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My 2nd 1983 ea81t turbo wagon


turbosubarubrat
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I had been watch this go on and off craigslsit for about a year and decided i wanted it plus to have a visual diagram to put my other turbo wagon back together. It started at $1500 non running and slowly went down to $600 or trade. So i asked the guy what he wanted to trade for which came down to a saxophone and a clarinet. Once that was agreed apon i went down to go pick it up and all the paper work. The orignal owner was a old lady who bought it at Gladstone Subaru she garged it all the time but she is the one who hit a post thats what happened to the bumper, hatch, and tail lights. After that she passed and it sat in the garage for 5 years until the guy i got it from bought it at a garge sale and got it running. Soon after that the digi dash shorted out and caught on fire frying the dash harness, ecm, melting the dash and other plastic parts that the guy since then replaced but it wouldn't run. It only has between 136k-138k orignal miles and all the orignal paperwork. One paper hand written says its 1 out of 4 ever sold in Oregon and 1 out of a thousand ever made. This is where i come in i have taken out the dash and am checking all the connections, putting together the right tachometer, fixing the engine harness, and fixing the body up.

 

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Edited by turbosubarubrat
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Does that look like your a/c compressor mount Mykey? (sorry for the hi-jack)

It is. I have another one off a brat if you need one. This thing has almost everything power windows, power steering, cruise control, ac, power mirrors, ect. Only things that would make it have everything are a roof rack, wind deflector which i have, and a factory sun roof.

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Nice wagon ! And calmasters !! If you end up needing a new rear hatch I have one in that color I'd let go for cheap as I need to clear out parts because I'm moving. I also have a bunch of chrome factory roof racks for ea81s that I don't need.

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I did a little bit of stuff today to it and got a few parts at the junk yard. Rerouted the wire for the cruse contol to the coil so it goes around the spare tire area with the window washer hose(also melted so replaced it) because it had a open area that could cause problems in the near future. Also fixed some wires that got half way cut through.Took the front bumper off and took off the lights since they both are craked but left wiring. Got the ignition wire and brake switch from the junk yard and put those on since both of those parts got wrecked too. 

 

carfreak85, on 28 Sept 2013 - 10:05, said:snapback.png

 

I think they look really clean without a roof rack, pretty much every ea81 wagon has one, so the naked roof is unique IMHO.  I could do without my sunroof... They only cause problems down the road, especially in the rainy PNW.

I dont plan on adding either because i like the look better with out them too.

 

Skylar, on 25 Sept 2013 - 21:41, said:snapback.png

 

Nice wagon ! And calmasters !! If you end up needing a new rear hatch I have one in that color I'd let go for cheap as I need to clear out parts because I'm moving. I also have a bunch of chrome factory roof racks for ea81s that I don't need.

Where are you moving to? If your moving closer i would want them. I don't need a hatch that badly and a 2 and half hour drive one way for a roof rack would cost more in gas than the roof rack. On the other hand im looking for a roof rack for my other one since some one took it off when they took parts off of it.

Edited by turbosubarubrat
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Pissed from the fact i finished putting the harness in this after noon and the rest of the electrical stuff to get it running then through a battery in and put the key the ignition and it only turns half way <_<. I will take the ignition wire off tomorrow to see if its in wrong or if it was turned half way or something but if not im going to get a new ignition switch from the lock smith if he still has one.

Edited by turbosubarubrat
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My previous comment was a little premature since it turned out the ignition wire was turned in the wrong spot probably because the key was turned half way in the car i got it out of so it still lined up for everything to fit. I still got another ignition switch though which i will not be using but i will keep it anyway since there discontinued. 

 

ALSO GOT IT RUNNING TODAY :D. After i cranked on it for a little bit and it didn't start so i went to see if it had fuel pressure which it didn't. Next step was hooking the pump up direct to the battery which did not do anything while i was down there i checked voltage from the fuel pump wires on the car and it was good, so i took the pump off my other turbo wagon then put it on and with a few pumps of the gas pedle and a about 2 seconds of cranking itstared with no problems :grin:

 

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Went to start it this morning and it would only crank, so i tested the pump and it was bad again. After finding that out i did some research about what would work on it so i went to the junk yard and got a pump off a fuel injected f-150 or f-250 with dual tanks. When i got back home i took the cover off the pump and it turns out i got a bosch fuel pump that is almost new so i saver over $100 and only spent $15 on it. I had to rewire  it which looks factory but the hoses dont because i  had to put a 90 degree joint and a adaptor on.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Got a new windshield over a week ago and still had a good gasket so the chrome got to stay :). I've fixxed a bunch of the problems with it like the room light, heating/cooling lights, golve box light, adjusted all the heating and cooling cables so it has heat, and the starting issues. Yesterday i went to Gresham Subaru to get a temperator sensor for the coolant since its not in the normal spot on the intake but inline on the way to the heater core. It had the parts counter stumped because he had never seen the temp. sensor mounted thay way before either especialy from the factory and he has been working there for something like 30 years. The wagon got all the salesman out there drooling over it saying "they have never seen a turbo wagon that old before and haven't seen a subaru that old in this good of shape". Today i replaced the temperature sensor, air cleaner filter(a mouse decided to make a nest), and oil with filter which helped alot because now it has more boost and power. I also added alot of fluid to the powersteering yesterday since it felt more like my brat(still easy to steer) and now it steers super easy at the wheel.

 

Hopefully it gets to go through DEQ on tuesday or wednesday and passes. We took it through yesterday and it fauled on the CO with 2.4-2.6 when it needs to be 1 but was under on everything else. It should pass since the oil looked dirty which is probably whar part of the problem was plus the air cleaner.

Edited by turbosubarubrat
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  • 2 weeks later...

Passed DEQ yesterday and was way under the standards :)

 

heres some pics.

1392494_368596976608780_838578523_n.jpg

1456804_368597436608734_2048009238_n.jpg943367_368597559942055_1190033529_n.jpg602869_368597846608693_2056721494_n.jpg969379_368598333275311_134969526_n.jpgDecided to fix the rear cargo cover by putting on good end caps and rewinding it so it can go in and out with the spring tension instead of by hand. I modified the 3rd gen caps to fit onto a 2nd gen.

1441569_368598123275332_255747845_n.jpg1453542_368598253275319_162629961_n.jpgThe cap cracked so i used one of the broken ones for plastic weld to fix it.

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559791_368598583275286_1032979906_n.jpg1395117_368598726608605_451388208_n.jpg1466285_368599263275218_1818165560_n.jpgPlastic welded the rip back together after i sewed it to add strength.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Runs smooth now after i adjusted the valve clearance on the passenger side and adjusted the throttle cable. I'm ready to sell it now since its running, driving, and shifting great with good power and has no problems that effect its functionality.

 

New/replaced parts:

 

Has new ngk spark plug wires(can't find the right coil wire and have tried 3 different sets and none of them had all the right lengths for all the cylinders besides the ngk's so it needs 2 sets of wires to make a correct set because aparently they dont make a set for a ea81t anymore),

has a new plugs ngk,

new air filter,

fuel pump off a f-250 made by bosch,

alternator raplaced at one point since also bosch,

coil,

ea82t turbo charger,

windshield,

front bumper,

rear bumper,

tail lights,

corner lights,

ignition switch,

new tags good till 2015,

 

What i have done/good:

 

I took the dash out and did a little wiring to fix what was fried from the digital dash fire,

it was converted to analog turbo cluster and i set the odometer to 136k which is the best milage the previous owner could remember,

I have done some body and interior work,

Fixed heater so its nice and warm,

rear defroster,

AC works,

power steering,

power windows and all work,

power mirrors even work,

cruise control is all there but just needs the control unit plug pluged in and the cable needs put on the gas pedal and the vacume hose put on i sure it works but i didn't want to mess with it,

rear cargo cover fully functional since i repaired it and is very rear (matter of fact the only one i've seen),

transmission shifts great and push button 4wd works good too,

motor runs good,

low miles,

clean title,

new tags,

2nd owner,

has good snow tires,

orignal factory turbo tool kit,

turbo owners manual,

passed deq with no problems just went through way under standers,

has been parked inside for most of its life,

 

The problems:

 

Has light surface rust on the rockers on the inside where the doors close,

has some dents from previous owner backing into a post(dent on hatch/ the bottom rear quarter panel) and a few small dings,

clock keeps reseting to 1:00,

 

ASKING PRICE IS $2500 OBO and im starting a little high. I see the non-turbos for $400-about 2k all the time beat up and high miles needing lots of work or around 2k in fair shape. I will post in the forsale section and on craigslist soon. The snow is coming and this is the perfect car for some one or the subaru enthuesist 1 of a 1000 in the USA and only 1 of 4 sold in oregon.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wouldn't start on friday and the fuel pump wasn't turning on or it would once or go constantly. So i check the fuse links and relays which turned out not to be the problem. Then i checked the pump by hard wiring it to the battery and it was turning on then so i check the power going to the pump and it had a constant 12v which isn't right, so i check relays again which still wasn't the problem. Left me with 1 idea which was change the ecm and that was it :), but it was only running on 3 cylinder when i started it and it wasn't getting better. This lead me to check which cylinder wasn't firing by unplugging spark plugs 1 by 1 while it was running to see which cylinder wasn't effected. It turned out to be #4 so i check for spark which it had so i took the injector off and the end of it was cracked so i took one off my other wagon then installed it. Now it's back to running great and good power.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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