el_freddo

What GD said. There’s simply not enough grease in these bearings from the packaging to get the best life usage out of them. If fitted directly from the packaging you can expect to be doing them again in a very short amount of time. Remove the inner seals and pack with quality grease as GD said and you’ll have many miles of use from them without issues, much like the original units. The EA81 runs the same bearings as the EA82 up front and the same ones out the back too. The difference in the front kit is the oil seals are a different size. Rears *I think* from memory are the same seals. Cheers Bennie

Sounds like they’re trying to use that relay as an ignition switch replacement. By one wire “joining” another, do you mean two wires into one or the coloured wire listed then turns into the next listed colour, remaining as one wire in the system (like a piece of wire added to lengthen the factory wiring)? Time to bust out a multi meter and find out which of those unknown wires are earths. If no earth wires are in there it’s time to put power to each wire individually to see what that wire operates - you might have to go and flick switches in the car to find out. There could be multiple items on one wire. Draw a diagram to keep reference Some of those wires sound like main power or main switches power wires for accessories. This is partly concerning as the load on that relay is most likely too great for it to properly handle, plus there’s a question around how these wires are fused between the battery and the relay. You might also find some of these wires (or all!) are the main switches power wires to the fuse box under the dashboard. After you’ve done all of the above, it’s time to work out what they cut out, why, and what they were intending to achieve. Then reverse their work back to the factory setup or to something that’s safer and more serviceable for you to work with. Sorry for the essay! I feel like you’re close to having this one sorted with a bit of work involved! Cheers Bennie

Yep, as six star said about the pins. Also double check the gearbox input shaft size. Typically the 2wd is smaller than the 4wd one. Swapping clutch discs will solve this if it’s an issue (it will be noticeably different in diametre by eye). Is the wagon in good condition? Would be a shame to see it wrecked if it’s in good nick. There’s more brumbys than wagons around over here now... and even less sedans and less coupes! I’d love a wagon and/or a coupe! Cheers Bennie

Welcome @wolp! I see you’re in Melbourne, I’m in Bendigo! Always good to see another Aussie on the forum! Cheers Bennie

G’day @wolp This post would best serve you in the 80’s section since the Brumby is an EA81. The Aust market is probably the last market to get the legendary brumby/brat/MV model! Your issue to me sounds like the electronic ignition module inside the dizzy. We were just talking about these in another thread recently. They look like this: and it’s located in the dizzy. There’s a four point star piece that needs to be removed off the shaft to remove the ignition module. Take note of which way up this goes. Two flathead screw drivers do the trick to leaver it out. Other thought was the anti dieseling solenoid playing funny buggers when hot - or a dodgy ignition switch. Last idea is a dying fuel pump that starves the car of fuel, or a severely blocked fuel filter. I had the blocked filter issue occur along long inclines or up short sharp hills when accelerating through the gears. Cheers Bennie

This is the item that dies with heat in the dizzy: I don’t know if they run a condenser with the electronic module. Your intermittent issue with the engine at or near running temp points t this module being the issue. It’s probably the original unit in there! If you ever get a sudden shutdown and no start issue, replace the coil for NEW and then replace this module. When this shutdown and no start issue occurs, the coil dies taking out the ignition module with it. I found out the hard way and killed a brand new module before I learned about the dead coil killing the module too... that wasn’t fun. Cheers Bennie

Did you match the correct spark plug to the correct spark lead or coil pack? That’s the first thing that comes to mind - something simple. Those compression readings, did you only do them once or go around for a second shot? They seem to be quite wide spread for what’s considered anything healthy That’s all I’ve got. Hopefully someone can chime in and give some extra advice. Cheers Bennie

I got cracking into this good and proper recently. Still have several things to line up before it ends up on Ruby Scoo: Should be good once it’s done Cheers Bennie

Awesome @6 Star - you pics demonstrate that all those plugs I was talking about earlier are LHD specific. I don’t have any of those in that location on my RHD loom. I wonder what they’re for... I don’t know what those two black things are in the last pic, I know I don’t have any of those on my brumby. I also don’t know what that black box with the blue plug mounted on the strut tower near the coil is. Same for the black box mounted on the coil. @OldieSubie - don’t forget to check out the manuals for other models of the same year as many will be the same in the wiring department - or at least the same enough to work it out Many free online manuals available. Cheers Bennie

@OldieSubie - 20amp fuse is stock it seems. I really think you’ll have to undo all this wiring and work out what does what with a fused wire from the battery positive terminal. Note down what is what then we should be able to move forward with how that’s wired into the factory setup. I’m not sure how else to do this. I’d find your current way very frustrating! Cheers Bennie

Fuse? Cheers Bennie

This sounds like a good one... a few things: - timing, yes I know you said you double triple checked it. Which markers did you use to line up the cams (don’t use the arrows, always the tabs on the rim of the cam wheel)? And this is a DOHC engine? - after reconnecting the battery did you let the engine idle for 5-10mins before touching the throttle? - after a drive when it was “normal” then not, are there any stored codes? - the spark plugs and leads new, if so, what was used? - fuel pump healthy or quite old? And on that one, fuel lines connected correctly? It’s easy to get a return line mixed up with the IN line on the fuel rails I hope some of these suggestions help or give you something to look at further. Cheers Bennie

You need to try and meet up with someone who has a Subi of the same era without the butchered wiring to cross reference. That tube fuse holder with the blue wire is a factory unit. Bugger it, I just ducked outside and grabbed these pics from my Brumby: Looking at your pics, it seems that someone has added that second circular plug. As per my pics mine is one side white and the other side blue - I had an inkling this was the case but didn’t want to give you a bum steer. I also wonder what those plugs further up the line are for - the pink one caught my attention as I don’t have any of them there, just neatly wrapped wiring. It’s either a LHD vs RHD difference OR someone may have attempted to splice two loom sections into one for some unknown reason. You might have to pull all the wires from that relay, record their colours and what they do - that will require some investigative work - but it would give us the best way to work out how everything is laid out in a factory wired vehicle by comparing what I and others have with their EA81’s. That’ll give you something to work on for now though! Cheers Bennie

Looks mean mate. What other plans do you have for your Subi? Cheers Bennie

Ah, I thought this was a post by Barney Stinson - who ironically can’t drive Welcome to the forum, I’m here all the time! Try the veil! Right back at you. Cheers Bennie

You could have a number of issues. Before GD says it, burn it and get something old school GM Serious now... you could have an issue with your HGs depending on when they were done last; there could be an air leak in the system or a stuck thermostat - or both! 25 deg BTDC is a bit much isn’t it? The MPFIs over here were all set at 20deg with some plugs connected under the dash while adjusting so the computer didn’t mess with the timing while you were adjusting it. Other things to look at, what’s the condition of your water pump? It could be worth getting the nose as high in the air as safely as you can, run for a minute then let it cool down. Check the coolant level. If it’s down it could be worth pulling the thermostat housing to see what that’s doing. Test it in some water (hanging from wire in the water, not sitting on the bottom of the pot while it’s being heated). Replace if dodgy. While that is out full the engine with coolant through the thermostat hole if coolant is needed. Squeeze the heater hoses to try and displace any air in there and top up as needed again. Refit thermostat and rad hose, back fill rad hose and connect to radiator. Turn engine on and slowly/steadily fill the radiator with coolant. Monitor temp etc and continue filling with coolant in small amounts when it lets you. Throw rad cap on, hold some revs for 10-20 seconds, let idle then shutdown. Let it cool. Check coolant level and top up as needed. The other thing to look at is your coolant temp sensor and TPS - make sure they’re working within spec and that the throttle cable isn’t holding the throttle open a little. If it is back this off and see if idle changes. Let us know how you go. Cheers Bennie

The blue/grey plug, are you talking about the circular plug for the engine wiring loom? That looks intact and fine to me. That black relay taped to the circular plug is not factory. You’ll have to trace those wires to find out where they go. It could be a relay for the fan(s) or it could be for some driving lights. As for the fusible link box, I can’t find an image with it in there and definitely can’t find one of the wiring setup in it either. This is the best I can come up with to show the brown box for the fusible links: You can see it tucked in behind the battery and hemmed in from the side with the coil. There will be quite a lot of wire tracing (label everything if it helps you) in your future at this point in time. Cheers Bennie

The first pic: yellow wire connects to the thermo switch down lower, also with a yellow wire by the looks of things. The battery pics seem to be a dangerous non-fused bypass of the fusible links for the main power. Those two wires (both grey from battery with blue and yellow connectors to the factory wiring) should go to a brown box with two or three fusible links (two for the EA81 DL wagon and brumby/brat from memory). These are designed to burn out before something causes an electrical fire in the wiring loom. Worth replacing back to factory or adapting newer style fuses of the correct rating instead. Those issues seem quite minor once you have your head around them and how you’ll go about fixing them. The thermo fan trigger switch should kick in once the engine temp shows a little over half on the gauge. The toggle switch will just go to earth. You could keep both systems in place so you have an override if you feel the need when sitting in traffic Cheers Bennie

^ that’s probably the difference between some planning for the work to be done compared to replacing blown parts ASAP. It’s probably also the difference between a specialty workshop that keeps a small amount of stock on commonly used items and someone working in their driveway with no stock to work from. Cheers Bennie

Yes easily repaired with engine in car. Removing rad fans and putting some cardboard (or some sort of board that’s hard) across the radiator will give you ample room for this job and the radiator will be protected. On the later models you might not even need to remove the rad fans if there’s enough room in there. Cheers Bennie

^ yep. It’s pretty sad state now many seem to believe it’s their right to have licence or drive like they’re the only ones in a race on the frog and toad. Driving is a privilege not a right, many forget this these days along with the actual skill of driving... I still love my old vehicles and will drive them for as long as possible. Cheers Bennie

Need a new harmonic balancer, and a new mechanic. The “dampener” bit as previously described above has chewed out and allowed the outer steel ring that the belts run on to walk backwards or forwards in relation to its centre half. Keyway is likely to be good still. A new cam cover section would be recommended too. Cheers Bennie

That is certainly true! And with the later models you don’t have to strip all of the rear interior out from what I recall. The Gen1 wagon is ridiculous to get the roof lining out of! Cheers Bennie

Yeah maybe. But when someone jumps on a forum and expect a quick response like it’s Facebook the second post comes across as ungrateful/arrogant/sarcastic to me (like a pissed off student that doesn’t get their way) - considering they haven’t taken the time to give us any detailed info to work with and a generic title. Kind of giving nothing, and wants what they want yesterday! I’ve seen it time and time again - only to never log in again. @Triox64 - no hard feelings mate. Good to see you’re back and I hope to read more threads and posts of yours in the future. Stress does weird things to us at times. When posting please try to include all relevant details for forum members to help you out the best we can. Many of us are backyarders. GD knows his stuff through his workshop knowledge, he’s like a FSM of all models rolled into one! All the best with those shims. A micrometer may be needed (shims should be labelled though) as would a set of feeler gauges. Try looking for an online FSM to read the procedure. If starting from scratch I think the procedure would be: pre-pull down take all your gap measurements, write them down for each valve then pull apart. After this, some maths to work out what shims are needed to get the desired gap. Refit with shim changes, remeasure and pull apart, repeat if necessary until gaps are within spec. Cheers Bennie

Headliner needs to come out to make it an easier job and so that you don’t destroy the headliner trying to fix your leak. All the best with it! Cheers Bennie