Leeroy

Coxy, the GFT was available in Australia. The GF and GFT are hardtops and they replaced the GSR in Australia in 1975. I think initially the GF was imported and then the GFT. You could no longer buy a GSR when these models were on sale.

Seriously what is it with NZ? There seems to more GSR's left there than anywhere else! trademe GSR Very early one too!

Loyal 2.7 Turbo we will have to 'agree to disagree' on that point! Please do not take offense as none is intended. If the Lloyd engine was the prototype for the Subaru flat four then why are they completely different internally? In the Lloyd engine the camshaft is vertically above the crankshaft, whereas on the Subaru engine it is below, driven by a steel pinion meshing with an aluminium one. As previously stated Subaru acknowledges they looked at the Arabella and its engine, however they do not acknowledge there was any licensing. Why would Subaru want to hide this? IF there was a licensing agreement with Lloyd (or Borgward) people would be able to find this information easily. It cannot be found as it does not exist! A brief history of Borgward online does not constitute proof the Lloyd engine was the Subaru protoype. Fuji Heavy Industries also appears to be (in the early 1960s) a far larger concern than the Goliath-Hansa-Lloyd-Borgward concern ever was, so it is hard to believe Subaru needed their engineering expertise! Nakajima Aircraft Company anyone? Subaru was and still is an engineering firm. The idea they were incapable of designing and building their own flat four makes no sense, both emotionally and mentally! Cheers Lee

Subaru has always acknowledged they looked at many engines before building their own flat four. This is nothing new as many Japanese (automotive) companies looked to European designs for their inspiration in the 1950s and 1960s. Following on from them where the Koreans and now, of course, the Chinese manufacturers. However, the idea the Lloyd Arabella engine is somehow the prototype for the Subie engine is nothing but urban myth. They actually share nothing but their flat four (boxer) configuration and aluminium construction. Just like numerous other flat fours which were produced in Europe at that time. Indeed Subaru would have looked at nearly all of those before designing their own 1000cc engine.

The transverse link has the ball joint for the steering knuckle at one end and attaches to the engine crossmember at the other end.

The rag joint is the same for all (flat four) Subarus until the release of EA82 engined cars in '84/'85. You can also use the rag joint for a '60s - '70s VW Beetle. I believe you just need to change the four metal spacers in the joint for the Subaru ones as the VW pieces are a different size. SUBARU3 has done this and it works fine, you may want to search his posts about this. As for the steering rack bushes I think the only option will be to have them custom made, unless you can locate some NOS. Having removed the steering rack from my '74 sedan I can tell you the rack bushes are simple in design (just round in shape - unlike the later steering with the square bushing on the passenger side) so I cannot imagine they would be too expensive to make. My '78 wagon needed a steering rack bush made for the (round) driver's side. It was made out of urethane which was frozen in an industrial freezer and then 'machined' in a lathe. I think it cost around A$60. The square shaped bush on the other side of the steering rack moved around but was OK and reusable. The biggest problem on the early Subarus, such as your GSR, will be the bushing for the transverse link where it mounts to the engine crossmember. This is the weirdest shaped bushing I have ever seen! I assume the only way to replicate this would be to make a mold of an original piece and make copies. I hope some of this may be useful! Cheers Lee

Yep they look great! Very '70s. :cool: Gotta love Sprite Green too! My first car had 'five slotters', a Mazda RX-3 (where has the time gone - that was 25 years ago ).

OK... You can stop crossing your fingers! Just measured one of the steering wheels in the shed (has a Grant adapter - or boss as we call them in Oz) and get the same measurements (20 spline count, 1.5cm). This would mean any boss for a EA81 Subaru (79 to 84) will fit. Subaru must have kept the spline/measurements the same until the EA82 models were released. Looks like the Grant adapter #6596 will work on any Subaru from 1966 until 1984!

To get to the inner tie rods you have to remove the entire steering rack. This is simple to do but cumbersome. On a 78 model the steering rack must be removed from one side of the car only and there is a fair bit of twisting and turning needed to extract from the engine cross-member once you have undone the rack mounting bolts, the outer tie rods and the steering joint. From memory (I have done this several times!) the rack needs to come out from the left hand side of the car, so I assume that would mean the right hand side for the US. The inner tie rods are held in place on the rack with lock washers which are bent over the tie rods. Be careful when bending these if you do not have replacements (although I have seen some inner tie rods sold on eBay which include these washers). Also be careful with the steering rack mounting rubbers as they are impossible to find. Indeed, I had to have one of these made from urethane as the original was shot and not usable. Hope this helps!

Just to make sure, your issue is with the steering wheel being on a slight angle when you are driving straight ahead? If yes the fix is to turn the inner tie rods (those attached to the steering rack) in the same direction for the same amount of turns. According to my workshop manual a 1/4 turn of both inner tie rods will change the steering wheel position by 10 mm. Having stated that I have never corrected any of mine, I just put up with it! In my experience neither suspension nor tyre shops seem to know how to do this.

If you look at the bottom of the pull knob on the light switch you will see a small grub screw. Remove the grub screw and knob. Then you will see a round retaining piece (not sure what to call it!) with two holes which allows you to unscrew it. Once this piece is removed you can then remove the switch from behind the dashboard and unplug the wire harness.

It's funny there seems to be an abundance of 1974 Subarus! Love what you are doing/planning to do with yours Subafreak. One of these days I will have to put up photos of my '74 sedan.

The only way that 'stage 2' coupe is 4x4 is if someone took the time to convert it. No coupes of that generation came from the factory with 4x4.

Hey howpow I am a 'little' closer to you and have in my possession the following; 1974 GSR - Basically a shell 1974 GL coupes x 2 - These will be used as parts for the GSR 1974 DL sedan - This is registered and used daily. I really should post pics! 1978 4WD station wagon - My first Subie and I will never sell it! Have also just finished stripping a 1976 GL coupe which is now gone. (My daily driver is a 1987 RX Turbo but that does not really fit with this thread!) The biggest killer for the early Subarus is rust! So many have terminal rust in the cowl panel area (under the dash and in behind the spare wheel) they have all been put to rest years ago. Now I have the 'elusive' GSR I suppose I am now on the hunt for the GFT five speed manual transmission! Where I live there used to be 3 1400 GFT's, now they are long gone... Damn I should have bought them when I could!

The simple answer is no, so it will be hard to find a picture.

My thoughts exactly! The other thing to check is the glass fuses. I have had no end of trouble with lights going off over bumps and what not until I started buying better quality fuses from electronics stores. Most places in Australia now only stock cheap, made in China fuses which are basically useless.

That would make sense about the GFT. The early hardtops in Oz had the 1400 twin carb engine but once the 1600 was released no more twin carb! Would love to see photos of your GF! I have just recently purcased a GSR (which needs complete restoration) so will be using a later 1400 GFT engine (without the 'wet' cylinder liners) and the GSR dual port heads. Did you have to get the extractor exhaust made up? This is the one componet missing from my GSR project as the GL coupes (I have several as spares!) did not have the same exhaust system. Lee

I am not sure you will get an answer to that question! To be pedantic the hardtop was called either a GFT or GF. According to my Japanese sales brochures a GFT was the 'high-line' model and the GF 'low-line' My original thinking was the 'F' related to the Five speed transmission but this does not make sense as you could get a GF with either 4, 5 speeds or an automatic in Japan. Do you have any more information on you GF? Lee

Certainly is a piece of eye candy! From the badges and tail lights it looks to be earlier than 74, perhaps a 72 or 73. Gotta love the sport mags you had in the US.

Arno that is a fantastic site you have provided! Great sales brochure photos. I was not aware of any hardtops built with the 1400 EA63 engine in 1977 so perhaps this was built by Subaru specifically for your market? Perhaps there were tax concessions for the smaller engine?

Yes the Japanese market got a 4wd sedan from 1975.

There would be a lot more work required to do this conversion on a 1974 sedan as they do not have radius rods like the later models, hence no mounting for the 'rods' in the body.

Just what I wanted to know moosens! I believe the later 1400 gearbox would allow a very simple swap over to the EA71 without needing to muck around with 'spacing' the bell housing, as would be the case with an early 4 port EA63. While EA63 head gaskets appear on eBay all the time the tricky part of an EA63 rebuild would be replacing the round gaskets which make sure the 'wet' cylinder liners are correctly positioned within the block before the heads are installed. While I know at least one person on this board has some of these (they come in a variety of thicknesses), I myself have never seen any!

Mark - I have managed to check the driver's side (for this part of the world anyway!) and it is not good news. There are two rust holes at either end of the holder (in the thin middle piece, not the ends) which means I doubt they will be any good to you. I must say I am quite surprised by how thin this metal really is, well shocked is a more appropriate word! I will check the passenger side soon, however the outlook is not good. Perhaps fabrication of new holders would be a better (and possibly only) option?

While I have not actually installed my 'group buy' windscreen rubber on the coupe I doubt a slice and dice would be necessary. A nice hot day and a bit of stretching is most likely all that will be required. The coupe windscreen is only very slightly wider at the top and a 'smidge' taller (From cowl to roof). Obviously the windscreen is on a more acute angle the than sedan, brat or wagon. When I had a new windscreen and rubber installed on my wagon I asked the installer about the coupe and he felt the best thing would be to fit the rubber to the glass for around 24 hours prior to installation to allow time for some stretch.