Yo'J

But the pictures help, you know, tie rods dont have a bow and to drift something has nothing to do with water!

Check the usrm, There is a great how to. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=54

Dood! Score! That looks just like mine! I'm by NSCC, near northgate. I've seen one just like it in Ballard on market st. Possibly the same? Big guy with beard? What year? Wish mine had tailgate trim.

If you tighten a belt up too much you can wear out the bearings in your alt and ac power steering pump or accessories whatever you got. Get a new belt. Fix it in the parts store parking lot. Sometimes they will help too if its a slow day. Don't spray anything on the belts. Those products kill belts. Making them grab better by melting the outer surface.

I didn't go very far because someone might need it if I cant use it. It threads just fine. The flat spots show in the threads. Sorry my camera isnt so fancy there.......

The tips of the "wrench area" are all you get for thread. Check out the pic at top. I ran a die down it to see how well it took the threads. I didn't go very far, to finish, I'd a have ta gone an inch past the wrench spot to use ej outers or just a little further for the ea81 tie rod end. The tie rods make up the difference in rack width for the most part. But do you see about the "captive nut purchace"? Thanks capn'! Its been some ARRRD work! It just looks like too much surgery on the poor girl to give her the modern rudder. I dont have an ea82 rack or the money to grab one till next payday but I got this extra crossmember see. Thats a good thought, I wisk I did. I need an inner tie rod and boots first!:lol I also wonder about the rack changes through out the years. My ej rack is from a 90 leg. I'll bet they changed some by now. I want to get this crossmember back in my brat so I can get this engine and tranny out of my woodshop! Car parts and maintenance make such a mess! And you cant do both woodworking and auto repair at the same time.

Ok the ej and the ea rack are only about an 1.5 to 1.75" different in lenghth, without inner tie rods, not so bad. The outer tie rods both seem to fit the knuckle. I don't have a pic. The ej inner tie rod can be threaded down to fit but your solid thread purchase is only so much, a little good thread in deep or just enough depth, depending on which outer tie rod you use. About 1/2" to 3/4" one way or the other. With the ej outers you would have better captive nut purchase, you would have to thread past the wrenchable section and cut off the rest. I guess one won't really know how much purchase till an alignment. You can see the tapered cut "wrenching section" in the threads. You can see the inners wont interchange. in order to get any PS rack into the manual crossmember you would have to get rid of the plate at the bottom by drilling the welds out or cutting. I'll bet drilling would be best. It would bolt back on. You could just add the 4 holes for the lines of the ea81 ps rack and the grommets though if you didn't have the PS crossmember. I thought that is interesting. The problem is the size and shape of the ej ps rack. The lines would have to be re routed past the carrier bracket and away from crossmember or to new holes, or you could just cut:eek: :[ Speaking of cutting...the top. That might be a little conservative too. You might have to cut more. You can see my drawn line. I'll bet that set of cuts would RUIN the entegrity of the whole crossmember. Then making shims to get the imput shaft to the right angle. If you could shim the whole rack down away from the whole crossmsmber, it would be much more doable with out as much cutting, but that would drop it into the realm of getting to low to be any good ("Road turtle took you out?")and being out of any normal persons fab skills as the brackets would have to be really pretty burly. Might as well make your own crossmember then. With all that to take into consideration, I"ll bet its out of my league. I tried. When I pulled the old manual rack out I noticed a crap tonn of play in a inner tie rod, it was unthreading. So glad I pulled it. I'd been chasing that for a while now. So how loose are these inner tie rods supposed to be? I have two that are easy to swivel around, one that almost fell off on its own and and three that are stiff. When I put on new boots do I grease the gear with anything special?

Did this post? Cool! Auto ea81 crossmember, ea81 manual rack, ea81 power rack, and the 90 leg power rack. I found a few things out. I'll post back after dinner.

Let me post pics tomorrow and I might take you up on the welding. The other thing I was just looking at is the option to just thread the ej inners down a bit and cut off the end and use the ea81 outers. DUH! The only issue I have is the amount of threaded material for the captive nut, being on the area that is flattened for wrenching. I can get a tap tomorrow for like a 5 spot and I'll try to thread it down. The option for a captive nut alternative could exist too I imagine with out too much work like in the thread post you posted there GD. Some bolt down alternative.

Thanks for the info! You make it sound so easy! Wish I had a welder. I'll take pics tomorrow. Do the EJ outer tie rods fit the ea81 knuckle? Will 5/8ths to 3/4" thread into the outer tie rod be enough? I havent pulled it that far apart to know for myself yet, maybe tomorrow after work if I got enough daylight left. I'm hesitant to see the differences in a ea81 manual rack as I don't "have to" pull the booties on it, but I might anyway. I spent all day cleaning the engine bay to get a clean slate for this swap and stopped short of pulling the crossmember.

So I though someone posted they swappped inner tie rod ends on some model rack, threaded it down and stuffed it into their brat. I have a set of PS racks open in front of me, one brat and one 90 leg. The ej rack is in better shape than the ea81 and I would like to use it if possible. They are much easier to come by as well. I need new inners and outer tie rods anyway. I know the two are different lenghts so to make this work I need to shorten the ej. But how? Here I am..... The inner tie rods dont interchange but the outers do, on the rack itself. The ej rack is threaded as an innie and the ea81 is an outie, different sizes too. If the lego outer tie rod fits the brat knuckle it seems possible to thread past the (?the hexogonal part where you place your wrench) wrenching section to get to some 3/4" of avaliable meat. Otherwise one wouldn't be able to make it work unless someone knows of a different inner tie rod that would fit the ej rack that has enough meat on it to thread down enough to get the outers on and in place. It looks to me the EJ rack might just fit a non PS crossmember with just two holes drilled for the lines and a shim or two to adjust the angle of the steering linkage. I'm almost far enough along to pull the nonPS crossmember to see how hard it would be, but it wont be worth it if I cant use it anyway. It would make a good swap especially if you dont have to use the ea81 PS crossmember or pull it at all. Has any one tried this? Can it be done? Know of any good interchangeabilities here?

I pulled the motor and dropped the tranny. Resealed my EJ and cleaned my new to me 5spd. The brat needs some new parts! Lots-o-cleaning! Still got to finish the power steering rack and crossmember stuff to start putting it all together! I have been dying to have something to post here for a long time!:banana::banana:

I'd buy it for that price as long as its a d/r manual! (And a wrecked legacy just to have a "spare" motor. ) I like the look of the ea81 better, but, whatever. Its easy wrenching. I'm looking for one about that price right now it just needs a good interior and a straight body.

I'm pretty sure you can get it going again, free up that cylinder and get fair mileage. Heck an ea82 from the jy is cheap and only takes 2 intake and 2 exhaust gaskets and your time. There is a tone of backyard mech stuff you can do cheap like seafoam, atf and starting fluid to get you started on your way. It just takes your effort, some tools a manual and the usmb:)! I've been running a bad cylinder in my ea81 for a year and a half now and still getting 20 to 26mpg on a lifted wagon (motor swap coming along soon). I'm no mech but you can do it on these cars. The most modern still isnt an owie (audi) with a $300fuel pump in two locations buried miles under interior trim. If I can do head gaskets, and still burn oatmeal, all by myself, so can you. Just watch the oatmeal.

200ftlbs whats this "a little more" stuff.

Hmmm, I'll bet they, at the first link, might have one for a gen 2. It looks like they might have one for a wagon too:eek: Even for an affordable price. :eek: Cromoly, coilovers s10 chassis, 2 to 14 pnt roll cages, these might be the bomb. Ya might be able to get them to comp a tshirt as well!

My 82 wagon only gets jealous when I'm at the dealership looking over the new lot. Wont start, lights act weird, some odd thing that doesnt happen anywhere else. Just like the fickle girl she is. She is always thinking I'm looking over the young nubile freshly corrupt-able things.

"To the soundest depth of your profession" Aristotle

On my first car, a subaru, it was a 85 wagon 2wd, that was a constant issue and it had only 145,000 before the rats ate it. It sat with the tick of death and the rats made a home destroying the interior completely and turned into a parts car. It came on sometimes at 1500rpm. If that was a problem I wouldnt have heard it over the engine. Otherwise that thing was a race car with the way it shifted and had tonnes of power for what it was. Quite fun. Speed sensor?

Hmmm, my 2" lift is even all across and the axles just seem to be weak. The only part of the car that is in its stock location is the shifter. What would make that weaken the axles besides the extra tire size. Isn't it possible to take the ea82 inner cup, bearings and race and attach them to a ea81 halfshaft? Remember the only new axle is a factory one and all the others are remans even empi. My new empi drivers axle clicks like hell but only in odd spots on my turn radius. My new junk yard one clicks worse in different spots and neither click all the time. ????? I looked at the remanns after cleaning and the race and balls are much lower quality than factory. After killing one good at reiters I found chips all over the race on the cup side when I blew the cv side in half. I won't go unless I carry 2 now. One to break on the trail and one to break getting off the trail. IMHO....they are all bad except factory, new never used, (like I'm gonna buy that) be careful. Oh, try looking at a reman on the counter and grab the inner or outer in one hand and shaft in the other and twist, like driving force, back and forth hard. If you get ANY play the bearing is in a worn cup or race, its blown already. I hope you get lucky.

I just pulled my ac due to an obstruction...Mice.. Between the fan and heater controls I found the fluffy padding and tones of moss all around the ac unit itself. Unfortunately, to get the ac box open I needed to dismantle the ac unit itself from the engine bay PITA. I'm working on a brat but it shouldn't be so different If you have slack in the ac lines into the engine bay you may be able to pull it forward enough to remove the clips holding the box together and put them back. If you dont have ac you will have no prob. just open the console remove the glove box and pop the conector tube from the fan to the airbox. You can see whats wrong from there if its an obstruction. Now if its the control unit itself you need to remove the center console as well as the drivers knee cover thingie. On my wagon one of the heat control cables, like a bicycle cable but the push variety, cracked, so It would hold the flapper arm in between settings so it could seem like an obstruction. From there you get the idea, Just run through the controls while you watch the mechanisms to see what works.

+1:lol:

I was thinking of wiring the ac controls to the ignition so it would have to be in the right position for the car to start.

The Ac box is different I just discovered. (I found mice) Its huge in comparison and it works more settings with it in than without for defrost. If you tuck it close I'm hoping it will work stuck under the dash but I just cut out my whole ac just in case there is no room and got a non ac connector. If you look at the connector in between the fan and heat control box in both sets of posted pics, you"ll see (I told myself this summer for my ej swap and Im late... too much work).