Caboobaroo

Yes, all EA cars have a positive camber, negative toe set which makes them feel real loose. By loose I mean IMHO, kinda steers like a Cadillac, whereas my custom alignment specs for my XT6 and my RX (XT6 has rear Impreza struts in the front which gives me adjustable camber and my RX has a complete 5-lug conversion with KYB AGXs, coilover sleeves and front camber adjustment) make the cars handle almost on rails. I'm currently runnins a negative camber, 0 toe setting on both cars and definetly makes the cars "sporty" to drive. A comparison... My RX with the conversion and suspension swap, plus my alignment specs handles just as nice as my buddy's '05 STi on Tein coilovers, also which I've aligned... twice. The EA82 cars have about +.67 camber, +1.4 caster and -0.15 toe in the front.

Just find yourself a set of rear trailing arms from any EA82 4wd that has a rear swaybar. I have a set but I put new bearings in them and might be making there way into my RX, depending on my STi rear subframe dilema

They're not very easy to adjust if you've never done it before. I don't have my FSM in front of me either so I can't step you through it very easily. From memory, IIRC, jack up the back end so the suspension is unloaded, take off the wheels and there's a small 10mm bolt on the end of the trailing arm up where it mounts to the trailing arm. If you were to crawl underneath the car, you'll see the subframe tube but you'll also see the torsion bars as well, since they're external and they mount up near the center of the bed. Ok the 10mm bolt is the bolt that basically holds the torsion bar in the correct position, so take it out. The use a hammer and chisel and drive the torsion bar out from the mount underneath the car. You'll be driving the bar to the outside of the car. Then use a jack and preload the suspension where you want it, either lift it or lower it. Then drive the bar back in put the bolt back in, bolt the wheel up and check the height side to side. It took me about 3 hours IIRC for both adjustments but I slammed my Brat to the ground.

I use my Snap-On 1/2" breaker bar and a piece of pipe from a chain link fence:grin:

Torsion bars on the gen 1 cars are external from the subframe tube whereas the gen 2 are internal. I'm willing to bet the tires on that Brat are 185/70R13s on Jackman wheels. The tires look very close to the tires I had on my gen 1 Brat that were mounted on EA82 steel wheels. They're not thin enough for 155 or even 175 tires.

Or go with an EJT like I was telling you. At least I LEARNED from my kaboom EA82T days. Now I got the EJ22T:grin:

before you go get a new column, check the tightness of the u-joint on the end of it where it connects to the rack. Mine had movement and made a funny clunking sound through the column and thats what i thought it was, was the column. Dug into it finally while doing my complete EJ22T swap the other day and found out the pinch bolt on the steering column -> u-joint was a little loose. Tightened it down pretty tight and the play went away. Next, make sure its play coming from inside the column if the first fix doesn't work. make sure the column tube is secure in the car and the play could be coming from a bad bearing inside the column, then just replace the column. Very simple to do, I can get mine out in about 5 minutes.

oh boy.... Ok so when it comes to bleeding, do whats known as a gravity bleed. Once you get the brakes together, crack the bleeder screws and leave them open until fluid starts to drip out of them. THEN do the one man bleeder system like what was mentioned before. The gravity bleeding helps get rid of most of the bleeding process which is nice. Remember, you'll have to bleed all four corners out because Subaru has the crisscross style of braking instead of the generic front to rear systems. One way to tell the right and left calipers apart is the bleeder screw will be above the banjo bolt for the brake line. just hold the caliper up in the position is would be mounted on the car and if the bleeder is higher then the banjo bolt on the caliper, then that'll determine what side it goes on. For removal of the axle nuts, use some sort of penetrating lube (not WD-40 because its not a penetrant), soak it for a couple minutes, take a 36mm socket, put it on a 1/2" breaker bar, get a chunk of pipe (also known as a cheater pipe) and break it loose. I'll put my breaker bar and cheater pipe parallel to the ground and put my foot on it, then give it a quick bounce. I've never had an issue doing it that way and I'm a 140lbs wet on a good day if I'm lucky:rolleyes:

Unfortunatly from the pics, it looks like it buckled the body up at the top of the topper on the roofline area. If thats the case, no amount of come alonging will fix it which is sad but if you're ok, thats the most important thing. If anything, you could always fight with the insurance and get another Brat shell and swap everything into it:banana:

Rob, what did I tell you Don't mod the EA82T cause it'll go kaboom eventually:eek:

Not sure what car I'm going to be bringing so I'm not registering just yet. I told my boss I'm wanting that weekend off and he was ok with it so I'm not going to get fired for coming this year!!!:banana:

I found out today I won't be able to make it either. Boss informed me on my day off, we are to have a district teleconference meeting thing after work that day:-\ Happy birthday Zap, hope its a good one!

I'll roll out there after I get off work at 6pm. Be a little late kinda like last year but better late then never. Didn't think you'd be THAT old.

Nice work Dave, looks like you beat me too it. I'm getting close to getting mine running but funding is almost there for the new engine build and this same 6mt swap. I definatly need to come down and do some discussing with you one of these days about this.

The Legacy axles should go on without any issues. I think the only 23 spline EJ axles were early FWD 5-speed Impreza. All other EJ axles that we use for the conversion are a 25 spline and are the correct length for the swap.

Ok so first off, you're doing the EJ swap but what tranny are you planning on using? The EA or the EJ? Also, what front knuckles and brakes are you planning on using? The EJ? The axles aren't an issue with doing a 5-lug conversion on an EA82, just make sure that if you're using the EJ parts, you use the EJ axles to match, and same goes for the XT6 parts if you use those up front instead. If you need anymore info, I got a write-up in the USRM and I've done enough 5-lug swaps to basically answer any of your questions.

A bit of an update... So apparently the "good" radiator that was swapped into it was probably plugged. Since the upper radiator hose had split on me, a chunk of the outlet for the upper hose broke off of the radiator and was inside the hose, therefore my new hose wouldn't stay on the radiator even clamped down. So I swapped the original one back in, did a pretty mean hose flush on it prior to installing it, got it all bolted in, cleaned the thermoswitch for the fans off since it was covered in a nice white hard crusty layer, and voila, no more overheating and no more pinging:banana:

Got the stock EA82 driveline shortened but it didn't get balanced since the u-joints have flat spots in them. I'll run it for a bit hopefully before I get my one piece made since I'm still looking for the correct sized yoke for the rear joint for a 2 1/2" diameter driveline. Didn't get a chance to install it since I got it before going to work. Cost me a whopping $60.23:banana: Also got the EA82 harness stripped of everything engine related and am going to start lining everything up to splice together. It shouldn't take too long hopefully but I have a small rats nest I need to clean up on the EJ harness around the factory bulkhead connector before I get to merging them. Then its on to installing it, cutting the core support and mounting the radiator, plus a few small odd things that need to be buttoned up:grin:

Kingbobdole in Broomfield, CO did an EJ25D swap into his old RX.

Mike, those taps are actually fairly easy to come by. I have two, one at work and one at home. Its the same thread as Subaru wheel studs:)

I'd be ok with it if its in good condition. If the price is right and its an actual black RX, yes, yes I'd like to have it. I'd put my drivetrain into it and get rid of the EA82T. As far as I know though, there weren't any numberings on them. My old black RX didn't have anything except the regular RX stickers.

Man, I am just rockin along on this thing! Its totally awesome! Today after I got off work, I took my EA82 harness and started to strip it. Got about 1/3rd of it stripped before I called it a night. So far so good though. I'm not going to have much free time until Wednseday night to continue on it but I made some decent progress in the last few days. I'm shooting for running/driving by the end of the month.

A bit more info from todays drive home. Currently 70 degrees outside, slighty overcastish with sun shining through. If I baby it and I mean drive it so conservable I feel like I should be a million years old sorta thing, the temp gauge hits half in about 4 miles of freeway before I got off on my exit, and this is with the heater on. Through town, with the heater on, same deal but the instant I hit a slight incline, gauge would barely start to creep up. If I get it above 4k rpms and into it slightly more, creeps faster. Sitting in my driveway at a dead stop, idling, it's right above half with the heater on, revving it and holding it about 3k rms, barely moves. Turn heater off and do same scenario again, gauge moves a bit quicker but still a slow snail. What am I getting to? I think its having a flow issue (ie, not enough coolant is flowing through the engine fast enough) so my guess is the waterpump is dying. I obviously know about the weep hole in it (which isn't leaking any coolant) but I'm wondering, since this car came from the original owners and even though they took decent care of the car, coolant might not have been serviced in the 20 years they owned it. Thinking it might have partially disintegrated the vanes on the pump. Gonna see how much a new one is tomorrow at work since not too many places are open on Sunday... except for my work:rolleyes:

Yay! Another update! Not much got done today since I was working until 6pm but I did manage to get the shift linkages mounted into the car using some bits and pieces from other Subarus that I've parted out in the past. I'm going to grab some polyurethane to make a bushing in the hanger I have to keep it from rattling but its mounted in the car, shifts good and hopefully will work for awhile:banana:

Ok so I'll see about adding more info in. Car has 131k on it, radiator and AC condensor are clear as day, I was under it not too long ago on a lift and checked it all out too. Car seems to heat up to the middle of the gauge in about 8 blocks from sitting overnight. If I drive around town, its fine with the heater on and it will be ok for a few miles on the freeway. I also noticed under cornering like going from one freeway to another on the off/onramp, the gauge will start to creep shortly there after. Also, it'll start pinging pretty badly under load when it starts to get warm but apparently the timing is dead nuts on. I'm going to see about pulling the plugs to see if I got a headgasket or an intake gasket issue. My only thing is, if it was either one of those, it'll start to eat a little coolant but it doesn't. I drove 500 miles a few weeks ago for mothers day and didn't loose a drop of coolant. I did drive the whole way with the heater on though. I'm going to order up a WP for it tomorrow and gasket, then change it out next week. Oh and yes, Rob is the current owner of the car but I owned it for a week before he did. I got it from the original owner for $200 with 121k on it, bearing noise in the tranny and flakey air suspension. I regret selling it though:-\