rallybru310

Hello, It sounds like you have a nice collection on your hands, I’d like to drive over from Santa Cruz and take a look when it’s convenient for you.

Engine bay is clean and ready for reconstruction! First stop, power steering conversion.

Thank you, that makes total sense! He traced each wire and they all went to different systems, we didn’t consider diagnostics.

This is the last plug he is working with. The original harness in the car doesn’t have the corresponding plug, tracing each wire now. Any input is appreciated!

Let the swap begin! My son decided to swap the entire loom. He has every single connection identified and labeled on both ends of both the old and the new harness as well as all of the other mechanical bits. Thanks for the advice.

Hello, Today’s question: What is the best approach when it comes to the wiring? Do we thin existing spfi harness and overlay old harness or do we splice necessary new wiring into old harness. It looks like most everything is the same except for the distributor/coil wiring and the fuel injection wiring. What else should I be aware of?

Hello again, I have everything setup to start removing all necessary equipment from the 96 Legacy donor vehicle in the morning. This is the 2.2 that will be rebuilt and installed in the 82 wagon. I’m planning on utilizing all factory emissions equipment to meet California smog requirements, with that said, I’m planning on hauling Legacy body away before swap is complete and I want to make sure that I harvest all necessary equipment before it’s gone. I’m planning on removing entire harness from ECU out, engine, all emissions under hood, fuel pump...Is there anything that I am likely miss?

Greetings, I’m curious as to what would be the best wheel/tire combo for my 82 wagon with a 4” lift. First of all let me say that I’m terribly sad to be departing with the looks of my 13” wagon wheels, with that said, I’d like to find a set of 6 bolt steelies with the tallest tires that I can fit without ANY body modifications. Your input on what wheel type, offset, tire size will work without rubbing is greatly appreciated. Thanks

I’m planning on moving the battery to the left side to make room for the air cleaner from the 2.2. Everything on the donor vehicle is on the opposite side so I figured it will be easiest to keep things in similar positions. Seeing as how I live in CA and plan on this to be a smoggable swap, I am required to carryover the entire emissions system as well, a clean slate makes it easiest. As far as the wiring is concerned, I am thinking of taking all of the body side wiring (lights, horn, temp, ect..) outside of frame rails. I’m thinking of a more radical solution for the engine wiring.... I’m thinking of relocating ALL engine bay wiring and electrical components to the “spare tire shelf” and fabricating a custom cover that will enclose from shelf edge up to cowling allowing for all engine wiring to feed from rear center of engine bay while all other body side wiring is tucked out of sight. I plan on waterproofing entire harness as I go so there shouldn’t be any water infiltration issues.

Yes, I’m definitely going to smooth out the engine bay as much as I can. As far as the wiring goes, I’m thinking of taking the harness outside of the frame rails (like donor legacy) makes sense to me. Are there any drawbacks for doing so that I should be aware of?

We finally had a little time to work on the wagon. Started cleaning out the engine bay prepping for paint, removed jack holder, battery tray, and a few other miscellaneous tidbits.

I don’t see any tags or stickers on three different drivetrains, one of which I’m sure is all original with only 82,000 miles. Im swapping MT4 for MT5 and want to ensure they are geared the same. Any other suggestions?

Greetings, How can I identify what gear ratio a given rear end or transmission might have without looking internally? Thanks, Gibby

Thanks for the the input. I wasn’t familiar with fuel surge tanks but after doing some reading I can see that is a definite solution, thanks. I’m really, really wanting to produce a clean build that looks totally factory, aside from the lift and wheels. I’ll put my feelers out for a EA81T tank but in the meantime I think I’m going to open up one of my loyal tanks to have a look, maybe I’ll just fab baffles in my gl tank or even better the tank out of my 2wd gl. Thoughts, has anyone here tried this?

Are there baffled tanks that would be a direct bolt in for an 82 wagon that are readily available?

Can anyone tell me if a fuel tank from a 88’ Ea82 wagon has baffles or not and whether or not it will fit into a 82’ wagon? Thanks, Gibby

Hello All, I’m in the process of creating two cars from four and would like to find a set of factory service manuals for each. The first build consists of 1981 GL wagon combined with the engine of a 1996 Legacy and the transmission and disc brakes from a 1987 wagon. The second build is mainly an engine and suspension swap from a 1987 spfi GL wagon into a 1986 na GL wagon. It seems to me that one for each would be necessary to cover all my bases. Any help in sourcing is greatly appreciated!

I came hone from work to find my son had finished unplumbing things and had totally labeled and removed the wiring harness!!!

Thanks to Crazyeights misfortune we now have a second donor vehicle with many fresh components. I look forward to resurrecting what we can from “lil red”. We did let “lil red” stretch it’s legs one more time before we started dismantling it. We had so much fun on our first pass that we drove back down to the bottom of the mountain and went again, such a shame it got smashed! Thanks for everything Crazyeights!

Thanks for the input and don’t worry, I wont’t really be wheeling this thing. Like I said earlier, my highest priority is building a daily driver that is super reliable and maintains a stock look and feel aside from lift, wheels, and tires. Trust me, it has taken me a very long time to come to a point of divergence from a completely stock refresh. I fully realize how rare it is to come across a wagon this clean, I drove all the way to Arkansas from Florida to purchase it from the original owner more than ten years ago. My move to California from Florida presented some SMOG issues, hence the repower. I don’t plan on modifying body or interior in any way, just upgrading to 5spd from 4spd with a more robust smogable power plant. I see that a 4” lift and A/T’s might be a bit much but then again, why not!

Hello again, In prepping for the EJ swap which electrical components can I remove from the engine bay? Should I remove all components and wiring including ecu and just leave the wiring for lights and accessories (wipers,horn,etc)? Thanks

Yes

Unfortunately not, he said there’s not a chance!

I went to look at a Brat the other night and spotted this in his garage, mostly original survivor!