ferox

I am not saying this is your issue necessarily, seems like Ned might have some other symptoms, but once the weather got cold the fuel supply lines in my cars don't stay primed when they are parked for a while (I don't drive much). My hatch has a Hitachi carb, but I have found that it helps to let the key sit in the RUN position in the ignition for a bit to let the pump prime the line and fill the carb bowl. My hatch was starting, running great for a bit, then dying after about 30 seconds. What it was doing was running out the fuel in the bowl before the fuel supply caught up with it. If I let it prime, it starts and runs perfectly. I have the "advantage" of having my fuel pump in the exceptionally dangerous location near the firewall directly in front of the driver's side windshield, so I can listen to the pump prime and can tell when the fuel reaches the pump.

Unless you are attached to the Loyale body style, I would recommend a Legacy. They can be had for very cheap these days, especially the '90-'94s. Anything you buy would probably need new bearings, struts, ball-joints, and tie-rod ends, but it would likely stay running and start easily.

Sweet pics, takes me back to my college days in Corvalley. Was that Chevy a dually? Whenever it snows I just park my Jeep and drive the Sube. All these bigger rig drivers don't realize them wide tires don't work so well in the snow. I'm getting pizza-cutters for the Jeep next time I need tires. I know my Sube would make it to the top, but the BFG ATs on the Heep would have failed miserably. What kind of snow tires are you running?

You might want to also check to see that the heater control valve is connected and actuating when the temp control is moved. When I replaced the heater core in my '81 hatch I did not remove the seats. I dropped the steering column, disconnected the dash, and pulled it back from the firewall but did not remove it from the car. I could pull the passenger side dash back far enough to remove the old core, clean the cavity, and install the new core. By doing it that way, I did not have to disconnect all the wiring by the steering column and it was easy to re-fit the dash back to it's installed position. It might be different for an ea82, but it was a lot less work than I had expected. It was still a lot of work but it was much tidier than I had built up in my mind. Now I can practically re-heat a meal from my dash vents.

Pooparu did a super-custom lowered hatch, but unfortunately almost all of the pictures are gone from the thread. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=85464&highlight=hatch

Depending on your tools and skill set, the Nissan alt upgrade is easier for most people. It involves the spacer and pulley swap mentioned earlier, but no mounting mod. The GM swap (#7157) does not require the pulley swap but involves a a narrowing modification of the rear of the main alt bracket and a 1" angle iron extension of the tensioner bracket (pictured on an ea81). Clearances and measurements may be slightly different on an ea82. If you are really drawing amps, then either upgrade should also be accompanied by a wiring upgrade (upsize), but both alts are essentially wired the same as stock.

So what were they? Brand? Reman or new?

Most people go with the Nissan upgrade. It's the cleanest and easiest for most people. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=100559&highlight=%26quot%3Balternator+upgrade%26quot%3B I went with the 100 amp GM alt upgrade way back when and have been very happy with it, but it requires modifying the alt bracket to make it a bolt-in. I used a small-case one as opposed to the large-case units described in the links. It's still a lunker, but it works great. If for some reason you want to go with the GM over the Nissan, let me know and I can send you some photos. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=24227&highlight=%26quot%3Balternator+upgrade%26quot%3B http://random.removed.us/altswap.html

To the best of my knowledge the OEM halfshafts are NTN brand, but I could be wrong so hopefully someone can confirm or deny. What kind of aftermarket axles did you get? Were they new or reman? Not all aftermarket axles are created equal. I just changed out the OPs on my '81. They lasted about 15 months. I replaced them with EMPIs. I usually run EMPIs, but last time I decided I needed axles right before a big trip or something so I grabbed the OPs locally. The quality of the EMPIs over the OPs is really apparent and I will only run EMPIs from now on. Reman aftermarket axles of any kind are junk and shouldn't even be considered. New EMPIs can be had from Rockauto for about $60 with shipping, and remember to articulate the joints and make sure the grease is massaged into the bearing assemblies before you install. It was obvious that the EMPIs had grease in the bearing assemblies from the factory, but that was not as apparent with the OPs.

You can torch out the center rubber part. If you torch the end of the control arm assembly, the rubber at the interface between the rubber part and the outer metal casing will melt and you can push out the whole rubber center while it's hot. Unless you are using a really hot torch, you shouldn't have to worry about weakening the metal. You still have to get the outer metal casing out. On leaf springs a lot of times people do this and use a recip or hacksaw to cut out the casing. On the Subaru control arms I would not recommend it. It's possible that you could eliminate the center rubber, leave the outer metal casing intact and in-place in the control arm, extract the metal center bolt sleeve from the old rubber bushing, and find an aftermarket poly bushing to shove into the outer metal casing with the center bolt sleeve. It would have to be a really good tight fit though, and you would have to re-use the metal parts of the original bushing. If you find the correct sized poly bushing that would actually be a pretty worthy retrofit discovery. I think it's totally doable, but you have to do the research to find the right bushings. It's imperative that if you do this that the bushings fit correctly.

Yeah, for people that don't have the custom set-up like GD mentioned the best option is to find another control arm with a bushing in better condition. I had a shop attempt to do the ones in my '81 and they destroyed the control arms, so even a professional machine shop is not necessarily an option. They are kind of an odd shape to mount and support and the pressure required to extract the old bushing is greater than the strength required to deform the metal of the control arm if it is not supported correctly.

That's low. 12.0V is ok temporarily, but it should really be 12.4-12.6. If the battery won't hold higher than 12.0v, then you are putting some strain on the alternator. I would also recommend an alt upgrade if your are installing hungry accessory systems. The stock alt is weak even in top condition. If you are going to mod your car with a hydrogen generator you need to wire it so that it runs only when the engine is running. If it runs your battery down, then your alt will have to work hard to charge it up, since it is designed to maintain a charge rather than as a battery charger, per se. More importantly, leaving the possibility of the H generator running while the car is not, could cause damage to your better half when she/he starts the car after 6 hours of hydrogen and oxygen production (assuming it's an electrolytic generator). You should remove that system and bench-design fail-safes into it before installing it back in the vehicle and letting your better half drive it on public roadways.

+1 on Raybestos, although I go for the professional grade which are ~$30 rather than the service grade. Outstanding quality.

What I meant was, did you check it for vacuum leaks. I don't think even Ultra Grey RTV holds up to gasoline. You will probably have to change that out later.

Have you replaced the flywheel? If not you could find TDC on the #1 piston and put a little paint mark on the current flywheel to indicate TDC and estimate 8 degrees BTDC from there. With the rpms you have going, if the vac advance is connected then it is effecting the timing. Also, make sure it's connected to ported vacuum, like one of the ports you have capped on the front of the carb in your last picture. Also, since your rpms are high you might try something other than brake cleaner that is petroleum based that will slow the rpms instead of increase it. Since your engine is so crusty, spraying some WD40 around might do the trick and wouldn't really make the engine bay crustier from the looks of it. You really shouldn't use brake cleaner anyway for this purpose, but I have done it myself so I won't lecture. Did you check the brake booster vac line? I did not see it featured in the pictures. If you pull the engine to replace the flywheel, might suggest cleaning up the engine a bit...personal preference. I find it more difficult to diagnose and work on crusty engines. And definitely get real Subaru intake manifold gaskets when you get a chance. What do you have for a base gasket? All that rust on those carb linkages is not a good sign. It seems like the main problem is outside of the carb itself, but regardless of whether that carb is a Hitachi, it looks craptastic. The throttle shaft and bushings are undoubtedly junk. I would definitely recommend a Weber or at least a Hitachi in better condition.

Since you have had the same or similar results with two different carbs, the problem probably lies outside the carb itself. The carb may present problems also, but I would caution against tweeking it too much until you get the main initial problem figured out. Getting the timing dialed in will help. How is the brake pedal feel? Does it affect idle at all when it's depressed? You don't need to do anything to the metal EGR tube, but I would recommend pulling the EGR and cleaning it of carbon deposits so it closes correctly and make sure it seals well when you re-install it.

Somehow your idle circuit has been bypassed. It sounds to me like you have a major vacuum leak. The idle mixture screw should be around 2 turns out from lightly seated. Is the charcoal canister still hooked up or did you remove it? If you can post a picture of the carb and intake area that might help. You should really get this sorted out before driving it too much.

I don't mean any offense. At this point it's obvious you have a better understanding of the Weber than many who post up questions about it. I have been duped too many times into wasting my time trying to help diagnose carb issues only to find out on page 4 of the thread that they pulled the carb off a '78 Ford F150 V-8 and didn't bother to re-jet. So when we covered the idle speed screw setting, I assumed you hadn't followed the instructions. At this point, if it can't be established that the basic preliminaries haven't been followed or people fight me when I try to help them I don't spend too much of my time trying to convince them. At the same time, for future readers, I want to make sure it's obvious that there's a sequence to fine tuning a carb. Nice work getting it sorted.

True enough. And extremely cold environments will obviously be more inclined to need custom adjustment. My point was that the baseline tuning must come before a choke adjustment or you could end up compensating for improper tuning with a choke adjustment. The op did not explicitly mention that he established baseline operation according to the tuning procedure until a couple posts ago and indicated earlier that he did not know what I was referring to when I mentioned the idle speed screw adjustment. In most cases, the factory choke setting should be fine for a properly tuned Weber. I am not saying it will be perfect, but it should be functional.

Thanks for mentioning that.

Yeah more specifically what I am talking about is if the idle screw is turned in too much you will eventually bypass or partially bypass the idle circuit at which point you are mostly running off the secondary and it won't choke properly. With the carb set this way it will have a decent idle at around 1,000 rpms and make a lot of power in high speed operation, so it seems like everything must be set correctly or close to it. Fuel efficiency suffers, but many people don't use that or care about it as an indicator of proper carb tuning or attribute it to elevation or a heavy-pedal. Mostly I just want to make sure that if people pull this up later in a search that they know to follow the Weber tuning instructions and establish baseline operation before moving to choke adjustments because when the carb is properly tuned, the factory choke setting should work fine.

I know you're not really open to hearing this, but I will say it anyway. The stock choke position should not really require adjusting if the carb is tuned correctly. If not, it can do damage to your engine. I am glad you got your car running better, but since you were not aware of what I was talking about with the idle speed screw earlier in the thread, keep an eye on things to make sure you're not masking an improperly tuned carb with choke adjustment. The idle speed screw is the most sensitive and critical adjustment on the Weber.

I always have to change out my fuel filters once they bring in the winter gas mixture. I guess the increased ethanol content degrades something that clogs the element. Cheap and easy maintenance item even if it's unrelated to the problem.

Alright, you were describing difficulty with hot starts as well. We can only go with what you tell us, good luck.

Your idle mixture screw setting would indicate a rich condition. What do your plugs look like?