PrinterTechnician

https://www.ebay.com/itm/156158523728 333235 LH https://www.ebay.com/itm/126419603634 333234 RH

I have a Subaru order in for a rad cap and some other cooling components. The water pump is on back order, potentially on it's way to being discontinued instead of restocked. I'm going to check back in with the dealership tomorrow and see what's backordered and what isn't. I occasionally do drive out that direction, actually had a friend move out there last year. Goal is to get the cooling system resolved and install the weber carb kit I have on the shelf. Then if I can get the brakes working I'll take it for a lap around the block.

My only casualty was a missing nylock nut in the box that ripped apart.

Bit of a delay getting the title transferred due to a rogue DMV employee. I seriously debated scrapping the car over it. This is the second time this employee has accused me of forging signatures due to a gel ink pen. They claim it looks like it was printed/copied due to the darker more consistent gel ink. They also made me get a new title transfer form because the joint owner of the car signed it differently than the back of the title. I waited in line my third visit and just let people go in front of me until a different employee was free. The original 1986 Texas title was surrendered and I'll have the new one in a few weeks. With this step completed I'm a lot more comfortable investing time into the car.

Ah sorry I see it now. I was hoping your LH Sachs was the matching part to my single RH and I would've given it to you. Yours is the later 88+ with the welded coil seat. I bought the last RH Sachs 031-168 on RockAuto (has the bolt on coil seat) in hopes of maybe finding a matching LH strut. If PEC ships it out to you that's a huge win, I see that they actually offer international shipping. I'll give it a go as well if you get a tracking number. Dying breath for these cars with their stock suspension setups. KYB and Sachs probably won't manufacture these ever again.

Yeah sort of looks like 5 lug swapping these things is the only move going forward. I'm interested who you bought from, I couldn't find an Australian suspension supplier willing to ship to the US. And I'd be concerned using one of those forwarding services because they would likely refuse to ship them as well. What part number is your spare left Sachs?

Hello. I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this. I recently acquired this 1986 Subaru GL Wagon AWD/3spd auto. I made an account here a few years back while helping a friend with his '87 Brat. If I'd never worked on that Brat I wouldn't have given this $500 listing the time of day. The car is relatively clean for sitting in field in Odessa, TX exposed for a decade. Some rust under the cowl visible from the engine bay from debris sitting in it. Then some from a failed brake booster or master cylinder that was leaking. I'm technically the second owner since the guy I bought it from didn't register it, tried getting it to run off the fuel tank, failed, and gave up on it. Today I got around to setting up a Home Depot bucket fuel pump setup and ran it straight to the carb. I changed the oil and filter because the filter looked ancient, topped the radiator and reservoir off with some distilled water, and charged up the battery. I was surprised when the car eventually was able to run on it's own at about 1200-1500rpm. The carb was dripping fuel so I didn't want to run it long. The temp gauge climbed up a bit past halfway, so I quickly set some bricks around the tires to test the transmission without rolling away. I was able to roll forward and backward so I called that a success and shut it down. I noticed a burp in the coolant reservoir and some bubbles inside for about a minute after shutoff. I'll do a combustion leak test on it to verify. I'm going to list some major items that will need to be addressed before it even goes on a test drive. Engine - Verify if this engine needs head gaskets. Then go through cooling system and timing belt. Carburetor - Weber swap or try and work on this stock Hitachi Complete braking system refresh - Including the booster, master cylinder, and rubber lines. Transmission Drain/Fill and filter. Some less major items that will need to be addressed. Headlights housings are rusted through and don't work (I guess from filling up with water?) I'd probably try and find some sealed beam DL headlights and grille. CV Axles - All 4 CV boots are leaking and they'll probably fail pretty quickly. Suspension looks original. Door locks don't work and the passenger rear door is stuck shut. Rear hatch struts. left turn signal works with hazards but not stalk. No spare tire. But I have all the hardware that retained it. I think the battle going forward is going to be parts availability. I'm spoiled from working on Toyotas. I remember struggling to even find shocks for my friend's '87 Brat. The automatic transmission is also a downside if it ends up having issues. I've found a number of great write-ups on this forum and some other websites so I have that on my side. Here are some pictures and videos to go with my random assortment of thoughts.

I considered a package forwarding service from Australia. But that would cost about $550USD for just the struts and then another $500USD+ in shipping to the US. My friend is not interested in doing the EA82 suspension conversion. The easiest option would be knowing someone in Australia who could ship the parts to the US for a reasonable price. Or convincing a US vendor that there is a market for these. Which I doubt would be possible with how few of these are rolling around.

I've been using 1984 in my searches. No major chain, rockauto, or any other online retailer has anything for the front. I checked some specialty shops with an online storefront (mostly out of California) all with their sketchy 90s looking websites. Only place that listed them available was 2kracing.com. When I called them the guy was quick to tell me "yeah all the Subaru brat guys keep calling but we haven't had any in some time" so that was a dead end. The last company that appears to have produced them in the US was KYB under part# 234028. I really don't think an EA82 suspension conversion is in the cards. I'm going to seriously consider trying to get some shipped from Australia.

I found an eBay listing here that explicitly says it won't ship to the US. Pedders didn't seem to have any fronts available on their AU site. I guess I could ask about international shipping.

So I've been tasked with assisting my less mechanically inclined friend with a complete suspension refresh on an 87 Brat GL 4-speed with dual range. From what I've gathered the Brat stayed on the "2nd gen" older chassis here in the states until it was cancelled in 1987. I've also determined that no one is currently making a front strut for the 2nd gen chassis as of this year. After all my searching I've only really found people converting to the 3rd gen suspension setup. So what have the 2nd gen Leone owners been doing about this? My concerns on converting would be finding a donor. Not many old Subarus sitting out in West Texas.