My daughter got a hand-me-down 84 GL from my older brother (for free). He took good care of it, but hasn't done any work on it for quite some time. It will run fine for a while, then will suddenly die. I discovered that the carburetor-to-mounting plate bolts were loose -- I could move the carb back and forth while it was still attached to the engine.

 

The parts store says no one sells a carb kit for it anymore, and they want $300 plus for a new carb! Should I try to just clean up the carb and bolt it back on, look around for a used one, or what? I've always worked on my own cars, but never a Subaru. I think the carb is a Weber.

Edited August 26, 200916 yr by Quad Raider

carb kits are still available all over the place as far as i know. Check Napa. they are also on fleabay,etc. btw a carb kit should only be like 30 bucks

That's what I hoped. I was worried that based on its age and status as an import a carb kit would be impossible to find or very expensive. I'll keep checking around.

 

Do you agree with me that the loose carb was probably the cause of the problems?

Based on the loose mounting and the parts store advice, I'm guessing you have the Carter/Weber single barrel carb as opposed to the more common Hitachi two-barrel unit.

 

The parts store is pretty accurate - kits really aren't availible.

 

Your best bet is to swap it over to the Hitachi (manifold has to swap as well) - you will find availible kits as well as the potential to swap over to a weber.

You could swap to the SPFI (fuel injection) from the later EA82 engine....

 

GD

Thanks, General. That's much more than I bargained for. We're looking to get this thing running as cheaply as possible, so the daughter can get back and forth to work (and I don't get that "Daddy, I need help" call.

 

Now that you mention it, I do believe it is the one-barrel carb. What would be the easiest and cheapest way to go?

What would be the easiest and cheapest way to go?

 

Install a used Hitachi carb and manifold. Throw a rebuilt kit at it.... that's the cheapest solution but not the easiest. Hitachi carbs are not the most forgiving things on the planet. They are finicky - took me half a dozen before I got proficient at rebuilding them to the point where they would run correctly every time. There's also the difficulty of knowing how to hook up the Hitachi correctly with it's assortment of vacuum and breather lines - you won't have any idea how to hook it up completely because your under hood diagram is for a carter/weber and you don't have another car to look at. Most of that stuff can be stripped off, but you have to know how, and what can/can't be removed to do that

 

Easiest solution would be to get a Hitachi manifold, strip everything but the PCV, heater control line, brake booster, distributor advance, and EGR - then install a Weber 32/36 DGV (used they aren't bad on eBay - look for them from VW's, etc). The Weber will be easy to setup and is a mild performance upgrade as well - better throttle response. Plus rebuild kits are cheap and availible everywhere as they are very popular aftermarket carbs.

 

GD

this is a post about a weber carb but good info on all carbs

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=102265

Where's the best place to find the Hitachi manifold. Salvage yard?

Maybe I missed something, did you first try to secure the loose carb to the manifold? How did the car run after that? That might be all it needs to become serviceable.

 

Just my 2 bucks

Not yet. The carburetor is so covered in grime that I figured I'd check to see how difficult it would be to rebuild it. I won't have a chance to work on the car again until this weekend, but will try a gentle clean-up and tightening the bolts/screws.

Give these guys a look. They seem to have a decent selection of the hard to find stuff. Only guys that carried a rebuild kit for my old '79 Honda CVCC, and it was all very good quality stuff.

 

http://www.carbkits.com/catalog/pr/c1/

 

 

Good luck getting it going.

http://www.carbkits.com/catalog/pr/c1/

 

Nope - they list the whole carb for $238 but no rebuilt kit.

 

I have several bare manifolds around here that I don't need if you are looking to do a Weber swap.

 

I also have a Hitachi that I've rebuilt and stripped of all the uneccesary paraphenalia, but it's been modified to accept a manual choke. You can get manual choke control cable kits from most parts stores - I think the one I used in my '83 hatch was $15... but that may not be how you want to set up the car for your daughter. This carb was my final effort, after 10 years of tinkering with them, to modify away the shortcommings of the stock Hitachi carb. It works well but it will never be a Weber or throttle body injection. I don't *really* want to part with it due to the efforts I put into making it run without all it's jewerly, but I also don't have any future plans for the poor thing and I know you need one built this way so.... make it worth my while and I'll send it attached to a manifold and ready to bolt on. As I said you will have to install a manual choke cable and teach her how to use it because I don't have the time nor the inclination to try and put it back to an electric choke - don't think I have the parts to do so either.

 

GD

Saturday I cleaned up the outside of the carb and what I could reach of the inside without a disassembly. I tightened the four bolts at the bottom, reinstalled the carb and she started after a little cranking.

 

I also changed the oil and replaced the bad vacuum hoses. While I was under the car I noticed the passenger side CV boot has a big hole in it, as does the steering boot on that side.

 

In a short test drive it ran fine, except for a slight hesitation when I first pushed on the gas. The only problem I saw was the ECS light coming on. What does that light mean?

 

This car was given to us to do with as we please. I don't want to spend much money on this thing, I'm just looking for basic, dependable transportation. The question is, is it worth doing the intake/carb conversion?

To answer "is the car worth the conversion".... well it depends on a lot of factors.

 

1. How many miles are on the car? You happen to have picked up THE most reliable engine Subaru ever made. They will happily do 300k and many make it to 500k or more miles. The EA81 is almost unkillable. The carb was the weakest link and probably why a good portion of the one's that have been crushed were removed from the road. Fix that and it will probably continue to run for the usuable life of the body.

 

Transmissions are a different issue. All of them have their quirks. The 4 speed's (4WD) have third gear syncro issues and the linkage often gets loose over time. The 3 speed automatic's are prone to their own types of failures and rarely last much over 200k. The 5 speed (2WD) transmissions are pretty decent - usually suffering also from syncro failure somewhere in the 150k to 250k range - depending on how they are driven. All of them can be replaced with the later 5 speed (4WD) transmissions from the EA82 series cars - these are known reliable to 500k or more miles.

 

2. How nice is the car? Interior? ect?

 

3. What do you plan to do with it and for how long?

 

Now - as for the ECS light.... that means the engine was equipped with the "feedback" carburetor. Basically it's a computer controlled carb. I'll give you the short answer on this: Replace the carb and manifold. I could go into the gritty details but there's no need - trust me you need to replace the carb and manifold on this one. Don't worry - nothing has to change - you can install the carb and manifold, and just unplug the computer - everything will run just fine and the light will go away.

 

The slight hessitation is either a vacuum leak, improper idle mixture/speed, improper timing, or the accelerator pump has ceased to function. Anyway the best remedy is to replace the whole mess and do away with all the lines and hoses.

 

GD

Thank you, General. That was a quick response!

 

The car has a lot of miles on it, but I can't remember exactly how many. My brother owned it since 1990 and he babied it for most of that time. I think he may have put a rebuilt engine in it, possibly twice (one of these days we'll sync our schedules and be able to talk about it).

 

The interior is in good shape. The exterior is straight and looks good, but it's starting to rust in the usual places. The tires are brand new. It's FWD with the 5-speed.

 

I don't want to spend a bunch of money, but am willing to do the work necessary to make it reliable. If my daughter can get a year or two's use out of it, it will be a success.

 

My bottom line is this: Because I know most of the history of the car, and because I know of the brand's reliability, I'm inclined to keep it. In many ways it's a perfect first car for my daughter.

 

I just finished rebuilding and reinstalling the 350 in my '92 Silverado, but I've never worked on a small Japanese car and I find it a little intimidating.

Edited August 31, 200916 yr by Quad Raider