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Just bought a '78 wagon


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I've seen people use flat washers with the stock studs. I've bought 2 cars that some one did that to not knowing until taking off the wheels off when parting the cars out.

And you've continued to run them safely after that? Reducing the number of threads for the lug nuts to grab makes me nervous.

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Personally I'd flip the 80's wheels to someone who can use them and score a set of flat spokes that were correct for that gen. Sure you can grind or add spacers etc....

 

Parking brake cables you need ? The guy who has Danny's old stock should have them new.

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I may very well go that route with the wheels. I'm still trying to figure out which wheels go to which generations.

 

I haven't been around here very long... do you know offhand who that is that might have the parking brake cables?

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djcommie , I think.

 

And Maybe another guy has some NOS too - gopherbroke - again I'm not positive but one of those guys bought Danny's old stock which was originally stored leftovers of the Mid-Atlantic distributor for SOA.

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And you've continued to run them safely after that? Reducing the number of threads for the lug nuts to grab makes me nervous.

I bought the cars as non running parts cars and did know until i took the wheels off. They didn't have any problems with the wheels, lug nuts falling off or braking studs. One was a slammed 87 dl kept in rwd with no front axle and the piss probably ran out of it. The other was a 85 gl10 turbo that was ran so hard its compression was 30 psi in all cylinders, because they ran it on the dunes with a bunch of holes in the bottom of the air cleaner that doesn't get filtered so it sucked in sand from sand lake i'm guessing. They also ran it at 15-20 pounds of boost

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djcommie , I think.

 

And Maybe another guy has some NOS too - gopherbroke - again I'm not positive but one of those guys bought Danny's old stock which was originally stored leftovers of the Mid-Atlantic distributor for SOA.

 

Awesome, thanks. I'll hunt them down and see what I can find.

 

I bought the cars as non running parts cars and did know until i took the wheels off. They didn't have any problems with the wheels, lug nuts falling off or braking studs. One was a slammed 87 dl kept in rwd with no front axle and the piss probably ran out of it. The other was a 85 gl10 turbo that was ran so hard its compression was 30 psi in all cylinders, because they ran it on the dunes with a bunch of holes in the bottom of the air cleaner that doesn't get filtered so it sucked in sand from sand lake i'm guessing. They also ran it at 15-20 pounds of boost

 

Hmm, ok. I'll test it out and see how much spacing it needs to clear the trailing arm. I'm very wary of it but that GL-10 sounds like it was beaten harder than I intend to do to this, and if it survived that way it's probably likely that it'll be fine.

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Minor progress today. I pulled the skid plate off so I can clean and repaint it, and clean the bottom of the engine and change the oil. Half a dozen pinecones and a huge pile of dirt came out with it. Took some penetrating oil and the breaker bar to get the bolts loose. Luckily none of them thread into anything on the frame of the car... all 8 of them are just bolts through the frame with nuts on the other end, so I'm going to replace them all with fresh shiny ones. 

 

I'm interested in the the construction of this thing. turbosubarubrat mentioned that the side brackets weren't factory, but the main weight-bearing mounting holes are on those side brackets. Was this whole thing reconfigured with new side pieces? Or is this a non-standard one that's built very similarly to the factory style?

 

Skid_plate_zps5ofzmbrb.jpg

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Huh, here's an odd question. I was browsing through old threads and came across this: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/103301-1979-4x4-crossmember-brushguard-hardware-please-help/
 

… there were no bolts holding the crossmember to the frame!

i think the previous owner is retarded. he mustve pulled them all out to take off the brushguard.
first off, im glad to be alive.

but i do have questions. my manual doesnt specify bolt size or length and i need to get up and running (safely).

im gonna throw some grade 8 hardware through there but i want to get this right before i drive it.

 

Is this by chance referring to the bolts that were holding through the holes I marked in the picture above? i.e. these:

 

subframe_bolts_zps4qhwiu40.jpg

 

If these are critical to the safety of the car I want to make sure I know what I'm dealing with before moving it without them, or replacing them with lesser hardware.

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I don't have any parking brake cable, unfortunately. Gopherbroke has the large multi-threaded parts haul on the Genn 1 Marketplace/FS forum. I have the factory front bull bar and its quite a bit different from that on. 

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Cool, thanks for letting me know. Yeah, after inspecting that bull bar more closely while painting it, I'm pretty certain it's homemade. The welds are not nearly clean enough for a factory thing.

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Huh, here's an odd question. I was browsing through old threads and came across this: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/103301-1979-4x4-crossmember-brushguard-hardware-please-help/

 

 

Is this by chance referring to the bolts that were holding through the holes I marked in the picture above? i.e. these:

 

subframe_bolts_zps4qhwiu40.jpg

 

If these are critical to the safety of the car I want to make sure I know what I'm dealing with before moving it without them, or replacing them with lesser hardware.

 

Those added pieces on the side are not factory, nor is the 'skid plate' by the looks of things. From the factory the the only mounting points were the four engine crossmember bolts and the two to attach it to the front bumper. The image shows someone has added side pieces and bolted them to the front tow hooks, not sure it is entirely necessary! 

Edited by Leeroy
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Ah, interesting. I wondered why it didn't seem to have any tow hooks! That makes much more sense.

 

The whole assembly is actually surprisingly light... I'd say 70lbs at max, probably less. But the skid plate is certainly sturdy enough to protect the oil pan from my bad driving. I wonder if it's sturdy enough to hook onto and extract the car if I get stuck, given that it's connected to the tow hooks?

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Check out my post for parts in the classic subaru section. Full part out of a 78 wagon that's super clean including bumpers :)

 

Awesome! Wish you were closer by... I'd love to replace the seats but I don't think I can justify the shipping cost from New York.

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Finally some progress today! I pulled the carburetor apart and cleaned it and replaced the float valve and gaskets and such, and now it starts and runs. The process was fairly straightforward, and really only included one surprise:

 

screen_zpsfrgnwyo3.jpeg

 

That's the screen that lives inside the float valve assembly. It was entirely opaque and clogged, and had either been smashed or had collapsed from suction or something. I think that's probably most of what was causing the fuel delivery to fail. I didn't have a replacement in the rebuild kit, so I cleaned it thoroughly and bent it back to its original shape with some needlenose pliers. 

 

Now I'm a little uncertain what to do next, though, because the engine still runs badly. It's a little rough and sounds like it's occasionally missing, and although I did get it to idle after it warmed up, I had to keep on the gas while it was cold, and when I put it in gear and drove it 100 yards or so it was struggling as soon as the engine was under load and then when I let my foot off the gas the idle dropped way too far and it died.

 

A couple of things I think I need to try now:

 

  1. I haven't yet been able to find a distributor cap locally that fits, and the one that's on there is definitely a bit worn, so I need to source that and replace it.
  2. Replace vacuum lines. None of them look like they're falling apart, but there are a couple that have T junctions in them with one leg that has no line on it and is plugged with electrical tape.

 

After that I'm not really sure. Timing? Distributor points? (Does this one even have those?) I think I need to hunt down someone with more carburetor experience than I have to help me tune it up.

 

Also, I didn't do a FULL carb rebuild, just the top end, and I'm not sure what's working and what isn't. Given that I had to rev it manually at first I suspect that the choke isn't working properly yet, but I'm not sure what else needs to be done.

Edited by jnorion
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Tough to set up that choke. Double, triple check the butterfly. Manual says something like 16 degrees off horizontal. I did a similar re-do like you not soaking parts and using cleaner , gas , and canned air in a truly backyard effort. But I took my time etc like I can see you did. Now my carb isn't horrible but I can see where I needed to put more effort.

 

Next time I'm soaking everything and finding new jets too. I think you are going to be ok with just tweaking and probably don't have to take it out and soak it to at least make it a strong runner again.

 

No carbs in that distributor stock from Danny ? Parts ? Kits ?

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Lol

And this reminds me of what I see in a certain motorcycle board.....

 

Do try to make separate posts per component or other issue. Trying to get carb knowledge on a post that started as a general is limiting your "carb issue" audience you now desire. ;) all good , just offering so you get max responses from Carb gurus and bangers for lack of a better term.

Cheers !!

Happy Fathers Day to you Dads !!!

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I did soak all the bits of the top end that I didn't replace, but I'm definitely still considering the possibility of a full rebuild later if it seems like it's not enough. Taking the top off was a 10-minute job including reading the manual, so I haven't wasted any time. I got a full rebuild kit, so far I've just cherry-picked the pieces that were important (needle valve, top gasket, etc).

 

Totally understand about the separate posts and it's a good point, I'm just not really there yet... at the moment I'm just thinking out loud. I still have an extremely worn distributor cap, a bunch of vacuum leaks, what I'm pretty sure is incorrect timing, and I haven't even looked at the fuse panel yet to see what might have blown, such as the choke fuse. New vacuum line and cap are on the way, and I acquired a timing light today. Once all that stuff is out of the way I will do a basic tune on the carb, and THEN if I still need help I'll ask in more detail.

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No sweat. Might want to check your timing marks on the flywheel and highlight them or enhance them somehow - rescribe them. Most of us have found they fade so much it is impossible to see the marks in revolution.

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It's been too hot for me to feel like doing any engine work the last few days, but it cooled off this evening and I decided I wanted to accomplish some little thing, so I decided to test the can of Rustoleum that I bought earlier in the week. 

 

I sanded down a couple of patches of rust on the back and did a quick test spray just holding a piece of cardboard as a shield. The test came to an abrupt end when I couldn't find the roll of masking tape that I had on hand, without which I didn't want to spray around little things like the window wiper mount, but I learned a few useful things. 

  1. It already looks way better, even though the paint is clearly not the same color.
  2. Just hand sanding is not enough in the places where the metal bubbled up underneath. I either need to use the disc sander, or add Bondo after sanding, or both.
  3. This'll actually look pretty clean with a coat of spraypaint. 

 

2015-06-28%2021.26.04_zpsehgge977.jpg

Edited by jnorion
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