Ross

Hrm I have an ea81 one but no ea71. There used to be a link somewhere on here to a whole lot of them but can't find it anymore... I presume the manual that kiwi subbie is talking about is a subaru factory thing? If you use that in conjunction with haynes you should be sweet.

OK, so I replaced the VR with one from another identical alternator I had lying around (it doesn't charge at all for some reason....). When I first started it up, the dash light was still glowing dimly. To check if the wiring to the VR was OK, I then hooked a wire directly from the + battery terminal to the sensing terminal of the alternator -- this seemed to fix the problem, as when I started it up again the light did not glow and the voltage stayed around 14V when I revved the engine.... I took the extra wire off while the engine was running, and it still seemed to behave correctly. However, next time I started the engine the same issues reoccurred..... voltage increasing with revs and the warning light glowing. Adding the extra wire into the circuit no longer has any effect, it still isn't working right. So now I'm really confused. Either: --The VR I swapped in was just about to die of natural causes (seems pretty unlikely) --There is something in the way it's wired that is destroying the VR (possible??) --There is something in the way it's wired that is preventing the VR from working correctly that is an intermittent fault (the vehicle has been submerged a number of times and there may well be bad earths/connections still lurking about) - but is there any wiring scenario that would cause these symptoms? --The diodes are bad causing VR failure? But the voltage logs from the megasquirt look fairly smooth. --Something else is going on. Any thoughts??

Before you go too far, get rid of the haynes manual -- about 80% of the info in them is correct, but the rest isn't.... Noticed quite a few discrepancies when I was rebuilding my old ea81. Find a copy of the FSM, only way you'll get reliable specs.

I'm pretty confident on the voltage measurements, I'm reading them from my laptop connected to the megasquirt ecu. The dash light comes on if the alternator voltage is significantly below OR ABOVE the battery voltage. In this case it sounds like it's above batt voltage.

Lame..... Cheers for quick reply.

And if you're doing that, don't just use a stock ECU from the SPFI vehicle.... get a megasquirt. It'll make a big difference.

Just put an alternator from an '87 leone into a project I'm working on.... AFAIK it was a good working alternator.... but when the engine is running the alternator warning light glows dimly and the voltage goes up to 17 or 18V when it's revved. Any ideas -- could this be a wiring problem or is there something wrong with the IC regulator...? The plug on the back of the alternator -- one should go to the dash warning light (that's working, warning light is on when ignition in on position and engine not running, dims when engine starts) and the other should go to +12V when ignnition is in on position -- correct? Cheers all.

If only it would tow my suzuki I'd drop my legacy for that in a flash.... alas, I think that might result in disaster!

What about them is it that doesn't fit? I'm mainly interested in the spacing between the front mounting faces and the belt line -- I'm not worried about the front to rear mount distance as I'm not using the rear mount anyway......

Hi all, Is there anyone out there using an alternator from a legacy on an ea81 or ea82? If so, is the belt offset right with a simple pulley swap (i.e. change the multi-V to the V off the ea alternator)? I realise that the legacy alternator isn't really much more powerful anyway -- this is actyally for my suzuki which needs a new alternator ASAP. I know leone ones fit well, and I can get my hands on a legacy one pretty cheap if it will fit.... But I can't really be bothered messing around making spacers at the moment, since I'm in the middle of a much more interesting project.... (megasquirt.....)

Moving house soon so this has got to go, I'm trying to find someone who wont take it to the scrap metal dealer..... It's in Christchurch. Auction listing below, don't worry about the price it's just to keep the scrap metal dealers away! http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=269199644

Yeah that sounds feasible..... What side of the heater box is that on? After having a quick look, I can see waht I think is the duct/mode control linkages on the right (drivers side in my case) side, but the temperature control linkage doesn't seem to be visible?

I've got a '95 lergacy with the digital climate control heater system.... was working fine but now it seems to be stuck on hot -- If I turn the temperature down, it runs the AC and turns the fan up in an attempt to cool the car down, but blasts out very hot air. As we are just coming in to summer in this part of the world, it isn't very pleasant!! Is there a common fault that causes this?

aha. it is a jdm '95.

There are two switches on the center console right next to handbrake lever. One is the AT hold switch. The other one has a picture of what looks to be the rear window & wiper, with wavy arrows like on the rear defrost button. What does it do....? I thought maybe a wiper de-icer, but can't see any evidence of this...

I never mentioned "performance" in my original statement. The rotational ineria of the engine does not effect POWER output - unless you were measuring the power with the engine accelerating, which is not technically correct.

Not really, for two reasons: 1 - the inertia of the car is much more significant that the rotational inertia of the engine when accelerating, unless you have a very low gear. 2 - The front pulley contributes next to nothing to the total rotational inertia of the engine - think flywheel. And of course, once the enigne is not accelerating, the rotational inertia has no effect other than to smooth the torque output. These are the conditions in which power should be measured - with the engine at a steady (or close to it) speed.

At the risk of being unpopular, a lightweight pulley will not net ANY extra power whatsoever - this is impossible.

It is a wagon, so there is definitely no one locked in the boot.... Will certianly do a tire rotation when I get it back from having it's head gaskets done... But in my experience, for a tire to make that much noise it has to be pretty bad, and the damage is quite visible. But maybe something strange has happened to it.... It does still seem the most likely culprit.

Most types of gasoline will degrade over a period of a year or so. If it hasn't been filled up in a very long time, it may have gone off.

I'm not talking about the effect this has on efficiency - as you say, it is insignificant and occurs whether the front or rear tyres are larger. I'm getting at how this effects the power split. i.e. it is impossible for this system to give a 90/10 split if the rears are smaller than the fronts, since the output of the PT cluctch will always be trying to go FASTER than the input. The rears will therefore always be driving in the opposite direction to the fronts..... I'm not saying that this has any real detrimental effect, since as soon as you enter a corner, or start losing traction, the tiny difference in wheel diameter will become negligable. But it is interesting in that you will likely be affecting your straight line torque split by putting a load of stuff in the back of your car.... Could you actually feel/notice it? Probably not.

Yes, but no matter how much it is slipping, if the rears are trying to go faster than the fornts, they will always be trying to slow the car down - giving a torque split more like -10/110.....

OK, after looking in to how the AWD system on hte 4EAT works, it strikes me that there is a problem with simply using a clutch to transfer power rearward, instead of using a differential. The four tires mounted on the car will never be EXACTLY the same diameter. Even if the tires are all exactly identical, small variations in pressure will mean that their efective rolling diameter changes. If the average size of the two rear tires happens to be slightly larger than the average size of the two front tires, this is fine - the PT clutch will slip some relatively insignificant amount, but power will be transferred to the rear as it should be. But what if the average size of the rear tires is smaller than the average of the fronts? Even if this is by a tiny amount, surely the clutch will be slipping backwards, thus providing a BRAKING torque to the rear.... This could easily happen if one were to fail to adjust tire pressures when a load was put in the rear of the car. Am I missing something, or is this really the case?

Hey, have recently got a JDM '95 (maybe more like a '96 US model I think) legacy 250t. Got it very cheap as it needs HGs done. Anyway, I've noticed this thumping sound from what seems to be the left rear corner when driving between 20km/h and 35km/h. Thumps at the right speed to be at wheel speed. Sounds a lot like a tire with broken belts etc, but the tires are new and look in perfect condition. Also, there is no vibration at higher speeds. The noise is there whether accelerating, coasting or braking. Have also tried FWD mode and it is still present. Any ideas on what it might be, other than a bad tire??

I have this for sale at the moment: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=187677116 Price is very negotiable if it is going to a good home.