Free Range

dealer kit is both bearings and both dust seals for one hub rebuild. (2 kits per car)

Yup, generally great advise here. Just did a front end on an 83 wagon, its been a long time since I was in one of these old tanks, refreshingly simple. I was replacing everything, so I pulled the whole hub. Its fairly involved, but easy to knock out the axles, ball joints, tie rods, and pull the whole hub and do it on the bench, just tap the bearings out and new (with new grease) in slowly and dink from side to side to keep em square, only hitting the outter race of the bearing with the drift. but I was replacing everything else up front at the same time. whatever works... I always use new dust seals. Be sure to clean everything well, some grease doesnt mix well with others. Dealer has rebuild kits for $50 per side. Be sure to remember the anti-sneeze going beck together.

I plan to run a fuel pump from an EA82T on a custom mount next to the fuel tank, well first i had it in the engine bay, but it growled and hated life, I'm a long way from getting mine back together(too many projects), but the parts are slowly coming together. Good to see your progress, old scoobies rock! You can find me at fallingoats at g****.com

Yup, use all the parts from the 5spd d/r instead of the original 4spd. use gen 1 axles ea82 clutch/press/throwout/fly wheel/pilot, or upgrade to xt6 clutch and press plate and get ea82 flywheel milled to xt6 spec(they might be the same, its been a while). you will want to hybrid the 5spd and the 4spd trans mounts together. might be easiest to put trans up in tunnel, on the motor and eyeball the two mounts and chop/cut/weld cut the trans tunnel to accept the 5spd d/r shift linkage, custom shortened driveline It is a tight fit without any body lift, might require hammer massage.

lego rear axles are side specific, the rear diff is offset slightly, I'm assuming this is why the left and right are not mirrored. If your using lego axles then this shouldn't be a problem, but it sounds like Scott needs options to work with EA series axles/outters. One should be able to offset the diff mounts to overcome the width issues. Personally I like the idea of using the slip fit EJ inners, they have been very durable for me. I can measure the stubbs on my extra vlsd when time allows

Get a 3.90 V-LSD from a '91 Lego SS. This rear diff has the stubs you desire. Might even still be able to order them new.

Note: The green and gold '78 hooligan wagon still lives! the 1800/dr swap in a gen 1 wagon is a sweet swap if you have a donor 80 or '81 brat. a 2.2 in front of a 5spd d/r in that frame is a sweet sleeper, i have a '79 brat setup like that. any way you go, do it!

The first pics on the thread are of my 79 brat, those pics are deciving, there is a 3" block lift on the x member in with that 2.2, so the motor is sitting very low. framerails were cut and 2x2" 1/4" wall square tube was sleeved in and boxed. My dohc 2.2t would fit in easy, but I don't want to mod the suspension to Handle that much power, too much fab time for a front heavy lifted brat, albeit badass... If I was to do it again on a gen 1, I'd get the motor/trans, and just mock it up, cut it and box it, get a jdm half cut or a usdm wrx wreck, forget about the new school suspension unless your really bored and worry about getting it to run proper first. There was a beautiful forest green gen 1 wrx brat in NZ... I'm never on this site, fallingoats at gmail

if you can find an ea81 (gen2) with p/s it's possible, either turbo or n/a would theoretically mount up, actually the n/a will be easier, but a pita still. You'll need to cut the inner tie rods down and re-tap them, and as for the motor, as mentioned above if it's an 1800 the bosses will need to be drilled/tapped, 1600, idk I could check my parts brat... You could fab a mount for an ea82 pump kind like the gen1 ac setups and that rack should fitthe x-member just cut the tie rods down... Put in a 1800 motor/trans (or fat case bellhousing) and the gen2 x-member/a-arms, fab the radius rods to stock location, camber will be an issue. then power steering would be as easy as finding a working ea81 pump/mount/rack/hoses. Let us know how it goes.

close, that was 'Forester Ranger's ride, it's still driving around logging roads in the Eugene area, I've got a '96 d/r outback...

search, it's all been covered... my camber is still perfect You don't need the body lift, and it sucks (read $$$) to install, but it does flatten the axles a fair bit, better angles is better MPG and axle life, but straight suspension lift is better offroad. the only reason I'd ever run the outback body lift is so that I could run king springs... Axles, heck you don't even have to beat the axles out of the hubs to change EJ axles:rolleyes: seriously tho, they seem to hold up just fine and I've done seven lifts. here are the 3 basic choices, (this roughly shows the different perch heights) outback (blown) Forrester (new KYB GR2) Legacy (note angle of strut rod, not so healthy) and yet another before and after for all those who are bored and or curious, '90 LS sedan, bone stock, auto pile ( yeah I know the angle of the shot shows nothing): "The Dog Taxi" w/outback GR2's & outback coils, rear '94 wagon tops, BFH inner fender massage, 225/60/16 M+S's- they only rub at full lock in reverse: so hurry up and get your awd rally pile (or show car for that matter) lifted, b/c it ain't gonna lift itself. oh and get new swaybar endlinks and strut tops and a bottle of blinker fluid while your at it.

Q: how much of the lost rally ability is due to the swampers, and how much is from the tall struts?

longShot, but the ea81turbo cars have a very simmilar, if not the same pump and mounting location as the ea82's, so that turbo ea81 bracket would do it.