The Beast I Drive

Oh and your 6-lug hubs are in the mail Send me back the old hubs and drums when you get the new ones please -Bill

Check the tranny mounts, if they are bad replace them. If the clutch assembly looks good and works fine right now, I'd leave it alone since you arent swapping in the EJ yet. When you do the EJ swap you will need to replace that. You will need the 4wd Hi-Lo selector lever from a D/R car, that linkage bolts directly onto the stock 5 speed shifter plate. You will have to re-wire the tranny harness so you have back up lights and 4wd indicator on the dash, but you will not have any lo-range indicator unless you wire one in somewhere. Its a really easy swap, Ive done it in a DL which is exactly the same as a Loyale. -Bill

Wow, that brings whole new meaning to that nickname -Bill

The only problem is where are you going to find the pedal end new? Have you see the pedal end on a Gen 1 clutch cable? It's totally different from any ea81 or newer vehicle and I would imagine very hard to find a source for new ones. -Bill

You don't have to get that crazy taking parts off, Ive ADDED over 500 lbs of wieght to my 87 wagon, and swapped in an older engine, and I'm running 31/10.5 tires and it has no trouble in mud. I'd strip the interior and get all the sound deadener out, rhino line it, and it's good. Things like the grill and emblems don't add up to more than 5 lbs on the whole car, so no need to waste time with that. Just cam the motor, lift it, d/r swap and you will be very happy with what it will do. -Bill

I need some cores first, give me about a week to get some and then I will get more hubs done up. -Bill

Sorry for the Hijack GD I will do steering extensions when people bring the car to me, you being only an hour away, it shouldnt be a problem if you bring your rig down, depending on how high you want to go I can have it lifted in a week or less of evenings after work. There's just a lot more to a big lift than a steering extension and lift blocks, always gotta remember there are brake hoses to deal with, radiator hoses, heater hoses, wires, shifter linkage, etc. The little details are what take the most time. -Bill

If you have a welder, and know how to use it, and can do basic bodywork, you can make the fenders look a lot better and stronger if you cut/weld in the right places. If you dont, a hammer works just fine. 8 lb sledge to get things moving, 24 oz ball-peen to finish it out and make it look halfway decent. -Bill

The main reasons we don't include steering links in our kits is liability and every car is different. If someone orders a kit, and the steering link in the kit fails for whatever reason, it's back on me, and that's legal work I don't need. Not saying anyone on this board would do that, but there are other people out there who buy lifts for subarus. I am looking at making all-new steering links with new u joints and shafts from a racing equipment supplier, then it's just cut to fit, tighten the bolts and slap it in, no welding, less liability. -Bill

You need a disty from an ea81 and also the steel plate that bolts to the block under the disty, I've converted a couple ea71s this way. -Bill

Here's the deal with the 1981 Brat clutch cable It was only made for 1 year, and it was only made for 1 model in the lineup. It has a special end on it that no EA81 clutch cables match, and the way it mounts to the pedal is different from the EA81's as well. Basically it is a longer version of the EA71 Brat clutch cables. The part is obsolete, and NO ONE carries it. So, what you have to do is modify the end of the pedal to accept the EA81 clutch cable. It's the only option, unless you find someone who has a NOS 1981 Brat clutch cable in storage somewhere..... I ran into this problem doing a d/r swap in a Gen 1 Brat, and Im going to have to modify the pedal to accept the EA81 cable, which is the best option because those will be available for quite some time. -Bill

Actually, there was a 5 speed with 4.444 available in the Forester XT Turbo, for 2 years IIRC, like 2001-2002 or something, I dont remember exactly. But it was ONLY in that model. You can go to the dealership and buy the 4.444 front ring and pinion set for a hair under $400 brand new though, and convert any late-model 5 speed to 4.444 -Bill

Im also looking for extra rear drum cores, within specs on the wear surface, so if you have any good 85-89 wagon/sedan/coupe drums, or 80-85 wagon, hatch, Brat, etc. drums laying around or know where you can get some cheap, let me know, I need cores to keep product moving -Bill

I am that guy with the annoyingly loud car, so no worries, you won't be I get all my pre-made bends from summitracing.com, good stuff. Since you are running the stock spfi engine, you can get new cams from Delta Camshaft to give you a lot more low-end grunt (you will want as much as you can get) and they are only like $75 a pair. There really isn't anything you can remove from a spfi motor, they are pretty much as stripped as they can get and still run properly. The interior really doesn't have anything that wieghs a whole lot by itself, but if you strip the carpet, door cards, all the trim, and chip out all the sound deadener, it will make a big difference. The armrests attach to the door itself, so you can remove the door panels. -Bill

I can't do that at this moment, but it's a possiblity for the future. Right now I'm doing this conversion mainly for the off-road crowd. -Bill

For the mud, at the very least it needs a Y pipe if he doesnt have custom cams, with 2 separated pipes he will have seriously less torque (voice of experience here). If it were me, I'd do what I always do, run duals with an X pipe. Same great sound, way better torque. -Bill

The 6 lug pattern is 6 x 5.5", so basically any stock or custom/aftermarket wheel for Chevy Blazer/GMC Jimmy/1500 4x4 & Heavy Half trucks, Chevy LUV/Isuzu PUP, any 4wd and a lot of 2wd Nissan/Datsun pick ups, Isuzu Rodeo/Trooper/Amigo, Honda Passport, Toyota 4wd pick up, Mitsubishi Mighty Max, and some light Dodge trucks from the 80's. Im sure there are others, I cant remember them all off the top of my head, but basically any 6 lug wheel EXCEPT Dodge Dakota and Durango, those have a smaller 6 lug pattern. ALSO, DUE TO THE PRICE OF NEW STUDS, effective April 1, 2010, the price for these will be $75 with core, $135 if you do not return a core, and $20 shipped anywhere in the lower 48 states. -Bill

PPS: And Bill, I'm sure in all that soft, farm field dirt, they would do magnificently Hehe, thats what tractor tires are for... -Bill

Looks like a good time was had, sorry I hear reverse gave out on the dunes, weak sauce :-\ but I hope it was still fun. Doesn't look like you tried out the ITP tires, honestly having tried both the bighorns and the mudlites, I woulda put on the mudlites at the dunes. I'm glad that brat is gonna get used for what it was built for -Bill

Picked this up from Portland yesterday Its in really good shape, and it runs and drives now. Something is loose in the shifter, but i will fix that later. The CL seller thought it had a bad clutch, but it turned out to be a stripped out front hub, so I spent 15 minutes swapping that out and drove it off the trailer Runs pretty good, the radiator was empty, so I filled it, no water in the oil, so hopefully no blown HG, didnt see any bubbles in the coolant either. So far no serious rust to speak of, just some cosmetic stuff on the front fenders and around the rear hatch window. I havent looked under the car yet, or under the carpet though, but Ii doubt it has any rust down there either. That passenger front wheel is a Jackman too The only real dents I noticed are the rear driver side door, and there is some damage on the rear passenger quarterpanel, but nothing serious at all The interior is kinda trashed, but I love the stock tan colors, and the back seat is still halfway decent. Dash is toast, and the driver side inner door handle is busted. The engine is the stock single-port dry-sleeve 1400, and it runs great! No real rust at all on the package tray/bulkhead, just some surface rust, easily remedied. Overall it seems to be a pretty nice car. I picked it up specifically so I can borrow the engine/trans to put in my 72 tailgate wagon so I can get it inspected and titled, so I can begin working on it. Once the Tailgate wagon is legal, I will put everything back in the 76 and fix some of the broken parts with parts from my 76 4wd wagon. My tailgate wagon, just for effect -Bill