Spiffy

yeah, I'd like to check out more of the Tillamook forest west of McMinnville... what are your days off? I've got weekends off... I've got the OHV permit in the back window, a little worn from car wash chemicals, but the serial # and year are still visible, and I've got the paperwork in the glove box... looking forward to checking out more of lolo pass after the snow melt as well... most everything is the same distance to be since I'm in the heart of PDX by Hwy 26 and I-5... quick for me to jump on a freeway and get to any of the nearby forests in about 30-45 minutes... my cell # is 503-544-6260 (JIG-MAN-0) if anybody is heading that way and wants to let me into the pack... I'll give a call or post before I head out next time... also, my yahoo messenger is always on at home... --Spiffy

well, they look like the usual automotive horns... you can see them in the picture here... they're the little round things under the headlight... you can see a better look at the bottom left of this picture... hope that helps... you could also replace the horn like I did in my '82... see here... --Spiffy

DRL's? daytime running lights? yeah, it's a pretty lame option for a subaru, since you can just keep your real lights on all the time and they'll go off automatically with the key... one of my favorite features... --Spiffy

sundays work good for me as well, since that my girl's weekend day off as well... but sometimes I can find a passenger to wander the woods with me... right now there's too many closed gates in the Mt Hood forest... need to head to tillamook and explore that some more... just got the map a couple weeks ago and haven't had a chance to really check it out like I have with hood and giffort-pinchot... --Spiffy

my guess would be that the rod came out that works the door latch internally... should be able to pop the door panel off and get your arm in there and open the door manually with the internal mechanism... it really depends on what the handles feel like... is there any resistance? a lot of resistance? clunking? exactly the same feel from both inside and outside? once the connecting rod for the internal handle broke on one of my cars so I fixed it with a coat hanger... (: recently on my ea81 wagon the rear passenger outside handle stopped working... just had to spray some pb blaster in there to loosen everything up and now it works fine... --Spiffy

looks cool but there doesn't seem to be any room for suspension travel... definately need the bit of lift for that big ol' tires... --Spiffy

I was actually on wildcat mountain... then up on lolo pass... but there was too much snow on lolo pass for me to try it alone... last time I had to dig myself out after high-centering... (: might go back to tillamook next weekend, or up to gifford pinchot... --Spiffy

heading up to mt hood forest now with a couple passengers to explore the woods... probably south side of hwy 26... or maybe lilo pass... give a honk and wave if you see the blue '82 "handy smurf"... maybe I'll leave the frs radio on scan... --Spiffy

was just wondering if anybody in the portland oregon metro area was going ot be heading out to some easy off-roading tomorrow saturday 1/10... I was out at the tillamook ohv park last weekend but my alternator died and I had to quit early... I'd like to just get out in the forest and take some nice easy trails in my stock '82 wagon... so if somebody else was going to be in the forest maybe I'd meet up with them and take some tougher terrain that you wouldn't normally take alone... granted, I need to get back to the city by 3pm, so I won't be out there more than a few hours, so it needs to be close... I know there's some peeps here with lifted rigs that will climb over things I can't yet imagine... but I figure there might also be people that just enjoy the beauty of exploring the forest with only mild wheeling fun... --Spiffy

I had my windshield and rubber replaced by Lindsey's here in portland for $180... great guys to work with... came out in the rain with a little tent and replaced it right on the street... thanks for the tip about the chrome, I've been wondering where I was going to find a replacement since my old one was flaked down to the yellowed plastic... I'm guessing it's the '80's chevy luv trucks that used the same fitting windshield trim? --Spiffy

I've done this before... bought a Craftsman 12-point 15/16 socket and pound it over the locking nut... then put the socket on a vise and pound the socket back out... works like a charm... and if you break the socket Sears will replace it free... --Spiffy

even with the choke close there doesn't seem to be any mechanism that can get the fast idle cam to spin around... I'm totally baffled... I'm sure that there's a vacuum leak since I've got a lot of play in the throttle shaft, and I verified the leak with some carb cleaner spraying in the area... which is why this carb is on its way out... just trying to get it as close to good as I can until I can afford to put a weber on there... pretty sure the vacuum advance is working... no bogging once I get past the initial pedal press hesitation... but I haven't tested it to see how well it's working... I may just level the float and call it good, er, as good as it will get... but the fast idle cam still baffles me... I can take a couple more pics with the choke closed if that will help... and with the idle cam spun around onto the 1 mark... --Spiffy

ok, I checked out the accelerator pump and the float level... the accelerator pump seems the be in good working order... it shot plenty of gas when I was checking it out and the lever seems to be moving it down enough for a quick squirt... little ball in the bottom, spring, valve, rubber boot on carb top... I need to check in more light to make sure it's squirting enough and it getting there fast enough... the float level was bordering on too low... I adjusted it to bordering on too high... my bad... but that resolves my stuttering around sharp right corners problem... I've got to get back to the float level and put it dead on the dot, but I didn't have time then to do it again... here's a 1.3mb mpg movie of me reving the car and it hesitating: ... and the cold idle seems totally borked... here's a picture of inside the choke at idle with no throttle: here's a picture of inside the choke at full throttle: the little J20 fast idle cam never moves... in fact, there's a spring on it that keeps it nicely sitting against that little stop by the bent end... what's supposed to move it? if I manually spin it around the highest cam setting it will spin to is 1... --Spiffy

free is a very good price for what it looks like... there couldn't be anything wrong with that to not make it worth it... unless you had to pay a tow-truck company to tow it 2.5 hours... --Spiffy

I went shopping for one last year and the prices vary greatly... see here: http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53630 or: Name of the parts place -- Price -- Brand ----------------------------------------- Discount Import Parts -- $18.00 -- Royze AutoZone -- $27.99 -- GP Sorenson Mike's Auto Parts -- $36.99 -- Wells Mfg. Napa Auto -- $41.69 -- Eklin (Napa brand) CarQuest -- $43.39 -- Standard Ignition ----------------------------------------- --Spiffy

so I pull up to the chevron on powell and 60th or so to get some gas and while I'm sitting there getting filled the pump jockey asks what year my car is... I figured maybe he's some kind of enthusiast but that's all he asked and walked away... then an elderly guy comes up and asks me the same thing... then he goes on to tell me how he was at the Radio Shack at Eastport Plaza when it was robbed and he followed the guy far enough to see him get into what he thought was a white wagon around the same year as mine... he was going ot let the police know, since he didn't have any idea what kind of care it was before he saw mine at the gas station... so I told him it'd be '80-'84... the gas guy also mentioned that the 7-11 on 72nd had been robbed earlier this morning... not a good day for outer SE convenience businesses I guess... ... but really, an ea81 wagon as a get-away car? I guess they're common enough up here to get lost in the crowd, but they don't really have any get-away power... --Spiffy

most power window problems are caused by age and are a result of dirty switches and sometimes the connectors to the switches... take the master window switch assembly apart and clean all the contacts... if that doesn't do it then do the same thing to all the other doors... pake sure all the connectors int he door panels are clean enough as well... --Spiffy

I'm sure the ball is in there, but I didn't remember the spring being unidirectional... hmmm... well, guess I'll have to take the top off and make sure those bits are good then... it seems like an accelerator pump issue, but everything looks like it should be working... yeah, this hitachi is on its last life... I'm just trying to limp it along until I can get a weber on there... or an ea82 spfi parts car to do some swaps from... --Spiffy

looks just like the alternator plug on my '88 before richie got me a replacement... not sure how it ever worked like that... I'm still hunting electrical daemons... it's been taking up the garage for months... --Spiffy

I already did a rebuild on it several months ago because it barely ran at all... now I just have this cold idle (fast idle) and hesitation when warm problem... the hesitation is only when it's warm... I can press the gas down when it's cold and it revs right up... but once it warms up and the choke opens when I hit the gas it sounds like it's starting to die, stumbles, and then starts to rev... I can hold the choke closed most of the way with my finger and then give it gas and it doesn't hesitate... so I'm thinking it's getting too much air or something and needs to be a little choked the whole time, but that just doesn't make sense... not sure what do adjust to get rid of the stumble... --Spiffy

get a stock stereo, any one from an ea82 will fit without modification... they make them with a tape deck... although that's probably too attractive to your thieves if they're willing to break into a car to steal a stereo with no faceplate... use an fm transmitter and take it with you when you leave... don't lock the car (unless you have a large stock of extra windows) and leave nothing valuable in it... if they steal the stock tape deck then go the hidden amp and line-in jack route... --Spiffy

here I am at the beginning of last week (1/16) leaving to go back to work on my lunch break... (click for larger version) --Spiffy

ok, I've stared at this thing for a while now and can't figure it out... I have a few carb problems here and everything looks like it's working, but it's just not doing what it's supposed to... cold idle: it sucks... stalls and doesn't bump up to the fast idle at all... I looked at the cam in the choke assembly and it doesn't seem like it could ever work... there's nothing in the linkage that connects to the cam... is the spring supposed to do more than kick it back to it's stop? I can move it around manually and get it to kick on the first notch, but that's it before the choke lever gets in the way... hesitation: after it warms up and the choke is open it hesitates when I first hit the gas... I think it's getting too much air because I can close the choke most of the way manually and then rev it up without the hesitation... tried messing with the mixture screw (?) at the bottom front of the carb but that didn't seem to help much... (what's that supposed to be adjusted to anyways? like 5 screws out?) so, where to I go from here? I can take pics of everything if needed... --Spiffy