The Beast I Drive

100%, it never gets hot enough to affect it -Bill

Might be a dumb semi-noobish question, but I've never seen it brought up. Is it possible to purchase just the DOJ cups for say, an EA82 car? If so, where would I get them? I know I can get the bearing races/cages/balls for the DOJ's, but I dont know about the cups. Thanks! -Bill

I had them on today when I was 'wheelin in the sand, but i didnt take a pic, so here's an old one The Bighorns seem to be wearing well on the Beast, I got them a little over a year ago and they are still like new, and they ride smooth and dont make excessive road noise. I don't think I could switch to another tire, these are just too good all around (except sand, they dig too much) -Bill

Just thought I would post this, for future reference. Most of use know that EA81 front axles dont handle high angles well. 2" suspension lifts are pretty much out of the question, as axles tend to disentigrate at rapid rates wuth any kind of off-road abuse. Well, I figured I would just do 1" of extra lift on my Brat, so I made a 3" kit with 2" engine crossmember blocks and 3" strut blocks. It worked great, until I took it off-road. It did fine off-road, but I must have over-extended the DOJ and popped the clip. Well, at a stop sign, the axle fell out of the DOJ cup. There were BRAND NEW EMPI axles, so Im a little dissapointed, I cant take them back under warranty becasue they over-extended due to non-factory modifications to the suspension. Anyway, from my experience, I would not advise any kind of suspension lift on a EA81 car other than cranking up the adjuster bolts. It works, but you will eat axles. Thanks -Bill

For not a lot of off-road use, the grabbers will prolly be fine. I run the Bighorns on my rigs (Or ITP Mud Lite XTR's for serious off-roading in the Brat:grin:) and I love them, they arent cheap, but they are an amazing tire. Its gonna look pretty sweet with the new tires! -Bill

Yeah, the gouge is from the roll pin as was stated. Looks like Schucks gave you an axle for a Turbo, which is 25 spline, you need one for a non-turbo, which is 23 spline. The correct axle will still seat on the splines fine, just get a small file and clean up the gouged area so the new axle can slide over the stub's splines without hanging up on a burr from the gouge. It will be fine. -Bill

Reminds me of mine a bit, except I have a thing for excessive aggressive rake I only took off the rear fairings though, I liked the side skirts This is the current condition of that rig though That pretty much sums up the story of my RX... Hope you have better luck! -Bill

Why did you use a spring compressor to rotate the strut tops? They have a bearing in them and are designed to turn... If you have the blocks on the correct sides, with the arrows pointing forward, they should be correct... Let me double check my pics, maybe I mis-labeled them But you should not have to use a spring compressor to rotate the strut top, it should spin freely, because thats what allows the wheels to turn when you steer. Ok, just looked at the pics I took, and I labeled them right, so if you have the arrows pointing to the front of the car, and the one that says driver is on the driver side, then it should be right. You might have messed up the struts when you compressed the springs to rotate the top mount. We had something similar happen on my mom's car when we put new struts in it 2 years ago, except we put the struts on the wrong sides. Needless to say, it didnt work, it had massive camber, and it drove like the knuckles were welded solid to the body. If you could take some pics that would be helpful, but try re-configuring the struts back to the way they were before you rotated the tops. -Bill

The camber should settle out when you drive it around for a few feet, if it doesnt, take some pics of everything so I can troubleshoot it. Get some pics up ASAP! -Bill

With 300 acres, if it is all pretty much flat land, you have a lot of possibilities. I would definitely make a small-scale off-road setup, something to just have some weekend fun on (mud pit, some big rocks to climb on, maybe some other "custom" challenges) and for sure would need a rally course, and a more aggressive Tuff Truck course. Id leave a nice large area open and just make it grass. Then install some facilities (some bathrooms, maybe an outdoor eating establishment, and some water spouts here and there), set up a stage and then get some good insurance and start hosting shows/events Of course, if it were me, the back 40 acres would be my private collection of parts cars -Bill

I saw your other thread... You should be able to get the blocks in, you are trying to get them in through the top, right? Can you move the strut around a bit to get them in? If nothing else, try taking the strut loose from the knuckle, and install the blocks on the strut, then put the strut in the car, and then re-attach the knuckle to the strut, then put the pivot bolt back in. Check to make sure you dont have something binding or hitting the axle, keeping it from going low enough to put the blocks in, I cant think of what could be wrong -Bill

Dude, I had the exact same color hatch on my RX, and it fit exactly like yours (appears to be lower than the rear fenders) Its like deja vu -Bill

Hmmm... I wonder who makes lift kits in this thread..... -Bill

No need to drill any bigger in the back, the stock bolts fit through a 1/2" hole no problem. For the front you will have to drill out the strut mount holes to 7/16", which is no big deal, it won't weaken it enough to make a difference. Get to it! I wanna see some 30's on this thing already -Bill

2" lift is the simplest lift to install ever. FRONT. (process is the same on both sides) Step 1: Remove sway bar 2. Unbolt the control arm pivot bolt 3. Unbolt the 3 nuts at the top of the strut 4. Install blocks on strut top, attach using the original nuts. 5. Install the strut. Use 5/16x1" or drill out the holes in the strut mount and use 3/8"X1" bolts and nuts. Tighten all the bolts and nuts. 6. Re-attach the lower control arm at the pivot point. Check brake lines to make sure they are not over extended (They shouldnt be) REAR. (also the same on both sides) Step 1: Remove the 2 bolts at the top of the strut that attach to the body. 2. Unbolt the bottom of the strut and rotate 180 degrees, and re-attach. 3. Install the rear blocks on the struts with 1/2"x1" bolts and nuts. You may have to drill out the holes in the strut top bracket to make them fit. 4. Attach the lifted brakets to the body with the original bolts. Tighten all the bolts and nuts. Check the brake lines to make sure they are not over extended (they shouldnt be) Put the wheels back on and enjoy the lifted awesomeness! -Bill

I just traded my dad my 77 F-250 money pit for his '85 Toyota 4x4 He bought this thing new in 1985, its been wrecked twice, and served as a daily driver/ irrigation work truck for many, many years. We put a 3" lift on it about 4 years ago, and I built the roll bar and installed the stereo/ CB while it was still his. All I need to do to make it run is put the new starter in that he bought 2 years ago Then I will replace the old carb with a Weber. It has really high gears though, and it doesnt like to drive freeway speeds with 31's, right now it is sitting on 32/11.50 Wildcats (which are reserved for my Brat) NO, this is NOT my new wheeler, nor is it replacing any of my Subes, this is going to be my hunting rig. Plans are to trade the roll-bar to my brother for his Zune, and Im going to build a custom camper/canopy for it to house all my hunting/emergency gear in and still be able to sleep in it (one of the positives of being a long bed ) It will need lower gears in the axles at some point, and Ill probably eventually build a 22R/20R Hybrid motor for it, but for now Im just gonna get it running and drive it now and then, it get crappy gas mileage :-\ But its MINE!!! -Bill

Not sure anyone busted a headlight there, but I get what you are saying... To each their own, we just dont think that far ahead I guess... Actually the rain made the trails hella fun. Its always more challenging when its wet than when its dry. Over there, its not really cold when its wet, its always like 55 degrees (as opposed to where I live, when its wet, its downright cold :-\) -Bill

I was at harbor freight the other day, saw those exact lights there... So they are definitely HF lights -Bill

Aluminum man, never underestimate Aluminum.... If you wanted the Ultimate in clearance/flex, then Portal Hubs Plus some kind of high-flex system would be the bees knees... The system I am thinking of would, admittedly, be pretty heavy IF steel were used for the construction. Now, if you used Hi-quality Aerospace-grade aluminum (Overkill IMO) Or Titanium Alloy to make the frame, you would not see a signifigant increase in wieght. HOWEVER, then you are getting into expensive terrirtory... Here's a theoretic combination... For HP/Simplicity, a built EA81 (mild, just SPFI pistons, custom cam, polished heads, etc. Good for about 120 HP if you do it right) For gearing, you could use a custom tranny. RX gearset (1-5 gears) with the 1.59 low range gears from a 3.9 D/R. All you would really need is the main body, no need for the center diff or front diff or pinion shaft. Shorten the shift rods and make an adapter to use another tranny (or a T-case) mated to the stripped-down 5 speed main body, then use like an old Chevy truck trans, the ones with the granny low first gear, or something like that (I chose that trans becasue of its size) Now with those mods, the Dual tranny setup is only a little longer than a stock 4 speed. Hook that up to a Transfer case (a Nissan T case would be enough at this point) and then go to the diffs For the front and rear diffs, create a setup similar to what I oulined earlier, but with portal hubs. Im thinking dual A-arms that pivot from centerline of the DOJ at the diff, and centerline of the CV or DOJ at the wheel. On the upper control arms, create a setup that uses coilovers mounter horizantally to save space. Mount that entire unit to the car using Nitrogen-charged coilovers, with adjustable valving or even Air assist or manually controlled Air struts and a 4 link setup with the lower rods pivoting from the center of the wheelbase for the front and the rear. Add manually-controlled steering to the rear assembly and you have a fairly capable setup, in theory. A lot of moving parts though, one of the biggest draws to straight axles is simplicity. But there's no challenge in that... I myself have been very satisfied with what the stock equipment and a lift with large tires can do offroad, my biggest want is more power/better gearing, but I always have the ideas and thoughts for things like this in my head... I might have to bust out the Legos and mock up something... -Bill

There are only 2 ways to make it work. the easiest most sure-fire way is to use a EA82 flywheel and EA82 clutch/Pressure plate. The other way is to use the EA81 flywheel, EA81 Pressure plate, and a clutch disk for an 85-86 EA82 4wd. It HAS to be for an 85-86 ONLY, they had a round center section instead of the square-ish center like the later one that you prolly have. The later ones will not fit in the EA81 Pressure plate, but the early one will. BUT, you might also run into a problem with the flywheel being thicker than the EA82 flywheel, and what happens is the clutch never fully engages. I had that problem once too, so I swapped in a EA82 flywheel and all was good. -Bill

If it has to be done ASAP, the easiest way is just make a running motor out of the EA71 the car has. To do an EJ swap, you would need to also swap in a later 4 or 5-speed trans, because the 78's had the top-mount starter. You can always upgrade later, but I say just fix the current motor to get started. -Bill

I got to thinking about that rear assembly Idea Brian, and I think Ive come up with a pretty good way to make it work, Im sure you can follow my horrible description skills So make a subframe/cage/unit/whatever to mount the diff/axles/hubs in, but instead of making the axles fixed at a high angle, make the cage have provisions for some coilovers, so the stock subaru stuff still flexes within its limits. Then, put the frame on a 4-link setup with long travel coilovers. Now you are talking some serous rear flex, it would be an indepedant axle assembly, with like a 2-stage suspension setup. For the front you are still pretty much screwed unless you T-case it, then you can do the same thing in the front... -Bill

Im thinking of makin a setup similar to something I saw a few years ago in one of the Off-road magazines, I think it was called a Camelback or something, it was a light-wieght stationary steel or aluminum framework with a canvas covering, just like the military rigs. You can roll up the sides, take the canvas off and use the frame as a rack, whatever. I'd have to do something like that to work with my exhaust stacks. -Bill

Hehe, its hard to take pics when Im behind the wheel -Bill

More than a few people have played around with that idea for a while... Do a search, you'll prolly come up with something. -Bill