zyewdall

Well.... I've owned both, and I loved both of them. The Justy is a little peppier car in town, but lacks top speed for the highway (4000rpm by 70mph, though I regularly take it to 5k while accelerating). That being said, I've done highway trips (1100 miles or so) in the Justy, and it's not that bad. Gets about 38mpg (41 best ever) on the highway. More like 31 to 35 commuting (my commute is mountain driving -- no traffic or stop and go, but hard accelerating and cornering for 25 miles up, and I drive the c*** out of it on the mountain roads). That's about 8mpg better highway, and 7 to 10mpg better mountain mpg than the SPFI EA82 wagon. 4wd is great -- but the lack of a low range is a problem in deep snow... it'll stall the engine before it looses traction if you have good studded snows on there. Mine is a 5 speed, so I don't know about the ECVT... I avoid all automatic transmissions because I can't generally stand to drive them, regardless of their longevity or not. I've been told that the Justy engine is a 150k mile engine, like 70's V8 engines... not a 300k mile engine like an EJ series or 70's straight 6 engine. I got a rebuilt one put in mine when I bought it, so I'm only 15k on the rebuild. It's alot of fun to drive... handles like a little tiny go cart, and I have taken it on ATV trails (I thought it was a jeep trail, till I realized that most jeeps aren't 8 inches narrower than my car...). Going from the Justy to a Legacy feels like you are driving a boat. I need to get my Justy back on the road now (bear broke the side window, and the suspension needs some help from hauling too much heavy stuff) because I just took a job that's an hour and 15 minute commute each way... the 4 liter ford ranger is not going to cut that... As for the EA82.... I don't hate them that much (aside from one lemon I had). Yeah, the timing belts need to be changed more often than anyone (including me) does, and they blow head gaskets if you overheat them (as will almost anything that's not cast iron heads on a cast iron block...). I loved my '89 wagon, and still wonder if I should have gotten rid of it in favor of an EJ22 Impreza (which is giving me more trouble so far than the EA82 did till the very end when it lost one cylinder at 240k (chipped valve).

Base model, 2.5 liter non turbo... a friend of mine just bought it, and it's got 17" rims on it now. We'd like to get some cheaper studded snows for winter, and downsize to a 16" or 15" rim, and higher profile tire, to reduce the cost of the tire. A 225/70R15 is just a tad larger diameter than the stock 225/55R17's that are stock, and are WAYYYY cheaper. 15" steelies are only $20 or $25 each... but... will they clear the brake calipers? Z

Nice. I always wondered about the Jetta in your driveway.... (I drive by quite a lot, since I've been working Loveland and living in Ward... ugggg commute). I know the EA82's get alot of crap on here, but I still kind of like them... not that I've never had trouble with them.... I have... but I've got a '97 impreza now that's being trouble too... I kind of miss my old '89 GL (I started it up today and it runs so nice, especially after sitting for 3 months in the field... it's over at my friend's house, and he still hasn't even registered it... maybe I should take it back).

I run 175/75/R13's on my justy, and the summer tires (Michelin harmony) fit okay... but the Ipikes rubbed a bit. And, the Khumo studded snows I got, which are just 165R13's... kind of like 165/85/R13's really, rub pretty bad... bad enough that I'm going to get different snow tires this fall, that are a tad smaller. It's not just the fenders, but also the rear swing arms take the corner off the inside edge of the tread.

If you are going through the trouble of a transmission swap, why not put in a 5MT dual range... I kind of like that in my Impreza (transmission out of a '87 GL). If you are running the 3.9 rear diff, it's not too bad... custom axles and the EJ-EA adaptor plate, and a custom driveshaft, but compared to making the 4EAT behave and all the new wiring... I think it's easier at least. And, I hate automatic transmissions (though, I admit the 4EAT is the nicest auto I've driven and isn't really that annoying...)

Most EA81's and EA82's have 36mm, and first gen legacies have 32mm... odd that the XT6 would have one of each... but hey, I've never owned one.

Wow.... I have no idea. I've never seen that behavior, and I've welded, or tried to weld some really lousy stuff -- rusty metal with paint and grease and what not on it... stuff that was hard to even get a spark started, but once I got an arc, it generally burned through whatever was there and at least made a lousy temporary weld

I'm a pretty big fan of the Ipike snow tires... studded or unstudded. Obviously they do much better on glazed ice when studded, but even unstudded they are alot better than any all season tire. And, they seem to perform very well... I've got them on my '97 Imp, and it's not quite as good as with the summer tires, but the Ipikes are also 195/75/R14's compared to 205/65/R15's for the summer tires, so some of that could be the higher aspect ratio. Even in studded form, they are alot less noisy than older studded tires seem to be. I've given up using all season tires in the winter... but I'm driving on snow and ice covered roads for a good 7 months of the year. If it's just a few days or a month or two (even in Denver, I might not bother because the snow melts so fast), then the asurance tripletread seem to be decent all season tires for the subarus.

I know that i;ve welded stuff to the rear hatch of a '82 wagon, so it was still steel then... as far as I know, all of them are. I just had a little 120vac wirefeed welder. Did you try wirebrushing the paint off first? I often don't do that, but for better quality welds, it helps. Z

What does it do in 4wd? When my '82 wagon stripped the hub, it made a horrible noise in 2wd and would not move at all, but went just fine in 4wd (now rwd...). It's apparently not uncommon for the hubs to strip out especially if the castle nuts are not tight enough. Simple way to tell... make a chalk mark on the castle nut and the wheel, and try driving and see if they still line up. If not, then it's the hub. If yes, then it's somewhere farther in. Z

d/r 5 speed transmission EJ-EA adaptor plate and redrilled flywheel XT-6 clutch 3.9 rear diff from impreza New front axles with EA inner cups Maybe driveshaft work? I had a d/r 5 speed put in my '97 Impreza (which is almost all the same as the lego, except it didn't need the changed rear diff because it came with the 3.9 instead of the 4.1 that you have now). I had CCR do it for me because I didn't have the time at the time... IIRC, it was about $900 in parts, and $800 in labor, or thereabouts.

I had an EA81 fwd.... nice enough car (okay, it was a free rustbucket beater... but, it ran well, and you could pack alot into it). It was quite a bit peppier than the 4wd ones, but of course, not nearly as good at offroading (I still took it offroading....)

So..... The rear O2 sensor wire was missing on my '97 OBS -- chewed right off of the sensor, and the harness is missing (it sits on the transmission, and I think it went with the old transmission when the dual range transmission was installed...). I got a used harness and sensor from superrupair, but now, up by the engine, I've got two male plugs -- one on the engine harness and one from the harness going over the transmission.... not going to plug into each other . And the wire colors aren't the same on both sides either, or I'd just splice it and take the plugs off. Did subaru use different plugs for different years/cars that might not all be the same, for the rear O2 sensor? The plug for the rear O2 sensor IS right next to the one for the front sensor, right? Or wrong? Also... do I even care? It's getting lousy mileage (24mpg) but that's probably the front sensor, from what I've read, and I do have a new one for that. And I having the check engine light on does not cause it to fail emissions in of itself here. So... if the rear is not doing anything, maybe I should just replace the front one and call it good? On a good note, the low range is awesome... I took it down a pretty gnarly trail, and it could use a bit more clearance (forester struts coming...), but it sure can climb hills nice. Thanks

Yup, that's the touring wagon. I think all of them had the skid plate from the factory, but most have been lost by incompetent oil change places that pull them off to change the oil (that's what happened to mine...)

Could be a dirty MAF sensor too. Sometimes that can cause some hesitation off the line (or at least cleaning it helped mine...)

Are you sure it's the transaxle, and not the CV joints that are clicking? CV joints quite commonly click when they are going bad. I've never personally had an older subaru transmission go bad on me, though it does happen rarely. 5spd 4wd in a 1981? I didn't know that the 4wd's got 5 speeds till '85. the 2wd's were available in 5spd in 1981.

Gearing is the same for all of them as far as I know. The larger tires give you a bit more ground clearance, but other than that, not much difference. They probably have a higher weight rating than the smaller ones too, and people tend to put more weight in the wagon (I had at least 1000lbs in mine a few times)

It also seems to have an EJ18 engine? That was never offered in the legacies in the US either. There's alot of vehicles out there that the US market only got the largest engine size, with the automatic transmission, and other markets got a wider variety of engines, and manual transmissions on. Like diesel engines in pickup trucks smaller than a 3/4 ton.......

Kiwi MPG does not work on a 1997 Impreza Outback Sport.... FWIW

Shift it alot higher than you would think. Usually 4000, and yes, it's it'll be running at 3500rpm on the highway at 80mph.... it doesn't seem to affect the gas mileage on these like it does on a big V8. Generally I try to keep it between 2500 and 3500 to stay in the power band... go much below 2500 and you'll be a slug. I do run synthetic oil (5W50) in mine, as I've notices it doesn't like to rev as much with 10W40 regular. And, mine is with 89 octane (mid grade), as I do notice it pinging on hills in hot weather if I use 87 (low grade here). All the figures for mine are with stock (175/75R13) studded snow tires.

I think this should be moved to the historic subaru section if it's an '80 brat. Might get better responses there.

4wd? My '89 GL (essentially the same car as the Loyale with the exception of having dual range) used to get around 29 to 31mpg on the highway, and around 26 to 28mpg around town. It got down around 22 when the tire pressure was low once (like 18psi on all four tires... oops).

Is it possible that the previous owner used it for deep mud bogging or pushing through ice deep enough to cut the boots? The ice is the only thing I've seen destroy boots that weren't old (and even that was only the front ones)... deep icey ruts where the vehicle was just bashing against ice the whole way up the hill. And, that was a legacy as well. I've never had a rear axle go out on a loyale, though I've gone through lots of fronts. Aftermarket ones are crap (vibrating so bad I could barely drive the car after 15k, even though the boots weren't ripped)... go for dealer ones. Z

One tooth off would probably make it run with very little power. I did one that was three teeth off on the drivers side, and 180 degrees off on the passenger side (before I learned how to do them properly), and it actually did start.... ran awful, then died and wouldn't restart till I'd fixed the belts. They are non-interference engines, so there's no possibility of damage -- just fix the belt and you're good. Z

Two of them... and '82 2wd wagon, and an '87 4wd wagon.... they were both projects I got for cheap, then friends needed cars so I gave them a subaru... then didn't need them any more, so I reclaimed the subaru. The '82 wagon actually went around to two different friends, and I had it in the middle, and both ends.