wagonist

I'm not sure how the system is there. Cars delivered to Aus had no A/C wiring fitted from the factory. The coldest state here still hits 25 degrees C in summer, and a lot of places are consistently over 40 degrees C, so why A/C wasn't fitted as standard, defies me So we've got this extra loom which was pulled behind the dashboard and out through the 2 rubber grommets in the top rear corners of the engien bay. Looks U G L Y Anyway, this extra plug on our is on the driver's (right) side under the dash. Is a blue single pin plug. However, I've noted that this loom is made for both LHD & RHD (ie has 2 different positions for the line pressure sensor (ours is on the LHS strut tower, I believe LHD ones are behind the RHS headlight). I can't remember if there was a 2nd blue plug on the LHS of the dash or not, so maybe also look behind the glove box? I have seen a loom which had the factory fit A/C wires & this was different again Hope that hasn't confused you...

The dealer fits A/C looms here have an extra single wire plug which then plugs into the main loom for EFI cars. When the relay for the compressor clutch connects, this wire sends a signal for the ECU to idle up. I always wondered what the extra wire was until I got an EFI EA82 Out of curiosity, is the A/C clutch kicking in & out in normal operation? Because the entire A/C system won't work if there's no gas, including the relays.

The other trick is to remove that rubber, weld the 2 pieces together, but install a rubber block onto the 2 bolts that hold it to the rest of the shifter plate, but between those 2 plates. Use Nylock nuts on the bolts so you can do them up, but not too tight without them undoing.

ditto, pity its not this side of the big lake

The centre diff lock engages by dog teeth. You will hear it lock in because it's meshing these teeth. But when you unlock it, the load comes off and it's freewheeling, so you won't hear it that way.

Or remove the radiator completely, along with the engine fan. Hand socket with extension will then do the trick, no matter what sided socket you have, but better with the 6 sided.

The rear bumper on wagons should also have 2 10mm bolts underneath the sides, on the sedan, there should be 2 bolts sideways below the tail lights.

It depends on who installed the A/C. Dealer fit sometimes have different brackets to those which were factory fitted (it's really random what you get over here). The non-A/C cars have different brackets for both the power steer pump & alternator (which is moved over a bit) There is another bracket underneath the A/C compressor. You'll need to remove the alternator to see it. 3 bolts holding that on. 1 behind the tensioner arm, 1 down between the A/C compressor & power steer pump. They are both horizontal & you'll need to find them by feel or a mirror. The right side one needs to come out fully, the left side only needs to be loosened so the assembly lifts off. If you can't find the 3rd one, then you need to find another hobby Unless you want to find & change the brackets, then you're going to have to make up a dummy compressor

So from your description with having multiple wires, I'm assuming you have cruise control? They have a different clock ring & steering wheel to those without. Some of the horn pads have screws holding them on from the back, so don't always believe what you read But, your contacts in the horn ring have gone bad. There's supposed to be conducting grease in there to allow the contacts to slide & still conduct. because of the movement, this wears away over time. Sorry, no advice on how to pull that apart. We didn't get cruise as an option in Aus. I've got one of the horn rings cos I got it sent over from there.

ok, so I can't guarantee what I said about the lines then is accurate. I have no experience with carb turbos, only EFI, so my statements may or may not be relevant.

That body kit make it looks so much better. I have a mate with 3 or 4 XTs and the thing that always strikes is that despite them having a low roof, there is too much under car clearance for a sports car

That Kyosan pump looks like its designed to fit directly to an EA82 engined Subaru.

Unless you already have factory EFI on your EA81, it is doubtful that your current feed line will be big enough to flow enough fuel for the EA82T. When Subaru put the EFI into the 85- models, they removed the carb return line, used the carb feed line as the return line, and then installed a bigger line again for the feed. That sounds so weird that the return line needs to be bigger than the feed line for the regulator to work properly. Why would you need a bigger pipe when most of the fuel coming through the feed line is burnt in the engine, leaving less to go back? Just becasue a line goes into the bottom of the tank from the outside doesn't mean it stays there once its inside the tank

As Jono said, the resistance in the starter wire as it goes from the battery, through to the ignition switch, back to the engine bay to starter motor can get too much after time. It's even worse in automatics which take a detour via the gearstick... The quickest way to check this is next time it won't start: leave the ignition on (making sure the car is in neutral with the park brake on) disconnect the small wire from the starter motor connect another piece of wire rom where you pulled the small wire off the starter motor touch this to the positive terminal of the battery & be ready to pull it off as soon as the engine starts BE CAREFUL HOLDING THE WIRE AND MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T TOUCH THE CAR BODY, ENGINE, NEGATIVE BATTER Y TERMINAL, OR OUTER SHELL OF THE STATER MOTOR If the egnine starts straight away with this, then I'd definitely install the relay like Jono said. Wouldn't hurt to do this anyway, it's only a small expense.

You've flushed your radiator?

I'm not sure I want to ask how much this work of art is costing.... But makes me realised how bad my engine looks

So what engine is in the RS if there are 2wd versions? Or were there different engines? Though I never knew there were FWD turbo Vortexes (XT) until about 5 years ago.

You need to be driving straight for it to engage. There is no synchro, just a set of dog teeth, so if they're not lined up exactly, it won't mesh. And he said that because if you're driving with the front & back axles locked together and being forced to spin at the same rate, then you turn a corner where the rear axle takes a shorter path, then you're stressing the locking mechanism. At some point, it will give up and get damaged. So the only factory fitted trans in this model that is always 4wd (& can be driven like this on hard surfaces) is the one that also has a centre diff lock, and will have a switch for this near the gearstick.

post 88 transmissions have a neutral switch, doubtful your trans from the 86 will have it. On the left side near the reverse switch.

Getting a bit off topic Now NZ gets a lot of its cars 2nd hand from Japan. They used to have a Knock Down Kit assembly industry for cars, but never a full manufacturing industry. Being a smaller country with a higher cost of petrol, they got a smaller sized range of cars compared with here. In the 90s, the NZ design rules adopted the Japanese Design standard without any extras, so pretty much overnight, that industry was lost & grey imports of JDM cars began. The Aus design rules were higher (needed side instrusion bars, more prominent side indicators, different seatbelts), and also because we have (but not for much longer) a car manufacturing industry, the manufactuers lobbied the government to impose more restrictions on the 2nd hand grey imports, but not private imports or cars older than 15 years (now changed to pre 89 only). Grey imports were required to meet: not have an equivalent model (ie simlar body shell) already on sale by a manufacturer. ie allowed JZA80 Supra, but not 2 door Subaru STi. have all the fluids changed have all new tyres fitted have all new seatbelts fitted side intrusions bars fitted if not present child anchor points fitted if not present side repeaters fitted if not already present have a car crash tested So our grey imports cost a lot more to bring in that those from NZ (and our rules keep getting tighter), and any from NZ would have come from Japan anyway, but with the cost of an extra boat ride plus customs duty, etc. They used to be able to bring in diesel variants of the same body shell, but Japan basically stopped building any diesel cars in the early 00s, and this option has since been removed. Grey imports now must meet either a performace spec (ie power to weight ratio), or high fuel economy spec, otherwise bad luck. NZ is also futher south than us, with the corresponding snow, & worse roads, so cars don't last as long. Because of this, some of our collectibles are actually going the other way across "the ditch" I'd love to get a Lexus IS wagon (we got the sedan), but it's not powerful enough for its weight. To get a little bit back on topic, I could bring in an 89 RX hatch quite easily (though I'd need to convert to RHD, which wouldn't be so hard), the 90 RS would be a whole lot more difficult.

If it was a paved road & you don't have a full-time 4wd gearbox, then you were forcing yourself to have understeer. There is no centre diff in the part time 4wd boxes, the front & rear shafts are locked together. So because the rear end takes a slightly shorter route than the front end, it was forcing the front end to spin the same amount, causing it to loss traction (ever so slightly) which because of momentum, the car wants to go straight. Handling also comes down to the spring & shock rates (and how much they're worn), weight distribution, ride height, anti-roll bar specs, tyres, ...

I'm a bit surprised you are getting a check engine light because of the neutral safety switch. The 3AT has no electronic control at all and isn't connected to the ECU. I'd be checking the error codes on the ECU. And no, there won't be a Low range light in your cluster. You can swap the middle display for that from a manual (you'll need to swap the auto plugs onto it as the auto has more wires), then use one of the wires that the display used for the gear selector (they go from the display directly to the auto shifter) & add the switch for the low range (85-88 cars had the switch on the lever, post 88 had it on the gearbox).

What car? Bit hard to help without enough info. The clusters tend to be the same, just with an added part for the Auto shifter position. Take the cluster out & start pulling bulbs & then look through the back to see what's what.

No, privately imported RXs from Japan

I'd be curious to know if the numbers quoted for the RX builds are USA/North America only, or world wide? They were available from Japan also. Subaru Aust never brought in the 3 door, probably considering that the Vortex (XT) was enough for our smaller market. So if you want rare, send an RX 3 door this way, I've always wanted one. I believe there are only 3 in this country, though the debate would be whether that would make it worth more...