I've done a bit of snooping and I've found that subaru only made the EA81 sedan in the 4WD guise for one year, and only in automatic form at that. Is this correct?

I've done a bit of snooping and I've found that subaru only made the EA81 sedan in the 4WD guise for one year, and only in automatic form at that. Is this correct?

That would explain why every turbo coup or every sedan I've seen that was 4wd ea81, was automatic.... or is... automatic.

I can only assume thats all you could get from the dealer. But we have seen some strange configurations out there, so its possible to think that if you special ordered it, you might have been able to get one with a 4spd D/R.

I checked the '80 through '84 sales brochure and they list the 4wd standard trans as N/A=Not Applicable.

Yeah, thats where I looked too.

I have an 82 4WD sedan, and it's a manual

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but it used to be a 2WD automatic,

And the parts are out of an 84 wagon...

Here in NZ we had 4wd sedans that were manual in the ea81 models and then also manual in the ea82 4wd turbo leone model with high and low ratio.

Everything I've ever seen indicates that the USA model 4wd EA81 Sedans and EA81T Hardtops were ALL automatics. I've also heard from more than one source that these were both '84 only models, but I periodically hear about an '83 version of either. I think it is likely that these both came out late in '83 so that MOST of them are '84 models, but that is just a guess on my part.

Just so everyone knows for the record, all USDM EA81T cars had 3 speed 4WD automatics.

yea, I'm in New Zealand and own a single range 4wd ea81 1984 sedan.

 

Which rases a question, why only in NZ (and presumably Australia) and what are the major differences between ours and the North American models? (apart from the obvious right hand drive things)

 

This matters a lot to me as I only own US manuals and get a lot of info from this site.

Lots of little stuff. We got most of what you did, but not many American buyers opted to take advantage of it. Most Soobs here are automatics; we haven't had a Subaru with a dual-range 4WD trans since 1989; LSDs were never popular; most cars here had all the electrical gadgets but not digital dashboards or sunroofs; the touring (raised roof) wagons were available 1989-91 for Leone models; (no EA81 touring wagons were sold Stateside), the BRAT was discontinued here in 1987; and the station wagons never got the nifty little headlight washers though the XT (1985-91 Alcyone) did.

Love that old school scooby knowledge. I've got some JDM info brewing, but that will have to wait for another thread.

 

Also, based on the '84 factory specs manual I just picked up that the 1984 1.8 4WD sedan was the A3 vin code.

 

The same manual also specifies that the SOA166 200 and SOA165 630 winch kit should not be fitted to the Turbo models, interestingly enough. I can attest that an EA81T with any sort of cooling problems would not be helped by a winch mounted in front of the radiator.

I checked the '80 through '84 sales brochure and they list the 4wd standard trans as N/A=Not Applicable.

 

That was for the USA Market only.

 

... why only in NZ (and presumably Australia) and what are the major differences between ours and the North American models? ...

 

Not only that Areas... here in Latin America, the Specs are Widely Different too.

 

I Believe that some of the Differences are related to the USA Laws, like the Pollution Controls, etc...

For Example, last year for Subaru Carbed models in USA was 1988 with the EA Engines, but here came Carbed models of the Legacy untill 1994 with EJ Engines...

 

...no EA81 touring wagons were sold Stateside ...

 

Here are Many of Them... I Really don`t Like the Raised Roof...

Also the EA71 and EA81 where available in Early Nineties in Loyales...

All US market EA81T Hardtops were 3 speed automatics, I believe that all the turbo wagons and brats were automatic as well. Subaru did not have any way of "special" ordering cars , they all came from japan the same way. Different distributors installed some options , but they were mainly comfort and appearance items.

Briefly owned an '84 BRAT Gl.

 

Auto, no rear seats (ever), no fun roofs.

... here came Carbed models of the Legacy untill 1994 with EJ Engines...

 

Pictures I`ve Taken from one of those That I`ve Helped to Repair:

 

 

...Excuse me for the Low Picture Quality, I Just Had my Cellphone`s Camera...