GeneralDisorder

Yes - the wires behind the strut tower closer to the firewall are the test connectors and the U shaped one's are the fusible links. Check for +12v on both sides of the links. They have constant power supply even with the ignition off. As for where you will find the problem - that's anyone's guess. Your problem is not at all common or typical. My guess is the fusible links are loose or corroded but that's only a guess. One of them is a major power supply to the ECU. But there are half a dozen different power supplies to the ECU so it could be something else. GD

Distributor and coil need to match - 4WD and 2WD used different models of both. Get a matching set - that's probably why the pickup failed. As to why it's not running - check for fuel and spark then go from there. GD

If it indeed goes all the way back to the front of the doors - there's no saving it without a professional frame rack to pull it into submission. Barring that it's no big deal really to weld on another front clip. All that stuff is hidden behind exterior panels that bolt on. So once you paint those and re-hang them the exterior of the car looks no different than it did before the accident. Finding the parts may take a bit of work but such is the fate of anyone on the easy coast that wishes to own older cars. It's not a Subaru specific problem and parts can be had. Personally the satisfaction I would get from repairing it would be worth it. Knowing that I broke it would suck but fixing it would help. It's therapy in a way I suppose - you can throw it away but that won't make you feel any better about wrecking it. It's low mileage, it's rare for where you are located - I say you will be very sorry you ever let it go if you part it out now. You will be kicking yourself for the rest of your days. GD

English..... do you speak it? GD

Line up the marks, paint-pen mark the belt at each mark and the just reinstall it with the marks you have made. I've done that a couple times. GD

Disconnect both the green and black wires behind the strut. Those are for testing and should always be disconnected. That's why your fuel pump cycled with the key on. Now that it doesn't cycle anymore I would say you have a definite electrical problem. Probably a power supply to the ECU is disconnected somewhere. GD

I use a 20oz soda bottle which I have punched a hole in the lid for a length of rubber tubing. Fit the tubing over the bleeder screw and with the tube immersed in brake fluid at the bottom of the bottle start pumping the pedel. Then it's just a matter of filling the reservior after each wheel is done. Make the tubing long enough that you can set the bottle where it can be seen while pumping the brake pedal. I haven't had the need for any other methods though I imagine they have their good points as well. I just can't see the time or money investment building some contraption to pressurize the system and/or avoid filling it after bleeding each wheel...... at the end of it the day someone still has to crawl under the car and loosen/tighten bleeder screws, etc. But if I were going to build something I would just hook it up to shop air like a paint pot. To heck with pumping a garden sprayer! I have a compressor and it does all my pumping In fact an old paint pot would probably be a good starting point. 20 psi is crazy high though. 5 would be more reasonable. You don't want to blow your reservior apart! Get a high quality regulator. Not some cheap Harbor Feight peice of crap either. Something that can measure psi down to 5 and is accurate. And you should put a gauge on the pressure vessel - it may not be the same as the point of use as it is at the reg. GD

I thought they were junk too - then a couple of the tech's I worked with were using them quite a bit and one day I had a 1/2" NPT pipe plug that was a serious mess. I couldn't even move it with a pipe wrench. I broke a Snap-On ratchet using a cheater on it...... the large size Gator Grip with a breaker bar eventually did the job. I know a couple tech's that use them every day and have yet to break one. In the world of industrial machines, the lighter you can make your tool bag the better. And usually access isn't an issue as it so often is in automotive. Anyway - I own them and occasionally find a use. They are especially useful for the junk yard where I don't like to carry an entire socket set - 90% of the time I'm not fighting rust or corrosion - I just need the right size socket and keeping a whole set organized in my tool bag is annoying and heavy. I take the two gator grips and a selection of common Subaru sizes. That way if I run across something that's SAE or a 16/18mm on a Honda, etc I at least have a chance at getting it off. Incidentally - while they *are* an infomercial product - they are made in USA and it would seem that they intended to manufacture a quality product. They are sold at Sears, Home Depot, etc as well. I can totally see how people would lump it in with all the crap from China but with this specific product that doesn't seem to be the case. It seems as if this company is trying to make a decent product. I rather like it from that perspective. GD

Nope - just means the belt tensioner moves a little farther. Not much difference though - remember we are talking less than .020" It actually messes with the timing LESS than a pushrod engine - you don't have to adjust the valves after a head surfacing. The timing belt tensioner just takes up the extra slack and everything is normal. GD

There's probably just less restriction in the floor vent than in the dash vents. Thus the blower gets more air across the core when it's on floor, and so the heater core dissipates more engine heat. With temps that cold, you might want to put a bit of cardboard in front of the radiator to partially block airflow to it. That will help in getting it up to temp and keeping it there. GD

The great thing about the way Subaru setup the frame rails - you can just cut behind the kink and weld on a front clip. I'm in the process of doing exactly that with an EA82 three-door that's been sitting around here. Unfortunately I have been on a lot of other projects so it's sitting with the front clip clamped on with vice grips and c-clamps. Here's a shot from when I was getting it lined up to show what I mean: That front clip cost me $35 from the wrecking yard - took about an hour to cut it out with my cordless sawzall. I just cut well back from where I knew I needed straight material and trimmed it to fit once I had it home. On the side where the rail wasn't kinked I just drilled out the spot welds with a spot weld drill ($5 at harbor frieght). Now it's just a matter of final fitting, tack welding, a bit of paint, and hang the panels back on. With all the rust repair you have done, I don't think you should give up on it yet - hell - isn't this sort of thing WHY you learned to weld and bought a nice welding rig in the first place? Couple fenders and a front clip and you will be in business. I could understand if you want to let it go for a 4WD though. Can't say I would blame you if that's a big part of the picture. GD

The fuel pump does not run unless the ECU detects a tach signal, or you are cranking. I doubt that the fuel pump is even related to your problem. If you usually hear it pulsing then I would guess that someone has left the test connectors connected - green two-pin connector under the dash or behind the strut tower.... Check the fuses first. Might have a blown fuse that powers the ECU. And check the fusible links - test across them for voltage. Check for spark. Sounds to me like something in the ignition is loose or damaged. GD

I had no luck at all with the silly kit. I had about 150 breaks in mine and that little vial did about 10 of them. Would have cost a lot of coin for enough kits to fix my mess. I used a silver paint pen for electronic work. Maybe not as pretty, but it got most of them working again. Oh - this is on my abused '83 hatch - same body style as your's. GD

EA81/EA82 steering wheel splines are not compatible. EA81/Justy is compatible though. GD

From taking apart a few that were unmolested, I have found that anything newer than '82 has the larger valves regardless of lash adjuster style. The large valve heads account for a 1 HP increase post '82 model year (73 to 74 HP). The hydro lifters didn't change the HP. They were equipped on all automatic transmission vehicles starting in '83 and all EA81's regardless of transmission type in '85. '83/'84 manual transmission cars were still solid lifter engines. It is true what you say - that all hydro lifter engines DO have large valves. But so do '83/'84 solid lifter engines. The heads are the same. The block castings are different between the two engine types - hydro blocks have slightly different bolt bosses in some places and are machined to allow the lifters to be removed without splitting the block. GD

The axles aren't an issue. You can swap around the DOJ's or the front diff stubs for that matter. It can work you just need a front DOJ with a 25 spline cup. 2WD impreza DOJ's I have heard are the answer.... Anway - the EJ transmissions are lacking in a low range, and they have no front bearing to support the input shaft so they tend to suffer from a lot more input shaft rear bearing failures as it takes all the load. They usually claims them somewhere between 150 and 250k. That bearing can be replaced (usually along with syncro's by the time it goes) - it's not that hard but it's something the EA transmissions don't suffer from. Basically no one really does this as most people who put EJ's into EA bodies are looking to turn larger tires and the low range is desireable. You can't get that with a US market EJ transmission so people don't use them. End of story. There have been plenty of folks that have built "street" EA's using complete EJ drivetrain's - usually an EJ20T drivetrain from a WRX, etc. There's just not as many of them. GD

Yeah - any lead set will fit. Get a Fluke silicone set. Looks like a decent unit - should do everything you will need. Just remember that it's not auto-ranging so you will have to have some idea of what the range you are looking for should be. Just read up on Ohm's law, resistance, AC/DC voltage, current, etc. Also you should look around the internet for a good explanation of the GM remote sensing alternator circuit. It will help you understand how to test your charging system which is by far the most common thing you will do with it for now. GD

Hydro lifters were on all automatic transmission EA81's starting in '83. Manual's got them in '85 GD

The EA82's are frustrating engines. They were designed only well enough to do the job they do in stock form. They don't take to modifications well at all and the added 10 HP you get with the EA82 vs. the EA81 is easily made up with a better cam and some added carburetion. The EJ22 can be carbed as well. There is a place for the distributor on the back of the passenger side head - people use Ford Escort distributors and just build a custom manifold to mount a Weber. GD

An EA82 won't fit between the frame rails of a first generation Brat. You will have to notch the rails inward about 2" on each side to clear the cam-tower/valve cover and weld bracing into the notches to maintain the integrity of the frame. EA81 or EJ22 is a much better fit - both will fit without modification of the rails. The EA82 is just very wide due to the cam tower's where the EA81 has no OHC's and the EJ22's has them integrated into the head casting. EA82's are also the worst engine Subaru ever made. They are notorious for broken timing belts, blown head gaskets, and cracked heads. Not worth the trouble at all. EJ22 is the only way to go and you can pickup whole donor cars for under $500 just about all the time. GD

EA81T's were 4 injector MPFI - they just have the injectors in the heads instead of the manifold. Also - the '85 MPFI was on 2WD's only - '86 they switched to SPFI as noted. The rest were carbed or turbo. GD

Short answer - *you* probably can't. You need an engine machine shop that has or can build the milling cutter to cut the groove for the stainless steel braided wire. It has to be cut with about .005" of the wire above the deck and just inside the OD of the gasket's fire ring (they will need the gasket for reference). The groove is about .002" thinner than the OD of the wire so the wire will be pinched slightly. Then you seat the wire with a soft-faced hammer and bevel the ends where they meet up at a 45* angle. The groove can be cut with a fly-cutter and a drill press if you grind the right cutting tip for it and are very careful about how it's lined up, etc. Layout and setup of the process are very critical - you don't get a second chance with an aluminium block. Better to leave this one for the experts. If you did try to do it yourself you would want to practice on some scrap aluminium before you did the real thing. Not that it can't be done, but I'm not sure *I* would even attempt it unless I had some scrap engines to practice on and didn't really care if I got the first few attempts wrong. Wire diameter, fire ring clamp force, etc are both variables and there are as many opinions on the subject as there are people that have done it. Experience counts for a lot and you have none (for that matter neither do I - I've seen it done, and read enough about it to know how I would go about doing it - but I haven't done it myself - just no need). GD

O-ring the block and use whatever (OEM or Fel-Pro) head gasket you like. You need something that is going to bite into the fire ring of the gasket and reinforce it. The copper will just leak coolant and be a pain in the butt. You also need to to go with studs but they are a very odd size (11mm x 1.25) and as such are very expensive. You will still collapse ring lands if you boost much over 10 or 12 psi though. That's the next weakest link. GD

Yes - they are crap. Especially the common reman units. But you probably have poor connections somewhere - causing the system to draw harder on the alt to compensate. Check for voltage drop between the alt and the positive battery terminal, and check for drop on the main junction sensor lead. Very often there is a poor connection and this causes constant heavy load on the alternator (it will feel hot all the time). Could also be a poor battery/terminals. GD

When I was real poor a few years back I just went to the u-pull-it yard and looked for the newest, shiniest water pump I could find. Was like $8. You don't need a gasket - a small bead of RTV (ultra grey) works just great on EA's. It's very unlikely that the gasket has failed. It's most likely the pump seal/bearings, and as such it could fail at any time. I would say that average lifespan after the weep hole begins to leak is less than 500 miles. Usually closer to 100 or 200. It will catastrophically destruct in a matter of minutes when it decides to go. GD