Adam N.D.J.

If you use three bolts on the front crossmember, like some of us have, and counting the struts, then you need a total of 24. Breaks down like this, 4 for the diff hanger, 4 for the torsion housing, 6 for the radius/trans plates, 4 or 6 for the front crossmember, and 4 for the struts.

Wheelin Roo's round here have dwindled A LOT in the past year. I've resorted to wheeling with yota's and domestic rigs. Although it is kinda kewl being the only Soob on the trail agian. Really shows how capable the Brat really is. It was getting kinda boreing wheeling with just Roo's.

Wow, talk about stepping into the way back machine. Is it bad that I was going to reply with "of Alaska" rather than "of America". What year did ya move down from Alaska Brian?? Was definatly a while ago. (psst, Tony, you need an "Off Road Subaru"!!)

Here is what happens when the suspension droops a little too far, and you goose the gas. The knuckle came off the strut, and the lower balljoint sheared!

I agree on the passengers thing. Specially since a lot of places are in implimenting regulations stating that if you are pulled over, and your passengers are not belted in, you the driver get the ticket. AND, if your passengers re minors, then you really got to deal with a lot, around here, you get cited for "reckless endangerment of a child" and can serve jail time!!

The many advantages of wearing a seatbelt vastly out weight the negative, if there are any, I can't think of em. I have gotten to the point of where I actually feel uncomfortable NOT wearing a seatbelt (i.e. when I'm in a car without belts, or broken belts). Offroad they are way better. I have gotten into more wrecks offroad, at speeds of less than 25mph than anything other (my only other wrecks, one was also offroad, and it occured at around 35mph. The other one was backing out of my driveway). Personally offroad I would like to have at least a 4 point belt, 5 being better, but if all you have is the stock 3 point, then thats great too. If you have autobelts, make sure the shoulder harness is snapped in, and wear the lap belt. If not for yourself, then do it for you family, last thing they need is for you to become another statistic.

Carefull with the mud in the bellhousing, I cleaned all the mud from behind my flywheel when I did the last clutch, the next day the rear main started leaking. So if your going to remove mud from a Subaru, then replace any seals under or nearby, cause thats whats keeping them from leaking.

Technically you can use all the running gear and suspension stuff from the RX, but it will require a lot of work, engineering, and fiddling with to get it to work. Also when you got done you track width would be wider, and your tires would stick out of the fenders. But it would be really swee to see, and drive.

As far as lines go, I doubled up on the stock rubbers to account for my lift, so I have twice as much rubber as a stock vehicle with 4 corner disks, but, my pedal is quite stiff, doesn't take much pedal operation to lock up. Also one of the things that I did was replace the 20 year old brake booster. The rubber inside them will break down, and loose flexability, this will make it hard to use the brakes, it was night and day between the old and new. Just a testiment of how well the brakes work; on my last wheeling trip I got into some messy stuff (i.e. bushes, trees, almost fell off a mountain) and tore out one of my front brake lines. Completely lost one channel. Drove it home without a problem, the braking distance only increased about 5 feet.

http://www.clutchnet.com/make/subaru.html They have 3, 4, and 6 puck sprung hubs, and solid hub clutch disks. They a can also make a clutch to your specs if need be. Prices are pretty competitive. If you need a good performance clutch, these are the guys to go it. I've got a sprung hub 6 puck in the Brat that I got from them for like $175, that thing is like hang on, even in the most severe offroad situations that I've put it in, it doesn't slip.

Have you opened up the dizzy cap and checked to see if the rotor is turning. If the timing belt has gone south, then the dizzy won't turn and you won't get any spark. Just a thought, didn't see anything about that in the posts.

WIth just rear disc, and the stock, non-vented 1982 front brakes, I'm able to stop my 3375Lb Brat on a dime with 29.8" tires, no problem. The brakes on a Subaru are actually a little overbuilt for the car (much like the rest of the car), which is one of the great things about them. I imagine if you have the bigger post 83 vented brakes they would work better than mine. But I like mine cause I don't have to worry about anything getting to the vents, like mud, rocks, small tree's, typical stuff you deal with on the trail.

If I got the opportuninity to build my perfect idea of an off road soobie, it would look very much like this: I think the only change I go with is stronger rear axles, and a bigger fuel tank.

I built a crossmember above the stock one to hold the engine, then built a tranny crossmember. I welded in a piece of the rear diff hanger to the stock crossmember, then cut the bushing loop off the diff "spider" and welded it to the tranny crossmember. I also welded a piece of 1x1 tubing to the "front" piece, and too the crossmember to more stability. I have been running the front axles in the stock rear hole, they have been like this for a couple years now, with no problems at all. Actually the only time I had a problem with a front axle was when the front knuckle came off the strut, and I goosed the throttle, shearing the ball joint and pulling the whole axle/hug/knuckle assembly away from wher eit should be. This is what my set up looks like: Here is the piece of rear diff hanger, and the 1x1 tubing on the stock crossmember. Here is the "rear" of the front diff, my tranny crossmember is a piece of 2x4" tube welded between the two inner radius rod mount lift blocks. This is a side shot through the left fender well, shows the relation of the tranny and diff. I do have to remove the front diff to change fluids in it and the tranny, but thats not too big of a deal, for me. Hope this all helps out some. If you need some more details I have some 2304x1728 1.6meg pics that show A LOT of details, and can take snaps of other angles and whot not if it helps ya out.

Heck, modern day Soobs are a breeze to work on. I spend most of a day doing either engine or tranny work on those v6 (and a lot of V8) transverse mounted FWD cars. Where changing the sparkplugs requires special tools!! One I get back into the engine bay of a Subie, man, it's a breeze to work on. I don't care what year Soob you own, it'll take me 1/3rd the time to pull the motor or tranny out of it as one of those sidewinder cars! Soobs are just the best.

More than likely opening up a computer will do nothing more than give you a headache. I've been inside a good number of computers, built a couple, and half the time, even though I know what I'm looking at, it still gives me a headache. The Auto computer isn't going to run right in a manual shift car for sure. For instance one of the sensors that the computer looks at is the Park/Neutral sensor, which the manual car won't have (just a neutral safety switch, completely different). Computers can vary greatly between models and years, even with the same engine and everythings else. Most of the time when you get a new computer, it either has to have the PROM changed/flashed/or programmed. As far as the CEL coming on in the donor car, it won't be from the car that you used it in, as when you took it out of the car, and removed power from it, it lost all the code info for that car, so you should look up what that code it has is, may be important. Computers can be kind of spendy, but from past experience, I've found that getting a new one is 9 times out of 10 a better choice (unless it's a GM with (e)PROMS in it). Had way too many problems with used ones not running right, in one way or another.

during the winter time, when I do a lot of wheeling out in the mud and ponds, I have to change my diff fluid a couple times a month, so it's a standard procedure for me: 1/2" impact.. BRAAP, and it's out. Going in, finger tight plus one turn.

Copyrights are for written word, so they would not apply to the given scenario. However a patent would apply. If someone has patented the plate, then you could not make a direct representation of it. However there are loopholds to the deal, if you make your plate .001" thicker, and put an extra tab that sticks out somewhere, the it is "different" and perfectly legal, that is IF anyone holds a patent on it.

Here is what it looks like as of last summer w/ 7"s of lift, 6" lift frame, 7" extended struts (not a strutcap extension) and coilover rears. 5spd D/r, nissan T-case, 17" bobbed bed, lift off front end: Not like that though now. It's under decontruction, for a reconstruction. It's getting a new frame, new suspension, all kinds of new stuff. 90% custom built. Will be different from any Soob to date when it's done. Can't talk about it though, real hush hush, If I say too much, the "people" will lock me back in the basement again! Oh, did I mention the ER27 above??

Unless Subaru changed something things drastically between 94 (the most recent I've worked on) and your 99. The then disk in drum can be kind of tricky. You have to have the "E-brake" off in order to take off the rear disk/drum assembly. Also, the shoes can wear grooves in the drum, and a layer of rust that builds up in between the hub and disk plate that will essentially lock the two together. If you have the two small holes in the plate assembly, you should notice that they are threaded. What you do is put two bolts in there, and evenly tighten them up, what this will do is pull the rotor assembly away from the hub, and "pop" that rust layer, making it easy to get off.

Hmm, this is a most interesting problem. I generally don't like to work on cars that I can't physically touch, but this sounds like it could be fun. If you had the key off when you disconnected the coil, then there shouldn't be a problem, I disconnect things connected to the computer every day with the battery hooked up, without any problems. If the key was on though, that can be another story. Ideally though, there shouldn't be problem with the coil as it is a ground control circuit that is only active during run/crank. Sounds like you may have a problem with a ground somewhere though. Is there anything that may have accidentally been disconnected, or knocked out? As for the lights staying on, that could be a problem with the ignition relay, for some reason it isn't shutting off when the key is turned off, and is only sticking when the "start" is energized. Mostly, there are A LOT of variables that can cause the given problems, and without a hands on approch, really hard to diagnose. Let us know if you come accross any more info that could be handy, or a fix. Lotsa luck.

Looked into it, and I have to say, this is a pretty simple system, mostly. The computer, with the help of it's input sensors commands the ignitor to fire the coils. This control is done over two wires, (yellow with a red stripe, and yellow with a violet stripe if I remember correctly, left my schematics at the shop unfortunatly). Given that the 1-2 coil isn't haveing any problems I would rule out the input sensors. This leaves the ignitor, coil pack, computer and the wireing connecting them all. I would check at the coil, see if it is being command on/off or not. If there is nothing there, then I would go down to the ignitor, if still no signal, check the continuity of the wires from the computer to the ignitor, if the wires check out to be ok, then it is probally safe to say that the quad-driver in the computer is prolly burnt out, and thus, it would need a new computer. Lemme know what you find. Lotsa luck. . .

I would also check the wireing from the computer to the ignitor. Usually if there is a problem with something that the computer uses, it will throw a code. Also if you are checking the spark on the #4 plug, the spark will acually come from the block and go to the wire. Waste spark systems are funny like that. I'll dig around tomarrow and see if there is anything I can come up with when I'm acually looking at a schematic of the system that could cause this.

Could possibly be that the person that owned it at one time in it's life just put some "Sport" badges off another car, or from some parts store shelf on the fenders. A lot of people tend to "trickout" their rigs to make em a little special. My Brat has badges on it that look like the icon by my name. . . .

I've seen them like that, black with the letters unpainted. I've also seen them where the whole tube was unpainted, (Like mine), It kind of depends on what you want to paint it like I guess, as Subaru really didn't have a set way of doing it. I would recommend a really high heat pain though, cause that thing gets some pretty hot air pumped into it. I was playing with the pyrometer at work, and at 11Lbs of boost, my plenum was about 180degrees! and that was after only running about 15 minutes.