1986 GL Wagon - Potential Revival

[PrinterTechnician]

Hello. I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this.

I recently acquired this 1986 Subaru GL Wagon AWD/3spd auto. I made an account here a few years back while helping a friend with his '87 Brat. If I'd never worked on that Brat I wouldn't have given this $500 listing the time of day. The car is relatively clean for sitting in field in Odessa, TX exposed for a decade. Some rust under the cowl visible from the engine bay from debris sitting in it. Then some from a failed brake booster or master cylinder that was leaking.

I'm technically the second owner since the guy I bought it from didn't register it, tried getting it to run off the fuel tank, failed, and gave up on it. Today I got around to setting up a Home Depot bucket fuel pump setup and ran it straight to the carb. I changed the oil and filter because the filter looked ancient, topped the radiator and reservoir off with some distilled water, and charged up the battery. I was surprised when the car eventually was able to run on it's own at about 1200-1500rpm. The carb was dripping fuel so I didn't want to run it long.

The temp gauge climbed up a bit past halfway, so I quickly set some bricks around the tires to test the transmission without rolling away. I was able to roll forward and backward so I called that a success and shut it down. I noticed a burp in the coolant reservoir and some bubbles inside for about a minute after shutoff. I'll do a combustion leak test on it to verify. I'm going to list some major items that will need to be addressed before it even goes on a test drive.

1. Engine - Verify if this engine needs head gaskets. Then go through cooling system and timing belt. 
2. Carburetor - Weber swap or try and work on this stock Hitachi
3. Complete braking system refresh - Including the booster, master cylinder, and rubber lines.
4. Transmission Drain/Fill and filter. 

Some less major items that will need to be addressed.

1. Headlights housings are rusted through and don't work (I guess from filling up with water?) I'd probably try and find some sealed beam DL headlights and grille.
2. CV Axles - All 4 CV boots are leaking and they'll probably fail pretty quickly.
3. Suspension looks original.
4. Door locks don't work and the passenger rear door is stuck shut.
5. Rear hatch struts.
6. left turn signal works with hazards but not stalk.
7. No spare tire. But I have all the hardware that retained it.

I think the battle going forward is going to be parts availability. I'm spoiled from working on Toyotas. I remember struggling to even find shocks for my friend's '87 Brat. The automatic transmission is also a downside if it ends up having issues. I've found a number of great write-ups on this forum and some other websites so I have that on my side. Here are some pictures and videos to go with my random assortment of thoughts.

 

[bushytails]

That's a lot cleaner than any you see here!  Good choice for a project.

Stuck thermostat also can cause overheating and foaming, but head gasket isn't too bad of a project.

The stock carbs aren't terrible, and often can be fixed with just a cleaning, being careful not to tear gaskets.

Brake booster and master cylinder are usually reliable; no need to replace them unless you have issues.

Try ebay or junkyards for better headlights.

[moosens]

Lots of thoughts on going forward. But in general for now to just rehabilitate the carb’d EA82 that’ll be a bit of a project. Not so bad really but these days we see most folks immediately ditch the old power plant and sometimes as needed the drivetrain too. 
 

You have the last of the carb’d engines. In 1987 it’s a split year. You’ll find DL wagons and sedans with the carb until a certain production date. Then they’re SPFI. 

You can swap blocks and blank off the EGR ports in the exhaust should you want to try making it SPFI.

Been ages for me since I’ve had that era but we had so many between parts cars and drivers. Pretty much all my stash is gone from that era. 
 

I never had any real trouble with the Hitachi in general from the 70s through the last of them. But those last run carbs have more emission crap and can in my opinion be more finicky. Less manageable. But they’re carbs so it’s always a little bit of luck and black magic. lol 

EA82 engine parts - the timing belts are hard to find or at least the drivers side which is the one that typically craps out. 
Oil pump. Reseal kits, you can imagine what it’s like now. There is zero support with very little exception. Carl Porter has some NOS from that era. He might see this here or find him on FB with the usual old school Subaru groups.

West coast dealers you might get lucky. 
 

This era unfortunately comes with the New Subaru World Order when they made lots of threats to the new wave of dealers to scrap outgoing inventory and damage panels, components, etc so nobody could dumpster dive. So the spares left or much harder to come by than the 70s. It’s a sad story but at least parts lived on. 
 

History story: when the Subaru finally caught on here the kind folks at SOA headquarters decided that no longer would their cars be dealt out of mom n pop corner garages and such but they’d have to have a large parcel and big $ to invest. So many mom n pop dealerships closed up and we NOT allowed to sell their parts to the new dealers or back to SOA. 
 

Seversl large lots of NOS came to the public. I’m still selling off some of mine. 
 

But come the 80s it’s corporate control. 
 

Hope you enjoyed the read and enjoy that wagon. Took my young family on many vacations and romps in those. Another several paragraphs of stories there at least.

Cheers! 

[SuspiciousPizza]

What I've learned refurbishing my 3rd gen wagon (89 GL).

Parts: Hoard them. Buy yourself an ultrasonic cleaner because there's gonna be a lot of greasy used parts you'll need to clean if you intend to run this car for any period of time.

Engine: EA82's are simple to teardown. However, aluminum threads don't like to be abused. Be careful with exhaust flanges and intake manifold bolts. They tend to strip or corrode in some form or another. Pistons, connecting rods, valve springs, valves, valve retainers, oil pumps, OEM water pumps, cylinder heads without deep cracks, oil pickups, and more can be difficult to find. Luckily you're in the right place to find them but still. There's a reason EA82's have gone the way of the dodo. Buying a good parts engine (if you can find one) isn't a bad idea.

Suspension: Front struts and good quality front strut mounts are difficult to find. The chinesium parts that makes up 80% of the parts market for these cars usually aren't worth giving the time of day. Look at DRW Bushings for suspension bushings. I've been very impressed with the bushings and the owner's communication, I'd highly recommend. Springs can be hard to find, there are overload springs out there. 

Wheels & Bearings: 4x140 is going to be your biggest hurdle. Looks like you've got a set of shallow wagon wheels (I'm jealous). It's just difficult to find known good wheels, new 4x140 wheels are quite obscure. Bearings aren't too bad if you have a bearing puller. Honestly the seals can put up more of a fight than the bearings. Remember to replace your axle nut spring washers. 

Axles: If they're not rusty and crusty, clean them and reboot them. Buy neoprene boots, I recommend EMPI. I use Yamalube ACC-MOLDM-GS-05. Use what you like but it's good grease. You may find out, if you haven't already, that if you do need to replace an axle, it's difficult to buy "the right one". There are multiple different axles (4 or 5, I can't remember) that are used depending on the cars drivetrain and fuel delivery system. Stay away from most cheap axles. Sometimes remans are okay but your best bet is used OEM that have been cleaned and rebooted. Get familiar with the identification bands on the axle shafts near the outer boot and your axle spline count. Outer axle joints cannot be disassembled, to clean wipe the grease off and pour a cleaning solvent into the joint. Pour out the sludge and wipe away the rest. Let the solvent off gas and repack with grease. 

Interior: Speedometer cables and throttle cables can be difficult to find. Yes there are cheap parts put there, but those are always a crap shoot. The foam on the HVAC blend doors has probably severely degraded and that will cause issues with actually feeling the full effect of your HVAC system. I'd recommend replacing the foam. Once you've torn the dash off, its easy to do again. Getting it back together can be a pain with the HVAC controls (4 vacuum hoses and a cable). Plastic trim pieces are NLA and will have to be a junkyard, craigslist, or eBay find. If you decide to manual swap the car, get a pedal box from a later GL or a Loyale. Older pedal boxes are prone to cracking. 

Glass: Junkyard. 

Literature: Get a copy of a parts manual and I'd also recommend a hardcopy of the factory service manual set. Yes you can find them mostly online but having a hardcopy is very helpful. 

 

Good luck :]

Edited September 15 by SuspiciousPizza