zyewdall

It might also be on the drivers side strut tower -- I seem to remember that's where it was on my GL. And... the little sticker might have come off. A decent automotive paint shop should have a catalog of all the 1986 subaru colors, that you can match a chip to. However, the Sherwin Williams automotive paint shop here has been carrying fewer and fewer of the older car colors (I wanted to get some green from a 1973 ford truck, and they had the old book with the color in it... but could no longer actually make that color because the necessary ingredients were no longer made).

Does the weber use a manual choke? My '76 Mazda pickup has a manual choke, and a very simple carbureator (not quite the simplest possible, as it does have the annoying air injection pump), and it will fire right up in zero degree weather if you use the choke. I am very impressed with it. Previously I had owned 80's carbed vehicles, and had learned to hate carbureators... but the simpler ones apparently weren't that bad.

SOunds like it's missing the stock skid plate, because you shouldn't be able to see the oil pan or exhaust pipes going down when you look under there from the front.

You mean heavy duty skid plates? Because it should have a stamped steel one stock (unless someone took it off to change the oil, and never got around to putting it back on....) Z

If you have access to either, I'd go with the SPFI. Better starting in cold weather. Never have to mess with it. I got 30ish mpg on the highway, and 26ish mpg around town in the SPFI wagon. I'm not sure the weber will be quite as high, but I'll let some of the weber folks chime in.

I can verify that the 4-pin connector is different between the '87 SPFI and the '91 SPFI. The '87 SPFI had different engine harness connectors than the later SPFI's too. Z

Yeah... 5 year old oil probably doesn't have any lubrication qualities left :-\ Does it burn oil?

Sorry... I forgot about the RX. It was a 1.15:1 low range, instead of the 1.59:1 dual range of the part time 4wd 5 speed, right?

In 79, probably a rabbit or a mercedes. As far as I know, around 1981 was the first year that most the japanese manufacturers introduced diesel options.

Shouldn't that be about the same as the EJ swap in an EA82 car? Same transmission adaptor needed -- but you'll just have a bit shorter engine in the car going from 6 back down to 4 cylinders. If it's wide enough for the ER27? then it should be the same width as an EA82 body, which fits the EJ22 witdh.

I guess you could call the SPFI system a fully electronic carbureator, instead of one that still tries to meter the gasoline with the laws of physics and venturies and such. It says SPFI right on top of it though....

But the dual range are not full time 4wd. I didn't think the single range were either... but I've never owned one, so I really don't know. Z

Where I was, it looked like most of the fleet was thrown away from France... seriesly -- 80's era mercedes and puegots that looked like they had been rolled, dragged out of the ditch, hit by a dumptruck, put back together with chewing gum, and were still running. I remember one puegot pickup truck, from the 60's probably, with 1000lbs of fish in it -- totally rusted out, not a piece of glass left on it (windshield, headlights, side windows, nothing), or any paint left on the rusty metal. Then, it slowly puttered away.... On the other hand, I saw what looked to be brand new Lexus Landcruisers and G-wagons, that the rich people drove.... so it appears that they were available to those that had the cash.

Where in Africa? I think it varies alot depending on where you are. I was in Mauritania about 5 years ago, and there were not subaru's... probably because they don't make a diesel. There were almost no gasoline cars at all, except on the US embassy grounds, where I saw a few Chevys. We rented two pickups -- a Hilux, and a VW branded Hilux. I like the VW branded one much better -- leaf springs and solid front axle (for a late 90's model) instead of IFS -- it did much better out in the sand dunes and rocks than the toyota branded one, and also went faster on the highway (could cruise at almost 150kph). Both were turbodiesel which were way better (IMO) than the gas engines we have here in the US. There were quite a few of the landcruiser pickups too (slightly newer versions of the FJ55), and landrovers, a few nissan pickups, and lots of 80's mercedes sedans and puegot sedans, and diesel camrys. All the semi trucks were mecerdes. Rich people had Lexus SUV's (landcruisers) and G-wagons. If newer subaru's are available there... I would still shy away, since the newer ones don't have low range. If they had low range like the old GLs, then Id' say yes -- as long as you don't overload it, it will probably do pretty well. But, given the terrain we were driving around in on the outskirts of the sahara desert... 75% of american SUV's would have given out (we broke a spring on the Hilux one day, by loading 12 people and all our baggage in it, then driving up a dry river bed/"road"). They're just not made for real off-roading any more. Then again... it might be a comletely different place than where I was at, where all wheel drive is fine.... Africa is as diverse, or more, than the US -- and there are parts of the US where subaru's are not often seen, and parts where they are 40% of the cars on the road. If subaru's are sold there, then it might not be as severe as where we were. I think it would be fun to buy one over there after looking at what's driving around for a month or two.

???? non US model? Last year of the carbureated L series was 87 for the US, I think. Z

Have you measured the battery voltage -- I've had batteries weak enough to light the door indicators, but then turn off if you try to turn the starter. If the battery voltage is good, have you tried jumping 12 volts directly to the starter solenoid terminal? That will give a good idea of whether it's got enough power to turn the motor over, and whether it might be a bad ignition switch. Sounds like it might be, if you already replaced the battery and had the starter checked. And, if it not only doesn't crank, but doesn't turn on the dash lights or anything, it sounds like both the run and crank positions of the ignition switch are not working. BTW, the '84 doesn't have AWD -- it has part time 4wd, and if it's a GL, it should have low range. If it didn't have enough power in low range to make it up the hill, it must have really been suffering. As for sitting so long... all winter isn't long... I've started ones that sat for 2 or 3 years. But, you probably have rusty brakes (just ride the brakes a little going down a hill and they'll shine right up in most cases). Check the tire pressures. And, depending on where it was parked, the vent system might be full of leaves. Probably a good idea to check all the fluid levels too, but other than that, probably not bad.

Will it fire on ether? If you have both fuel and spark, then it sounds like a timing issue. It wasn't clear from your post if you have the FI fuel pump too, but if you replaced the harness and the lines, probably? How long have you tried to start it? I had to crank for a minute or two (not continuously) to get my SPFI EA82 to start after swapping the engine last week -- but after it started, it fires right up in 1 or 2 seconds now -- must have had to purge the lines or something after the swap (though, I kept the old intake manifold... so it would only be the manifold that it would have had to fill with fuel air mixture -- it's possible that the cylinders on the new engine were full of oil or something for storage, that had to be purged).

In my experience, it's alot easier to fill the cooling system on an EA81, than an EJ series car. I've always just filled it up through the radiator cap, let it run till the thermostat opens, then top it off. None of this silly burping, parking on a hill, etc, that the EJ's seem to require. Z

Yeah... I guess. Probably not every time. Keeping the tank full in cold weather helps (less condensation on the inside of the gas tank). Also making sure that the fuel filler actually seals and such (more a problem on old stuff). I wonder if using the oxygenated gas with Ethanol helps -- most the gas sold in Colorado is E10, and I've never had problems with water in my fuel, at least in my cars. The tractor tends to get some snow inside the fuel tank when I'm filling it (pouring gas in, in blowing snow... you know...), so it gets Heet regularly just in case. Z

Yeah.... I lived in Boulder then though . Me and some other grad students live in the upstairs of an apartment, with our old junky cars, and downstairs lived a few freshman undergrads, with brand new cars that were obviously not bought by someone in their income bracket if you know what I mean....

I'm going to go with Skip -- you've got water in the system somewhere, which is freezing and blocking a filter or lines or something. Put a few cans of dri-gas in there, and check all the filters for water accumulation. Z

If so.... what's the chance that I could put the low range input shaft unit from a EA series transmission in there? Probably between zero and nil, I suspect. It appears that the Justy uses a 23 spline input shaft, compare to a 21 spline input shaft for a EA.. which doesn't bode well for anything else interchanging... I'm trying to figure out some way to get more low end torque out of the Justy. It bogs down in snow pretty easily once it gets deeper than the belly -- like most subarus with good studded snow tires, it doesn't lose traction, but the rpms' just drop till the engine stops, and I have to drop the clutch at 4,000rpm to get it to move. Not good. Same problem my friend's legacy has, but even worse. The old GL, with low range, would usually spin the 13" tires even when the car wouldn't move at all. If the installing low range in the transmission doesn't work, my other idea is building a hybrid system with an electric motor assisting the gas engine at lower rpms. That's going to take a while to figure out....... (though I do remember reading on the internet about 8 years ago about someone who put such an electric assist on an old carbed Justy, and got it to accelerate quite a bit faster).

Do you have the AC on the inside, or the outside? If it's on the outside, you can just delete it, and the alternator will be fine since it will run on just the shorter inside belt. Those ones are the dealer installed AC, and I have never seen one that worked anyway. If the A/C is on the inside, with the alternator on the outside, it's the factory AC, and I don't know how to delete it and keep the alternator belts and mounting points and such... without alot of fabrication, or getting parts for the other type. The good thing is that those systems actually seem to work... though, I know exactly what you're talking about... it a PITA to get to the water pump with the AC right above it.... Yeah... what a design with the o-ring... You need a new one... which comes with something else usually. Probably the water pump, IIRC. Though maybe it comes in the same box as the little 90 degree bypass hose that's down there too? The ACE hardware here actually has a pretty good selection of O-rings -- I've never tried to find that particular one, but, it might be worth a try...

Yes -- sounds like a new ignition switch is in order. If it still behaves oddly after that, you might try running new grounds to the dash and such -- it kind of sounds like some things are not grounded, and are using other nearby items as their ground return instead of the normal path, perhaps. Z

Yeah... sounds similar to my first suby -- it was completely rusted out, dented, needed two new axles, a new carbureator, an exhaust system, and had lots of electrical gremlins. I bought a new one for half the cost of just the parts to fix the old one...