GeneralDisorder

Got my tires and rims: http://usmb.net/gallery/albuo72/new_tires_rims I'll be installing tomorrow if all goes as planned. GD

From what I hear, the 5 speed isn't worth it for off-road. You never get into third gear, and that's where the main differences are in the 5 speed. For freeway tho, it is much nicer, as ed pointed out. GD

The EA82 looks nothing like the EA71 - the EA81 looks very similar tho. The EA82 will fit in your 87 hatch, but it will be tight, and you will have to mix and match clutch components to get it to work. The EA82 is also an OHC engine, and is much wider than an EA81 or EA71. You can also bolt up and EA81 to your car - the difference in HP between the 1.8L EA81 and the 1.8L EA82 is very small - the later EA81's had hydraulic lifters that made them a bit more powerful than the early models. It's also easy to increase the compression and to change the grind of the cam in the EA81's to get 9.5:1 compression, and around 110 HP - making it more powerful than a stock EA82, and almost as powerful as an EA82T. Also the EA81 doesn't have the timing belts like the EA82, so that's one less thing to break or service. GD

I could swap a tranny in 2 hours easy. As long as your not talking about the clutch as well. GD

I agree that you are unlikely to break anything - but in the 1984 owners manual it states: GD

Even without big tires people don't know what to think of it. Especially since I'm running a straight pipe exhaust (the muffler fell off a while back) and a weber, so when I "get on it", my little EA81 sounds very angry. Past 3500 RPM's it sounds really great cause the secondary opens up, and you can hear the weber doing it's hoover impression. Got a lot of looks when I pulled into the gas station yesterday with it. People seem to stay out of it's way a little more too - they probably look at the car and figure that the driver is probabably a little unbalanced...... *Jon: No prob man - we'll meet another time. Good luck with your head gasket. GD

Well - they seem to be doing just fine - and looking at it, I think they have more travel than you think they do. John could probably answer that question better than I can. GD

Yeah - Mudrat mentioned to me that he had never noticed any real wear problems with the other ones he has done - I think it would wear those little sissy tires bald real quick, but Mud Terrains he says won't wear as bad. I guess I'll find out. The intention is for it to be an off-roader anyway, so it probably won't be on the pavement unless it's to go to and from the off-road site. and occasionally I'll take it to work maybe Not sure - but the physics involved may flatten the suspension out a bit Sweet82: Those aren't shocks back there - the're EA82 rear struts.

Damn, Damn, Damn! Why do I have to be out of town Saturday. Wish I could be there to show off my new lift, but I need to make money to buy my tires. I wish you all a good time tho. Drink one for me. GD

Got my car back from Mudrat79 and I am very pleased with the work done on it. He installed his custom 3" lift for me, and it will be very interesting to see how it performs next to the many PK lifted soobs. Here's some pics I took so far: http://usmb.net/gallery/albuo72 The rear end is very interesting, as it is not a body lift, but a real 3" suspension lift using EA82 rear struts. The rear diff is WAY up in the air! I'll be getting tires soon, so I can have some fun with it. What do you guys think? GD

The EA81T's had the same radiator I think. They did have an oil cooler tho. GD

What are you talking? EA81 or EA82? Makes a huge difference. If you are talking EA81 then no - don't even bother as the 2WD torsion bar is completely different - smaller without the height adjustment. Also the 2WD sits lower by design than the 4WD. If you are talking EA82, someone else will have to answer, but I have been told by Mudrat that the EA82's aren't any easier than the EA81's. Personally, unless I had a really good reason, I would NEVER do a 2WD to 4WD conversion again. It's just too much work, and you can get perfectly good 4WD's easy and cheap. GD

Yep - that's a 3/8" bolt I used there. Cut the slots horizontally with a dremel or similar tool, and drill out the shifter and tranny stub with a 3/8" bit. I used flat washers in either side, and a lock washer on the nut side. Tighten down as hard as you can, and you wil have no more shifter slop...... ever again probably. The factory system has no slots for clamping force, and they used a roll pin in that hole - they get really sloppy and worn after a few years. I can't take credit for the design - the idea came from the USRM somewhere, but the pics in those articles were pretty bad, so I snapped one before the tranny went in the car. Oh - and the bushings will probably do you no good at all since the metal will likely be worn away to the point that they won't fit - that's why I had to drill it to an over-size and bolt it instead. Really it's far superior to new bushings as I doubt it will ever wear out in the life of the tranny, and it takes a half hour at the most when you already have the tranny out of the car. Probably longer and more difficult with the tranny in the car. GD

well - you can plug off the vacuum advance, and just not use it, and the centrifugal advance will not operate in reverse due to it's design. So it won't retard the timing..... but it won't advance it either - would be a pretty basic disty, and probably wouldn't run that great. GD

Yes - reverse has no syncro - at least not in a Subaru tranny. In fact, reverse makes terrible whining sounds because of the straight gear teeth. Most all cars do this - can you imagine if they used straight teeth for the forward gears? (Yes - they used to do that WAY back in the day). GD

I've seen styles's car in person - it's pretty trick. If you like that sort of thing.... GD

Right you are moose - I was just speaking of all the other gen 1's - wagons and coupes and stuff. Cause he was wondering if anything from another body would fit.... GD

Going into first while moving is going to be very hard - always is. You probably need new syncro's, and basically unless you can do them yourself, this means another tranny. It's not a big deal really - you have to realize that the syncro for first gear has to bring the gears up to a pretty high speed before they will mesh, and that's why your getting the grinding noise. I hear that redline gear oil will help quite a bit with smooth shifting. Or just don't put it in first while moving - you shouldn't really have to anyway. GD

rig up a sheet of metal or something to prevent it from getting on the exhaust. That might do the trick. GD

80 Brat's are Gen 1's, and 80 everything else is Gen 2, so your going to have to get a door from a 79 or older "something else". I don't know if anything else will fit, but if they are like Gen 2's then it would be a coupe door that you are looking for. Don't think they had a Gen 1 hatchback, which is the other Gen 2 vehicle that will swap doors with gen 2 Brat's GD

Are you sure the oil is not dripping onto the exhaust or something? GD

Actually - it is illegal in Oregon to have tires that stick out past the fenders. There's one exception - if the car was at ANY time in the past registered for at least one year in Cali, then it's ok. That's the way it was explained to me anyway. Will the cops pull your over for it? Probably not. GD

Complete dissasembly is not hard at all, then you can use whatever cleaner you want. Check the shaft play in it too. If it's a ND then there should be NO shaft play at all. The Hitachi units will tollerate a bit more, but it still shouldn't be much. There's a place up here in P-town that will rebush the shaft for $35 GD

A good driver would always win in the STI - that would be my guess - the AWD would make for much better launches. Even from a rolling start, the 300ZX would burn out. The STI would not. GD

woudn't you need to lift the car to fit the tranny under the floorpan? Or heavily modify the floopan since it was desgined to accomidate a driveline, but not a whole tranny..... Just a thought. GD