TomRhere

Getting the flu just plain sucks!!!!! Looking forward to the ER27 swap. Thought about it myself for the '88 Wagon, as I have 2 of those engines sitting in the garage, and 1 harness mostly stripped down. Also considered the cybrid steering system. Don't have the sensor for the steering column anymore, but I've read that it's not really needed. Don't know for sure on that.

If it wasnt for the parts stash I have, I wouldn't have a vehicle to drive. Don't have much in the way of extra cash to go buy new stuff, plus they have to order just about everything for these older Subarus. Parts stash kept all the BRATs going too. Some new things were bought, yes. But mostly it's been used stuff. Got the door seals all repositioned and sprayed down with some silicone this morning. Was even a nice guy and sprayed the Wife's HHR doors down. Thinking I'm going to have to swap out the XT6 alt for the alt that's on the '85 BRAT. Have had a whine coming from the alt, and now that I've retensioned the belt, it's gotten louder. Just did an errand run, and it's louder today than it was yesterday before fixing the coolant leak. Not good at all. And James, I wouldn't mind the drive up to your place to get the hood. Just can't cover the cost of gas to do so at the moment. Maybe later this Spring..

One front wheel off the ground, trans in neutral, spin the tire as you insert the speedometer cable into the drive gear. Please have the vehicle on a jackstand when doing this. Spinning the tire will, in turn, spin the speedometer drive and should allow the cable to drop in where it belongs. Just don't push on it hard as you are inserting it, and it should align itself with the drive.

Well,, none of the previous mentioned work was done during the Holidays. Christopher's girlfriend Shannon landed a job and needed use of the LaSaber. So I decided to postpone the trans swap and engine reseal. I have however, been doing a lot of small items as far as the "it needs done" things go. Tracked down cause of coolant loss. Was the o-ring on the supply tube to the water pump. Never had a puddle under the car to tell me it was leaking, atleast none on the paved parking lot at work. My dirt driveway doesn't show puddles very well. Anyways, started it up yesterday and let it run as I opened the garage door. When I looked back at it, I saw coolant dripping. Pulled it into the garage and looked under it to discover the leak coming from the o-ring. Let the engine run while I looked thru my parts stash to see if I had another supply tube handy. Found one with good o-ring and went back to the Wagon. It stopped dripping. Say what??? Ok, only leaks when engine is cold and running, seals itself as it warms up. Gotcha.. Explains why I didnt have a puddle under it at work. Drained it down, disconnected battery, pulled alt, and replaced the tube. O-ring on the one I took out was hard and brittle. It broke when I tried to take it off the tube. Refilled the system, replaced alt, connected battery, started it up, only to have it leak again. Aaaaaaaaaa..... Had to loosen the mount bolt and play with position of tube to get it to stop dripping. Eventually I wound up having to pry up on the tube/bracket junction some to get it to stop completely. Swapped in a good EGR solenoid also. No more check engine light!!!!!!! Replaced rear wiperblade, and cleaned the washer nozzles for the windshield. Cutting torch tip cleaners are so nice to have.... Need to adjust them though, as one stream each from both sides go over the roof. But I now have a good amount of fluid out of them. Rotated tires around, and checked condition of brakes on all corners. Looks like some new front pads are due soon. Those I have, need to get another new rotor to go with the one I have here, (came with the Wagon). Get the fun of re-attaching the weather strip on all 4 doors. Had a day time rain over night freeze this last week. All doors some what froze shut, and pulled the strip off when they were opened. Shame on me for not getting them treated properly before hand.

Miles has a good point on timing being off with the EA81-EA82 flywheels. But you've said that you have the 3 T-Belt timing marks, so you have the correct flywheel on yours. Pull #1 plug, crank engine by hand until you get compression on your finger that you,ve placed over the plug hole. Keep turning engine untill you reach the 0* mark. Check that disty rotor is pointing to #1 on the cap. Double check all of the electrical connections for proper fit. Been a few Members find a "no start" issue was due to a connection not fully seated.

Can't help but think that you have the plug wires wrong on the cap.

Definetly an EA82 Wagon. Shifter bushings can be purchased thru a Dealership. There is a spring on the shifter assembly also, I have had a couple of them that the spring was missing, makes them way wobbly. I would check the engine and trans mounts, or just go ahead and replace them. Worn out, soft, broken mounts will cause front axle problems.

Had one disty here that I had to clamp the gear in a vice and use a punch to drive the shaft out of it.

Been digging thru diagrams myself, trying to clear some errant codes. Not sure if it's what you'll need but got a few wires for you to check on the connection to the ECU. This is on the middle connector plug. Looking at it from the wiring side, catch-clip up. Pin #1 top row left side, Blue/green wire, AT kick-down control. Pin #13 bottom row 4th position from left side, Yellow/red wire, AT inhibitor switch. Neither of those wires are present in the connector on a Manual trans car. Or atleast they're not on my '88 GL Wagon or the '92 Loyale Wagon, both are Manuals.

Glad you made it out there with no issues.

Haven't tried it for that kinda stuff, but WD-40 does wonders for removing road tar from vehicles. Good luck with the repairs. Lord knows I have enough of that myself with the BRATs.

Welcome back Bill. I remember you from before, just don't recall alot of your posts. I've seen a few of those jump vids, trying to recall the site.... Fun on wheels???

Ain't just in your area with the crappy gas this Winter. I've lost between 60-70 miles per tank in the past few fills of the tank. Same daily trips, same weekend errands ran. Not to nice with the go-pedal either. Been getting around 390 - 400 miles between fills, and the most I've put in the tank is 13.9xx gallons, which put it in the mid/low 28 MPG range. But lately, that's dropped to 320 or so miles per tank. '88 GL Wagon, EA82 SPFI, FTAWD 5-speed running only on the front axles, (have the center diff locked), with rear section of driveshaft out, (bad u-joints).

205/75/15 = 27.1" diameter, 5.7" tread width 215/75/15 = 27.6" diameter, 7.5" tread width Generic measurements, and may vary with Brand/type of tire.

Nice One!!!!

Drove it in snow for the 1st time since I got it. Just running FWD right now, as I need to replace u-joints for the driveshaft. Taking off wasn't to much of an ordeal, but trying to apply any throttle was something different. It'd spin the tires very easily. About 3" of snow on the roads, greasy stuff it were.

Done lot's of bearings just using hammer and drift punch, both on/off vehicle. I find it easier to do it off the vehicle though. Tried doing them using a press at work once. Found it to be more of a chore trying to get knuckle properly set on the press we had, Since then, I've always done them with hammer/drift.

I use the D-C 111 here. Great for lubing o-rings like the one on the EA82 waterpump inlet pipe. A little of it applied to hose connections, IE; heater hoses, helps greatly on install and later removale

I can attest to improved shifer performance from that mod, GD has taken it one better by tapping threads into it. Basically "locking" everything together. I really wish I could recall exactly what I did to get the shifter/trans back into sinc with each other. Just know I played around with it for quite some time. Thankfully, I was in my driveway at the time.

Had that happen with the '86 & '85 BRATs. Took some time playing around with the shifter, but I managed to get things working again. With both, I chalked it up to sloppy shifter, and set about reducing the amount of slop. You may be able to get under it and work the selector on the trans back to neutral. Can't say for sure though. I can't see it being a problem inside of the trans, (just going from my experiences), as they both worked fine afterwards.

All ready sent PM on parts I have, but... Me, if I were planning on gettting all replacement parts once I got to my destination, I would just bypass the PS all together. Drove the '88 Wagon for a few weeks without the pump being driven, wan't bad at all. But, I have been driving manual steering BRATs for a few years, so it was a bit easier (for me) to do the Wagon without PS. PS only really comes in handy for parallel parking anyways. At speeds above 10 MPH, it really doesn't need to be on one of these cars just going down the road. I'd just cut the lines near the rack connections and loop a hose using a couple of clamps on each end. Do the same at the pump side of it. Or, see what I would need to put different belts on it, bypassing the PS pump. Did that when I had an EA81 engine in the '88 Wagon and was working on a tensioner for the PS pump, which was the EA82's mounted where it should be. Just removed the drive pulley from pump, found a belt that would work to drive waterpump and altenator. There are ways to work around some issues for a short duration.

I would try swapping the heater hoses around 1st. May flush the crud out of the core. If you have a NAPA parts store near you, look for Mac's Radiator Cleanser. Stuff works great. You can leave it in the system longer than the direction say to, it won't hurt anything.

quote; I'm still need to get all new rubber lines, but that can wait. un-quote. Bad soft/rubber lines can give various signs of brake issues. Inner lining of "hose" breaks down after awhile, can create somewhat of a checkvalve should it crack/seperate. Will allow fliud/pressure flow in one direction, but hinder it in the opposite direction. Fluid can go between layers of hose, giving the "false" sense of soft pedal, (aka; air in system). Can cause a brake to "hang" on one wheel. In reality, the soft lines in a brake system should be replaced just like one replaces heater/radiator hoses, accesory drive belts, and the likes. Brake hoses age just like the rest of them....

More like something mechanical was stuck/binding than it would be an air bubble. Air just doesn't "work it way out" of the brake system. Enjoyed the video. Haven't been able to do anything like that around here for a few years.

I'm roughly 4 hours North of you. I have a good PS rack or 2, PS pumps, should have lines but would have to double check on those. (sold some). All out of various years of EA82 bodied vehicles. PS line fittings are different fittings than what you would get on pre-made lines. Those are mostly for brake/fuel line repair/replacement. Technically, it could be done with those, but you would have a few splices in the system to go from those to the PS fittings needed, NOT recommended.... To many chances of a splice failing.