TeamCF

I had a spare factory jack laying around and put it there. I figure two crappy scissor jacks is better than one..... They don't work too well now with the lift though. But anyway the bolt that held the spare in, also holds a scissor jack nicely. Probably going to build a cargo box to go there. Or just bolt a large ammo box in to hold some stuff. There was a time I was gonna shorten the front of the car and move the radiator up there. But that project will never happen it seems.... (Can only afford to have the vehicle down for an afternoon at a time)

Those are neat little vans. Wish we had more of them here in the US, they never got officially imported. I do see them from time to time though, that and the Sambar (version with a truck bed) around Portland. There was a guy out near me that had a bunch for sale for awhile, every one of them plated for road use. A couple were lifted with bigger tires. And I also own a Mosin Nagant. 1942 M91/30. Russian made though, so it only half counts. (they made them everywhere, even a version that was made here in the US for a couple years. And there are still some in use with some of the smaller militaries of the world.)

When he brought it over I saw it was a compass/temp/barometer combo. Proly has other info it shows too.

That CB mounting turned out slick.

Mines an EA81 but I had a problem where the fuel pump would quit here and there on me (I've since replaced it). The first time it did it while driving and I crawled under the car on the side of the highway and unplugged it and plugged it back in, was fine for a year or so. Cleaned up the plug once I was home. Then it recently would do what you described. I would turn the car on and it would crank. But the pump was not running so no start. If I turned it on and off a few times the pump would finally start to run (can hear it on mine due to no interior). And then it would start up and be fine. Some days it would do that, then it would be fine for a few weeks. Until the pump finally blew out at the dunes and took the fuse with it. Put a new pump in and no problems since. Just might be something to check.

Not having the power wire going to the choke will pretty much keep it always choked. The electric Weber choke works by heating up and then staying hot. This gradually opens it as the engine warms up. Granted it's all a bit more complex than that as there are linkages involved as well. (Which should be opening it as the throttle opens) But that gives you the idea. I'm not 100% on how the EA82 is. But on my EA81 the Hitachi had an electric choke. I just made a wire that plugged into the proper terminal on the plug that went to the stock carb and ran it to the Weber choke (now that I got it going and know it passes emissions I'll proly cannibalize the plug that was on the stock carb to make it look neater).

My old EA81 had about 200k on it when I bought the car. At near 300k I swapped in a different engine (still an EA81) I picked up for $50. Had a nice loud knock the whole time (once warmed up it quieted down a bit) Upon tearing it down I found a couple of the main bearings were just chunks laying in the bottom of the pan. Other than that it seemed to run pretty good. I used to run it at redline quite a bit at the dunes with that old knocker. I figure the only reason it never popped was it was an EA81. Main bearings?! The EA81 does not need no stinking main bearings!! Can't say how long yours will hold together. But that's my similar experience. I would get a hold of a replacement and get it prepped and in as soon as you can just to be on the safe side. I know it was a lot nicer prepping my spare while the car was still running. Less pressure so I felt I had time to go over the "new" engine pretty good. (I did miss something though, only after I put it in though I noticed a crack in the top of the block leaking coolant, that JBweld has held for two years now........ *knock on wood*)

http://powerracingseries.org/ Though I don't think yours would be legal.

Had that happen to me once out near Hood River. Was coming down a steep greasy muddy hill that curved at the end (over the edge of the curve was a several foot drop off). About halfway down it slid real bad and like an idiot my first instinct was to push the pedal harder. Pedal to the floor and I just took the bucking bronco ride the rest of the way down and made it around the corner, lucky it was slightly banked from ATVs. Clamped it off with vice grips and zip tied them to the strut, filled the fluid back up. And wheeled the rest of the day on 3 brakes and the E-brake. In my case it proly had something to do with tearing that strut top out at TSF the week before and wheeling all day on that as well (did a bit of damage to the fender well by the end of the day), using the axle and brake line as the "limiting straps"....... that axle also grenaded the DOJ a couple weeks later...... Used to have a bad habit of not stopping the fun just because a major part broke. Or maybe it was just the fact I may as well stay in the woods and go home late so there is less traffic for the limp home. I found some mid 90's Acura lines that have the same fittings and are a hair longer (except you need the longer Acura banjo bolt at the caliper). Worked out great now that I'm lifted.

Yeah a lot of it depends on the snow. If it's powdery, I'll stay at street pressure and be just fine. But 95.8% of the time it's like wet cement around here. And you want to stay on top of it or it'll pack up under the car and high center you. So I'll air down to get more contact patch. I know it works because I've gotten buried at street pressure and seemed hopelessly stuck. Let some air out and just drove on out with no other problems that day. So part of it is reading the conditions and adjusting accordingly. This time of winter the snow is so bad around here with layers of crust, slush, crust, powder, crust..... etc. I just stay the heck away from it. :-\ And our local snowcat driver is running almost around the clock pulling big fully locked 4x4s out of the hills.

We'll air down to 10 or 15 psi for some snow. Helps with floatation and traction about the same as it does on sand. One year it was get stuck, let some more air out, drive out of the holes. So it's always good to not go down all the way at first as insurance. I find 10 is about as low as I'll go since beadlocks are not a common thing on Soobs. And be careful when going down to low pressures with doing cookies and such. Take a tire right off a rim if you get too nutty. Of course this means you have to have a decent little pump/compressor with you and a gauge for when you hit the pavement again. (which to me is a requirement in any vehicle anyway) Though with 6-7 inches, airing down is proly not needed.

Nice. You'll love that 5speed with the Weber. The vibration could be tranny mounts. I know mine did that under hard acceleration. When I checked the mounts had ripped apart. At the time I jacked up the trans to where it needed to sit, cleaned them really good and used a bunch of 3M windoweld on them, that cured it. That was several months ago and it lost it's adhesion, proly didn't get them clean enough working under the car. I'm gonna buy some new mounts and beef them up with the stuff before putting them on. (I ended up using EA81 mounts on my 5speed, not as beefy as the EA82 mounts, but the fab work was easier at the time as it only required drilling a few new holes rather than making a custom crossmember) A front inner DOJ will do that too (I've also had one of those happen years ago). But you noted that you just put new axles in.

I would say an earlier GL with a dual range tranny would be the best. But. Sometimes parts can be harder to get as they get older, especially if you need a suspension arm or something that got bent. For non hardcore use a Legacy might be just the way to go. I've seen a slightly modified Outback do some pretty nasty trails no problem. And guys like Scott (SJR lift) does lift kits for just about all of them now. Personally I like the lightweight and smaller size of my 83 GL. And with a couple inches of lift, some good all terrains, and a 5 speed dual range swap it's been that much better. Honestly I mainly just do remote camping (places the family's in minivans can't get to) with it though, with the hard off roading limited now (I still bounce it off a big rock here and there though). I want it to last, and even though I still see a few here and there in the JY near me, I know parts are drying up. I used to just beat on it relentlessly though. You might do good with an EA82 (As in 85 to 90? wagon, I forget when that body cut off) wagon and do the EJ swap. Parts still easier to find in the junkyard, still a lighter body than the Legacy, get one with the dual range trans already in it, and swap in the power of a modern engine.

Yeah my 83 GL always had wet carpet (when it still had carpet) and such. I siliconed around the windshield gasket and it stopped. Mine is just old and dried out. got a glass guy that is putting a new windshield and gasket in this spring for me so it'll be sorted right soon.

I have a bit of in car from the day. The spot you made in one swift move is first up, and you were behind me so you can hear it happen (the first time) over the CB. (I didn't get as lucky, but neither did any of the Jeeps.) Can even hear my driveshaft hit the body a few times..... Got that floppy center mount sorted now. And even got a line on some conversion U-joints from back east to make the EA82 joints easily replaceable with clips instead of the staking in.