zyewdall

Oh. It moved FORWARD?? :-\ Hmmmm..... bend your radius rod to pull it back You could probably just realign it, and it would be fine. If it moved forwards, the toe in is probably too wide now. I bet you could get it back in alighnment and not worry about it being moved forwards that little mit.

Might have to get a new radius rod -- sounds like it might be bent. My friends EA82 pulled really hard, and we noticed that the right front wheel was a full inch farther back than on the other side. When it's that bad, the radius rod bend was quite noticeable. But your's might not be noticeable with only 1/4" Z

I may be making stuff up here, but if it's like the quad system on my mitsubishi truck, you don't have low-beam only lights. You have two headlights that are hi/lo beam, and two that are high beam only. So, it's actually the hi beam portion of your lo/hi headlight that's burned out. This baffled me for a while when it went out on my truck till I figured out it wasn't a low-beam only light.

Sounds like the clutch cablel is too loose, if it will shift fine when the engine is stopped, but not when running. It's not actually disengaging when you push in the clutch pedal. Tighten it up a little. That would be the easiest thing... if not... not good. And luckily the GL's never had the clutch/ignition interlock. I don't like that "feature"

The bumper is part of the crumple zone? I thought that it was more around the front frame rails. I ran my old '82 GL into trees and stuff (mostly not intentional) and it seemed to hold up fairly well -- dented and bent of course, but the step bumper on my truck is bent from doing that too. But it was also chromed metal, not plastic over a metal center. Did they change it by '84? Z

Yup. Which brings up a slighly off topic question -- does anyone have experience with the 4x4 Chevy LUV trucks? I was reading that they did not have a separate transfer case either, unlike most the small 4x4 trucks. I was wondering if they are a design similar to the subaru or what? I've never actually seen one. On the daily driver question -- depends on what your daily driving involves. Mine often involves going up occasional dirt roads, lots of gravel roads, and occasional bashing through snowdrifts in the winter. I've bashed the oil pan off my VW rabbit doing what I would call routine driving. A stock subaru does fine most the time, but a 2 or 3" lift and some 14" wheels would be nice. If you are having a separate rig that you only take offroading, that's different, especially if you tow it to the trailhead. And if your daily driving is only on highways, a subaru isn't ideal. But if your work and house and neighbors and such take you on less than ideal quality dirt roads every day, I think a lifted subaru is a great.

Uh, the link the original picture doesn't seem to work any more? Did anyone archive it?

My '82 GL qualifies now! When you first buy it, you still have to have it tested, but then no more if you get collector plates.

Why would you prefer a one piece? My understanding is that the 2 piece is less exposed to stuff when off-roading, and puts less stress on the tailshaft of the tranny. I suppose the one piece is lighter though -- that two piece is heavy.

I don't think that the subaru can loose lubrication when in 2wd. Unlike most 4wd's, the rear (equivalent to the front in most 4wds) driveline and differential still turn all the time -- no freewheeling hubs, so it would stay lubricated. Make sure all the tires are the same, and don't put it in 4wd on pavement. If it gets stuck in 4wd (usually because I have to pull out onto a paved road while turning, but am turning from an icy road that I need it to be in 4 wheel drive in order to pull out), what I usually do is get my right wheels on an icy or gravel patch along the road while I'm coasting and pulse the brakes hard enough to momentarily skid one wheel while pushing the lever down. Usually goes right back into 2wd. If you take tight turns on pavement in 4wd, it can be a bear to get back in 2wd, and that's really not good for the drivetrain either. I'd also look underneath and make sure everything looks okay - just to be sure. Usually you can feel the binding if in 4wd on pavement, but I've never heard noises.

As tight as you can get it -- because it really sucks when it comes off when you are driving... It's a steel bolt in a steel crankshaft, so it'd be pretty hard to strip out.

I've got 221k on my hi/lo/2wd 5 speed right now. Had a previous one that had 225k on it. No problems with the tranny on either one. Cars were both stock, but I did take them out wheeling, and I drive pretty aggressively offroad and in the snow (drive like a grandma in town though, according to my firends ). The EA81 4 speed dual range trannies I've had 3rd gear get very grindy on two of them around 220k. I'm putting a 5 speed dual range into my EA81 car, and putting a diesel engine with at least 130ftlbs torque in front of it, and I don't have any qualms about doing that -- I figure something else will break first. Remember, the low range on the dual range trannies is accomplished in the input shaft, so most of the transmission is used to receiving 159% the torque input of the stock engine already -- it's alot beefier than you'd expect a tranny for that small of an engine to have.

I'd spring for a dual range 4x4 tranny -- should be all you need in addition to the donor car you have. You can ram through lots of stuff by just flooring it, but the low range sure helps, especially if you want to put larger tires on it. Shouldn't be more than $100 to get a tranny (last one I got was free, and I may have another extra whole donor car coming with another one, but shipping its probably out of the question -- darn thing is HEAVY) Yes, stock loyales are part time 4wd, not awd.

I think that with a little welding and metal forming you could make a full belly pan that went wide enough to protect the outer CV joints, tie rods, steering linkages, and full engine compartment. I was considering doing that for a friend who tore the skid plate and the CV boots off her '90 legacy bashing through icy drifts.

There should be lots of threads on this. However, I'd think it would be alot easier to convert it to 4 wheel drive instead of all wheel drive -- just easier to find the 4 wheel drive transmissions for the EA82. If you've got an RX tranny go ahead though. I think that you have to weld on the hanger for the center carrier bearing, but no changes to the ECM or wiring. Hmmmm. Except you have the automatic now? There might be some other changes involved in going from the automatic to manual tranny. I don't know about that.

Sounds like you may have jumped the timing belts -- were they running without covers? I've rammed mine into snowbanks deep enough it had to be towed out, and I'm lacking a skid plate right now. Caused the alternator belt to squeal pretty bad, but still ran fine. Also, just a little water in the distributor can kill it -- I've never had this happen on a subaru even when power washing the engine, but I've killed other engines by powerwashing the disty. If you pop the cap and see water droplets, that might be it.

Yeah, beware of the project pileup.... After a while, you'll go back to the old ones though. If I get a new car, I drive it all the time for a while, but then I miss my old one and drive it instead. Last fall I was driving my VW rabbit most the time, but then I got the subaru running and I haven't driven the VW more than once or twice since. But I was just looking at it parked in the snowbank the other day and awaiting enough snow to melt so I can drive it again and park the subaru for a while.

Yeah, I'm not a chevy person, but I like the little LUV pickups alot too (hey, they're really Isuzu!). I've seen one of those with bad tires go up and down the road to near my parent's place in eastern WA on ice and snow and everything. Not sure what the heck was holding it to the ground, but it almost seemed suburu-like at times in it's ability to keep going. There's a shop in town with two old 4x4 luv's with the orange paint job and 4x4 decals and stuff. Seems like they are slowly restoring one good one from the two of them.

My rabbit diesel is a little vague on the shifting, but I can easily get it in all 5 speeds. Except for when I flew over a waterbar at 20mph, wacked the oil pan into the road, and broke an engine mount. For some reason, I only had 2nd and 4th left..... I drove another mile in 2nd before stopping, and finding the engine/tranny had settled about 2 inches, making all the shift linkages out of wack. Guess I need to weld a skid plate for it huh The 5 speed on my dad's 1953 allis chalmers bulldozer is has the reverse where 1st would be, 1st where 2nd would be, etc... like the military truck transmissions. And of course, none of them are marked. But top speed is only 5.6mph too.

Gotta go up the the northwest to get them (that also seems to be where most of them were sold in the first place too). I know someone who owns three of them up there, and his nieghbor has two more. Note the washington plates still on mine.

Huh. That must have been a dissapointment -- I hear that the rotary pickups were pretty quick, but the 1.6 liter must have been even slower than the 1.8 in my truck.

Yeah, he had a rabbit like that, and we were going to try to teach his girlfriend to drive stick on it.... usually learning the clutch is harder than finding the gears, but in an old VW....... I told her we could use one of my subaru's instead.

Yup, mazda didn't make a 4x4 till '86. This was an aftermarket conversion -- there were a few companies making these till Toyota finally introduced an OEM 4x4 in 1978. Solid front axle with stiff 6-leaf springs. Rides like a truck It's actually rated for 1,400lbs payload, which is alot for a truck that size -- more than the new Ford Rangers, which are a bit larger truck.

Drive my new truck for a while, then get back into the '89 GL :lol: This is my new truck: A 1976 Ford Courier Sasquatch. The engine is 1.8 liters, 74 horsepower, 92 foot-lbs. Curb weight is 2,600lbs. Oh, and that's at sea level, not 9,300 feet elevation. Not much different than an EA81 actually... It crawls over stuff pretty well -- in low range I was in 4th gear going through the parking lot at 20mph. Seriously, the GL wagon did feel downright sprightly after driving the truck for a while.

A friend bought an old VW rabbit pickup that had a 5 speed shifter on it. But the shift bushing were so worn (and the engine didn't run) that we never did figure out whether it was a 4 or 5 speed -- wobbled so much it felt like it might be in neutral in any gear. I've had the same reaction to 5 speeds. Take it out of 5th gear, then realize I don't have a 6th gear. Funny because I've NEVER driven a 6 speed. Maybe in another life or something.