ferox

Check your motor mounts, transmission mounts, and u-joints. The vibration you feel may be caused by something other than the DOJ. The trans. mounts on the older models are puny. Whenever they go out in my '81 I feel it in the DOJs.

It's my understanding that in California, if you upgrade to TBI, your car has to pass emissions criteria for the car that the fuel delivery system was taken from. In this case, an 86-92 ea82. I could be wrong of course, but I think that is what other California members have done. If you go with the stock carb, get a Hitachi for an '83. Unless you work on Hitachis, it's virtually indistinguishable from the '81 and is much better in design...relatively speaking of course. I have never used National Carbs, but I have never heard anything bad about them either, so I can't help you there.

So did it get out of range of your transmitter? That's pretty cool, I mean the HellaCopter not the damage. Did you build it yourself? I would like to build something like that...in all my spare time. Seems like a lot of those parts are comparable in price to car parts.

I don't even know what to say. That's some seriously nice work. Very inspiring. I am going to be doing something like this in the next year or two with some subframes for the EJ swap into my Hatch. I am doing EJ suspension rather than solid axle, but I expect it to be similar in construction requirements. I don't really like exoskeletons either, but I really want a roof rack tied into the frame. The Hatch isn't quite as space limited as the Brat, but similar. I think I am going to route the up-tubes through the interior and out the roof and the cross-members will be on the exterior of the roof. The rack will attach to the cross-members, so I will have an integrated roll cage and rack mount. Beautiful work, thanks for sharing.

Is this about the Gen 1 wagon in your avatar? There are bearings in the trans. that could be replaced, but I would disconnect the DOJs from the trans. and check for play in the splined stubs on the trans before doing anything else. What kind of transmission does it have in it? If the bearings in question are bad, unless you have a show-piece stocker wagon, I would consider a D/R 5MT trans swap rather than R&R on an old 4 speed. Assuming it's a 4WD model.

Not until it's been settled. It's pretty deep and the front and back of the door have raised from the bodyline. I don't know that they're going back down. It's a little worse than the pictures suggest. I haven't pulled off the interior, but I am expecting some non-reversible damage. I will see if get some time tomorrow to check it out.

The only cheap aftermarket axles worth messing with are the ones that are new not reman. I have had great luck with them, but one thing I have noticed is the grease is all in the boots from the factory. It makes sense. An assembly line is not going to get messy squishing grease into the bearings. I am sure they assemble everything and before they put the last band on the boot, they slide a needle fitting in under the lip, squirt and band. If you don't spend some time and effort mushing the grease into the bearings before install, then the bearings are basically just running with a little assembly lube or dry. I have had one set of OPs come bad out of the box, but that's it, they had a one year warranty, I took them back and then no problems. Empis have never given me problems. Axle quality has been debated many times of course, but GD mentioned massaging the grease from the boot into the bearings on the new aftermarket axles a long time ago. I have done it every time since then, and had great success with many sets on multiple cars, so that makes me think the boot grease massage is an essential factor on the new aftermarket axles.

One of my wife's clients backed into the Hatch. Luckily it just damaged the door. Also kind of lucky, the client had instructed my wife to park in the spot where she ran into it. It's kind of hard to make any kind of excuse when you told someone to park someplace specific then run into them. Oh well, could have been worse. Anyone local have a hatch or Gen II Brat door in good condition they would like to sell? I haven't checked the yards yet.

I had a girlfriend that had a Geo Metro that had larger tires on it. I drove that thing into places you would never guess it could make, and it did it without trouble. The ground clearance is key. With such a small engine you might want to have a larger set of wheels for trips with offroad potential and the smaller set for road driving. I know Diahatsu also makes a 1.0L turbo diesel that gets between 70-110 miles per gallon. That would a pretty sweet option too.

Try it at 8. Seafoam probably isn't going to do much for you, no offense. How old is the oil pump? When was the last time you adjusted the valve lash?

If your carb doesn't have an anti-dieseling solenoid (optional) it will probably have dieseling problem with that much advance. Try 10 degrees BTDC and if that doesn't work try 8. You shouldn't have any problems at 8, but if you can get 10 (or something more than 8) out of it, so much the better. It all depends on the individual engine.

The two UFO things sound like the choke pull-off dash pots. If the choke is still installed, but not completely or correctly, and the fast idle screw is off-spec, then the car can die randomly and not be restarted if the choke engages after the engine is warmed up. Make sure the choke is also getting power to heat the internal spring. The car will run fine without the choke once it's warmed up, but the choke can also prevent the car from running if it is not functioning properly. I recommend reinstalling the dash-pots with the orifice restrictor in the vac line, confirm that the mechanicals inside the choke housing are oriented correctly (it can go back together with the cams and pawls mis-oriented), check that the choke gets switched power, and adjust the fast idle screw to spec.

All good. Thanks Good info., thanks. I think OBDII will work best for me. Part of why I want the OBDII is to read codes more easily. I tend to over-maintain my vehicles, so sensitivity to codes isn't necessarily a bad thing for me; however, I can see how rev limiting could be a problem. I am not going to be doing anything over the stock 2.2 and plan on mostly driving normal, so the 6k limit shouldn't be an issue for me. This retrofit will widen the wheelbase a little bit, so on the short wheelbase of the Hatch it might steer a little weird, especially at 6k or high speed.

Yeah, I would be inclined to say they were aesthetically challenged straight from the factory but I used to think that about the ea81s and now I like the looks of them. The '90-'94s are battle-wagons and this one looks like it's seen actual battle but no rust. Hmmm, that's good to know. The scope of this project is pretty significant, so the OBDII would probably be worthy. There's no shortage of Legacy's in the yards these days.

It will never run correctly until you get the fast idle screw adjusted properly. On the attached JPEG you want to try to adjust G1 into spec. What is your timing set at?

I am stoked. My friend upgraded to an Outback and gave me her '92 Legacy. It is aesthetically challenged but it runs great. The steering and suspension are worn out and I am sure the T-belts and bearings need replaced, but it idles, accelerates, and shifts (auto) great. 197K. I was hoping to EJ my Hatch with an OBDII set-up, but this will do. I have to wait a year or two to get started, but I think I am back on to the idea of swapping the entire Legacy suspension, steering, engine and trans. onto the Hatch. Actually I will probably try for a Forester trans and rear diff for the gearing unless I can figure a way to use my D/R.

Sounds like you messed with the fast idle screw and you are correct, fooling with it is at least one of the biggest mistakes on a Hitachi (assuming it's a Hitachi). To adjust it back to spec according to the FSM you have to remove the carb and adjust the screw while measuring the clearance from the throttle valve to throttle bore. I scanned a page out of my FSM but I can't attach PDFs, so I will try to scan it in a different format this weekend. It's a pita. The clearance is like 1.38 mm. I have done it once and filed a piece of wire and measured it with a micrometer to make a wire gauge for the adjustment. Even then the adjustment wasn't terribly accurate but close enough. I agree with the other responses that it sounds like you have a vacuum leak. It might not be at the carb itself. If you have your charcoal canister hooked up, the valve on top of the canister could have easily failed or other things that your vac lines are hooked up to could be leaking. What's you timing set at?

That actually sounds like the fuel pump to me. Mine does this too. When you turn the key to run but haven't started the vehicle the fuel pump primes the carb bowl on a timer. The fuel pump makes a rapid ticking type sound when pumping, but once you start the car the engine is louder so you don't hear it anymore.

With two cars in need I think learning how to do it would be well worth it. I've done 3 of the 4 corners on my brother's '93 Imp and it wasn't too bad. I do have a shop press however. If you do it on the car with the HF kit, I would also recommend picking up a large bearing puller as well. It's not necessary but it can come in handy to remove the hub. With a few tools and a little ingenuity you can save yourself a lot of money and have the satisfaction of knowing it was done right. I would also recommend taking a couple photos of the rear e-brake set-up if you disassemble it.

I totally agree from a long term perspective. Drilling the hubs is more work up front with greater attention to detail, but then you can nut-on rims without having to redrill them and use the rims the way they were designed. Also, a lot of rims can't be re-drilled safely, so you get way more wheel options with the 6-lug hub. However, the OP asked about drilling wheels, so if anybody is going to do this, I recommend Gloyale's method on appropriate steel wheels. People keep mentioning using a center punch, but you really want a transfer punch of the correct size. You really shouldn't re-drill alloys.

Good advice. What is the make of OEM axles for New Gen? NTN?

Perfect, thanks.

A friend of mine is buying an '03 Outback from another friend who is the original owner. The dealer is saying the headgaskets are leaking oil and coolant and need immediate attention. They asked me about warranty or recall issues that should be addressed before they transfer title. I don't know New Gen stuff that well yet, so I thought I would ask. It's got 97k on it. I believe it's and auto trans. Runs great. Is there anything they should have warrantied, replaced, or repaired before the original owner isn't the owner anymore?

If you are getting EMPIs make sure you are getting new not rebuilt. That's the advantage of the EMPIs.

Yeah but I think China is the only one calling Taiwan the ROC.