zyewdall

Still lots of EA81's here -- I've got a running parts car, plus an extra running engine, and there are probably another dozen of them in town in various condition (250 people in town). They are pretty easy to find. Not nearly as easy as 10 years ago, but still not bad. EA82's are a little more common than EA81's now, and the old EJ22 Legacies are becoming the most prevalent, instead of the EA series. But it's still easy to get stuff for any of them around here. I'd consider the EA82 a step down. A little more power, but way more complicated (plus, I think it is too wide for the frame rails for the EA81 bodies). EA81 is much simpler to work on. If you're going for more complication, might as well go for an EJ22.

Yeah, the VSS on the older cars (the SPFI loyales and justys at least) comes from up in the guage cluster, even though it has the mechanical speedo cable. I don't know if it's the same signal as the EJ22 ECU is expecting, but I know the older ECU will also through a VSS code if the mechanical cable goes out. Z

Yes. I timed mine by just listening to the engine, and it made it the couple miles back to my house up a steep hill.

Snow pics coming... just got 34" of sloppy wet stuff the last two days.... Girls are allowed to wear pink socks. She was a good sport about helping to push the car through the mud and all, and hiking out and hitching a ride when we had to abandon it. EDIT: Yes, it's a 4wd Justy, but I did have it in 2wd sometimes -- sometimes it would kind of move in 2wd, spinning the front wheels and dragging the back wheels, like you can see in that picture. 4wd tended to just smoke the clutch and stall the engine because the back wheels were so gummied.

:lol: Yeah. Passing?? I have passed shiny new SUV's on 4wd trails with my old rustbucket EA81... they were worried about dents or something, but mine was missing so much metal already, that I didn't really consider that. Other than that, and tourists in brand new cars going 10 under the limit, nope, not really going to be passing in it....

Look at the emissions label under the hood that says whether it meets all applicable emissions regulations except CA, or if it says it meets them in CA. If the label's gone..... start looking at the other stuff. If it's an '87, the CA ones are SPFI, but I believe all the rest were still carbed. Z

Yeah.... and give some details on it... how many miles, is it running, etc...

I've never seen a suby with point and condensor ignition -- the oldest one I've had has been a 1982, and I think the NADA ones switched before then. However, you are in Austrialia? Your's might be different than we got here. So.... dunnno. I've not even had luck switching between the 2wd and 4wd distributors (perhaps one is the hitachi and one is the nippondenso?), so it seems to be fairly picky. I don't seen any reason why you couldn't change it back to a points and condensor distributor, but ignition systems are not my forte to say the least, and I may be completely off there. Z

I've never owned a subaru with less than about 180k miles... so I wouldn't know

Yeah..... 6" at my house already, with the possibility of 18 to 36 by Saturday afternoon. Back in January I was wondering why I had my snow tires on, but now that it's April, it finally makes sense

No, I'm not talking about performance handling.... I'm talking about adobe mud So... over by Montrose, I went down a road last weekend that said "impassible when wet". It didn't seem that wet, though it had rained the night before a little and I was looking out for creek crossings or deep mud or such. I didn't expect to get stopped by half and inch of mud.... er.. make that half an inch of super sticky clay. Filled the wheel wells and just stopped the car. Eventually had to leave it and come back with a yota when it had dried out a bit more and drag it down. Got a full wheelbarrow full of mud off the wheel wells the next day. The dogs didn't like the mud so much either -- big balls on their paws. The white one really is a dog -- it just looks like a cat next to the big black Malmute/Newfie mix. It's really about twice the size of a cat.

Haha. Kind of like my EA81 wagons... want to trade one?

Wonder how much the '97 weighs compared to the '91. We have two 2007 outback's for company cars, and sometimes they feel kind of sluggy compared to my old EA82... way more power, but way more weight to move around too, and the 4EAT is still doggy if you don't shift it manually. I'd think that the '97 imp shouldn't weigh much more than a first gen Legacy though....

Dunno. I noticed you had another gen one wagon last time I drove by earlier this month. Collecting them?

Have you changed the transmission fluid recently? If it's the original, it might help a little. Z

Hey, I have a 1.6 diesel rabbit, and it's actually about the same as my EA81 4x4 wagons. Not fast, but not that slow either. I've beat BMW's off the line (who weren't paying attention and didn't know I was trying....). Certainly faster than my toyota 2.2 NA diesel pickup... that's quite a bit slower, especially with a load of firewood. And, it's faster than the Chevy Cavalier my friend had too (fuel injected 1.9, with a super splushy automatic, and 140k miles on it when it finally died -- amazing POS)

I think he meant that it has fwd, 4wd hi, and 4wd lo positions. BTW, the low range on subies is not from a transfer case, but by a planetary reduction gear on the transmission input shaft. Same effect, but mechanically its on the other end of the transmission, and is in the same case. Z

$250ish probably. Would have been $500 last summer, but back then you could get $250 for scrap value... and, it depends on where you are. Back east, I bet it would go for almost $1000 just because it's not rusty.....

What year and model? Is there any rust on the body? It's not too hard to just stick a new engine in these usually. I just stuck a new (okay 160k instead of 244k) engine in my '89GL for $250 (plus a long day swapping it). Z

I've used it on some cars, and not on others... depends on whether it's hooked up to begin with. I kind of like it, but not strictly necessary with good use of the handbrake. My truck doesn't have a hillholder or a working handbrake, so I'm kind of used to offroading in it... (sometimes I have to start it in gear if it's a sketchy slope) I think it's kind of funny that some of the new luxury SUV's have it and are marketing it like a new thing.... kind of like a 1982 subaru standard feature....

It should be fine. It's virtually brand new. The only big thing is make sure the timing belt is new, and that it doesn't drink coolant or overheat. It should go for another 100k at least if those are good and it's been taken care of. Price is a tad high, but given the low miles (usually 200k+ goes for $1000ish), perhaps okay. Mine ran fine at 75 on the highway, about 3800rpm, and got around 31mpg doing that. I took it up to WA from CO a few times, and down to AZ a few times too. Keep it above 2,800rpm if you want any power, especially at elevation.

I did post a photo of the sasquatch on the same road in the non-suby off road section.

Yeah... I've found them inside the door gaps too -- I sprayed it with carb cleaner then hit it with a torch. Making sure not the set the car on fire, but it was pretty satisfying...

Hate to say it, but it sounds like it might be the ignition module inside the distributor, if it cranks over fine, but randomly dies but runs great when it is running. The coil is cheaper, but on one of mine, it was the distributor. Z

My dad lives just north of Spokane, but I don't think he's ready to sell his '61 yet -- wouldn't even give it to me It's all original, 36k miles, just needs some brake work and some wiring where the rats have chewed it up. Z