zyewdall

Subaru's don't really have a bell housing in the traditional sense... makes it alot harder to mate something else to their tranny. Normally the transmission just has a flat front with a splined shaft sticking out of it. Then the engine has a flat back on it, with the crankshaft flange about flush with the back of the engine. In between goes this bell shaped thing, that the clutch is in, and it bolts onto the engine on the large side, and on the small side, which is really just a circle for the tranny input shaft to stick through. If you are sticking a different tranny on an engine, not to hard -- just use the correct bell housing for the engine, and make sure the circle is centered on the input shaft, and drill the 6 or 8 bolt holes that hold the bell housing to the transmission to fit. Compare that to subaru's, which have part of what would be the bell housing built into the tranny case, and this mates to a very small additional part of it that bolts to the back of the engine. You could still make an adaptor using the same principle, but it would be bizzare shaped plate, that would bolt the other engine on one side, and to the thin subaru "bell housing" on the other side, which is in turn bolted to the subaru transmission that has the rest of the bell housing. But it would a pretty difficult pattern, compared to the normal ones, which at worst has to bolt a bell housing with a 6 bolt circle, to a transmission with a 8 bolt circle or something like that. I still intent to tackle it eventually, but it's a little harder...

Ah, forgot about those. Were those 6 cylinder opposed, or were they 4?

Regarding what years, any 4wd subaru EA82 should be the same for that. Not sure about the 2wd ones though. I usually get those parts from Superrupair in Boulder -- not a salvage yard, but they part lots of subaru's (moving to new gen ones recently though ), and they usually charge $25 or $50 for whatever they've got on the shelf. Probably going to be $50 an entire front hub/knuckle assembly though. When my rear wheel bearing went and toasted the entire brake assembly I just bought a whole new right rear trailing arm with brakes and hub and everything, for $50.

Who else makes a boxer engine? VW, porsche? I don't know about porsches design, but alot of people replace the VW ones with EJ22's, so it seems like the subaru is superior engineering. I guess there are the new horizontally opposed diesel airplane engines from that place in UK -- I wouldn't mind one of those, though the price is way steep... Z

Hmm. Just occured to me that this should probably be in the new gen forum...

Yeah, my VW rabbit (two door, so it's a good 2 feet shorter than the subaru I think) can do just as well, but not much else can. I love pulling Uies in just about any street. But my mitsubishi pickup truck sucks. Actually, our new 16 foot isuzu box truck can do better than my pickup... as I can my dad's old full F100. A full size International pickup truck is about the worst I have ever seen though -- had to be about 60 foot circle.

I just had a crazy idea... could you stick the wheels (meaning entire hubs, brakes, struts, etc) from an older legacy on an EA81 wagon. This would get you larger brakes, taller stiffer struts, and 5 lug wheels. I'm imagining taking the whole front steering rack and suspension assembly and putting in on there, modifying the mounting points for the A arms and rear stabilizers so it would bolt on, and for the rear taking the entire swing arms, etc. Of course, I still want the tranny from the EA82 D/R, so I'd have use the rear diff from an EA82, and do custom axles between the EJ22 hubs and EA82 diffs. If I'm doing all the welding and spacers for lifting it 2 or 3 inches anyway, would it really be that much worse to put legacy stuff on it? Or am I insane... I haven't really looked at a legacy recently to see if it's even built on the same principle... Z

Well, to be fair, not EVERYONE else did. Honda never did, and the US offerings (that weren't made in Japan) were pretty bad to begin with and have served to shoot the diesel car market in the foot for the last 20 years. Remember the GM 5.7 diesel? And as I understand it, with a diesel there are certain advantages to an inline design compared to a V or HO design as well. I can't remember what these advantages are right now..., but do remember hearing this, and there is the fact that the International straight 6 diesels and the cummins diesels are liked alot better than the V-8 chevy and ford (international) diesels for full size trucks. Actually the 6 cylinder international is just too big for even a 1 ton pickup, so ironically, they use the V8 in them. Anyway, I wonder if that's why Subaru didn't do it, because they were so into the horizontally opposed engine design (which in general I agree is a great design). And wiring-wise, swapping a diesel (older one at least) is rediculously easy. Two wires to hook up -- fuel solinoid, and starter solinoid. I did this in a VW GTI.

I think the longblock for the engine will be interchangeable, except the '92 has single port exhaust, and the '97 has two port, or vice versa, can't remember. But I think you'll have to use the intake manifold from the '97 if you put the other engine in.... A friend put a '97 engine in a '90 legacy, and had to deal with some of this... I sort of second the recommendations above, if you have room, get anything good for other subaru owners, and increase your subaru karma.

The problem with the engine bay in a subaru is that you have to fit both the engine and the transmission in there.... alot harder than the older v8 cars and such that have alot more room, and alot more room to modify it, because you've got like 6 feet to the back differential to absorb slop if the whole engine/transmission assembly doesn't quite sit the same place the old one did. A custom drive shaft is all you need, and that's easy and cheap. The subaru engine bay, if you want to use the subaru tranny (which I happen to like), isn't very long from front of the tranny to the radiator... that's why I'm looking at putting a 3 cylinder diesel in mine eventually -- to be short enough to fit behind the radiator. If you wanted to make a rwd subaru, it'd be alot easier, especially if you lifted it to get even more room, and people have done rediculous things, but that's not the point of a subaru, IMO. I wonder if you could use a toyota tercel tranny, because that's designed to run front wheel drive/4wd in a longitudinal design, with a inline four in front of it. Not quite sure how they do that though, as I've never paid attention to where the front axle stubs come out compared to the bell housing locations. They don't have high/low range either (although some have an extra low 1st gear that is available in 4wd that is like having low range)

and another subaru in the family. I just convinced another friend to buy a subaru (partly because that's the only type of car I'll help work on, and partly because I gave his roommate the free '82 2wd wagon I got this summer, that's one of the most reliable cars that household owns). An '87 GL wagon, for $350. Very little rust. 205k miles. New carbureator and windows. Needs either a new ignition switch or new wiring harness to it (start position doesn't work at all, and run position works most the time, but not all), an alignment, one new CV or axle, clutch is adjusted wayyy too tight so it engages at the very top of the pedal, and oil pressure gauage is dead (wire fell off), and automatic choke doesn't work. But he was able to drive it home under its own power, and actually seems a little peppier than my '89 GL with SPFI. Right now it's dark blue for the front and back, and silver for the middle, but he's going to krylon it to all be the same color. Oddly, the guy we bought it from just bought an old Plymouth Volare because he said he liked working on them better than subarus... to each his own...

Thanks everyone. Well, I hit a softball sized rock in the road going about 50 tonight, and blew the right front tire out... so I'll get a set of hakkapalitas for the front Monday and see how they do. And I might have them look at the alignment while I've got it there. I don't think it's the alignment though, since it rides really nice, even at 75 or 80. My friend's new wagon ('87 GL) definitely needs an alignment though.. pulls strongly to the right on the highway. I was driving behind it on the way home this afternoon, and it looked like he was driving in a strong sidewind. Z

My first (subaru, and car), was an EA81 wagon. I still regret getting rid of it too. It was still running, but needed $800 of work, and considering you could see through the doors from the rust, I decided not to do it. But I did by buy another rust free identical wagon now for my project car.

Completely Off Topic, but is that the same 2.6 as the Mitsubishi pickup trucks got (minus the turbo)

Uhh, I thought it significantly predated the introduction of the Legacy too... EA81 wagons at least....

Before you start changing axles and bearings, see if the brake shoes on the right side are either rusted, or soaking in brake fluid. Might be easier than you think... unless you already checked that and I missed it... Z

I was thinking about all the subaru's many of us have owned, and why we don't own them all any more... and what the reasons for not owning them is... mechanical failure, rusting, accident, etc.... For my list, all but three are still on the road. The three retired ones, the '82 GL was from rusting, the '85 GL from me accidentally selling it to a non-suburu person, who had it crushed when the starter went out. , and the '91 loyale was rear ended, then gave its good parts to my '87 GL (now sold) and '89 GL. All the others I used to own but sold (even one I bought as a parts car) are still running around and I see them occasionally and wave (sometimes to a driver who is twice removed from who I sold it to and wonders why I'm waving )

Hey, once you enter a new thread, all of a sudden you get a bunch of relevant old threads, that didn't seem to come up from a search... Anway, it seems like the consensus is rebuild the calipers, and make sure all the rust is off of the slide pins for the calipers and the mounting points for the pads... But if anyone still wants to chip in, feel welcome. Z

Yeah, it's somewhat normal with the smaller fender clearances of the new gen subies. However... that doesn't mean it's good. My dad's OBW can actually get so it's hard to steer there's so much snow jammed in the front fenders. I don't know of a fix, but the silicon spray idea might have merit.

So.... what could cause the front calipers to stick? (89 GL wagon). After driving today, both front rotors are quite hot -- not glowing, but way too hot to touch. And I haven't been using the brakes, except obviously to stop the car when I get out to feel them. And the gas mileage dropped from 30 to around 23 for this tank. And today on the freeway, it suddenly started jerking -- as if I had a fluid soaked drum brake grabbing on the right front. I disconnected the hillholder, so it's not that. Will rebuilding my calipers help with this? Or is there some trick with the pads or mounting the calipers? I'ver ordered new pads and caliper rebuilt kits, already, but wondering if I should get anything else. Thanks Z

Nice find. A sedan though? Going to be harder to put firewood in it than the wagons... Where is it from, with no rust? Either it was a summer only car, or it was from the southwest somewhere, I'd bet.

Actually, I AM buying another one this weekend. An '87 GL wagon with wiring issues. Seems pretty solid otherwise -- new tires and carbureator and not too much rust. He's asking $350. Only thing is that it's not really going to be mine -- my business partner doesn't have a car right now, and I finally convinced him to get one instead of borrowing mine.

Sorry to hear that. My friends have a '87 cavalier that they got for $400, which I think was about $380 too much. The thing is louder, and goes slower, than my old diesel rabbit. I feel sketchy just parking next to it. Much to my suprise it hasn't actually broken down yet though (only 90k miles on it). But if it ever did, I'm sure they would just pull the plates off and abandon it -- they had three completely bald tires and the donut on it till I gave them the old tires off my suby, and even then it took them a few weeks to pay the $5 each to mount them.

I always thought that was bizarre -- they made a car that was pretty much the same for 10 years, but it took me three tries to get the right pump for my '85 GL. First one was for a non-AC car (no fan on the water pump), then one for the dealer equipped AC, which is shorter or something, then finally the one for the one with factory equipped AC which is the longer one, or vice versa, can't remember any more which was which. But I thought it was a bit silly considering how interchangeable so much else is. Let me know if you still need tail lights and want it shipped from CO. I've got the left one from a '91 Loyale I parted out. Sorry, no right side (it was rear ended in the right side).

I've never done more than about a 90 in my subaru -- someone was tailgating me up a packed snow road so I was going faster than I should have been, and on a switchback I started sliding out (with four studded snows). I recovered fine, but he sure backed off after that... Actually, I guess that counts as a 180, but I was trying to make a sharp left turn, so it was only about 90 more than I intended... I did a 270 in my 4x4 pickup last winter though -- luckily I went tail first into the embankment going up, instead of down into the creek on the other side. Not so much fun.. I didn't have snow tires on the truck. I was also going uphill -- too much gas in 2wd and I broke the rear wheels loose. In rwd, its actually pretty good going downhill -- just let off on the gas and it drags the rear end without sliding too much.