Uberoo

Add a brace to support the lower shaft so it rotates smoothly, otherwise the upper shaft rotates until the lower u joint binds up, then rotation is transferred to the steering rack. The steeper the angle on the U joints the more exaggerated the effect is.My steering in my 8" lifted ea81 with dual U joints would bind up every 1/2 turn of the wheel and would require significantly more force to turn.after the U joint popped out of binding it would turn for a another 1/2 turn then bind up again....My other shaft that only had 1 u joint wouldn't bind up nearly as bad, but it tore the hell out of the rubber puck on the steering in short order.

But where is the fun in that?No, I hear ya. I just chose to start modifying the body because I wanted it street legal(ish) and I wanted a heater with an enclosed cab.

Ya, and get it good and properly muddy next time!

Shouldn't the scatter shield be covering the parts most likely to blow up?Namely the flywheel and the clutch. Your scatter shield needs to curve up the firewall, and or, angle toward the engine to be effective. Or do tailshafts have a habit of blowing up and no one has bothered to tell me yet?Cool looking just seems like useless added weight without covering the parts most likely to blow up.

So I thought I would tell you all what I've been up to. I realized that there was no way I could get the front suspension to cycle the full 8-12" I have planned for it when the tires were already right against the firewall.So I decided to move the entire front suspension forward 3" as I hinted at above.Before I could even think about cutting and rewelding the body I spent a couple minutes getting the body square to the floor.Then I braced the ever living piss out of the front suspension so nothing would move on me when I started cutting. Then I carefully cut a horizontal line with my cut off wheel at the top of each strut tower so I can put the suspension back where it needs to go.Then I busted out the out the sawzall and made the vertical cuts behind the strut towers.Then the front suspension fell on the ground. Here is what everything looks like without the front suspension cluttering the way. Some time with a torch later and it looked like this. Some more time with a grinder,and all the sheetmetal was trimmed back to the firewall. Seeing as my torch work had burned up all the glue that bonded the firewall to the car, I set out to fix that with the metal glue gun. Now to fit some 1.5x0.95 tube into the floor to replace the tinfoil that I cut away on that side.Once that is in there I can start on the other side and do everything all over again.Then start on the engine cradle and its associated tube work.

Its kinda cool watching your timing belt snake its way through water when the engine is running with most of it submerged.Less fun is when your in slimy,smelly,greasy mud up to the instrument cluster, especially when its starting to get dark/cold.

There are certain failures offroad that can't be planned for, that require vehicles to be towed home.The very same day that the pic in my sig was taken I blew up the engine in my hatch,and while towing it home the rear diff grenaded on a steep/narrow mountain road. Ive also had lug nuts come loose and shear off all the lugs.Ive blown 2 tires when I only had a spare,etc.Its alot less fun to hike 30 miles back home than it is to hike 3 miles to your tow rig.

yea, we shall all see how the HDPE adapter plate works.After all the times ive put the engine and transmission into its hole, that adapter plate hasn't dented or deformed it any way.However, time will tell as to how the heat affects it. As far as rust repair goes, just cut into it and see what you find, its only metal and can be cut and shaped as many times as it takes. The fenders look cool, but probably won't be of use to me due to the extensive mods in the pipeline.In the foreseeable future, the front suspension is getting moved forwards 3" and alot of the nose is getting shortened.

That is entirely unacceptable!Your grounded until you go back and do it right!!!

I figured out how to keep the suspension geometry.I'll let you all know once I actually get something done.College resumes next week so I will work on the brat hopefully next weekend. Snow is calling my name so I'm going skiing tomorrow. Anyone in the area want to help me out so I can get some real progress done over the weekend?

the legacy and ea82 cable are within 1/2" in length of each other.No idea on if the ends are different.I'd say not, based on subaru's lego-ness but don't quote me on that.

Your driving a tank so use it as such.Push their spoob out the way.

Jack your car up so it is off the ground in the front, then measure how short your existing measurements are.Add that measurement of what your existing parking brake measures.Then find a new cable, or loosen the cable mounting points to get the length you need. An EA82 cable is only an inch longer than EA81, An Impreza has the shortest parking brake cable of the models in that year range. EA82 and legacy are virtually identical.

For better braking feel the legacy brake booster will bolt on,but the EA MC needs to be modified slightly to fit. The MC bolt pattern is slightly different between the two, so the EA MC needs to have its mounting holes ovaled out.

B56 10 needs to be tied into the ignition switch so it gets +12V only when starting. The actual wire to the starter is in the body harness.

With little to non mechanical knowledge you are either going to have to pay a shop to build it, or trade it in for a wrx/sti as said above. Building turboed engines doesn't have alot of "wiggle room" for errors that a typical novice would make,everything is much more exacting than normal engines.Get it wrong and you will very quickly end up with an aluminum boat anchor. Paying a shop to do all the work for you will very quickly reach $20K+

Nothing suspension wise just swaps over from a legacy to a loyal.Even the 5 lug swap just changes the brakes and not much else.You can make it fit by building lift/adapter blocks to bolt the suspension to the loyal.

here is the underhood wiring for a 78 brat/wagon http://repair-manuals.blogspot.com/2011/06/subaru-1600-brat-1978-wiring-diagrams.html

I'm posting this for a friend: Anyway, I have a friend with an 85 brat with a 4 speed DR that just recently has started blowing the fuse for the turn signals when its shifted in reverse.Its not every time but it only blows when shifted into reverse. I'm thinking the reverse switch is faulty, but is there anything else that would cause the fuse to pop when its shifted in reverse?

Just guessing but you don't have a welder, and you want to put the "custom" ea82T exhaust under the EA81. So try to fit said exhaust under car and note where you have to modify it to make it fit.Then find a someone who will weld it up for a beer or something..

So what exactly are you trying to accomplish?

Seafoam is much safer to suck it through the intake,If you must put it in the oil then put 1/3 can in,idle the engine for a little bit, then change the oil.Change the oil again in 500 miles or so.. I have used seafoam in the fuel tank and had to replace a fuel pump less than a month later. I also drove around for a couple days with 1/4 quart of ATF in the oil and I threw a rod in an otherwise healthy 286K mile EA81 engine. The biggest gains ive gotten from seafoam/water have been in the intake. Most of the time I just use water because its cheaper and does the same thing- just without the cool smoke cloud. I ran water through the intake of my 220K mile 87 dodge dakota when I got it, and it took TWO GALLONS of water before it stopped blowing black carbon out the tailpipe.

Do a basic engine tuneup. new airfilter, new ngk spark plugs, new spark plug wires, clean sensors, clean/replace pcv,etc. run seafoam or water through the intake to remove carbon...

I am trying to locate the suspension mounting points before I remove the rest of the framerail in front of the firewall, and I'm not having much luck,Right now I have the crossmember bolted to the car through the original lift/adapter blocks I made to adapt the EA81 crossmember to the EA71 body.Then I have a little "jig" I made to locate the suspension pivot points 1" down and 2 13/16" inward.Then I bolted some pieces of metal to the locating jig from the suspension.I thought I would just run a piece of metal from those plates to something solid on the car like the front bumper and the suspension pivot points would be located without the crossmember being there.My problem is the metal I tack to those suspension plates sags under its own weight as soon as I unbolt it from the jig leaving 1/4-1/2" of movement.So I am wondering how I can positively locate a point in space on the car when there is nothing to reference off

remove all the pieces like headlights,grill,radiator,etc. pull out crumpled corner with come along or carefully with another vehicle. Hammers and large pliers are friends here.