Marck

I think I remember reading your threads on the rear ebrake. You used the calipers from a 200sx. I am using the calipers off a 240sx so there are some differences. Here is a picture of what mine look like. The ebrake part sticks straight out. As for the cable, I figured they may not reach, but I think they sell ebrake cable extension kits at autoparts stores. I haven't looked into them much yet. Actually, these are pretty new. They are off an early to mid 90s 240sx (not sure of the exact year). I believe that the rear ebrakes are all the same from '89 to '98 (or whenever they stopped making them). There are many different models that people have used to do the conversion. I don't think there is such a thing as the wrong ones, because they all are the wrong ones. Its all about making them fit. I have read threads where people have used calipers from a 200sx, 240sx, and old supras. The 240sx was the closest thing I could find so I am going that route. There pretty good since they bolt up straight onto the stock caliper brackets. If I can get a little clearance between the end of the ebrake bracket and the axle then these would be perfect.

I am working on the rear ebrake modification. I am using rear calipers that I pulled from a 240sx. I had to bolt them up to the stock caliper bracket. So I am using the stock caliper bracket and stock pads with the 240sx calipers and caliper pins. You can see my problem in the picture. The ebrake bracket coming off the caliper slightly touches the outer axle boot. Since I am using the stock caliper brackets, can I just use XT6 backing plates to get more clearance without doing the 5 lug swap (keeping stock smaller 4 lug rotors)? How much more cleareance will it get me? My other problem is that the stock brake line is too short. I should have grabbed them off that 240sx when I pulled the calipers. I'll have to go back for them. Lastly for the routing of the hand cable, I wasn't going to worry about until I get to that point. My first attempt will probably be just routing the stock cable towards the back.

Well, I went to an A/C shop today to see what they can do about converting the v-belt style A/C pulley to the flat 4 ribbed A/C pulley. They looked in their catalogs and found that the matsush'ta compressor does not have a 4-ribbed belt style clutch assembly avaiblable. They can't even get the stock clutch assembly separately for that particular compressor. It is sold as one unit supposedly. They said that I can just swap the part that the belt lies on (the pulley part) without swapping the whole clutch if the Hitachi pulley on the XT matches in depth, diameter, and the hub that the pully w/ bearing slides onto is the same diameter. So off I went to the salvage yard today to look at the XT's A/C compressor. The clutch/pulley assembly is 6" in diameter. My matsush'ta compressor's clutch/pulley assembly is 5" in diameter. So this ain't going to work unless I ditch the A/C or swap A/C compressors. I already said that I didn't want to lose my A/C. And to swap compressors seems like more trouble than it is worth. The Hitachi compressor is much larger and therefore it is probably much heavier. The benefits of going to the flat 4 ribbed belt is not enough to justify adding more weight onto the front of the car. I would also have to change all the brackets and I bet the electric connectors coming off the compressor are different too so you may have to do some simple rewiring and what not. So I deemed it not worth my time to pursue it any further. For those without A/C or those who have the hitachi compressor stock on their car, the flat 4 ribbed belt system is a nice alternative to the v-belt setup and it is an easy swap. I bet is makes it easier to do the XT6 alternator swap because I think it uses the same type of pulley.

Anybody ever swap over from the v-belt to the flat four ribbed belts that are on the XTs'? I am tired of these stupid v-belts slipping. I got new expensive (just under $30) good quality NAPA Brand V-Belts and I got them on damn tight, but they still slip at first startup. I think my pulleys are all worn out. I want to do the swap. I have spotted an XT with all the pulleys that I need (alternator, W/P, idler, PS, Crank) in a local salvage yard. The only problem I see is what am I going to do about the A/C compressor. I want to keep my A/C and I can't swap the whole compressor because the Hitachi is too huge or too long and the bracketry is all different. Oh ya I have a matsush'tsu (panasonic) compressor aka the small square one. Can I swap the ribbed belt clutch from the Hitachi XT onto a Matsush'ta compressor, or can an A/C shop convert my compressor to the flat ribbed style?

After changing the sprockets so that the one with the dot at 5:30 is the farthest one from the engine, I found that the idle has dropped and the ignition timing had retarded by a couple of degrees. I increased the idle and set the timing to 20 degrees BTDC, which is what I set them to a month ago. At idle, I didn't notice the car running any smoother. When I drove it, it felt like it had a little more power. I don't like to rely on feeling alone because sometimes my brain can play tricks on me. Has anybody else swapped them and noticed a difference?

I am going to switch them (put the "large notched one" closer to the engine) and then see if it runs better or worse.

I found something interesting to more confuse everyone. In my 87 FSM, look at figure 6 on page 12 in section 2-3. The picture shows that the inner sprocket (#2) has the dot, but the dot is at 12:00, instead of 5:30. The outer sprocket lacks this dot. I found that according to WJM's first post, my sprockets are on backwards and lacks the dowel pin. I took both sprockets off and compared them. They look very different. I'll see if I can borrow a digi cam tonight to take a pic. I wonder if one of my sprockets is aftermarket? All I can say for now is that the one with the special dot hugs the crankshaft better when it is placed closest to the engine. I couldn't get a hold of a good quality camera, but here is some blurry pixs using a cheap old camera. First picture is of the front of the two sprockets and the second picture is of their back sides. The sprocket on the left of both pictures has the mark at 5:30 on the front side. The one on the right has a large notch at 6:00pm on the front side.

I plan on keeping my A/C. I am talking about shortening the waterpump studs, not the shaft. With the mechanical fan removed, the studs do not need to be as long. I can't believe the EA81 fan is so thin. I didn't know. Why is the narrowest aftermarket fan 2 1/4 inches and yet subaru was able to make one only 1" thick? Roughly how much cfm does the EA81 fan pump out? Maybe I will put some more effort into finding an EA81 fan.

Has anyone (with a 2 row radiator) tried fitting the Flex-a-lite low profile 12" electric fan (FLX-120) or something similar where the mechanical fan used to be? I measured and have found that I have about 2 1/4 to 2 5/8 (depending on where you measure) of room between the pulleys and the radiator. Its going to be a tight fit. I figured I may have to shorten the waterpump studs a bit and maybe replace the acorn nut on the powersteering pump with something more lower profile. I know it is an expensive fan, but it offers the lowest profile without sacrificing cfm. I want to know if anyone has tried fitting this fan or one similar in size (15 x 13.5 x 2.625). I am looking to save me the hassle of ordering the fan and then having to return it cause it won't fit. If somebody on the message board has already tried I rather not waste time and money to repeat something that someone has already found to be fruitless. And don't tell me to get an EA81 fan cause there are no EA81s in the salvage yards around here. I can barely find EA82s and plus I don't want a 25+ year old fan that is going to give out.

I found a thermosensor that will kick the secondary fan on sooner than the factory one. The operating range, according to my FSM, of the factory thermoswitch is 199F-207F. I am guessing it turns the fan on at around 207F and shuts it off at 199F. Way too hot for a suby, especially a turbo suby. You may crack a head if you risk letting the temperature raise past 3/4 of the guage. I have searched through catalogs at Napa, Carquest, and Kragen looking for a thermosensor that will turn the secondary electric radiator fan at 180F and will screw into the stock location in the radiator. The one I found and used turns the radiator fan on at 185F and I think shuts it off at 176F, a good temp range for the turbo cars that are running the 180F or less thermostats. The fan will kick on when the needle is slightly higher than midway on the guage. The thermosensor from Kragen is made by Niehoff and goes for under $30. The part number is TS81781 and can be found here online: http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?mfrcode=NIE&mfrpartnumber=TS81781 It is made for an 87-89 mitsubishi and 86-89 Hyundai. It of course has the same thread size which is M16 x 1.5. Click on the link and look at the picture of the sensor. The only modification you have to make is to cut the plug off of the wires coming out of the sensor and then crimp on a male spade onto each wire. Then plug the wires into the factory plug. No modification of the factory wiring is necessary. This modification is a must for anyone who is trying to run their subarus with only the stock electric fan (ie. mechanical clutch fan removed). My plan is to use the new thermoswitch to trigger two relays which will each turn on an electric fan automatically. I will still have a toggle switch in the cabin incase anything goes wrong where I would need to manually turn on the fans. Nice simple mod. Lets put this into the USRM.

bump, still need 7 more people

Sorry, forgot to mention Its got a factory pcv valve and its about a year old.

sorry about the post hijack: I have the same problem - oil in the intercooler. The intercooler acts as an oil catch can, so it doesn't run into the intake. But I lost a quart of oil in 1000 miles and I found most of it in the intercooler. I checked compression 8 months ago and it was good. No problems since then, 'cause car was mostly sitting. I changed turbos from VF7 to VF11 and same problem. So I was thinking that both turbos have blown seals or it has something to do with the PCV system. My PCV system is hooked up like factory, but I replaced all the hoses with straight hoses (IE. not using factory molded hoses). If one of the PCV hoses were really long, or if there was a slight kink, or if the pcv hoses collapse because they are not as strong or stiff as the factory hoses, can this cause the problem?

I sent an email to the guy I am dealing with, letting him know that the price is too steep for us subaru owners when comparing the worth of an old 80s subaru to the price of a carbon fiber hood. Here is how he replied: So, it may be as cheap as $300-$350. The shipping is still $165, but like he said, we maybe able to save a little money on shipping if someone more local then me can pick them up. I live 3 hours away from LA, so hopefully there is someone who lives closer that wouldn't mind picking them up. Although, I don't know how much it cost to ship a hood cross country, but hopefully we can find something cheaper than $165.

Are there any interest in the CF Hood? I was told by the seller that the CF Hood would be less than the $395 hood for the Ford Taurus. I rounded up to $400 in my original post, but it will actually be cheaper. So will dropping the $400 price tag by $10 to $40 help? The $165 dollar flat rate shipping is a bear, but maybe we can work something out. Maybe somebody local can pick the hoods up and ship them at a lower cost? Or are board members going to produce their own fiberglass hoods? Whats going on with this?

How much are we talking? Will you really commit to making us some hoods? I'll definantly buy one carbon fiber or fiberglass hood from you if you can do a quality job. In the mean time, lets continue working on recruiting people in the group buy. Who else wants one?

Thanks for the tip. I don't know the weight for the stock EA82 hood. The weight of the CF hood for the EA82 is unknown since it hasn't been made yet, but the ford taurus w/ cowl weighs 23lbs. The EA82 hood is smaller than the taurus hood, so it should be a little less.

I know that there have been attempts to organize group buys for carbon fiber hoods before, but I'll give it another shot. My friend works with somebody that makes carbon fiber hoods in Southern California. I have looked into it and we need 10 people for a group buy. To get an idea, here is a link to one of the many hoods they make: http://www.shobrosgarage.com/product_info.php?cPath=156_104&products_id=283 You can choose between fiberglass or carbon fiber, and if you choose carbon fiber you can choose between different colors. See the pic at the bottom of the site to see what some of the available colors are. Carbon fiber hoods for all EA82 cars will cost nearly $400 plus $165 for shipping (unless you pick it up). Fiberglass will be a little cheaper by about $50. A colored carbon fiber hood may cost a little more by about $75. The design of the 10 hoods must be the same. I propose a stock looking EA82 hood with a WRX style hoodscoop (for us turbo guys). Or if the majority rather not have the hood scoop, then we can do that instead. EA81 and XT folk, the deal is probably the same - you just need ten people to commit and a donor hood. So who for sure wants one? EA82(T) 1) Marck 2) BlindSight 3) Caboobaroo 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10)

Actually, use anaerobic sealant by permatex or locktite. The o-rings are part number: 13089aa010 You will need two of these.

If you need to buy the sender, I recommend the autometer 0-100PSI. http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=ATM%2D2242&N=700+115&autoview=sku It works great with the stock oil pressure meter or an autometer gauge.

You lost me. The new bearing that I have is one large bearing instead of two bearings and spacers. It doesn't look like it can come apart, at least not without breaking it apart. The axles do not go through the bearings in the rear. The spindles go through the bearings and the axles mount onto the inner splines of the spindles. So how do I pack this bearing?

Thats what I got in the mail. What is the plastic piece inside the bearing assembly for? It looks like I will have to pull it out before the bearing assembly will fit onto the spindle. I don't have to pack in any grease with this new bearing assembly, is this correct?

Ah, so subaru went from a 6 part bearing assembly to a bearing assembly that cannot be disassembled. That makes sense. Thanks GD.

I am changing rear wheel bearings and I found that the new wheel bearings and my old ones are very different. On a 4WD Sube, the rear wheels use a single wheel bearing assembly, but my old bearing is made of two bearings, an inner spacer, an outer spacer, and two pieces that go over the bearings (see attached pictures). This is different than the 906100007 wheel bearing assembly that I bought from 1stsubaruparts.com. What gives? Did I get the wrong type of bearing?

Just the other day, I saw a small set of craftsman torx sockets at Sears. Snapon also carries them. Call a snapon truck or buy the one you need online: http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?item_ID=14957&group_ID=2358