zyewdall

I've got a '91 four door. Also looking for a radio (I'm trying an aftermarket one... I'll let you know how it goes...). I haven't found a good source of parts yet... superrupair is great for most cars, but not so much for Justy's it seems. I need to look up the number of the shop where I bought mine again -- he specializes in Justy's -- out in commerce city area -- Joel Cox is his name. What color is yours? I saw a nice 4 door charcoal gray 2nd gen in Boulder at the Expedex store last wednesday, and there is a another 4 door silver 2nd gen in Ward, as well as a silver 2 door 1st gen (three justies, for a town of 150 people...), and somewhere up here is a white 4 door 2nd gen -- not sure where it lives. Mine is a maroonish one, with dark gray below the trim. I love it -- zippy little car (till you try going over passes at 10,000 feet, which I do alot taking it down to southern CO on hwy 285...) and gets around 38 to 40mpg highway, 33mpg commuting. Doesn't have much torque in deep snow is my only issue, but it does great in anything under 8 to 12 inches.

Yeah, my 14" alloy pugs on my EA81 look very sharp, and don't stick out. And they almost fit with no lift (195/70R14's I think). If only it had an engine..... I've got a '90 Legacy parked next to it now... parts car for the EJ swap.

Is this an EA81 or EA82 engine? Hatch or Wagon GL? The head gaskets should be alot easier on the EA81 than the EA82. The EA82 can be done in the car... but it's a pain because of the clearances. EA81 should be a breeze. Z

Whenever I've looked at this, the monthly payments on the new car come to the same as the total repair costs of the old car in about 3 or 4 months, if you have the time to put into repairing the old car. The head gaskets are the worst thing you've mentioned. That's only about $100 to fix (and a long weekend) if you have tools, and the CV's should be replaced soon if they're clicking loudly -- but wait another month for that, and you've got another $200 there. Then in another month, another $200 for an exhaust. Pretty soon, paying $200 a month into repairs and it will be all fixed -- instead of paying at least $200 a month for several years. Unless you want a new car...

Sounds like the linkage came undone inside. This happened on my old '82 wagon. I had to pop off the inner plastic from inside to get access to it and see what was going on. If the '96 is still similar design to the '82, that's probably it. Z

Wow.... that does look more impossible. Unless it happens to fit a 6 lug pattern that's missing three lugs It seems that putting an EJ series engine of some sort into these cars is the only real performance upgrade. I'm finally getting ready to do that to my '82 wagon, after driving stock ones for years. They really are fine, stock, but just aren't that fast -- keeps the speeding ticket's down, I guess.... I found another performance upgrade though.... drive an early '70's mazda pickup around for a while, then all of a sudden the stock EA82 feels pretty fast.

Haha. I've never met another person named Zeke, but I have known at least 4 dogs with that name.

Another Zeke? How's the fuel filter? Sounds a little like that too.

Any EA82 transmission. So, the 5 speeds from 1985 to 1994 (loyale, not legacy. The ones from the EJ series cars (legacies, impreza's, foresters, etc) will not fit without swapping a bunch of other stuff and buying an adaptor plate for it. I'd suggest getting a 5speed dual range from an '85 to '89 GL ... same as you currently have, but with a 1.59:1 low range too. Or a full time awd one from an RX or XT. Those would be considered upgrades from the pushbutton 4wd that the loyales came with, and would, for the most part, be a direct bolt in.

Sounds like I should go for it then. I've known this car for about 4 years now... so yeah, I know it's history alot more than some random junkyard one. I remember when we put the new engine in it even (original engine had the head gaskets go, I think -- just gave the old core to Jerry DeMoss) I was driving it yesterday, and it sure is fast compared to my old EA stuff... even with the heavier legacy body I hit 55 going up one steep hill on the canyon when I floored it, instead of maxing out at 40ish like the EA82 or the Justy does (causing audi's to go zooming around me at 60...) Only thing really wrong with it other than alot of little annoying but not important things on any old car is that the front struts died... then it proceeded to bash everything off the bottom of the car bouncing up and down on my friend's half mile long rocky driveway.

I'm still thinking about the EJ22 swap for my '82 GL wagon.... been sitting over a year with no engine at all now... and a friend of mine is selling her '90 Legacy for $500. Engine is a '93 or '94 engine, around 120k miles IIRC. It runs pretty good. Heck of a lot more power than the EA series subarus, and it feels more powerful than that '07 outbacks too (lighter car, probably). Newer radiator, brand new clutch. Car is beat up underneath pretty bad -- struts are shot, exhaust banged off, dents in cross members, lots of misc stuff falling apart. I already have a 5 speed D/R to go in there. I could probably find an engine cheaper.... but it might be worth it to have the whole car there to take parts as needed off of during the swap instead of hoping I got all the right parts?

At some point they moved them to under the dash instead. i think my '89 had them under the dash, though I may be remembering a '91 that I took an engine out of.

There's two white RX's parked next to a house a block or two away from my house -- haven't seen them move for about 3 years so I suspect they don't run.... If you can't find anything closer than CO, I can ask.

ERK..... i saw a minivan (one of the plastic bodied ones) completely incinerated along the side of the road near Vantage on I-90 once. I'm buying fire extinguishers for all my cars today (they're all old, and most have sketchy wiring for at least something)

I've had fairly good luck with Harbor freight stuff for ones used occasionally. If I want a good one to use all the time, I'll usually get it at McGuckins and get a more reputable brand. On torque wrenches, I think I just bought a middle range one from Checker Auto (1/2" drive clicker) and it's worked quite well for what I've needed it for (a few head gaskets and engine work mostly).

I was just going to suggest that it might not be the switch at all, but the relay. My Justy is doing exactly the same thing. Its obviously not the bulbs, since they do come on sometimes... but i have no idea where the relay is... I haven't taken the switch apart to verify that it's working yet either... but that's the next step, I guess. Z

I did head gaskets in my '85 GL -- didn't resurface the heads or anything, just cleaned them, and bolted new gaskets in. It ran for another 5k miles before the next owner junked it when the starter motor went out Normally, I'd agree that the Legacies are better engines than the EA82's... except this week, I've had to work on a few junker Legacies from friends, and the EA82 wagon is running fine.... not a big fan of them right now. Or of Toyota trucks... which usually have a good reputation as well, but not this week. Z

Cute little thing. Mine reminds me of a large lawn tractor engine. The fuel injected one is rated for the same horsepower as my old EA81 was. Mainly I wish I still had the low range on the transmission, as it does run out of torque in the snow or mud.

Hmmm... a justy only forum. I didn't know about that. It's only got 15k on the engine, and most everything was replaced when the rebuilt engine was installed.... fuel filter, air filter, wires, etc. It's still possible it needs something, because it's sure acting like it... it does have some electrical gremlins....

1991 fuel injected Justy. Has been running perfect for a while, but the last day or so has been giving me a little trouble. Hesitating on takeoff, and idle occasionally goes up and down while idling -- like up to 1600rpm, then back to 800. Kind of acts like a bad accelerator pump when driving it -- not revving up smoothly when you take off, but fine once you are at WOT cruising. Hmmmmm. Check engine light briefly came on while driving, then went back off. I pulled the stored codes --11 and 21. Crank angle sensor fault, and coolant temp sensor fault. I don't like the sound of 11. I did replace the coolant temp sensor last fall. If I connect the test connectors while it's running, I get codes 12 and 63. Starter switch fault (true -- starter position on ignition switch is gone, I've been parking on hills, or jumping the solinoid to start it), and blower switch fault (huh?). Ideas?

Seems a little high for the engine. Superrupair sold me one for $225, and I'd expect one from the general ether of the internet to be a little less than one from a shop like that. You should just be able to swap the long block and maybe the distributor in order to put the SPFI engine into the '85 without rewiring. Z

Yeah... depends on where you are. If you only need the AWD a few days a year... probably not worth the hassle and poor gas mileage the rest of the year. But, up in the mountains in Colorado, we deal with snow about 6 months out of the year. I have been known to follow my friend's FJ40 up his unplowed "driveway" in my subaru justy -- something no fwd car could do (and i've seen his driveway foil 4wd pickups when my subaru justy got through too -- tires...).

Your description does sound exactly like the symptoms you'd get with a wheel out of balance. My subaru (all of them actually) do that if I get ice frozen onto part of the rim or mud on part of the rim, that makes the rim out of balance.

Also, it is fairly common for the start position of the ignition switch to stop working -- I've had that happen on three subarus too... my Justy has that problem now. I need to put in a pushbutton switch to start it (or get a new ignition switch, I guess..... )

I've had this happen on just about every subaru I've owned. I just replaced the starter with a used one for $25 and it was all better, but you could probably also take it apart and clean the contacts inside and put new brushes in the motor (mine continued to click loudly, but the motor did not turn). Superrupair is where I get the used ones. Z