Numbchux

you'll need an actuator for the drivers door. there's a guy on ebay selling universal ones for like $10, I just bought one. a simple 2 wire one would be fine. then the remote system itself. which you only need to wire to the one actuator, because locking that door with automatically lock the rest. long story short....not a good thing to be looking for at the junkyard. you can get a decent setup brand new for less than $50.

the shock itself is a pretty generic design. but the listed rancho part number (or at least the RC counterpart) has a bracket on the top that will mount to the stock mounts almost perfectly. zero modification required. My buddy wanted new, longer rear shocks for his brat. we looked up the Rancho 5241, turns out to be the part for a mildly (1-3" IIRC) lifted TJ wrangler. so we cross-referenced it to application charts for other things, and got the cheaper Rough Country versions. looks like they'll work wonderfully (although we haven't finished the rest of the lift yet, so we haven't actually installed them)

meh, getting parts from multiple cars is overkill. that would be the nicest combo, but the OBD I motors are still great (my '92 EJ22e has 260k miles), and the OBD II wiring isn't that terrible to work with. also, the only difference between the 90-91 motors and the 92-94 ones are the shape of the engine harness plugs.

the OBD I motors are physically identicaly, and the OBD II ones are slightly different. but the biggest difference is the engine wiring harness (the one under the intake mani). the style and number of plugs between the engine harness and body harness changed numerous times, and the plugs are in a completely different place on the OBD II ones.

my 17x8 +42 Rota's clear things just fine. and tuck into the wheel wells just like sock.

ok, I'm going to try to dig up as many pics as possible.... started out on my '85. my yakima crossbars were about a foot or more longer than necessary, so while navigating a tight trail through the woods, this happened: more of the '85 my lifted '88 (which, now I see did have the rear gate piece...): the loyale:

now that I think about it....only the '85 and '86s had the rear gate piece. I broke out the rear window on the '85 pretty early on, so ended up using a loyale hatch. and the '86 is now running a hatch from an '88 for the same reason. I'm really not sure what's under it.

the EZ36 has the same outer dimensions as the EZ30. but Perrin did the swap before the 36 was released. it's an EZ30DR. also, the 440 hp number was on stock internals + low comp pistons. after that, they did a full bottom end build with rods, and valvetrain, cranked the boost and put down more than 600 before the turbo ran out of steam. too bad he sold it before really testing it's limits.

all 3 of my EA82s that came stock had the trim (the PoopenVagon didn't, but it had been heavily modified before I got it...), but the loyale didn't have the rear hatch part. I've removed it on all of them. they look great without. and it makes it much easier to securely attach a roof rack.

the internals are virtually identical. only difference is the lack of low range, bellhousing shape, and center diff (EJ one uses a VLSD, not fully locking). also, most EJ 5-speeds have a 4.111 axle ratio. so the gears would be slightly lower than the D/R in hi range, but won't be even remotely comparable to the low range gears. the speedo cable works exactly the same (as long as it actually has a cable)

from an '88 XT FSM...

why would you keep it FWD?! with an EJ257, even in stock form, you'll be pushing close to 300hp. Traction will be a huge issue.....heck, I hate driving my car in FWD with 120hp, even on nice sticky summer tires. Also, an older 5-speed will be hard pressed to hold up to that kind of power. at least upgrade to a WRX 5-speed, if not the STi 6-speed. and, as someone who has actually done it *ahem*, let me say that if you swap the whole dash/HVAC/etc, the wiring project is actually pretty simple, and the project quickly turns more mechanical than electrical. the hardest part is trying to get any usable information out of the '96 FSM diagrams. and, if you want to do it, you can always just pay someone to do the wiring modifications. there are a few companies out there who will do it. I can do it for a few hundred bucks, or you can send it off to the larger companies like East Coast Swappers or Garage Tuning and get it with a warranty and stuff for a grand or so. which, in a project like this, is a pretty small expense.

possible.....very much so. I'm doing the wiring for a guy who's doing an entire '05 WRX drivetrain swap into a '96 imp LX. the STi stuff wouldn't be all that much different. easy.....hardly.....but mostly just the wiring side, and mostly just the '96 side of that. as that newer FSM wiring diagrams are a breeze to read compared to the older ones. but take this advice. this being my second WRX -> GC swap project. buy a whole wrecked donor car. that way you know you have everything. and you'll be able to part out/sell the stuff you don't need. the first one I did was an '02 WRX into a '95 L. he had the whole donor car (IIRC the wrecked donor car cost ~$4k in his driveway), we did the whole swap: engine, tranny, interior, dash, etc. in about 2 weeks. the second one we started getting parts in July....and are hoping to have it running within the next week, but even that's looking grim :-\

I hope it's a crate full of EJ D/R tranny cases

did you get the drum off the other side? another good way, is to loosen the castle nut a bunch (not even finger tight....but definitely leave it on) and drive the car a bit (slow speeds. up and down the alley/driveway, something like that). the weight of the car will usually pop out the cone washer pretty easily.

here's an idea I had today. he center bearing can be removed. so I wonder if you could put the carrier bracket from an EA82 shaft, onto an EJ shaft.....

that's only a bit worse than my loyale....which I consider virtually pristine. good find (well...maybe not for your part of the world....but I'm jealous!)

there's an ugly part? it all looks gorgeous to me! maybe you forgot to post the picture of the rust.

yea, my lazy carrier bracket mounting combined with the questionable condition of the bearing itself when I installed it has lead to a little noise and vibration. But that's been about 20k miles, mostly city, all with an EJ22e. I actually considered going to a one piece when I originally did the swap. but when I brought the driveshaft into a reputable driveline shop in the Twin Cities, they said they couldn't just cut out the center bearing/u-joint and weld in some new tube. they'd have to build a completely new shaft from scratch. They didn't look up specific parts, but he said it'd probably be in the $800-1k range. I laughed and left.....

holy 3-year-old thread batman!!

just the black ones.

I do.....somewhere.....I'll see if I can find them that doesn't really help me. the bushings have to be removed because the NA miata shock shafts don't have the narrower portion at the top for the bushing like the EA82 ones do. BUT, from that picture, it looks like the NB shocks do aswell.....

read the article. connect them with the car completely off, then turn it on without cranking. also, if you're getting 3 slow blinks. I think that means you've got the wrong connectors connected. that's what the D-check mode does. the basic check mode connectors are the black, single-pin ones.

I don't actually have the newer miata shock. but got a guy from the local AutoX forum who's going to sell me a pair cheap. so no direct comparison. I'm going to see if I can't find where I put my stock EA82s though so I can take some more comparison measurements and yes, the spring perch looks extremely goofy. what can I say.....mazda....

if you do go this route (not necessary for this project...but if you want to...), make sure you disconnect the pitch stopper too. and remember, the oil pan isn't a structural point. it'll support the engine and tranny, but if it's hung up on anything don't force it, or you might be looking for a new oil pan, or more.