djcommie

I'm all for having people learn about their cars by reading, but having such a jerky attitude about actually helping someone with something that may not be mentioned in this forum, by someone who may not even have the knowledge on how to search for their specific problem smacks of the same garbage that pollutes NASIOC and car forums everywhere.

You may have a flaky brake light switch, which if bad or misadjusted won't allow the shift enable switch (I don't remember the official name) to operate, which is the sound you hear in the steering column area. You may also have issues with the switchgear in the gear selector itself.

I know this is an ancient thread, but I ended up buying this car earlier this year and re-assembling it, with that same ATK engine. I'll be parting with *some* of the spares I am not using.

Its amazing how different the early cars are, that barely looks like my 78 4WD wagon.

Without the correct tools, you're going to destroy the system. An empty system absolutely requires a new receiver/dryer. Water combines with R12 oil and creates acid, corroding the lines and eventually destroying the TXV and compressor. I don't know how the pulser system works, but I imagine your compressor stops because the low side pressure drops too low and trips the low-pressure cutoff switch. R12 is expensive, R134 is less efficient and requires every o-ring to be changed to HNBR, and R152 isn't type accepted in automotive applications (is slightly flammable). Without an understanding of how phase change refrigeration works, a mistake can permanently damage the system or you can injure yourself.

I found a 10 foot spool of 14ga link at O'Reilly for $7.99. They use large spade connectors, which are a bit hard to find, but if you can uncrimp the old ones, just reuse the originals and solder them on. An EJ alternator would likely blow out that fusible link anyway, and your likely added draw from the swap through the other link (EFI fuel pump, ECU, idle controller, etc) in addition to all the existing accessories would likely take all the margin left. Cooper Bussman and other companies make dual Maxi blade fuse boxes, and adding real power distribution wire would be much better than trying to push 50A through 12ga stock wiring.

Those two are the main fusible links. The white 10AWG wire (look on the harness) is the alternator lead, and the other one is the power for the entire car. It should get warm with headlights on, but mine never gets 'hot'. Check the ground inside the engine bay, its near the battery on the inside of the radiator support area. I had that ground go bad and it caused excessive amperage draw and blew a fusible link, as well as the fuse in the normal fuse box.

What does your gauge manifold say for low and high pressures? Did you fill a system that was vacuumed, purged, and with the receiver replaced?

Nice pictures! Now I know why people want the 4WD front valences, they have much smaller bumper mount cutouts.

Awesome documentation, and its amazing to see an original Subaru owner in USMB.

The coasting bypass vacuum modulator being misadjusted also affected mine, it would open too early, often during light deceleration, and make it afterfire bad enough to throw fireballs when the engine was cool enough to have the choke still on. Putting the factory exhaust back on mine and adjust that modulator pretty much cured mine.

Welcome to USMB! You're leaking the condensate water from the evaporator, its in the passenger footwell and has a hose that should drain into the engine bay. Yours is either clogged or torn/missing/etc. It just connects to a nipple on the bottom of the evaporator box and goes out to the engine bay to dump on the ground.

ATP Y631 fits the Gen 1 normal clamp style cable holder. It has a bare end, so you may need a cable clamp for the carb side end.

I'm interested in one as well!

Makes sense to me, I don't really know the differences in the Gen 1 Subarus.

There isn't the same type of affordable performance aftermarket like that exists for the L-Series Datsun engines, but for the EA71 engines, a Weber 32/36 carb kit and a free flowing exhaust can get you some performance and sound if that is what you desire, though likely at the cost of some economy, drivability, reliability, and engine wear. There's always swaps to the later EA81/82/t engines, as well as the much later EJ series engines, but they require forethought and fabrication work to fit properly.

My 78 GL Wagon has vents like that, I imagine they were stock with the GL trim or 4WD or something.

Other than maintenance parts, posting here in the wanted section of the marketplace would be your best bet, a lot of us have parts collections for ours. For instance, I have multiple exhaust components from my 78 GL 4WD Wagon left over as spares, as well as spare front fenders, grille, complete headlights, etc that came with the car. You just have to ask!

Mine has a well thought out but quite poorly executed repair that seems to have held over the years, I'll get a picture of it. It has a lateral link that goes from the box to the A pillar.

Do not put sealant on the headgasket, its designed to crush and deform in the correct ways for the fire rings, bolt holes, water passages, oil passages, etc. I've used copper gasket spray on headgaskets before, but I don't really recommend it.

I swapped the entire odometer/speedometer module from a 120mph non-tach cluster to one of these tach clusters and the only issue was moving the trip meter reset hardware over (3 screws for it), so you might just be able to recover your previous odometer. You could even take apart the speedo module and replace whatever gear is broken on the odometer drivetrain.

Backfire is the mixture igniting in the intake manifold and reversing through the carburetor. What you're describing is afterfire. A rich condition and extremely retarded (or advanced) timing can cause afterfire, since the air/fuel mixture makes it past the exhaust valve and into the exhaust system, where it is ignited by hot exhaust components. I'd say start looking for overfuelling from the carburetor (float/needle/seat, leaking jets), then check the ignition timing, paying special attention to the advance/retard functions moving the breaker plate/VR sensor correctly. Even a simple weak ignition system (at low throttle loads and high engine speed from shifting) can misfire and dump fuel in the exhaust.

Looking great! I've been reading about this since the early days, so its nice to see it get the love and care it deserves!

There are two ignition modules for the electronic cars: Hitachi was on the automatics, and Nippon Denso for the manuals. The modules are different, and the Denso one is inside the distributor. They have different distributor caps so its not really possible to mistake them. The Hitachi only has the magnetic VR sensor in it with a long cable ending in a T shaped connector and goes to the module via cable running back along the firewall, the Denso has ring terminals on a short cable and has its ignitor module inside the distributor itself.

The canister should just have an inlet (from the tank), outlet purge (to intake manifold), and purge control line (to vacuum block). You can tee the purge control line into one of the distributor vacuum lines, the purge outlet into the intake manifold (it is behind the EGR mount boss), and the inlet goes to the connection to the tank.