SubSandRail

My sand rail has the 83 wagon rear torsion tube suspension. Currently I am using a KZ650 motorcycle engine to drive a sprocket connected to the rear differential. (see avatar) I want to kick out the motorcycle engine and rear diff, and replace it with a EA-81 and DR 4 speed. This would make it a mid-engine buggy, pick up some horsepower, and give me a reverse gear. The low range would let me run monster sand paddles (no wheel wells to get in the way) and the high range would let me keep up with the Pinto-powered rails on the straight-aways. I want to keep the rear torsion suspension, and drop in the tranny & engine. I have tested the fit of the rear axles onto the transaxle, and the holes for the pins don't quite line up. Questions: Has anyone fit the inner CV from the front axle onto the rear axle? This would solve the roll pin fit problem. Are all rear axles the same? For this to work, I need to mount the engine and transaxle higher so the oil pan clears the top of the torsion tube. I can shorten the oil pan by 3" if needed. But this requires the DOJ to be at its maximum angle. Can I get a DOJ with the 83 spline that will allow a larger angle?

Sounds good. If the sending unit for an 83 wagon with analog dash is on the back of the tank, I'll have no problem at the junkyard. They perch the cars up on a pile of tire rims and I would not trust that if I had to lay under the car removing the rear suspension assembly. There are 4 83 wagons in the Tacoma PAP configured just like mine (there is also an XT). In fact, I can't remember a time in the last couple of years when they had this many soobs. No rear disk brakes though.

Thanks for the info. According to the local Subaru dealer, there is only one fuel tank sending unit in the country (Atlanta) and it is $85. That seems to be a lot to spend on a car that cost $187. None of the generic online auto parts stores seem to carry one. I may need to keep relying on the odometer. The part number is 785111070.

My FSM claims that I have a 14 gallon tank, but when the gauge reads empty, it only takes 11 gallons to top it off. The gauge is unrelyable above 1/4 tank, and has never shown that it is full after filling it up, so I think I need a new sending unit. Just to make sure I get the right part, I looked under the wagon, and it does not look like a smaller tank had been put in, but I am not sure. Do the smaller tanks fit in a 83 GL D/R? Is my FSM correct, or did they ever put a 11 gallon tank in my model? Can the sending unit be replaced without pulling the tank & rear suspension? If not, I will wait to fix it until I do the lift. I'm hoping that I have 3 gallons under the empty line. I can barely get from Tacoma to Spokane in 10.5 gallons, and would like to make it without sweating about running out on the road (I hate to stop). On a more upbeat note, I am up to 30.6 mpg now; it only cost $21 to go 330 miles. I need to hurry with the rear brake and 6 lug conversion because my $5 PAP tire exploded on the last trip. I have good tires waiting (6 lug), and don't want to spend money on tires I will only use a month. Anyone in the Seattle area have rear disk brakes for sale? PAP never seems to have late 80's turbos.

Just saw the pics you added to your post. It would cost you way too much in time and money to fix it. Too bad about the safari rack, it was worth almost as much as the car before you crunched it. If you were not strapped for cash, it would be a fun project car. Cut off the whole roof and fab a roll cage. Put the safari rack back on top and you would look like you are ready to tackle the African plains. Wouldn't work too well in the NW rain, though.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Were you trying to do a stunt, or was it just bad luck? Glad your not hurt. There are enough soobs in our area that I would part out the old ones and go buy a running one. If you are going to part anything out, I need another set of rear disk brakes. I know they didn't come on your year, but you might have done the mod. Also need two of the console pieces, the front and back, in blue for a D/R 4 speed wagon. I already have the middle two pieces. The front piece needs to have the power mirror control cutout (I already have the switch) and the rear piece needs to be the tall one with the power window control cutout (I already have that switch, also). It is hard to find the front piece that has not been butchered to fit stereos, so if yours is in good shape but not blue, I may get it anyway and paint it.

Here is some info on the dangers of heating up galvanized metal: http://www.ballarat.edu.au/vfed/manufacturing/ssc/Newsletter23.pdf I could not find anything relating to it causing a flame. Magnesium dust can burn the way you describe, although it usually is a white flame.

Doors give you something to hide behind as your rig rolls over. Stumps and big branches in the passenger area really sucks. My rail has never had doors, and I have had to scoot over in the seat to avoid big branches that I did not want to meet up close. If you do get rid of the doors, spend $30 for a four-point harness (Tiger Claw, etc). All this safety stuff adds cost, but every time I walk away from a stunt gone wrong without injury, I am glad I spent the money & time.

What dent? I agree with caleb and bratwerst. If you fix every ding your offroad rig gets, you will work harden the body from pounding it back out all the time! If you want to make a career of eating mesquite trees, maybe you need one of the old Volvo bumpers with the built in shock absorbers.

I have experienced the problems of having hardened metal in the wrong application. I think I will grind off the unwanted studs and pull the new studs in with an impact driver. That way there is no bending from pressing or beating the unwanted studs out and the new ones in, and no change in the strength of the metal from heating. Thanks for all the advice.

Qman, The milling machine is for circuit board material, it does not handle metal. It is in a RF design lab. I do have a friend with a lathe, and I talked to him about building up the back of the hub with weld, then making it flat on the lathe before drilling the holes. The template is available anytime. The more use it gets, the better. Do you press out the unwanted studs or grind them off? If you press them out, do you fill the hole with weld, or leave it open? RXturbo, Thanks for the info on the hole size. I have not purchased the studs yet, but am hoping to find better pricing. So far the tire places want $4 or $5 each, whether they press them in or not. I have not talked to the auto parts stores yet.

I have been trying to decide whether to weld them on or not. I did it for my dune buggy, but it is not street legal and never gets up to highway speeds. If the studs are hardened, welding could make them a little more brittle. I may build up the uneven parts of the back of the hub with weld then grind it flat. Your method obviously works, but i like the idea of having less than 0.005" error on the stud placement. I'm still looking for rear disk setup. Does anyone know if the hubs are the same, front '83, '84 to rear disk '85 to '89? It would be great if I only had to carry one spare hub that would work on any location.

I am getting ready to do the 6 lug conversion, and wanted to make sure that I drilled in exactly the right spot. So I made this template that fits over the 4 lug hub, and has the 4 extra holes that are just big enough to put the tip of a pencil in to mark it. It is fiberglass and was made on a milling machine, so it just barely fits over the four lugs with zero slop.

Thanks for the info. I'll take the carb back and search the American car section for 5200's. You saved me a couple of months fighting a carb that would not get me what I want. I'll go for the Hitachi mod for this summer and keep an eye out for the 2 barrel weber or 5200.

Thanks for the info. I pulled everything from the bad side and replaced with a complete setup I found at the junkyard, so it should all match now. Next weekend I'll go to the same car and harvest the other side, so my front setup matches. No luck finding rear disk brakes for a conversion. My fancy 28" Buckshots are sitting around waiting for me to do the 6 lug conversion.

I replaced my front brake caliper (83 GL wagon) with one that came from a vented rotor setup. The outside brake pad fell off a week later, and I was wondering if the caliper for the vented rotors is wider and would allow that to happen on a non-vented rotor. The part that slides and holds the outer pad looks the same, maybe the throw of the brake piston is shorter for the wider vented rotors? Also, what years had the vented rotors? The brake fluid resevoir was empty after only a week, so maybe I didn't tighten the fitting enough and that allowed it to get sloppy enough to let the pad fall out?

So is the 1 barrel weber/carter better or worse than my 2 barrel hitachi? Anyone tried both on the same car for comparison?

I found a large one barrel "Weber/Carter" carb with adapter plate at the junkyard this weekend on an 83 hatch. Did they ever offer this stock? The adapter has the coolant passage blocked. I have not researched the Webers yet because I don't have the $250 to spend on it yet, but I thought the one board members were buying were two barrels. The intake is rectangular and about 1" x 2". I have not cleaned it up yet, but a short search did not produce any model numbers cast into the body. It does say made in USA, does that mean carter built a weber design, kind of like the "motorcraft" 4 barrel holly on my truck? Anyway, couldn't pass it up at $11.50, maybe I scored on a high performance carb.

$8.99 for 100 nitrile gloves. I usually wait until the local store has them on sale for $5.99 then buy several boxes. At the Tacoma Harbor Freight they only go on sale about once a year. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=45042

I ripped a CV boot in the sand last summer. It didn't have sand in the grease yet, so I wrapped plastic sheet around it and covered it in duct tape. It is still working, and feels tight (no slop or grinding). If you can squeeze the water out and pump some grease in, maybe that would work for you. Also, mine was in the back, so no worries about heat. Maybe you could use aluminum tape or make a tin heat shield for it.

Bring a ringnet to catch crabs, or a surf pole and a crab rig (cheaper if you already have a pole) to catch crabs while you are along the coast. Oregon used to allow free crabbing, now it is cheap ($9 for a non-resident 3 day pass). Check out: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/Regulations/2004_fishregs.pdf Florence is a straight shot over from Eugene, and they have a public crab dock. Show up with gear, fresh turkey legs, and have the locals show you how it is done. You can buy everything you need at the hardware store in Florence for $30. While you are there, go down South Jetty road and have some fun at the Oregon Dunes. Make sure you have soft wide tires and deflate them to 4 psi before you get out on the sand. You will need an orange flag on a 6' pole and a pass that you can buy in town. It would be best if you found somebody in the area to go with if you have never driven in deep sand.

I put on a pair of nitrile gloves. Costs 20 cents per pair but saves 20 minutes of washing grease off your hands. just peel them off and throw them away when you are done. I started using them when I was working on my sand rail every day for 7 months. Got tired of permanantly dirty hands, and didn't want to expose my system to any more chemicals than needed. Most auto parts stores will have 100 packs behind the counter for $6 to $10.

No problem: 1. Start a towing business at the dunes. People are always breaking down out there. Use the money to pay off the debt and upgrade your Brat 2. Use your Brat to do the towing. You will be paid to drive on the dunes. 3. Take your G/F with you. I took my wife out to the rifle range for our first date, and she still married me. Of course she was on the Anchorage rifle team in High School, and likes to shoot anyway. :) :)

I have participated in the design of several sand cars, and the biggest challenge has always been building a suspension and steering that can take a pounding. Long travel coil-overs can cost a couple of hundred dollars each, and every time you break them jumping dunes, you pay that again. The torsion rear end of the early 80's soobs solves the strength problem without breaking the bank. There is a lot to learn when building a car from scratch, and even after you have a rolling chassis it can cost $500 for all the little parts that are needed to make it work. Don't start unless you have a well-stocked garage available for a year, a couple of friends to help, $1000 in your pocket and $100 spare cash every payday. If that does not describe your resources, find your local dune buggy/ sand rail guys and go help them tinker with their rigs. When you see what breaks and what holds together after each trip, you will be able to plan your rig better. Or pick a smaller project like a motorcycle powered gokart. You can improve your fabricating skills on a smaller budget and have a lot of fun. My philosophy was "build it with inexpensive parts so I can afford to repair it".

Do you plan to use it primarily in the sand? If so, four wheel drive is less important that power-to-weight ratio. With the same tires, a soob does way better that a jeep in the sand, because the soob gets more floatation and isn't digging a hole in front of the tires the whole way. Buggies and rails do WAY better than soobs and jeeps in the sand because they weigh much less. A rule of thumb in the sand is that if you double the weight of the car, you have to increase the horsepower 4x, and the tire footprint 8x to compensate. Go for minimum weight and you will have fun with a lot less engine and tire (which will save a lot of money). I built a rail frame around an 84 torsion rear end with the 3.9 diff. I made a mini drive shaft with a hub & sprocket. I put an old Kawasaki 650 engine in the back and chain drive the diff. The whole car weighs 800lbs and floats on top of the sand.