The New Brumby, Bernadette

[Phizinza]

More news on the distributor fitting. As you probably remember from the first page I am using a Ford Laser/Mazda 323. The adapter I designed worked first time after I got the aluminum one from my brother in law. But the cam shaft still needed some modification. I pulled it out after getting a proper Torx PLUS socket for the bolts holding it down. Because the distributor has just a pin through it's shaft for drive I just simply cut a slot in the cam shaft. I also drilled the centre out to 14mm to accommodate the shaft coming out of the distributor. I only used a cordless drill and angle grinder for these mods. I carefully ground the slot testing many times until it was a perfect fit (no timing backlash.

I made sure the distributor would be pointing towards a plug when the cam was at TDC on a cylinder. So I get a good amount of adjustment either way on the distributor. No guess work, proper alignment.

[Phizinza]

I had to replace the warped rotors, $103 posted for two DBA640 rotors, just the standard vented ones, no cross slotted drilled racing stuff.
I also replaced the pads with some decent cheap ones for $27 made by Bendix.

[Phizinza]

On to the fun parts...

The Weber manifold. Made from half stainless and half mild steel (because that's what I had and what was cheap).

Primed and sprayed with engine enamel. I won't go into too much detail, but I will tell you I will not be making a manifold again! It turned out a bit harder than first thought just because of warping. I could not stop the warping from weld heat. So a few cuts here and there, welds, bashing etc and it finally fits.

I made the plenum with rounded edges to stop eddy currents which will increase performance over a square manifold. The bends were bought as mandrel bent pipe. About 1.8mm thick, ID sized to match the ID of the factory manifold.

Here is the customised throttle snail. I welded part of a snail off another car onto the Ford bracket as the Ford Weber does not have a snail but relies normally on a ball joint connection to the throttle cable. Being that I want to keep the car to minimal customised parts (easy to source replacement parts) I wanted to make this new manifold and Weber work with Brumby cable. Because the normal Weber throttle shafts rotate the opposite direction to Hitachi carburetors the cable acutally goes around the bottom of the snail and only just clears the manifold I made when using the spacers I designed and had made with the manifold parts.

[Phizinza]

And the last bit of news is the gearbox.

I had planned on using the 01 Outback box along with a EA82 box to make an EJ PT4WD box for the Brumby, but after El Freddo pointed out the differences in the reverse gear I started thinking it's more effort than it's worth converting the 8 bolt EJ box to use EA82 internals.

I ended up buying a Gen 2 Liberty 4 bolt box from a wrecker and combined the internals and rear transfer case from my EA82 box with that instead. I than used the centre diff from it to fix the broken centre diff in the Outback box so I can now sell that.

This picture is of the EA82 internals in the Liberty EJ D/R gearbox.

[Phizinza]

Swapped my PS rack into the unbent engine crossmember, replaced it's inner tie rod ends while I was at it. Also welded the nuts captive that hold the bottom plate on.

I'll be putting the engine and gearbox on it and doing the plumbing before it all goes into the car.

[Phizinza]

The $73 mistake...

I made the manifold with only the alternator bolted to the computer.. Stupid mistake. I assumed the air con compressor didn't protrude past the bracket, WRONG. So I had a 30mm problem.

Thank Subaru for the solution though! A bit of research online showed the Impreza and early Foresters had a much shorter compressor. A trip to the wreckers and $73 later I had a compressor and bracket. I had to modify the bracket a bit but it should still easily be strong enough.

And lastly I glued up the timing belt cover. It was damaged from the belt slipping off in an accident.

[Phizinza]

Due to differences in the Power Steering rack hose connections I decided to build a EA82 power steering rack with Brumby inner tie rod ends. This also lets me sell the Brumby power steering as a complete kit, $$$

I put the aircon condenser in so I could measure up for the front mounted fans. While doing this I put the wagon lights, brackets, surrounds and grill on that I had painted. I found that it wasn't my light surround causing the drivers side light to point high and not adjust any lower but it was the body work that had obviously been damaged in the past. I tried hammering it back to factory position but it still needed a little spacing, just a washer.

I was told by someone on another forum that only the Brumby rack will give the right geometry, the EA82 and EJ racks wouldn't. But I have a Gen 3 Outback rack, EA82 rack and EA81 rack lined up here, all are the same width minus the difference in rack ends (tie rod ends).

And finally, for now, I removed the dog leg off the EJ alternator and made my own little plastic shield. This means it will clear the airbox.

[el_freddo]

Steady build Phiz!

Lots going on...  That issue with the AC compressor on the mainfold, I thought for a moment there that you were going to mod the manifold.  I think the $73 option was the better option!

Nice discovery on the rack widths etc.  I think the difference you'll find is in the steering input shaft.  I'm not 100% sure but the angle might be different and this causes and issue with connection to the steering column.  Worth checking it out anyway!

And have you already got the block in the brumby?  Only ask as you mention measuring up of fan space with the compressor fitted.  I thought you weren't up to this point yet!

Cheers

Bennie

[Phizinza]

Nope, engines not in yet, getting as much done as I can before ripping into the car. I'm mounting the fans in front of the condenser, keeps plenty of room in the engine bay

I didn't see a difference in angle, but I'll have a closer look at the racks

[Phizinza]

The angles look identical, but the length of a bit shorter on the EA82 rack.