GeneralDisorder

It's not hardened or tempered - it's stamped and welded mild steel - what strength is it going to lose? Whoever told you that doesn't know beans about metalurgy. Besides that, the only forces it's under are tension and compression forces. The strut holds the weight of the vehicle and the control arm only holds the wheel at a specified distance from the engine cross-member. It's being pulled and pushed. I have personally welded on them, cut them, hammered, etc. I've NEVER seen one fail for any reason. GD

Probably rusting them out from the salt. GD

In VW air-cooled land (and in tons of other reciprocating piston machinery), the cylinder "jugs" are seperate from the engine block. I think he just assumed these were similar. Block/cylinder are solid aluminium castings split down the crank. GD

The coupe was made till '84, the hatchback till '89. But make sure they aren't selling you a 3-door coupe door (EA82). In either case the glass is different. GD

I feel like gaurds *cause* injury. My father grew up around 1940's and 1950's power tools - for a time his dad (master carpenter) had a circular saw with no guard (not just stuck - GONE). Then for a while the same saw had a stuck trigger so you had to carefully turn it in it's side and set it on the floor while it was running . He worked 36 years at a lumber yard. Built countless homes, decks, garages, etc. Besides a splinter to the eye that he went to emergency for - zero injuries from power tool blades. None for me either. I learned to respect those 1950's power tools that my dad still used and still uses. Guards? What guards? I think they just make people complacent. GD

Yes - I think old VW's did use canvas back in the day. A thick canvas properly sewn together would likely last quite a long time. I know on the old military trucks I've worked on the boots have zippers! You put the boot on, zip it up, and cover the zipper with silicone. Really old (WWII) stuff was canvas or oil-cloth and also had the zippers or were tied on (yikes!). The days before neoprene! You can alway leave the inner joint on the transaxle and just dissasemle the joint, pull it out of the cup, and reboot as normal. Just requires a bit more clearance - probably have to disconnect the sway bar link and the tie rod to get it done. But doable. GD

That's all I ever do. Penetrant, a brass drift, and some elbow grease. Clean em up (wire wheel on your bench grinder is my preference), regrease, reinstall. You can get caliper rebuild kits with piston o-rings, boots, etc. They are dead simple devices to rebuild. Probably not unless you have to get nuts and drill them out. Entirely depends on what they meant by 80% frozen. I just did one where I spent 30 minutes driving out a single slide pin and carefully salvaging the boots because I'm cheap (they weren't torn or brittle). Cleaned it up as well as the bore in the caliper, greased and reinstalled. No problem. You're welcome. You can do the wheel bearing yourself too. It's not that hard. I use the "FWD service set" from Harbor Frieght - works like a champ. You just need a two or three jaw puller to get one race off the hub. Total cost was $80 for the kit from HF, $35 for the bearing, and $6 each for the seals. GD

Searching for Brat parts is never a really great idea. What you have to understand is that the Brat is just a different body style over the same chassis that Subaru used for the wagons, sedans, coupes, etc. All your mechanical parts and just about everything else forward of the bed is interchangable with a wagon of similar vintage. So you should: 1. Post this in the WANTED forum. Or if you are wanting to know where to buy one then start at the dealership. 2. Ask for a Gen 1 ('76-ish to '81), 4WD control arm. Any model will fit your Brat (not 100% sure on the '81 GL Brat with the oddball engine cross-member, but most likely). 3. If it were me, I would just heat it up with a O/A torch and bend it straight again. No fuss. GD

I've seen video's of an EA81 hatch with them. Seemed to be doing just fine. Don't know if they would last, but it was working. A stripped down hatch is around 1800 lbs or less. They are saying these things can't handle 400 to 600 lbs each? They made in China? GD

They will only go toward the pressure plate. It won't assemble backwards. GD

Or maybe it's because my grandfather used to save the dang things and I have several sections around my garage. Never used them for a boot but it would probably be my first choice for a split boot since there's no way in hell I would actually pay for one. I still think leather would be cooler. :cool: GD

Skid steer - but not with a Subaru drivetrain obviously. You need a bobcat tranny or something. As for mattracks - they are great for sand and snow, etc. They are not as good in mud and deep stuff - and the grit eats them to peices. They are useless for rock crawling. GD

Yes. The problem you are going to run into is there was never a carb model of EA82 with a digi-dash as far as I know. The harnesses will be quite different I suspect. GD

I would like to see someone make leather boots that you can sew together This would probably work quite well for a time actually. That would have been the choice 100 years ago. A section of inner-tube, properly wrapped and adhered together then clamped in place..... might work just as well as the "split boots" anyway. GD

Ever Autozone is different on prices. It's done by zip-code or something. GD

Yeah - the block plugs though are often hard to remove - especially the one under the water pump . If you have a welder, then you can do as Gary sugests but run a weld bead across opposite flats of the nuts the grind them flat and make a tool that way. We did that at work for a time till I got tired of using the makeshift tool and bought that HF set that goes to 17mm - we needed the 17mm for some really weird banjo fittings on some German equipment. I don't know of any other large allen's on a Subaru - that XT6 thing you describe I've never seen on another EA. GD

If you think the car has only a few thousand miles left in it then by all means. Frankly though the split boot isn't any easier to install than regular boots on a Subaru. You don't have to remove the axle from the car. Just pop the ball joint out of the knuckle, drive the spring pin out of the inner joint and pull the joint off the tranny. Remove the inner joint, both boots, and replace with new boots and new grease. Easily done. I prefer to remove the whole axle but it's only about a 20 minute job for me. GD

Yes - the pressure plate exerts pressure on the disc and so when you are tightening the bolts you will see the fingers on the plate flatten out and there is a slight resistance to the bolts. Not a lot through. GD

If you can't find a cheap one (most people don't often run across large allen bolts), Harbor Frieght has a set of allen sockets that goes up to 17mm for like $20. GD

He doesn't have a hydro clutch. Pull the engine and have a look. Something isn't right. Maybe NAPA screwed up the step.....though it's usually too deep rather than too shalllow so IDK. Maybe something didn't go together right. Check that step with a caliper. GD

The only differences for sensors are the fuel level sender in the tank and the coolant temp sensor for the gauge. The wireing is another matter entirely. You will need the FSM's for both and you'll need to sit down and make adaptor harnesses or pull the dash and swap harnesses. Personally I would just make an adaptor for the digi-dash. I went from an EA81 digi-dash to an EA81 analog a couple years ago and I got it to work correctly but it wasn't something I did in a single day. I spent about a month of weekends making the harness and troubleshooting it. GD

If this is happening at a dead stop then you probably have a binding u-joint in the steering shaft. They can get rusty and basically seize up. If it's happeneing while moving then it's probably the torque bind as already mentioned. Could be an artifact of that. GD

Capacity is 8.8 quarts. So roughly 2.25 gallons. GD

Do a search for "Torque Bind". This is a very common problem and is generally caused by lack of transmission maintenance, uneven tire wear, improper inflation, or mismatched sizes/brands of tires. Sometimes flushing the tranny several times will cure the problem, sometimes not. If not then it's probably going to need the transfer clutch assembly and duty-c solenoid replaced - this can be done without pulling the transmission but it's not a job for those that aren't mechanically inclined and have the tools/space to do it. GD

It will have a VLSD rear - only '91's came with them. The axle issue can be overcome simply by installing the '91 axles or DOJ cups into whatever car you are putting the diff into. It also will have an oil cooler between the pump and the filter which is nice to grab. The up-pipe in the exhaust is the same part as used on the STi's. It's catless so also desireable. If you pull the block, inspect it carefully. The old block that came from my car had melted part of the cylinder liner and was pretty chewed on the bottom end. I still traded it for a $350 turbo for my new engine though. The transmission isn't wanted - as noted they are weaker than the WRX tranny's which pretty much bolt in place for them anyway. GD