I had to replace my ea81 distributor and the old one came out with ease but the replacement binds with about 8mm left to go flush. What gives?

Inspect the distributor body for burr's. Should see a shiny spot where it's binding and that will tell you where to file it down. 

GD

Thank you, I will check that tomorrow. Have a good one my friend.

UPDATE!! All is good now. I was determined and went back out about an hour ago. I re-pulled the partially installed distributor, eyeballed it, and finding no apparent flaws, reinserted to the stopping point, grabbed a rag, placed the rag over the distributor, and while pushing down with my weight, rotated the dist back and forth and to my pleasure, it contacted. I hooked wires and the vacuum line up and fired her up! All will be fine-tuned tomorrow. I had eventually remembered that the new O-rings resist as they are not shrunken like the old, much the same as the oil pump procedure and the new O-ring was catching on the ridge inside the shaft's opening.

Well done and thanks for finishing off the post

Did you add any lube to O ring first?

Step-a-toe, I did lube first, I just forgot the resistance of new O-rings as they are actually compressed in the first usage even with the lube. I simply had to push down harder with a rag over it and with a slight rotation, back and forth, and she made contact. Thanks for asking though.

Just a little about myself; for about 30 years of professionally turning wrenches, I was a mechanic/glorified parts changer 'cause I wasn't a master or certified I but had lots of experience. In 2005, my last job closed its doors. 6 months later, I went to work as a parts shuttle with CarQuest for 9 years (2005-2014). Getting rusty at it and so I have memory lapses once in a while of procedures I had once well known. I still do like the fact that I can save a buck or two usually. Thanks all and have great times!

I would hate to revive an old post of 4 years. But I do need to ask which distributor did you install and where did you get it? And do you have a part number? I see a cardone rebuild available online. I'm curious if that's what you used and if it's been working fine. I have lost spark. I've tried coils. I believe my distributor pickup has gone bad and would need a new pickup for the distributor I have. Anyways, if anyone else could respond with a good replacement for a 1984 Subaru brat with an ea81 engine

Rock shows the pick up coil in stock around $27 

be sure you get the 4wd not FWD

Ordered this from Napa online. It had the free shipping . every time I order from RockAuto. Their shipping costs are ridiculous.

 I have several hitachis and a few nipandenso's. Probably eight distributors in total. I'm just going to go with the new ignition module, I swapped distributors with another one that I had marked as being good taking out of a running car and still had no spark so I decided to just go with a new module. Now I'm trying to find the right coil that goes with the Hitachi distributor. They have several coils listed but they don't list it specifically for which distributor