GeneralDisorder

Legacy Turbo's didn't come out till '91 and only on the Sport Sedan. No Wagons till 93. GD

Subaru ECU's are generally very interchangeable. As Gary says you can expect any non-turbo XT ECU to work just fine. GD

You will have to fully compress the suspension to see if they will bottom out in the DOJ cups or not. I suspect they will and you will have to shorten them. The travel inside the cups is only about 1" either direction from center. I know a stock EA82 axle will not fit an EA81 - you won't even be able to bolt the control arm into the x-member. The difference doesn't seem like much, and it isn't really, but the amount the axles move on the DOJ end is similary small - it's a lever and when you move the wheel the other end only moves a small distance - but that distance is pretty critical to proper compression of the suspension. I say turn a sleeve on the lathe to the correct ID for an interferance fit with the axle shaft. 1/4" wall would fit the bill - then you drill holes in it - 8 or 10 on either end of the sleeve. Heat to 250 degree's F and slip the cut axle ends into it. Then plug weld the holes on either end to lock it down. Should work just fine. GD

Yep - take your DMM and test the resistance of the thing. Get ya one of those crack-pipe torch lighters and heat it up - the resistance should drop pretty smoothly. You can test the one that's in your car now and see if it's any good with the same method. It might not even be your problem. GD

I don't think you would hit 70 without the turbo. The non-turbo engines were 84 HP with 9.0:1 compression. I wouldn't be surprised if it were around 60 to 70 without the turbo. It would be a gamble I wouldn't want to take - especially with a used engine. What you need is an EA81 - 73 HP, no timing belts, lighter and smaller. GD

The gen 1's aren't big enough for an H6 of any kind. Without major modifications to the frame rails and relocating the radiator, etc. Not worth the trouble. EJ22 would be good but no one makes an adaptor plate for the top-mount starter so you would be looking at a trans swap as well - minimum of the 5 speed D/R. There aren't any x-member's for the gen 1's designed for turbo exhaust systems so the exhaust would be tricky with a turbo. 5 speed + EJ22 non-turbo is *probably* doable - the radiator still might be in the way though. The gen 1's are tiny, tiny little things - even the '81 GL with the EA81 required a different x-member and steering linkage to clear the sligtly larger 1.8 vs. the 1.6..... anything is a tight fit in them. GD

No, and it wouldn't have any more potential than it already has for forced induction - which is almost none. The weak link of the engine is not the timing belts but the head castings, lack of studs, lack of quality head gaskets and poor flowing exhaust ports. The timing belts are merely an annoyance. GD

Too narrow. GD

I do remember seeing a wagon posted a long while back that had custom control arms - but it was SUPER hillbilly style. I know s'ko has transplanted the entire EA82 front cross-member under his (recently wrecked) lifted Brat. He might know the most of any members that are frequently online.... what are you going to use to move the strut towers outboard enough to correct the camber? I'm sure you have something in mind - will it still fit inside the fenders or will you have to modify them? Are you going for longer axles to improve clearance? GD

Backfiring out the exhaust is typical of leaks in the y-pipe or early in the mid-pipe section. The oxygen introduced into the leak combines with unburned fuel and ignites in the muffler. The ASV's fail (reed valve snaps), raw unburned exhaust melts the plastic ASV silencer, and the melted plastic gets sucked right into the carb. Been there, done that..... I was able to remove the plastic bits and drive on. I was lucky. Sometimes it really screws stuff up and the carb has to be torn down to fix it. EA81's rarely (if ever?) backfire out the intake - they are gear timed and as such the valve timing is fixed and to cause an intake backfire an intake valve would have to hang open. GD

So what are you doing for the axles? GD

Typically this is caused by a worn cone washer and improper torque on the axle nut. I've owned dozens of Subaru's and put hundreds of thousands on them - this has NEVER happened to me. I have seen it happen and one time a car I bought for my GF that already had this problem, but once I replace the cone washer, hub, axle, and properly torque the assembly this problem has never returned. GD

There's no sensor - the system is entirely mechanical. Check that the choke spring isn't broken. Very often the end with the hook bent into the spring so it can pull on the choke plate lever has worn through and fallen off. GD

Obviously the XT6 bar has more of a chance of doing "something" than my stock EA81 front sway (only) had. I'll be interested to hear your results. As for it not being *able* to be built with good handling - that's just total crap. This isn't a lifted truck - it's still lower than most SUV's out there and could easily be built to handle if that's what he want's. While I agree that a sway bar isn't necessarily the best solution out there there are other ways. There are speed sensitive electronic strut systems employed by some of the high-end automakers today - they can stiffen just one side in a turn. I believe Mercedes has such a system. The vehicle can be made to stay 100% level in high speed turns without any sway bars at all. Air suspensions can also do similar things. Sway bars are simply old technology and they have a detrimental effect on the off-road ability of our similarly "old tech" independent suspension systems. It's just about how badly he wants it. He could definitely have both if he really wanted it. This discussion is about whether or not any stock sway bar will do what he wants and what he must do to make it fit *if* it will suffice for his needs. Being he isn't taking it off-road in the immediate future there are good reasons for him to want it to handle half-way decent on the road. I know what you mean about cornering Andy - the difference between my 91 SS and the 93 LS wagon I got for my mother is increddible. I can take corners at 100 MPH in my SS (stock suspension!) that are scary in that LS wagon at 80. As far as I know the only difference are the springs and the SS's big sway bars. It makes a HUGE difference and that's the reason I drive the SS and not my lifted wagon as a daily GD

Warranty coverage is never worth the cost - if you absolutely cannot repair something yourself and cannot afford the occasional repair bill then you should almost certainly trade it in on a new car. Warranty's are one of two things - an incentive to sell someone a new product, or a racket right up there with selling swamp land. Find out what the average warranty company want's to charge you, and instead put that amount into a separate bank account where it can earn interest. If you have a break-down then use it. Otherwise use it as a down on the next car you buy when you trade the Outback in. That way you aren't just flushing your money down the toilet to some half-baked insurance company. That said, your mileage is still quite low. If I were you I would drop the idea of buying an extra warranty on it, drive it till you are near the next major maintenance interval, and then trade it in. GD

You are correct - you can't heat and bend spring steel like that. It will just turn to crap. Having it re-tempered might be cost prohibitive unless you can do it yourself but I am somewhat doubtful that you have the necessary equipment to temper something that large..... Before you go to heroic lengths though - do a test without the thing. Think about the physics involved here - the body is a lever and the sway bar has to oppose that lever action. Being lifted the body weight is now higher - the lever is thus longer and it will take a much larger sway bar to resist the leverage action of the body. Add to this that the wheel/tire combo is now heavier and pulls DOWN on the bar with more force due to gravity...... both of these together turn the once-barely-adequate sway bar into an extraneous appendage with no real function other than making it harder to change axles. GD

They made EA82 GL-10 sedan's with fold-down seats for pass-through access to the trunk. You just need to find one. Or are you talking about a Legacy? Your username says '91 so I'm assuming it's a Loyale.... Legacy's also had the fold-down pass-through option. My '91 Turbo has the fold-down seats as did all the LS and LSi models I believe. GD

That is the connector for the thermo-switch that controls the main fan. It is designed to be the ground for the main fan - the thermo-swtich grounds that lead when it hits the required temp. As for the AC fan coming on if you apply 12v to the ground circuit of the main fan.... I would have to look at the schematic but I'm assuming they share the same ground and you are back-feeding the circuit by applying 12v to it. Obviously the circuit is not diode protected. Don't do that anymore - it's not appropriate and you could easily hurt something doing stuff like that. As a general rule - green, yellow and combinations of the two are nearly always ground leads - sometimes black is ground as well. Red, black/red, and black/white are almost always hot leads. Those are general guidelines and they are NOT always adheared to so have your schematic and DMM handy at all times. All you have to do is plug that yellow lead into a thermo-switch in the radiator - then you pull the hot lead off the main fan, use that lead to close a relay. Run a seperate fused power lead off the battery, through the contacts on the relay and to both of the fans. When the thermo-switch closes it will energize the relay and power both fans. Start out with a 20 amp fuse and take an Amp reading on each fan - add the two readings together and add a couple amps to find what fuse you should be running in your power lead to the fans. GD

This is the wrong forum for model specific questions - you need to post in the New Generation forum for Legacy questions. EJ22, Hydraulic lifters (no adjusters). Miss is probably plug/wires/coil pack related. GD

At least try driving it with the bar off - I noticed no difference. With the added leverage of the body being higher and the added mass of the wheel/tire combo the bar became useless - it didn't do anything ON the road and was only a hindrance OFF the road. GD

For a beater with a heater I prefer the aluminium sheet and rivets method. Looks much more Mad Max post-apocalypse style. Anyway that's my sugestion. You cut a piece the size you need, bang it into shape with a dead blow or soft face hammer and rivet away. I prefer to avoid methods that will make my rigs look like I had no bloody clue what I was doing..... riveted aluminium will never look like that because there is no mistake - your intention is obvious - to make a lasting, functional repair..... looks be damned. GD

If you are lifted 4" and planning to stay that way toss the sway bar in the dumpster. The sway bar is going to try to STOP the wheels from articulating independently - it wants them to be level with each other. I removed the sway on my wagon many years ago and with the added couple inches of offset from the 6 lug wagon wheels you can't even tell. Besides - I'm not looking for it to take corners at high speeds. The point of the lift is for clearance and articulation - the sway bar goes against the purpose behind the lift IMO. GD

EA81 shifter slop is not really caused by the bushings, and frankly they rarely need replacement - I just grind 1/16" off the steel sleeve that sets how tight the two ears clamp down on the bushings to tighten them up a bit. The issue, as s'ko pointed out, is the shift rod/sleeve interface. I have a been through a couple of fixes for this - my most recent is in this post: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=86901 I recently had the opportunity to improve upon this method - I had to replace the 4 speed in my lifted wagon and during the process I decided to change to my "version 2" slop fix as outlined in my above post. I went the next level this time and installed a second locking bolt at a different angle - in this case I had already drilled the shift rod and sleeve for a 3/8" bolt several years back when I did one of my first "clamp style" version 1 slop fixes. Being already larger, I had to go with a 7/16 thread for the main bolt. I then drilled and tapped for a 5mm socket head cap screw at a different angle to help lock the sleeve from pivoting on the 7/16" bolt. I have yet to drive the wagon with this installed as I'm building some new lift components for it, but it feels very solid and I used no new parts in the process. Just off-the-shelf components. I also removed a bit of metal from the bushing ear sleeve as I mentioned above to tighten the rubber bushings and I moved the pivot point of the shifter up by 3/4" to give the shifter a bit less throw and get back some height that it lost with the lift. You can see the where I cut and welded a section of steel rod into the pivot point and moved the shift rod/sleeve section down by the same amount. Anyway - that's the version 3 slop fix as it sits now. I'll be able to fully evaluate it's performance after I'm able to drive it for a while. I'm planning to take it to the show this year. GD

I know at work we often "flush" refrigeration systems with nitrogen - it absorbs any moisture in the system. GD

There is no difference to how the linkage mounts between a 5 speed single range and a 5 speed D/R. The Loyale will take the 5 D/R with no modifications other than the interior consoles and possibly some wiring. GD