dbenzmaine Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Hi everyone, I had a thread in here back in December asking about running leaded gas in an EA-81 during a trip to Central America. The answer turned out to be that you can get unleaded gas easily in both Honduras and Nicaragua. The trip rocked! Anyway, I flew back to continue with that annoying stuff they call school, and my lucky brother stayed in Nicaragua for another couple of months. He's taking his time on his way back and is now in Honduras. I got an email from him yesterday saying that he hears a clicking sound when turning, and the CV boot is torn wide open. So, it's a 1989 EA-81 GL Hatch. Subies do exist in Honduras (i saw them with my own two eyes), and i'm wondering how much flexibility he has in scavenging. Would i be correct to assume that he could make do with a CV from any EA-81 series Subie? He speaks perfect Spanish and loves chilling with mechanics, so getting the work done will not be a problem. I just want to make sure he ends up with something that will work. On a related note, if anyone ever tells you that you're crazy to think about taking a subie across the mountains of Nicaragua to the isolated Atlantic coast when there's no real road and multiple stream fordings are necessary, don't believe them! It has been done! Oh yeah, one other thing. Mexico is full of these huge speedbumps called Topes. They're pretty annoying. However, a GL can handle hitting one at 60 MPH when driving into the rising sun and flying a solid 20 feet before nosing into the pavement and leaving a nice gauge in the pavement and tons of good scrapes on the oil-pan guard Thanks for your help! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 you're crazy, i love it. I'm 99 % sure that any ea-81 non turbo axle will work, may be auto-stick specific too, if you can be choosy, go with the 2wd, they are stronger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbenzmaine Posted April 20, 2005 Author Share Posted April 20, 2005 Thanks! Cool that the 2wd ones are better since all the subies i saw down there were 2wd. Just got another email from him. Any ideas? Thanks! >ok. so i went to a mechanic here in gualaco. he diagnosed and i agreed that the excess movement and the cause of the clunks wasn't where the axle met the wheel under the cv joint, but in the lowerstrut arm like thing just below the cv. that was dry aswell. after tightening that and adding grease, i tried it and it the sound is gone and appears much better. he didn't have a new boot, and suggested going on to the next town. so what do you think. the boot is torn just about all the way around and was almost dry when i checked it out. so i'm thinkingdoing the duct tape repair and bringing lots more grease and looking for a boot in trujillo. still i'm skeptical and i imagine that damage might be done and i still need to replace the axle. he said i should be able to find a used axle in tegus or san pedro. so what do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 thats the tricky thing about axles, they'll last for 2 years with a click, or brake in two after clicking for 20 minutes. worst case, if its 4wd, you can still run without that axle as follows 1 punch out roll pin and remove from stubshaft 2 dig around outer cv cup, on the inside is a spring clip, look for a round thick paperclip forcing itself out radially. 3 remove clip 4 pull "shaft" of cv joint 5 put into 4wd and drive away. 6 no 4wd you say, well that's your fault for buying a 2wd subaru, you're not going anywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbenzmaine Posted April 21, 2005 Author Share Posted April 21, 2005 Right on. I knew there had to be a way to run it without one CV. I was actually thinking about that two years ago as one of them screamed at me on a drive across the country. And yes, of course it's a 4WD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodsWagon Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 Nice! Thats great the trip worked out. the Topas can suck hardcore. When I was down im mexico, we stuffed 5 people and the driver into a nissan tsuni (centra) and bottomed out on every one of those damn things. People wait to beg and sell things by some of the topas. I hope you took lots of pictures, so we can get a visual tour of your trip. That must have been great traveling through all those countries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbenzmaine Posted April 21, 2005 Author Share Posted April 21, 2005 Yeah man, the trip rocked! For anyone who hasn't been there, the Pacific coast of Mexico outside of the tourist towns is full of awesome little villages on pristine uncrowded beaches with huge waves. I wish i knew how to surf! I actually really liked the big industrial cities too. There weren't any tourists, and as the only gringos around, we were actually considered interesting. Good stuff. I took a bunch of pictures, but i don't have a website to post them on. Oh well, something to do in the future. Gotta love having a big inverter in your car, dude! I was once offroading with a friend of mine in his 1972 Saab 99 when he somehow managed to get the entire right side of the frame hung up on a 10 inch log lying on the ground. The car was completely stuck. After trying in vain to push or find an anchor for his comealong, we remembered his inverter. He had an electric drill in the trunk, and we plugged the thing in and proceded to drill close to a hundred holes in the middle of this log. Eventually it was so beat up that we were able to kick it in half and work the car off. I love doing stupid things with cars! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.