GeneralDisorder

Yeah - it's a combination of gearing and tires I'm sure. They may have also changed the TCU programming on the automatic to shift more aggressively. Mine has 205-60R15's on it and I put in a very nice EJ22 in excelent condition - I was really impressed with the performance. Base model Legacy's came with the EJ22 as did Outback's in '96 - it's really no different. GD

That's for an EA82 unfortunately - won't work on your hatch at all. GD

Yes - the seals are all still availible. In any case they should be pretty standard seals that you can source from any bearing house, etc. Just about all the parts are still availible - while you are in there inspect the speedo drive gear and the seal on the speedo cable drive shaft. Those are also a bugger to get to unless you split the case. They are fun to dissasemble - lots going on so take pictures as you go. Especially of the shifter assemblies, etc. GD

Nice find on the 4-Runner front strut's Jezek! Innovative and different - that's what I like to see and so little of that is found here in the US anymore. You guys in South America always come up with interesting tricks. Some of it is scary but you get points for using what you have on hand. GD

The transmission input shaft seal is not replaceable unless you split the case on the tranny - if that really is the leak are you prepared for that level of dissasembly? It's best to drop them out the bottom. GD

I have no problem with the EJ25D under the right circumstance - rebuilt and with EJ22E heads they are a lot of fun. . I just don't trust a used stock DOHC farther than I could throw one. I highly doubt you would miss the HP much. I just did a 2.2 swap into a '96 GT and frankly the gearing is half of it. The GT moves right along for having 20 less HP than it came with. I am very impressed with how *little* of a difference there really was. GD

1. Good used 4EAT with warantee: $500 or less. 2. Independant Subaru mechanic to install it: $300 or less. 3. Ultimate Subaru Board to tell you this BEFORE you freak out and go to the dealer: Priceless GD

Ok - that one really is rare. Completely normal for your model/year. You never see that IF the hoses were properly removed and reinstalled when they did the head gaskets. I would suspect the mechanic is not skilled in the ways of removing hoses undamaged. Especially if these are the small coolant lines on the throttle body/manifold... heater core and radiator hoses and the water pump bypass should be standard replacement items on a head gasket job. Anything less is borderline incompetant. Unlikely - this smacks of poor mechanical knowledge or outright highway robbery. My guess is that your throttle cable is freyed. And even if it needs another TB - that can easily be sourced used without any fear of problems because "they never fail" and so you would be in business for $35 and the time to R&R the thing (it's 4 bolts and a paper gasket ). Never - and I've seen a LOT of Subaru TB's. :-\ Check for the freyed cable. I think someone may be trying to get one over on you. This sounds like a scam $50 or less. Easily obtainable. Even if you have to buy a whole manifold it should be around $100 or less. GD

Why not just find a low-mileage EJ22 for it? Simple swap. At 230k and an overheat or 10..... it could be close to end-of-life anyway. The EJ25D doesn't take overheating and the bottom end will likely fail sooner than you think - soon enough that it doesn't justify the labor of the HG job. The torque bind around turns is common of the 4EAT automatic - just flush the fluid a couple times (change, drive, change, drive). Should cure most of it and if not there's a few additives that can do it also. Not a deal killer - the 4EAT is a rugged and reliable transmission - will almost certainly outlast that boat anchor of an engine you have. GD

I'm not saying to abandon your EA82 desires - I'm just saying that a few phone calls in response to some craigslist adds and to some auto-shipping companies will yeild you a nice example for less than materials and labor to fix a PA lawn ornament. If your time is worthless to you then I guess you can do what you want with it. But personally it would nag at me that under all the new paint, bondo, fiberglass, etc is a rusted out cancerous mess. It could never be a pristene example again no matter what was done. Most repairs like that last only a few years before being claimed by the rust once again. I'm sorry that I'm a realist but the VAST majority of people that post question of this type have given no thought to the long hours of toil that would be required of a car like that. I point out the drawbacks while other's point out the rainbows and unicorns of the end result. It's just a different perspective. I find that people are too often IMPATIENT with their money and RASH with their decisions. Resulting in purchases that ultimately are a waste of time and resources. I see it ALL the time. That's what I'm trying to prevent with my warnings. My experience is that about 5% will listen. GD

If it's sentimental value that you want to talk about then you should probably not ask what you should do around an internet forum that deals mostly with helping people *save* money on their car repairs, and or repair vehicles that woudn't otherwise be fixed because of cost vs. value. We will tell you to drive it off a cliff if that's the most economical way to get you to/from work in a reliable manner. And this post was about two cars sitting in some neighbor's yard - obviously there isn't much sentimental attachment here. Thus he would be better served shipping a rust-free example in from the west coast. All it takes is a bit of legwork and some phone calls. I gaurantee that more time and money will be spent ressurecting a car from two derilect broken-down lawn ornaments than just buying one that runs and drives and having it trucked a few thousand miles. GD

Sure - a few weeks is fine. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon - just got back from out of town for the holidays so I have to play catch-up here anyhow. My best availibility is from 10 AM to 5 PM - all days except Wed/Thur. Those are the woman's days off and she likes to drag me around with her, etc I'm in West Linn - just south of Portland proper. PM me and I'll send you my address, etc. I highly suspect a cone-washer/hub fitment failure. Most "mechanics" are not familair with mechanical shaft locking systems as Subaru used on the EA's. Basically he cranks it down tight each time he works on it and then it works loose over a short period of time because of improper fit of the worn out shaft locking collar. If that's the case we can take some pictures and you can get your money back . GD

Restoration is all find and dandy but why start with a 1980's Japanese station wagon with under 100 HP? Especially a model that you can pickup (in running/driving condition) with NO rust and a perfect solid body for about $500 just about every day out here on the west coast..... That's basically admitting that all the work you are about to do is worth less than the cost to ship a car from one coast to another - which runs about $900 or so. I can think of a lot better ways to waste my time than patching rust holes to save 900 clams. Especially on something that wasn't very pretty when it was new and hasn't run or moved in a decade. Just aint worth it. Too many strikes against it. Doesn't PA have some pretty hardcore laws about rust holes and such - aren't inspections manditory around that area? Just start with a rust-free west-coast unit. It's not that hard or that expensive considering the alternatives. GD

Ratio's are the same - Forester and Outback use the same ratio's and I've verified that with the tranny numbers and the gear ratio chart. I don't know when they went to having the stub on the axle rather than the tranny. Anyone that can tell me? The fork pivot just need to move is all - I need to know if the threaded boss is present. If it is then it can be moved and the cable fork installed. GD

He's in PA and the body's are rotten and the car's have been sitting for a decade - that's a pile of rusty scrap metal not two cars ready to be restored. Think about what the fuel system will be like..... Sound like more trouble than it's worth to me. GD

Basically many of the degreasers on the market are using some form of alkaline chemical concoction. Sounds like simple green may be similar. Of the two popular methods I prefer the petroleum based cleaners even though they tend to be more expensive. GD

I dont think axles are your problem. Not with that many failures. I think the problem is somewhere north of the wrench so to speak...... I would very much like to take a look at your Brat and see if I can spot what your issue is. Bring it down to me. I'll check it out - on the house diagnostic. GD

Carb cleaner or a blast cabinet :cool: GD

Much harder. Nothing lines up. I've got 2004 Forester seats in my hatch (same as a Brat) and it took me about 4 hours of modification to get them low enough and to move the mounts around to match the floor mounting points as well as drilling new mount holes in the rear. You would be much better off going with aftermarket seats on a Brat IMO. Though welding adaptor tabs to a good set of EA82 seats works well also since they use a similar mounting system for the rails, etc. Just has to be narrowed in order to mount the EA81 rails to the EA82 seat frames. I prefer to move away from the EA81 seat rails though as they do not support my size/weight effectively when bouncing around off-road (I'm 6' 2" and about 240). GD

Could you or anyone around here (I ask because you have apparently seen the process) explain to me what exactly is replaced and/or "rebuilt" in this process? I have had many axles apart and nearly everything but the shaft itself is a wear item. Now perhaps some of these components wear less than others but *eventually* after a rebuild or two.... the whole shoot'n-match has to go in the round file. I am also skeptical that *not* replacing everything but the shaft will result in an axle which is comparable to a new unit. The cost of the joints and cups and only retaining the axle shaft seems like a huge waste and couldn't possibly be profitable at the prices being asked for these "reman" axles. On the other hand the "new" axles from EMPI, etc may be no better simply because the manufactureing quality of the parts is lower..... depends on where he sources his rebuild components from and how much of the assembly is replaced in the process I suppose. I beleive most of the factory joints are made by NTN bearings. I'm still skeptical of every supplier other than the dealer..... I have personal experience with only the EMPI's - which have so far been fine other than a boot that let go on my EA81 after a couple years. I would just like more in-depth knowledge of what I'm getting with this "rebuild" ya know? That's all..... GD

Also - when I was researching this a bit ago trying to determine what I wanted for solvent I found that a lot of folks out there are using straight kerosene (or in some cases deisel) in their parts washers. Some with additives to slow evaporation. The down-side is that it leaves more of an oily residue..... When I finally did decide on a product I wanted to buy.... the one I had chosen was MIL-SPEC only and I couldn't buy it unless my former employer (the only guy's I know with a ZEP account) changed their account with ZEP to a DOD contractor account (which they could have done because they do supply the DOD) so I didn't want to persue it. But I got this Breakthrough for free and decided to try that out and it works just dandy for what I need. I haven't tried the Simple Green (except their carpet formula) but I hear that works well on lots of stuff. I wonder what it's active base is though. I will have to look into that. GD

Yeah - I've seen the rear's from Imp's put into early Legacy's, etc (sedan's anyway). It can be done. The fit is pretty good it's just the mounting that might need tweaking. GD

They don't get constant vacuum - there are valves and plumbing and orifices..... they don't receive a constant signal and if you hook it up that way it will run very poorly - the amount of vacuum they receive and when is dictated by carefully designed pluming that changes state under certain throttle conditions and specific temperatures - it all works together and that's the crux of why I eventually gave up on the stock carbs. I couldn't stop them from needing that metering plumbing and thus their ability to be "stripped" for a clean engine/bay is limited. I decided the design was too complex to be used in the way I wanted so I just stopped using them. Now you see why. When I stripped the carbs of all that stuff I just plugged the metering ports off. They seemed to run best this way vs. open or given constant vacuum. Which isn't saying much because there was always problems without the proper metering signals. The carb just wasn't designed to not have that stuff. GD

No - the engine's are completely different design's. You can't swap components across the EA/EJ boundary. Differernt either means it's a bad idea or is going to cost a LOT. I'm all for doing custom and unique stuff but here's the thing - none of what you are thinking about is new or different - it's been done hundreds of times. The unromantic truth is that most of those people moved on to the EJ platforms because they are better and the price has come down to where the EA stuff is just a waste of time. For the same money I can build a better machine with EJ parts. And now that an adaptor from the EJ to the Toyota transmissions is going to be availible it renders the D/R pretty much a waste of time for an off-road build too. Being they are EA82's and one of them is a turbo...... that's just another nail in the coffin. If it were an EA81....... maybe. But even that is a labor of love at this point - many of us have been there and done that and the results are in - the EJ stuff is better! EA82 is synonomous with frustration and anger. My build is going to involve a '99 Forester, Toyota tranny and t-case..... torque cams...... that's where it's at. GD

Heh - that's a mess. And no - it's not at all easy to determine where that stuff goes unless you work on them a lot and keep it fresh in your memory. It looks like you have a CA emissions feedback carb - I think both #2 and #3 are metering ports that should connect to the metering duty solenoids that are mounted to the manifold near the carb..... best guess from memory. I haven't worked on one in a while - I just unbolt them and drop them directly in the trash compactor...... When I work on carbed Subaru's at all anymore - these days it's mostly about the newer EJ stuff and I dumped all my Hitachi's on my personal rigs years ago. GD