bushbasher

Why is the rear a nightmare? an ea82 rear end is not completely different, the axles can handle the same travel, all you have to do is move the top bracket for the rear shock down instead of deal with the torsion bars. You can get close to 2" in the front, and the suspension geometry will not be that bad, you can account for the camber when you make a block on top to space the strut down. you should also adjust the toe in. Soobme runs a 1.5" front/2" rear suspension lift on an ea82t wagon. 2 inches is not going to turn your sube into an unmanageable beast on the road. I also wouldn't worry about cv's with 25-27" tires. If you want to do this you will need to fabricate strut blocks and rear shock-to-body mounts.

Are you talking about damage that affects the alignment of your car, or just the fenders, bumper, and some of the sheetmetal that the fenders bolt to? To straighten a twisted frame on a mazda glc my dad once stuck a railroad tie under the car, and lifted the tie with the backhoe, then let the car bounce up and down on it. Tracked straight again (but the doors still didn't close right) I don't know if it's a good idea to try though :-)

probably won't make much difference except the center diff will always be spinning, which it wouldn't normally be doing. subaru probably went all the way and made it beefy enough to take that though. I wonder how it would behave sliding in the gravel with difflock on.

perhaps what is meant is ignition coil? A new cap, spark plugs and wires often gives a great improvement over the aged parts. You could be missing due to a weak spark, or a clogged fuel filter. A bad ignition coil can cause this too, but try the other usual suspects first.

It could be that you are running off what's in the float bowl of the carb, try feeding it starter fluid or gas through the top of the carb, and see if it keeps running at all.

Basically if your oil pressure was actually that low at idle I would think you'd have loud valve clatter at least. My wagon usually sits at 1/4 at idle, but on cold mornings it sits at 0, and I get valve clatter for the first minute or so. So before I bomb around in it I let it warm up, and it's back to normal.

I thought the 4wd parts would create more drag than that, I guess subaru really knows how to make 'em. Also interesting that the exhaust makes a difference with pinging. It's great that you are taking this step at a time, with basically a controlled experiment, recording data. That was probably one of the most informative posts I've read on this board... Thanks!

the standard intake hackjob and a fatter exhaust should help a bit, but 20 sec, NO WAY IN HELL jk

I'd be happy with around 2 to 2.5:1 low range instead of 1.5:1. But yeah crawling get's boring, unless you are on serious inclines. My friends f150 has a 3.7:1 1st gear and a 2.4:1 transfer case, and 4.11 gears. It'll go turtle-speed up ANY hill it can keep traction on, without even touching the gas. A bit of cool factor, but my attention span can't handle it for very long. Rocking back and forth and riding the clutch gets annoying too.

you will just have to drill holes to mount the driveshaft carrier bearing, and rear diff hanger. I'm not sure if the wheelbases between wagon and sedan are the same, so the driveshafts could be different lengths. Then there's the pedal assembly swap.

woohoo! rocker carnage

you'd have to flip the ring gear over to run a sube tranny in a rear-engined setup. Dunno if it can be done.

with the way our axles can break with 28" tires, with 4:1 and 35's I'd think they'd be snapping like twigs if you ever get a wheel wedged, or if you give it gas at full lock. With 2:1 at the transfer case, you can put the dr tranny in 4lo, which would completely make up for a 33" tire. You then have the crawl ratio of a truck. Using front and rear 4.44 diffs you could go up to like 35". I don't think the other components could hold up to 35" much less 33''. I still want to know if the stubs on a 4.44 rear diff the same as a 3.9, and what is used for the front axles with a seperate front diff. Anyone?

no it's a great site really! Seriously though, I checked it out, no problems, and a great layout. Simple and to the point is the way I like websites. just one thing, it looks like you are using the browser to resize your pics. If you resize them in a good paint program, they will look much smoother.

I know that there are a lot of small measurements and clearances that could mean the end of this, I was just hoping that subaru kept these in common. With the rear diff up front on a t-cased suby, do you use the front half-shafts into the diff, mix-and match shafts and cups, or do you cut and reweld them? If the front axles are easy, this conversion just recquires welding and getting driveshafts made then right? Do newer rear diffs bolt in the same as the old ones, and are the stubs the same?

I just slapped a pair of free nissan pathfinder steels with free desert duelers on them, and holy carp is the gear ratio bad. When you actually get the thing moving, moving at idle in 2wd it is going faster than a human sprint. In the dirt I put it in 4low with the stock tires in the back, but couldn't tell what the low range was like cause the front and back would take turns catching up. With access to a fairly good lathe and a set of 4.44 gears from a newer car, do you think I could get the ring and pinion into a dr tranny? Would there be enough room to set the pinion far enough back to account for the (i assume) larger ring gear? How do they accomplish the ratio, a larger ring gear, smaller pinion, or both?

I don't know where the idea that electric fans save hp came from. If your engine is running, and you turn on an electric fan, the rpm drops. The power from the fan comes from the alternator, and the more draw on the alt, the harder the alt becomes to turn. It probably draws more power, because you are losing energy because of the inefficiency of the alt, wires, and electric motor.

I don't know if you can buy new brushes for subaru starters easily, but that sounds like the cause. Take the starter apart and see if the brushes are gone. If brushes ask for them at an auto parts place, if that doesn't work go to the dealer.

does ignition cut too or just fuel?

he means that top gear on old american transmissions were 1:1, straight through with no gear ratio, whereas with our sube transmissions 5th (or 4th) involves gears, and isn't 1:1.

more like a suspension lift, but we have to drop the engine too, which adds a bit of body-lift flavor.

yeah up here they said it was gonna snow, now it's clear blue skies without a cloud in sight. :boohoo: It freezes over night, and comes a bit above in the day, so the snow would kinda stick.

well you won't be finding stroker cranks out there, and I don't know if the engine has the capacity for it. Most people have recommended against boring the cylinders, apparently they will spin the sleeves easily. Heres a link to SubaruBrat's EA81 performance page: http://www.subarubrat.com/engine.htm

looks very cool... but where does the water go when it's raining?

well the autos are notorious for sucking alot of power, that could be part of your problem. The fact that it's a carbbed motor making 80 odd hp would be the other. Other than that I would check the timing, check the spark plugs, they can make a car gutless while not making them run rough.