coxy

The first set of wheels are actualy Australian ROH Contessa"S,anyone who looks at australian Mini sites will recognise the style. Enkie Wheels are interesting regarding weight I have owned a set of similar looking but different Works Nissan Enkie wheels in 13 x6.0 JJ off one of the Southern Cross Rally Factory 710 Nissans driven by Harry Kallstrom. I have also owned a set of later Enkie "Compe 8" wheels also in 13x6.0JJ and these weighed 5.5kg and were lighter than the works wheels by roughly 1.5kg. The problem with these nice old school rims out here is the Vultures who scrap them for just a few dollars scrap value,Idiots even common cars such as the GMH Holden Torana GTR or XU! are hard to find rims for even though some of the cars sell for over $120,000 Dollars Australian,so what hope do we have with our old subies,moral save everything.

Boy do you miss not having this place,not so bad for those of us on ausubaru and nasioc as well,at least we could comunicate about it,pity those only on this site who knew nothing. Went down the day I bought my new rebuilt twin carb reverse valve EA81 off ebay,and I wanted to search for info. Couldn't believe it both a twin carb 81 and a twin carb 71 on ebay at the same time complete engine to airfilter and the 71 sold for $50.00au and had a 5 speed as well,what a bargain mine was $300.oo

Most likely a fuel issue change the fuel filter and you may even have scored some water in the fuel,if water is an issue Methylated Spirits will break up the surface tension of any water in the fuel allowing it to flow through the filters and injectors or carburettor jets OK without having to resort to a total system strip and clean in many cases. The other possibility is high resistance plug leads or shorting leads,Multi meter resistance test will diagnose the first one,resistance will vary with plug lead length look for 5000 ohms up to a maximum of 12000 ohms for the longer leads. Shorting of leads is visible as an electrical spark or even a purple haze visible at night with the lights off . One other area that can be a problem as well is the Distributor cap and rotor button area,that pretty well covers the common areas that cause what you describe,Cheers Steve

Have a good look at the ignition secondary system coil onwards,when cruising the mixtures are leaner and with a weak ignition more prone to misfires,richer mixtures fire easier than lean mixtures so either lean miss or weak spark are most likely culprits. Lean mixture can be air leaks,airflow meter settings on injected cars or carb issues on carb models or even caused by issues with carbon canisters for fuel tank breathers,they do not last forever and rarely get replaced or checked.

Definately Recaro knockoffs,exactly the same when fitting Alfa Sprint coupe Recaro's to my EA81 wagon dead easy conversion and narrow enough to work in EA 81 vehicles,plenty of Rusted Alfa's to get them from as well.

Don't you mean a Torque plate for Boring the cylinders,can't see how you could fit a Torque plate to machine the mating surfaces of the 2 engine halves as it would get in the way of the machining if it was to be useful torque wise after all any loads you try to duplicate here are all but impossible to achieve with the design of a split case engine,you just check for a flat surface and reface if needed then line bore for the cam and crank.

Replace the original stupid ND plugs on the injectors with the later Bosch GM style ones with the easy to remove press clip retention system,no tools required for removal and no more corroded poor connections is the best solution.

Road salt sucks,I commiserate with you the only salt issues in Oz are with beach running. 5 speed and rear disks are a goer for sure,recovering of plastic dashes is a fine art these days and the way to go. I would personally have a tail shaft made up rather than use the later L series one as it has staked non serviceable uni joints poor form for a keeper. Before having bed liner done I would POR 15 the bed to rustproof it,I think bed liners are like powder coating Quadbike frames,I have seen rust spread under the plastic like oil on water. My experience when I put a coupe dash in my Brumby was it was perfect but cracked soon after because no 2 cars are identical and when bolted up it will put strain on the crash pad different to the vehicle it was in causing it to crack,so have it recovered for that reason as new plastic is flexible and won't crack. Nice looking basis for a Resto you have there and worth the effort seeing as their is nothing like a Brat or Brumby made these days they are irreplaceable.

Just did a search of our Performance wheels Australia website and noticed they list under their so called Industrial range a TX1 rim for GMH and Ford stud pattern as well as the Standard 6x140 4WD pattern,these should be able to be ordered custom drilled,the biggest problem with older Subies is many rim designs do not allow for the large PCD of 140mm when it comes to custom drilling. These wheels are available in 14x6 and larger sizes and even could be ordered from VTO performance in Prescott valley Arizona who are the US agents selling them as the Outback TX1. Performance generally have a lead time of about 5~6 weeks on custom orders plus obviously shipping to the US. Another supplier for custom wheels is Braid in Spain if you have a project worthy of spending some serious coin as most of their product is custom in all aspects including offset and stud pattern. http:http://www.vtoperformance.com http:http://www.braid.es/wheels/

For everyone's information removing this section does not radically increase noise but does seem to improve engine response,opening up the intake oval section will improve things more and the plastic splash guard refitted keeps the crud out.

Nice I think I could Arrange an Incestuous relationship with that pretty young thing and my Brumby,many nice donor bits there and then an EJ into a clean Wagon shell. Maybe not though it really is just too nice as it is.

One other thing to be aware of if the outer CV joint is lacking grease they can give just those symptoms as they bind and yet not give the dreaded dead CV noise on tight turns,Maybe someone has replaced a boot at some stage and not correctly packed the CV with grease or used the wrong grease. Only way to check this is pull the boot back so it can be a good excuse to clean and repack the CV joint. How do I know I had it happen to an MY I bought and it took a while to find what it was.

When welding in new sections I was refering to replacement of a flanged section that for instance sits on top of another whole component,I do not advocate using a joggler to step and then do an overlap style of repair as these will only last a couple of years before they rust again. To have any chance of stopping rust you must weld in new metal edge to edge otherwise known as butt welding,overlapping sections are always an issue when it comes to future rust. Would hate to see someone go to all that trouble only to get a couple more years when if approached slightly different it can be a couple more decades of usefull life.

Quite simple really rust is like an iceberg there is always more then what you see. Buy a cheap Chinese made folder my basic one cost $60.00 Australian . Read, up on bend radius and check dumpsters near sheet metal fab shops for free offcuts. Beg borrow or make a Rotational jig or carefully drain liquids and gently lay vehicle on it's side maybe on some old tyre's for better access. Cutting and welding in an easy position will make the job much easier and more likely to be finished to a high standard and not be put off because it is too much like hard work. Use a Mig Welder and where there is an area where a duplicate of any factory flanged area is required that the factory spot welds drill a hole about 6~8mm diameter and fill with a plug weld to the underlying metal section. As well look into edge welding along the lines of "Stitch welding as done to rally cars for additional strength. remember to always join in new metal to a frame rail with something along the lines of a 45 degree slash cut never use a vertical weld bead on any chassis section as this will cause it to fracture beside the vertical weld. It is actually illegal to weld vertically across a chassis section in Australia because the stress concentration will always cause a failure at that point. Remember to treat the rail internally against rust after welding with a coating such as fish oil to break the cycle of corrosion by eliminating one or more of the required elements for corrosion such as oxygen access to the area. Additional strengthening can also be added as well as skid sections if serious off road use is envisaged in the future at the same time. Any brat is actually worth fixing as no manufacturer has made a replacement vehicle with the Brat's unique abilities and characteristics,at least so far

Common Japanese system where the lights are always active power wise and the earth is what is switched rather than the power circuit. Some tips there is plenty of general information on how to wire these systems on the net,but what they don't mention is the advisability of using a non metallic body relay for this job as it must remain insulated from the body which is an earth point at all times. There are differences in how the switches operate as well even on switched earth systems there is no set pattern of how the manufacturers do the wiring. You must use a factory model specific wiring diagram preferably genuine as many aftermarket manuals are not accurate for wiring diagrams,with general readily available info from aftermarket lighting suppliers such as Hella or Cibie' and the factory switching diagram it isn't too hard but do study carefully first as it will save you much trouble Switched earth systems are not as obvious as their more conventional switched power counterparts when it comes to how they are wired

Factories can always be relied to not spend money in production unless required. Generally these shims are stainless steel and help to make sure the steel and cast iron materials of the pads and the caliper body do not rust together affecting it's operating qualities. They are specific to the caliper design but may be found on more than one model or manufacturers vehicle,see your dealer or visit a U pull it wreckers unless someone nearby on the board has upgraded their brakes and has some old unused spare brakes for parts. Cheers Steve

Yeah someone else who owns some Bonney gear,mine are a full set of AN wrenches for Aircraft hydraulic fittings,definately something about older gear and quality. Not just the older gear you buy but because the labour rates were lower back then tradesmen took their time to do the job right just for the satisfaction of that alone and that is why older generally means better build quality.

May be worth a try but Hitachi carbs are notorious for pluging the idle circuits on anything they are fitted to as they are so small. One trick I have used on mazda and Nissan carbs with those symptoms was to reverse number 1 and 4 plug leads start the engine it will run like crap and backfire when you try to rev it,that is the secret the backfiring through the inlet manifold quite often will clear a blocked idle circuit,problem fixed without a carb rebuild. When trying this you useually only have to run them like this for 30~60 seconds,if it doesn't work by then it won't in your case,probably also usefull tip for webers as many variants have an unfiltered idle air bleed jet on the outside of the carb and they often block up.

My method as a mechanic is to always use bearings with rubber seals on both sides,this takes care of the bearing lube issues,then all you have to do is worry about dirt and water getting in. If the concern is keeping something in the seal lip faces inwards,if to keep something out the seal lips face out. Many of the better seals have a double lip on the inside to keep grease or oil from escaping and getting on the brake disks,and also have a single lip seal to keep crud from getting in,some variations use a flat sealing section on the outside,and it pays to remember 99% of seals have the seal numbering code on the outside of the seal. Even something like a bearing hub with tapered bearings that you pack with grease will ocassionally use a flat face type seal and all seal lips must be assembled with a smear of grease or the seal will burn out and fail. Cheers coxy

You will probably find that with some wear in the throttle shaft the throttle plate doesn't always seat the same so sometimes it will lower the idle more than you have adjusted it and stall. It is useually the cast iron section rather than the shaft that wears and needs rebushing with phosphor bronze or ptfe nylon to fix,at this point most fit a weber,but they do not work as well off road on hills as the stock hitachiand cost much more for a relatively small power gain than a proper fix to the original carb.

The only damage may be your relationship with your neighbors if you run it too long.

Water Injection is what you mean as the water turns to steam and in doing so lowers temps in the engine. Benefits you clean all the carbon out of the engine,as long as you keep the water supply topped up it allows more ignition advance which improves power and driveability somewhat. Have fitted sophisticated systems on turbo cars and more basic stuff on older carb cars with equally positive results. Ford Escort cosworth Turbo rally homologation specials came stock with computer controlled water injection so major manufacturers have used it. I used to fit it to many courier drivers vehicles and on a Holden(GM) 4.2 litre(253CuIn) V8 it allowed an increase from 6 to 12 degrees base ignition timing and resulted in an improvement in city driving of between 6 and 8 miles per gallon(Our Imperial gallon is 4.55 Litres as opposed to a US gallon being 4 litres). Conclusion a worthwhile mod,use a mixture of water and methelated spirits so as to prevent algae growth in the tank. A simple brass tube press fitted just above the throttle butterfly allows suction to feed the water into a carb system (Diameter internally about 2mm (KS Metals from a RC Hobby shop) plastic hose to suit and another length of brass pipe with about 3 holes of 1mm size in the brass pipe that allow you to slide as needed plastic tube over to either cover or uncover the holes will allow adjustment of the water flow by introducing air into the vacuum filled water supply pipe from a container (can use anything from a radiator overflow tank to a washer bottle or even a plastic coke bottle,just feed the plastic tube to the carb in from the top of the container) This describes a simple system you can throw together in an hour or so to test on a carb car,it should also work on a throttle body SPFI system. Turbo cars love this stuff just dont run out of water. Cheers Coxy

I am in agreement with GD but also check the fuel filter and pressure as more pressure is needed under boost,10psi boost needs 10 psi more pressure to maintain mormal mixture strength,that is why you upgrade the fuel supply system when increasing boost over stock levels. Also this is why fuel supply has to be maintained at factory set levels for a turbo engine as they have factored in the required extra fuel pressure needed to compensate for an above atmospheric engine design.

Cleaning up connections like that can be real hard,sometimes a commercial electrical cleaner spray will work often not. What I use for cleaning very dirty corrosion of electrical components is a Pasche air eraser,this is like a small sand blaster used for fixing painting mistakes by abrading away the mistake.It just happens to work perfectly for cleaning off corrosion on electrical connections especially when hard to acess. You do need a supply of compressed air to use it however. Most issues with electronics and electricals are of this type how ever,good example when checking a car for it's annual roadworthiness inspection I always test in a real world scenario,for example chech the lights all together not just individually as this will show up bad earth problems. For instance a bad earth backfeeding power to a reverse switch on a modern automatic tranny can send a signal to the power unit ecu saying the vehicle is in reverse whilst you are driving forwards,believe me the tranny will have a fit in this case and the problem can simply be a poor earth in the rear lights. The dealer however may end up replacing the transmission trying to fix the fault and could cost you a fortune when it may only need a 5 minute cleanup so always check the basic stuff first as it is more often than not the problem.

You are definately on the right path regarding compression ratio,stock is old school low,this is to our advantage though.Compression ratio increase between say 7:1 and 11:1 is a range suited to street use depending on head design and propensity to detonate or pink (pre ignition) The beauty of stock Subaru compression ratio is it is in the range of best returns. If you increase your compression ratio from 8.5:1 to 9.5:1 the percentage change in comp is basically what you will see in torque increase. Ten percent more comp basically relates to ten percent more torque and it is torque that makes you accelerate and lets a vehicle pull top gear useably up an incline,good also for fuel economy. Above 11:1 the linear rate of returns drops away when increasing comp and actually slows down the ability to rev responsivley up high. Things such as porting and camshaft swaps are all about improving cylinder filling which will increase effective compression ratio as well as giving more oxygen density to which you can add more fuel to make more power. MPFI pistons and a light head skim will work wonders for engine response.