe - we should hang sometime - that's like 15 minutes from me. GD

Yeah - unfortunately, the manual soob trannies are pretty much all 3.9. The RX tranny is a 3.7, but it's a full time 4WD GD

Yep - it is forward of the center - that's how the coil-over suspension lift works. As the suspension compresses, the entire wheel and arm rotate up and to the rear. Just think about how the EA81 suspension works in the rear, and extend that idea for longer travel - you'll see what I mean. Suffice to say that when the suspension is full compressed, the wheel will once again be in the center. GD

yeah - that's like totally impossible. The car wouldn't drive that's for sure. GD

I have heard a LOT of reputable people around here say that the EA71 pistons DO inscrease compression..... and I know that CCR will put them in a rebuilt engine for you - talk to them and see what they say. $160 for a disty recurve??!?! These guys: http://www.philbingroup.com/rebuilt/special_services.htm Do awsome work, and will do it for $40. They are local in Portland. They rebuilt my ND disty for me. They can even rebuild vac advance units. I have talked with Qman and others about the cam regrind - and the general consensus was that it cost around $80 - maybe a little more, but under $100. I don't know about the other things he's talking about, but you should talk to Qman - he's built several H.O. EA81's. GD

GD

They were factory on the 4WD toyota cars. Pretty cool looking actually. GD

I've used that stuff on faucets and shower heads - those have rubber o-rings in them, so I don't think it would hurt your hoses. GD

Yeah - those big a$$ torx bits are for removing steering wheel bolts on newer VW's and Audi's - had to do that a few months ago. What a pain. GD

No one ever said that EA82 and EA81 2WD were the same..... don't know where that came from..... GD

OK - maybe it's that it has to be an EA71 that's IN a Gen 2 car. Pretty sure Gen 1 axles won't fit in Gen 2 cars. It may be the length and possibly the outer end of the axle that is the difference. I do agree tho that at least SOME EA71 axles will indeed fit on the EA81 - done it myself, so you just have to look and see. GD

I think I remember that - had something to do with grinding the calipers down? GD

I can't imagine you would hurt anything - just be careful not to remove too much rust, or you may find yourself with a big fat leak, or maybe your whole core will just melt away...... GD

EA71 depends on which bell houseing it has. If the starter is in the middle, the axles will be different. If the starter is to the right like an EA81, then the axles are the same as any EA81 axle. I have pulled axles from cars with EA71's and the right hand starter. In fact - my EA81 Brat has one of them on it right now. Also - EA81T axles are the same as regular EA81 axles - the turbo differences started with the EA82 and EA82T. I don't know if you would call the EA71 bell houseing elusive. A lot of the EA71's in stage 2 cars and Brat's were like that. I've seen a couple. GD

Could the turbo be bad? Is this one an automatic? Maybe the modulator gizmo on the tranny - as I recall that can cause smoke too. You can't just give up on an EA81T - you (being a subaru mechanic) MUST fix it. It's too rare to just throw out. GD

Yeah - it is routed wrong then - it's going "over" the steering shaft. John must have overlooked that. I kind of thought that might be the problem, cause I have seen cables worn through from the shaft rubbing on them and figured that was what let the water inside the cable, and washed away it's lubricant causeing subsequent failure. I'll fix that first thing tomorrow. I'll snag a 4WD flywheel from the JY soon if I can - maybe I'll head to one tomorrow and see what I can find. Don't have a lot of cash right now so maybe I can find a decent flywheel that doesn't need sufacing and a clutch plate that isn't terribly worn. For reference, appoximately how much material is there on a new clutch plate? If I know that I'll be able to judge how much wear there is on a JY one. GD

I would come and play. GD

The 2WD clutch that's in my big lifted 4WD wagon is a little wimpy. I can rev to 3000, and drop the clutch and it will sloooowly take off. That's in 1st gear. I think the 4WD's are bigger right? It just doesn't have enough grab, and I feel that I will burn it out if I try to off-road with it. Tell me what I should do guys.... Another thing - the clutch cable was getting tight, and it snapped on me at an on-ramp a couple months back. Took it apart and fond that it had rubbed through a few strands, and finally snapped. I replaced it with a new one and it felt great for a couple thousand miles, but now it's getting tight again, and I'm afraid it's going to blow on me anytime. What causes this? And why would a brand new one start doing this so quickly? It's not like they are expensive, but it is kindof a pain to replace, so what gives? Does it have anything to do with how it's routed under the hood? GD

Actually - sometimes Subaru's go for a lot MORE out on the east cause they tend to be rare out there in good shape (ie: no rust) GD

Got those tires at Tire Factory. I have a friend who knows the manager, and he gave me a special deal. I got about $30 off of the retail price which was $99 a tire, and $28 a rim. I got em for $93 a tire, and $25 a rim. They ordered them from their warehouse, and had them mounted and balanced waiting for me at 10 AM the next day. Even loaded them into my van for me. Really nice guys, and they did a great job. They balanced them with the wieghts on the indide too, so it doesn't mess up their good looks. GD

Yep - you can correct the camber after a lift by pushing the strut tops in a little: http://usmb.net/gallery/albuo72 My camber is perfectly flat, and I think the car handles better than it did before the lift. Of course this is a custom lift, and I have no idea if this would work on a PK lift - maybe he can answer. Certainly a LOT easier than fabbing longer control arms...... GD

Q. How does one get a perfect taper on the holes? A. One doesn't - I just ground on it with a dremel till I liked the way it looked. Didn't affect the balance any - she drives straight and true at 70 MPH on the freeway..... GD

Sometimes they just slide right in - no tools needed at all. *sometimes*. Other times they are a real bitch. GD

Ok - my tires are ON! http://usmb.net/gallery/albuo72 I did drill the rims, as you can see, but I don't feel that it detracts from the look of them really. Drilling the rims does not weaken them in any way, and Mudrat has been doing it for years. I don't think that drilling the hubs weakens them either, but I also don't think I need any more than 4 lugs. I have never heard a tale told of breaking all 4 and haveing the rim fall off. In fact - I've been running my Brat with three lugs on one wheel since I bought it, and it's just fine. It is a fact that drilling to 6 lug opens you up for more wheels - mostly non-steel tho, so I could really care less about those personally. I can get the US Wheels 70 series white (or black) wagon wheel in any size I could conceivably want for dirt cheap, and unless I were going with a REALLY big lift, and REALLY big tires, I don't see the point of going to the trouble of doing the 6 lug. I admit it's not much more work, but it is more - at least to do it right. You first have to aquire the extra lugs, and drill twice as many holes into thicker material, then you have to beat the lugs in, and unless you convert to rear discs, you have to do this all over again if you need to replace your drums. Also - if I want to take a long road trip, I can swap back on my subaru rims and small tires for that rather than eating my mud tires up. There are pro's and cons to both, and I probably would have done the 6 lug simply because I would have been parranoid about the strength of only 4 lugs if it weren't for the fact that John has and still does many of his rigs this way, and has never had a problem. As for beveling the holes - I did it with a dremel, and a carbide cutting bit - took about 5 minutes per rim to do it. Zap - thanks for putting me down for the tree run - I'll be there. GD

Not BFG's, and not Coopers either. Some brand called "Hankook". similar tread pattern to the BFG and the Cooper, but cheaper than a Cooper. Also - the build of these is slightly more beefy than the Cooper - 6 ply instead of 4 ply, deeper tread, wider tread, etc. I compared both of their specs from the company web sites, and the Hankook's seemed better all around than the Cooper, so I figured I would give em a try. I probably am going to drill the rims. They are only $25 rims, and if I decide to do the 6 lug, I can always get new ones with my next set of tires (probably some interco's, or ???). Also - I understand that if you do the rear disc brake conversion, there's not much meat on the rear disc setup to mount the extra lugs... The tires are 215/75R15, and the wheels are toyota 6x5.5 x 6 I believe. I got the tires for $93 each mounted and balanced, and the rims for $25 each. So a total of $472 for everything. I checked around, and could have gotten the Coopers for $99 probably, or the Les Schwab Wildcat EXT's for $110. I did a little research comparing specs, and found the specs of the cheaper tires to be better than the specs of the Cooper or the Wildcat (made by Cooper I think...). One place I called said they could get a 6 ply version of the Cooper for like $113..... that might have been interesting.... GD