edrach

Thermal compound wouldn't hurt anything even if it's not used on a flat surface. Manufacturer probably added it to all their product whether it's needed or not. I've had at least 15 EA81 cars over the years in my family from '82 to '86 models and they all had a vapor separator in them. I could send a pic of the one in our Brat if you like.

A truly great event. Great weather for the weekend and the most fantastic roads I've ever seen on day one. Just a perfect event for someone to get into TSD rallying. No traps, excellent instructions and a truly enjoyable drive on some phenomenal roads. If you weren't there, you missed a great one.

Tread wear indication of 540 makes me think they'll last longer than 20K. In any event, I seldom buy tires with tread longevity in mind; it's way down on my list of what I buy tires for. That's why I never buy Michelins; it would drive me nuts to keep the same tires on the car for 80K or more.

MWE drive axles; they are in Colorado near CCR I believe. Lots of mention for MWE here; try searching for them.

If I remember correctly, the XT6 alternator is a drop in replacement and rated at 90 amps. GD has numerous posts about installing a 100 amp version. As to the high wattage of the amp, 500 watts is only a little over 40 amps draw (divide 500 by 12). During the daytime, that should work okay; but at night when your headlights are on, you'd be overloading the existing alternator. And to the original question, the internal voltage regulator is bad. That normally requires replacing the bad alternator. From the tone of your response, you'd be better off replacing the alternator (easy job) than trying to rebuild the one you have.

We moved to the Seattle area from the east coast (grew up in NJ and lived in Wilmington, DE when we moved west) in 1988. Aside from leaving some relatives back east (a number moved west to follow us) the only thing I missed were the close circle of friends we had back there. You make new friends and we traded our rally friends (with Datsun 510 roots) for Subaru related friends and are getting back into rally again. It was a good move for us. Our sons were in 2nd, 5th and 7th grade at the time and the Seattle (a suburb called Woodinville) area was a better place to raise our kids than back east (a suburb of Philadelphia). Weather is more moderate since it hardly ever gets much above 80 in the summer and even on the hottest days, it cools down when the sun sets so you can sleep comfortably without air conditioning. Winters are mostly rainy and it seldom gets below freezing. We have the ocean about a couple hours west (less depending on where you go), lots of water surrounding us (one of the reasons for the moderate temps), and mountains to the east and west for ski-ing (closest ski-ing is 60 minutes away), hiking, and camping. As you can tell from our posts, auto sport is alive and well out here; even if I have to go to the Portland area for a decent rallycross. About the rain: average annual rainfall is 39 inches/year. Not really that much when you think about it; but it drizzles for about 8 months and then we usually have glorious sun for about 4 months. The grey skies can get to you and if you get it bad the west side of the state is not for you. I like it, but my wife doesn't care for it. But sunshine can be had driving about 2 hours west or east if you're desperate. Cost of living here on the west side is higher than the midwest. In our case, it was lower than the east coast so the transition was easy for us. If you come out, hopefully Goodyear will adjust your salary accordingly, but look into it before you make the move. Look into the Chamber of Commerce figures on cost of living and compare it to your area. I'm not a city kid, but I like Seattle a lot. Not to live but to work and enjoy cultural stuff. Without traffic, I can be in downtown in less than 25 minutes. With traffic if might take an hour. I've learned to take the backroads since most of the sheep take the highway and never learn that there are better ways to commute. Seattle has lots of night life (not high on my list of activities) and my wife and I can see a show, symphony, concert often enough to relieve the boredom of the TV. Speaking of traffic, I grew up in northern NJ near New York City....traffic here is a piece of cake. But coming from the midwest, you might not be crazy about it. Spokane is quite different. You have 4 seasons instead of the two we have in the Seattle area. It will get much hotter in the summer and much colder in the winter. Any you'll see more snow on the ground than in Seattle. You'll still have lots of auto related activities; you'll just have to drive a little further to get there for the most part. Cost of living will be more like the midwest, but I think still be a little higher than you're used to. Again, check the C of C information for that. There'll be less cultural related stuff like symphony and concerts if that's what you like. Spokane has its traffic too, but it'll be concentrated in the urban areas. Again, the back roads are your friends. Lastly, let's talk about natural disasters. Washington doesn't have tornadoes; but we have windstorms, but not hurricanes; we do have the occasional earthquakes (Seattle, not Spokane) but a major, big-time earthquake is always a possibility since were on a major fault line. It happens about every 300 years and it's been about that long since the last one. Seattle seldom gets snow, but it can and when it happens paralyzes the city since very few out here know how to drive in snow. Spokane has been known to get snow like the midwest. Western Washington is prone to flooding in some areas so make sure you buy a house in a higher elevation and stay out of the known flood plains. Politics: the Seattle area and the more populous counties are pretty liberal; the rest of the state and Spokane is pretty conservative. Pick your poison; or do as I do, and ignore it. Lastly taxes: Washington has no state income tax, but we do have a pretty onerous sales tax. You can get around the sales tax by not buying a lot of stuff or going to a non sales tax state for the big purchases (Oregon comes to mind; I don't know about Idaho). Also if you itemize your federal income tax, state sales tax has been deductible (if you keep the receipts--bless my wife who does) for the past few years. Best of luck with whatever choice you make.

I put 320 miles on the new rims and Conti tires today. I'm really pleased with the Conti DWS tires that I purchased. They were rated very well by Tire Rack and the tread pattern looked aggressive enough that I thought I would like them. So far I like them. Dry road travel is nice and quiet and they track very well. I went through a little rain, but not enough to see how they perform in the wet. The short section of gravel going up the Jerry's house was also handled well. It was a stretch for me to buy what I consider expensive tires, but so far these look like I'll like them for the duration.

Adding comments about "how high can you go" for our Impreza. Finally got the tires/rims mounted on the Impreza. The 205/55-16 tires on the 6x17 RS rims are about as large as you can go. I have just about 1/4" clearance on the rear struts (AGX).

Finally got the tires/rims mounted on the Impreza. The 205/55-16 tires on the 6x17 RS rims are about as large as you can go. I have just about 1/4" clearance on the rear struts (AGX).

I'd be willing to make the trip. Keep us posted, thanks.

This pleasant piece of news came up today from Rebecca Ruston (ORG Rallycross Chairperson): Hello, We will be having 2 ORG RallyCross Season Championship points events in Chehalis on July 30 and 31. More details will be posted on the Oregon Rally Group website soon. - www.oregonrally.com On another note; Does anyone know of any car clubs that would be interested in taking part in a car show in Chehalis that weekend? Thanks, Rebecca Hopefully, I can make this weekend since I missed #3 recently. I remember last year's event at this location. It was a little on the small side but my understanding is they may be able to combine two fields and have one really large field to run in. Also nice to see since the location for the June event is still TBA.

The point of cleaning the cable and replacing the seal on the transmission is to keep the replacement speedometer from having the same problem again. In any event, replacing the speedo will be a necessity unless you're very lucky in cleaning out all the grease that got into the head.

Yes, '85 to '88 GL models (maybe others since I'm not the expert of that) often came with a 5MT dual range transmission. I felt that the '88 version was the best since it might have the least miles on it. Check out bratsrus1; he makes an upgrade kit and did my swap on our '84.

Very common problem. Oil from the transmission has migrated up the speedometer cable and into the speedo head and is dragging the needle around. Only fix I know of is to replace the seal at the transmission to prevent this in the future and replace the speedometer unit and cable. Do a search on this; it's been written up before. Edit: Cleaning the speedo head might be possible; I never tried it. Also, cleaning the speedo cable and re-greasing it might also be possible.

Weird. I can't believe I mis-read the original title at a $6000 price. Sorry about that. But even $600 for a rusty gen1 model with a non-running motor is too much. Bide your time, you'll find a more worthwhile project if you wait a while.

Not this weekend, I'm in Rhode Island for a family re-union. You might see my son James driving my car in M4.

Pass on it. I have a rust free '84 with 117K on it that runs just fine with a $6000 valuation letter from my insurance company dated in 2007 before the economy tanked. I'd be fortunate to get $4000 for it today. IMHO A non running gen1 Brat is worth $1000 in today's market if it's rust free.

It might help to re-post this in the Rally Forum. Sounds like a great idea.

I don't want to hi-jack this thread, but there is a similar school on the east coast. Check out http://www.teamoneil.com/. Thank you DirtFish for locating out here (only 30 minutes away from my house ). See you on July 9th. 'Looking forward to a LOCAL rallycross.

When I came into the Richland area a few years ago I noticed there was a off road park along with a go-cart track on the back road from Vantage. I checked it out at the time and it looked like he had a lot of unused acreage for that sort of thing along with room for a rallycross venue. I never followed up on it since it was more than 4-1/2 hours from my house. Found it again: Horn Rapids ORV park. http://www.riderplanet-usa.com/atv/trails/info/washington_02056/ride_164b.htm

Stayed at the Shilo Inn; warm and cozy.

I'll be joining Dr. RX tomorrow evening and working the service areas Saturday and Sunday.

I'm not sure they'll fit but Lynnwood Pick a Part has an '84 wagon with quad lights on it in pretty decent shape. I was there today looking for an EA81 dipstick and marvelled at the overall condition of the car when I was there.

MWE seems to be the best choice with the least complaints here.

I put 225/55R-17 tires on my wife's '99 Forester. Looks great and we haven't had any issues with rubbing. Rims came from a 2006 Legacy. Two more pics in my "Stuff" album. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/album.php?albumid=17