zyewdall

It also sounds to me like it could be a bad multifunction switch (the one that does headlights, turn signals, etc, on the steering column).

Not for a suby yet. I made one for my VW golf and am making one for my mitsubishi truck now. Not sure if the way I'm mounting them will transfer to the subaru though (which I haven't even figured out for the truck yet... involves the new bumper and winch mount at the same time, so it'll probably just mount to the bumper somehow)

Welcome. '82 GL wagon is the best (my first subaru and first car The first one succumbed to rust, but I have a rust free one that I'll get fixed up running with a new engine an all sometime. See you out on the playa. I've seen a fair number of older subaru's out there (alot of the smaller art cars use them as the base). Z

Stock suby is only about 22:1 in low range 1st. Most stock 4x4 trucks are in the range of 30:1 to 45:1. You can do alot of off-road stuff without anywhere near 120:1 I'm sure. Large rocks and stuff... yeah, it'd be nice. The unimog U500i is available with a 3000:1 final drive. It goes 450 feet per hour at wide open throttle in the lowest gear. Just about the only thing I can think of using a ratio like this for is for slowly shoving a giant rotary snowplow through a hardpacked drift higher than the cab (which is an option you can buy with it)

That would lead to a final drive ratio of 120:1 in first gear low range. Pretty low, considering the final drive in my landrover, stock, was 40:1, and will be about 70:1 after the revisions.

Good grief. That would be geared down.....

The blazer also has a transfer case to give the high low rather than a planetary reducer on the input shaft, like the subaru D/R transmissions had. I'm not sure if it would have been possible to fit the low range unit in the front of the 3AT, whereas it's easier to bolt a transfer case to the back of a longitudinal rwd transmission.... automatic or manual doesn't change it much. New FJ or old FJ? I like the old ones, but not the new ones (they also make the new ones in 2wd......

Why? Don't Pinzguars and H1's have portal hubs? They can drive on the roads.

Is there not any way to put the low range gearset from the old EA 5MT D/R into the front of the EJ 5 speed tranny? I know that the EJ tranies came with a low range (not very low, but still two range) transmission down under, and I've also seen an EJ transplant here (Beefaru's) with an AWD 5 speed, that had low range. Though... maybe that was from an RX. Just wondering because if I'm doing the 5 speed swap in my old '82 wagon, and the EJ swap, if I could swap the dual range input assembly into the EJ's transmission it might be cool. Or... just buy the adaptor plate from SJR to bolt the EJ to the 5 speed and make it easy on myself... Z

I had to vote for the EA81 wagon. I know the brat's are going to win... and well they should. But the old wagons are so cool too, and you can haul lumber, bricks, furniture, packs of dogs, etc in them

It looks like it needs ground effects stuff like the RX's had now -- front lower air dam, side skirts, such. And some shiny or black 14" alloy rims with something low profile like a 195/55/R14 on it.

You are assuming that the front's have more weight on them. Which for most empty pickups and SUV's is true. But for something with a more equal weight balance (like some subaru's, especially wagons with a bunch of stuff in the back , I'd think that the rear would have equal weight, especially going up a hill as the weight transfers to the back. Oddly, my friend's 1980 scount has exactly 50/50 weight balance... not sure how, as it has a 800lb V8 in the front, but it is a 5,000 lb truck too... He has the locker in the rear, and an open front.

Yeah.... you need to replace the idler gear/pulley and the two tensioners when you replace the belts. I've had the idler gear sieze, and shred an otherwise good timing belt.... 220k on the original bearing was too much I guess...

Yup, one for the drivers side cam and one for the passenger side cam...

Exactly. There was a jacked up chevy 2500 doing decent in it, because he had a foot of room around the tires to fling the mud off...

I am not sure for the EA82.... but the EA81 used both Nippondenso and Hitachi distributors, and they are NOT interchangeable (I tried....). On those, the important part of the distributor IS the module. Buying a distributor without the module just replaces the mechanical parts. It doesn't have anything outside of the distributor except a standard coil -- no extra ignitor on the coil. But.... I recall that the SPFI distributor looks significantly different inside than the carbed EA81, and has both a module, and a optical wheel... at least on my '89. So... my experience with the EA81 may not mean a hill of beans for your EA82....:-\

I seem to remember a thread in the off-road section on this recently -- the consensus is that it would be very hard to steer, but work otherwise. Locking the rear has much less effect on steering.

Yeah, you have to turn the engine by hand to line up the three parts (flywheel, and each cam). Easier way to tell for sure that the cams are properly timed is to do one of them to 12 oclock, then roated the crank a full turn and re-align it to the 3 little marks, then check the other cam is at 12 oclock. As for running -- it'll try to run with the drivers cam 3 tooths off, and the passenger cam 180 degrees off.... done that... I suspect it will run one tooth off, but be significantly down on power. It kind of sounds like you are a few teeth off on one of them, but without lining it up with respect to the crankshaft flywheel marks, it's not really possible to tell which. Z

Hmmm. I have sa 1982 with air conditioning (doesn't work of course...) and I don't recall it having a fan on the engine, but I can't say for sure -- I'll look at it next time I'm in the shop (where the engine is sitting). Z

AFAIK, the single range and dual range 5 speeds are the same length, so you don't have to shorten the drivesaft -- unless you swap in a 4 speed dual range, which is longer (and has other problems too, like losing 3rd gear).

I think they all had an electric fan standard, and only added the engine driven one if it had A/C, if GD is right. I've seen ones with just the engine driven one, but it's probably because the electric one was removed at some point (like my car). Z

Ah. I've never had working A/C on any subaru, but now that you mention it, all the ones with that fan did have the compressor and stuff on there at least.

I've seen some nice lifted EA82's. But I've seen nicer lifted EA81's... I would probably either go for an EA81, or a SPFI EA82, and swap in the dual range transmission (or if you can find an '88 or '89 GL wagon, it'll have the dual range and SPFI. I had an '85 GL wagon... nice car, but the carbureator was a pita once it wore out.

Yeah. I've found on my subaru's that there's often some extra connectors - for options that weren't installed or something?

Yup... if you round over the nuts, you may be reduced to slowly hacksawing them off. BTDT. Both my carbed and SPFI EA82 had the fan on the water pump pulley, but I've seen ones that don't too. It just varies. Z