edrach

As long as you have your health, age is just a state of mind. I'm currently in my mid-life crisis; only recently realized I'm middle-aged. I always was a slow learner.

Buy the solenoid and save the receipt and bring it over. I'll lend you my meter and you can check it out. Take it back for refund if it's no good.....you've got 30 days to do that and you're going there weekly or more anyway.

I'd love to see that course again. Looks like fun.

It's really hard to tell. I thought the stuff in the lower left was due to the short "options" like the figure 8 section that's pretty obvious. There was a quick complete run at the end of Saturday's lessons that could have been what is seen but two people on the ORG message board think this view is from two or three years ago. Google has their watermark 2005 all over this, but I couldn't say when the actual satellite view was captured.

Where is your timing set? Also check to see that the vacuum advance doesn't advance the timing too much. Lastly whose gas are you buying; in the Seattle area the off brands are notorious for selling lower octane.

I'm surprised it will work at all since the shaft lengths are different.

My eldest was googling around on the computer the other day and found this. It looks quite possible that the satellite photo was taken on the Saturday of the rallycross school. I thought it'd be interesting. http://www.google.com/maps?q=NE+34th+Ave+at+NE+Cornell+Rd+Hillsboro+97124&spn=0.008508,0.010450&t=k&hl=en

I vote for the $5K car also. As a matter of fact my daily driver was bought two years ago for $2500 ('91 Legacy Wagon with manual tranny and 98K miles on the odo). I now have 143K on it and plan on keeping until I can't fix it anymore (hasn't needed anything other than routine maintenance since I got it). Our newest car was a '97 Impreza Wagon with 112K on it for just under $4K (bought 2 months ago). Same manual tranny and same 2.2L engine. My personal preference is the 2.2L gen1 engine built from around '90 to early '97. Strong, robust and reliable; and IT'S A NON-INTERFERENCE ENGINE!! Everything after that is fine, but not quite as reliable and if you're unlucky enough to have a timing belt break, it's likely to be a very expensive repair.

Just as an aside, the EA81 engines also came with ND or Hitachi distributors; but they will NOT interchange with the EA82 distributors. The ignition module in the Hitachi version is the same for both engine types.

Snowman has it right; carb'd EA82's had either the Hitachi or Nippondenso distributor. It's not unusual to get the wrong set at the autoparts store. If you have a choice, get the Hitachi; I've found the ignitor module easier to replace on the Hitachi version although it is quite pricey; I have a collection of used ones from PAP to carry as spares.

Hopefully you turned in the transfer of ownership papers to the state DOL. No telling what this guy did with the car after he got it. If he abandons it on the highway and it gets towed you'll be liable for towing and storage ($$$$$$$) if you didn't file the proper papers. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be nice.

Good luck!

Especially since that's the weekend of the 2nd ORG rallycross I believe.

Are you talking about cars or girl friends!

Look inside the inner joint and count the splines; you have 23 on the original axle. They gave you an axle with 25.

You have the 25 spline axle; should have the 23. Oversize inner joint will shear the roll pin every time.

If you're swapping the front doors, it's pretty easy to swap out the door lock cylinders so you can still use the old key. Worst part is removing the window crank; I always have trouble with the spring that holds it in place. After removing the crank, door handle plastic, and armrest gently removing the door panel; by the way, the window should be up when you do this. Lock cylinder has a spring clip holding it in place and the linkage will snap out. Install in the reverse order. You can practice on the old doors first to learn what not to do.

Does it vibrate on acceleration and immediately disappear as you let off on the gas? If that's the case, you likely have a bad axle; specifically a bad DOJ (inner joint). If you also have a torn inner boot on either side, that'll definitely point to a DOJ problem.

I'm never sure; but I use 4 qts. at oil change for either engine and then top up if necessary after I've let the engine run for a few minutes.

If you guys were eating at Red Robin, you should have asked for Brian's table (84Soob); he works there. I can't believe you missed him. I guess it's a much bigger restaurant than I remember. ---ed---

Old saying: "Don't try to fix what's not broke." It would be nice to have it better, but your engine is working just fine. Seafoam probably wouldn't hurt you, but any dinking with the system might make things worse.

Which engine or distributor or year are you talking about? EA81 or EA82; Hitachi or Nippondenso; it would help in answering your question. Also, the Haynes manual is not the best in the world for troubleshooting techniques. Set the timing to spec with the vac hose off and plugged. With the hose off, see how far the timing advances when reving to 2500. Then reattach the hose and run the engine back up to 2500. There is some mechanical advance and with the vacuum advance there should be more. EA81 vac units are available aftermarket for around $35 new; I've checked maybe 100 vac advance units at the wrecking yard and found only two good ones. If you're really in doubt and can be without the car for a period of time, pull the distributor and send it the Philbin group in Portland for rebuilding. http://www.philbingroup.com/fhhistory.htm

WD40 is pretty good ad dissolving the glue on stickers.

Great to hear; couldn't happen to a nicer person. Best of luck with it. ---ed---

Comments from the ORG discussion board; by Bill P. the driver of the hot Audi 4000S that smoked the field Sunday. We keep hearing from rally school students with positive feedback of their Primitive Performance Driving School experiences, even of the driving exercises during last Saturday's challenging weather. Some reported unlearning bad habits, others learning for the first time how to control their cars when speed exceeds available traction. Most of all, students were impressed with the overall professional level of the school and it's instructors. At $135 including the Sunday rallyx, it was a killer deal for students. The quick silver 4000Q driver happens to be a close personal friend and he swears he lowered his lap times by 10 seconds after only two days of the rally school. Now if we can just get Scott K to set up another school/rallyx in May, there'll be no stopping us. Sunday's 1st 2005 ORG RallyX took full advantage of Pe's classic "Oregon Weather Course" - giving us the room we need to drift, lose control, regain control, finish our 360, but keeping the speed reasonable by masterful placement of curves - let's sign that guy to a contract. PGT students "lost" the coin flip and ran first Sunday morning, graciously clearing off an inch of slime for the rest of us. Open class used various tire advantages to clear off another inch, but the p.m. sessions lost that advantage when a serious shower hit mid-afternoon. As usual, there's no fair way to compare times between the groups, but if we ignore the qualifications, the posted times show some interesting results: 1) Squirrel-powered Geo's driven by driven women rule! Congrats, April - 5th fastest, OVERALL! 2) Teenage-girl-driven Brats will soon rule - Congrats Jaime Quale for almost kicking your Dad's arse - 1.4 seconds behind him on run #1! 3) It's about time Jaime's dad moved up to the OPEN class - Congrats, Ken, for showing us how competitive a potent Brat can be - 2nd fastest OVERALL - can't wait to see the new XT-6. 4) Ted Dean showed why he belongs in the OPEN class - 2nd fastest (LAP) OVERALL in a FWD Golf! 5) Aaron, Brian, Blake, Andy, Ed, & Adam all drove impressively to close in on the 5 minute barrier. 6) As did Brady, in everyone's favorite - the beautiful 1968 vintage RHD Escort. 7) Todd's S-1R is built for going FAST - 4th OVERALL at Doo Wop! - not rallyx slow - but thanks for bringing out a true rally car - it still has everyone agog. 8) John A's mud-grooved Hakka's worked much better than stock in the slick. 9) The inch-long knobs on the Zapareski/Quale Impreza's tires amazed everyone - as did the 4000 Quattro's mud rally tires. 10) Scott K gave up his scoring opportunity to shepherd the event - even after running fastest lap last year on a similar open course! - thanks for the work - AND the points! ) 11) Real TRUCKS, when driven by real drivers - can be awesome! 12) RX3's engines can hold together for the 30,000 (loud) revolutions it takes to complete a typical lap with 3-spins! 12) Momma's CAN get back on the horse - congrats, Pat - we removed all the trees just for you. ) 13) Ultra-cool results formatting (& scoring, too) are best done by father-son teams -- thanks, Randy & Chris. 14) ORG RallyX staff bring professionalism to their volunteerism - congrats again, Gloria, Janice & Bruce, Lara & Mike, Charles & Teresa, Kevin & his NWR teammate, sweep maestro Mike, and officials John E & Rich O. 15) Anyone can have fun in the dirt - witness all the grins, even of those without a hint of traction out there - and no grin was bigger than Jon R's, who earned the highly-coveted "most seat time" award in his slippy 200SX. 16) Results pages fail to show how much faster at least two cars went with the Red Bull reps as ride-alongs - thanks, guys, for the "input." 17) Nor do they show how smooth everything looked to Oregon Trail Rally Chair Ben and Rally America exec. J.B. Niday - thanks, too, for your presence. 18) They DO indicate congrats are due to other class winners Dan B, Nick T, Rick S, Adam W, Brian D, & even Bill P - you all EARNED those 20 pts! 19) Results also fail to show how much faster students went with instructors as ride-alongs - thanks, coaches, for being available. 20) Results DO show you can find fast fun at an ORG RallyX whether you have a new, 300hp car or an old, 100hp beater - dirt is the great equalizer.