ShawnW

Need to see an engine compartment shot that shows generally how the lines go to and from the pump. Then one at the steering u joint area where the lines thread into the rack, and one on the other side of the car showing how the lines go across the crossmember (or whatever it is they do). On my ea81T car the lines go straight from the pump to the PS rack on the drivers side. On ea82 Carb models it appears to have a set of hard lines going across the car. They aren't ideal though, a little too long and the fittings have the o rings in them so I would have to get an adapter, etc and mess with all that. Email photos if you need to as well. shawnw@ultimatesubaru.org Thanks!

If anything is wrong with the main bearings its likely the thrust is shot so the crank is moving too much front to back not side to side. I haven't ever seen an ea81 or ea71 that needed line bored. Frankly they toss rod thru top of block or some other catastrophic failure before the roundness really becomes a problem. If I found one that way I would scrap it and move on to another one. Putting an ea81 in the car isn't as easy as it might look. It would probably be easier to get custom rods and pistons and change the stroke of the engine if you really had to have .2L more displacement.

Ive got a helicoil kit that is used. I moved on to Timeserts and won't go back. Make offer if you can wait a few days for the mail.

Agreed. I worked as a service technician for a few years and would add: Customers need to test and use accessories and the vehicle prior to purchasing it. I find that most in dash factory navigation systems are far inferior to anything after market, are expensive to update, and are harder to use than one from Magellan, Kenwood, etc. Before you drop 500-1000 dollars on an accessory make sure you actually like it, can use it, etc. I'm not picking on you specifically but making a general statement for all car purchasers. We had a customer come in complaining about her Impreza after she never test drove the car, she tried a Legacy sedan and liked it so she bought the cheaper Impreza after finding out her financing wouldn't suit her in the Legacy. She said it was loud, the seats were bad, and the stereo is hard to read and doesnt have the steering wheel controls. Brilliant.

Depends on the steel wheel. The 504 Steelie uses a really bizarre one. The alloy ones in my opinion are all the same or interchangable but still not compatible with a Subaru nut unless you use the spacer/adapter. Some folks recommend using longer studs with some of them as well as there aren't a bunch of threads to spare here and the wheels are thicker than most Subaru wheels.

Im about 30% done! Most of the work I have had to do was removing the old lift kit that I don't like anymore. Looks like I could put a kit on a car in a 10 hour day now that I have done it once. Quite a bit less if the Legacy Booster swap was skipped. I think it will be worth it to have, just eyeballing the Ea81 booster vs the legacy one its obviously 1" or more in diameter bigger and a lot more volume front to back too. Nice to be able to use the Legacy booster hose with its check valve on my 2.2 swap engine as well.

I have a snap on Cordless impact wrench that takes off things my air tools won't. It was expensive though. http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?item_ID=89708&PartNo=CT6850&group_id=19913 Are you trying to remove the axle nut? Did you try putting the spare tire on, put the car back on the ground, and stick the socket thru the wheel center hole?

8 btdc for an ea81 carb engine

I would put an ej18 Impreza engine and transmission in it with the SJR carb adapter and a Weber carb. Durable, good mileage, and frankly the normal power of a normal car along with very reliable. By all means sell the purple people eater engine! I would also probably put an entire cut down 83 bare bones GL harness in instead of trying to repair that BS that the previous owner did. Essentially starting from scratch but pulling the dash isn't that hard. It would be rather easy to put A/C in while you are at it.

Really not too terribly hard so long as the solenoids and electronics test out good.

I typically recommend watching Craigslist for a used Snap-On box. Often can get them for less than half the cost of a new one and they usually have the accessories that really add up with them like the drawer edge guards, cover, stainless steel top, etc. BTW I highly recommend avoiding their butcher block tops. A few guys over the years have bought those in shops I worked at and they were ugly in very little time. It only takes one idiot to set a half full power steering pump or valve cover on it and leave a stain.

I would tend to agree. There could be debris in the outer axle bearings. I think something blew the tire out and either hit the boot as well or something else. Either way I think it would make it 15 miles.

Excellent looking car!

What part "blew up"? Did you throw a rod thru the top or is it knocking or leaking....?

Smallcar.com sells an interface board that I believe takes care of that code and quite a few others. http://www.smallcar.com/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=29883

Id just put a muffler on that you will like with the EJ swap. For mine I am just running the stock 84 muffler.

Why do you have so many?!?

It might work to remove the four bolts from the driveshaft flange on the rear differential and try backing up with them unbolted.

Not sure. I thought about making it have a toggle switch initially. Is it more complicated than that?

We sound like years ago, except its today. Im working like mad on my 83 in the garage this week too. The whole underside front end is torn off.

Im trying to figure out if I can make this work. XT6 pump, ea81 turbo steering rack and lines. Looks to be pretty straight forward getting this part to physically hook up. I know I will have some electrical to figure out. Right now I am wondering if the fluid for an xt6 pump is going to work in the lines and rack that normally takes ATF. Potential for leaking, too thick viscosity, too thin?

I assume since you spoke with Jerry that you tried backing up slowly in a straight line with very light pressure on the hi/lo selector lever?

Regarding the headlight cutoff on the one you previously owned: I set the adjustment on the headlights to factory aim points and my parents seem to think the car has the best headlights of any car they have ever owned. Brighter than all their previous Toyota's, Fords, and their current F250 truck which has amazing lights. I firmly believe the ghost walking has everything to do with tire selection. The ones they rolled out of the factory with both Dunlop and Bridgestone are all complete junk. Running a true snow tire in the winter and an all season the rest of the year virtually eliminates this problem. Headgaskets....well thats nothing new and I don't see it going away any time soon. For any Subaru with a 2.5L engine plan on doing them every 100K miles. I would even plan my 30, 60, and 90 K services around this. In other words skip the coolant service, fuel filter replacement if your model has one, etc until the engine is being removed for the HG job. The wheel bearings are very easy to replace. They simply bolt into the back side of the hub. They make what was a 3 hour job into a 45 minute job. They are only "covered" until 100K miles. There is a shim they are using to clean the area between the hub and the bearing sort of area that does seem to quiet them down as well. These bearings are pretty robust they just get noisy for some reason from all the grit and grime. I would predict a car that never sees or rarely sees a gravel road would possibly never need them replaced.

I went through this and ended up just using some used ones off used A/C hoses that we had lying around the dealership. Honestly they don't need to be replaced any more often than the actual hoses in my opinion.

I assume the check engine light is on as well? It means your car has the cruise control locked out usually and this is a result of the check engine light being on.