(first posted 11/10/2013)
Never Buy Gas Again! How to convert your Subaru Justy into a chicken manure-fed methane powered hybrid using old washing machine parts and a garden hose.
Deep in the bowels of my closet are a stack of Mother Earth News magazines. That ever-optimistic purveyor of the self-sufficient country life had a pull on so many of us who lived in places like LA or the Bay Area in the seventies. I probably spent more on the subscriptions than we ever actually learned or saved from all their tips, but then that pretty much applies to all life-style magazines.
But the Subaru Justy holds a special place in hard core Mother Earthers: it’s the ultimate back-to the land mobile: cheap to buy, cheap to run, 4WD, tough as a mule, and infinitely adaptable to all sorts of DIY projects. I’ve just pulled an all-nighter to glean some of the more creative MEN (that acronym doesn’t sound quite right) articles, and will intersperse them with what little else I know about the Justy.
How to hook up a 1891 McCormick Deering one-horse plow to your Justy with discarded electrical conduit.
Subarus hold a special place in the whole back-to-the-land movement; they were the obvious replacements for the first wave VW Beetles and Buses and other obscure vehicles like ancient Simcas, Hillmans and Citroens one can still find rusting away behind “greenhouses”.
Runnning An Antique Belt-Driven Sawmill with a Justy and Fourteen Thrift-Store Boy Scout belts.
The first Subaru 4WD wagon of 1975 (CC here) signaled that it was time to throw away those greasy and torn John Muir’s “How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive” manuals, and make the big transition. The Subaru was embraced as deeply as tofu and ginseng. But there was a problem:
How I Make $88 A Week Delivering Fresh Goat’s Milk To The City In My Justy.
Subarus started out as skinny little tiny things, but they kept on growing, each generation bigger and heavier than the next. That was ok for those country-lifestyle newcomers, who showed up with in a shiny new Legacy wagon and a wad of cash they made in Silicon Valley. What about the hard core, trying to eke out an existence from fifteen acres? Subaru was not going to let its MEN franchise evaporate. Enter the Justy.
Communal Tofu and Tempeh Plant Runs On A Justy-powered Surplus Aircraft Generator.
The Justy appeared in Japan back in 1984, in that one-liter class of cars just one step above the 660 cc kei cars. Like the Suzuki Cultus (Metro) and Daihatsu Charade, the Justy also sported a three-pot mill, in 1.0 and 1.2 L versions. It didn’t make its way to US until 1987, just ahead of that much bigger and plusher Legacy. US version got the 1.2 L mill, which had the distinction of being the very last car sold here with a carburetor in 1990, along with the Olds 307, that is. How’s that for two contrasting vehicles sharing the same (dubious) honor?
I Saved $649 By Rebuilding My Subaru Justy Engine With Three Briggs and Stratton 6 hp Engine Rebuild Kits.
Subaru probably kept the carb as a favor to the MEN crowd, who would be able to rebuild it using parts from a discarded film developing kit. Some 66 hp was on tap, but considering that the Justy weighed just under 2,000 lbs, it was certainly faster than the tattered VW Beetle it most typically replaced.
Convert Your Ten-Speed Bike into an Automatic Using A Discarded Justy CVT!
The smart choice was the standard five speed stick, with the available 4WD, of course. The automatic used a very early application of a CVT, as pioneered by DAF. Let’s just say that CVTs have come a long way since the Justy. Supposedly, the CVT was a bit more successful in countries like Japan with lots of slow-speed city driving. But for the non-MEN type buyers who might have been suckered into buying a CVT Justy for the freeway commute in hopes of saving enough money to eventually drive it up Hwy. 1 to Mendocino (one way), disappointment was highly likely. But MEN had plenty of article on how to recycle CVTs into creative new uses.
How I Converted A Justy Into A Tracked Mini-Bulldozer Using Two Old Junked Snowmobiles!
Of course, the Justy is not just appreciated out in the boonies. It has a special place among that group of vehicles so much in favor in towns like Eugene, along with Tercel 4WD wagons, Nissan Stanza 4WD wagons, Syncro Vanagons, Honda Civic AWD wagons; you get the drift…and most of them have been seen here before. They’re hard to miss, literally.
High Gas Prices Getting To You? How To Disable Two Justy Cylinders – 20 MPH Is Plenty Fast Enough!
Rugged, economical (not the Vanagon), and go-anywhere capability are the prerequisites, along with not being a domestic. The Justy is of course the smallest of the bunch; the baby-Eugene mobile. And they’re all still very much in demand, as long as its not a CVT version, anyway. Of course, the Justys aren’t all that common, given that they were only sold in pretty small numbers from 1987 to 1994. They’re still sold in other countries, but the later ones were actually based on the Suzuki Cultus (Metro), with a 4WD conversion.
90 MPG! Convert Your Justy Into A Hybrid Using Our $25 Blueprints, Some Old 12V Batteries, and A Surplus Aircraft Generator/Motor.
Maybe Subaru thought they had the small end of the market covered when it introduced the Impreza about the same time the Justy just disappeared. But as you can see here, the Justy was a whole lot smaller than even the old Impreza. Today, you could stuff a Justy into the back of an Outback.
Convert your Justy to run on alcohol made in this homemade still!
There’s no need for such a tiny little machine anymore. The ones that have expired from their plowing exertions are rotting along with the almost fully-biodegraded VW out back. All the back-to-the-landers have taken up growing a much more profitable crop than ginseng roots or kale. And they wouldn’t be caught dead in one anymore: a big-wheeled 4WD Tacoma or 4Runner is about the smallest thing you’ll find out in the country anymore. So the few Justys left have actually become back-to-the-small-city vehicles. What goes around, comes around.
How To Turn Your Old Dead Justy Into A Chicken Coop Or Solar Powered Sweat Lodge!
Ahhh…the good ole’ Trusty Justy.
Been tempted, many times, to get one to put next to my Outback and free up some garage space where the Acura sits. Sure would be fun on some of the USFS and BLM roads around Idaho and eastern Oregon.
But, so would that WRX.
Having had three of these, I can attest that they are rugged little beasts, but not to Subaru’s usual standard. Oil pumps in particular had a nasty reputation for letting go (although none of mine suffered that fate). Also, the later EFI Justy models got a ten percent horsepower bump, all the way to 73HP. The five-door hatch models were odd-looking birds, too – only sold here in Gen. 2 guise, although there was a five-door available in other markets from launch.
As a potential future owner of one of these, could you do me the favor of some practical ownership advice ? ( Aside from the aforementioned CVT and oil pump issues) I would greatly value your opinion as an experienced owner.
Thanks !
Sure, not a problem! I loved my Just[y?ies?], but in the Northeast, rust was a bit much for them and all three (rusty when I got them to start with) were reduced to dust piles.
First off, if I was in the market, I’d either go for a 4WD ’88 or a 4WD ’94. The ’88s are very light and very nimble; the ’94s have EFI and had all the bugs worked out. The ’94s (and I believe also the ’93s) benefited from having a six-digit odometer.
Tires for the 4WDs are dirt-cheap 13″, but 80-series tires will rub a little bit and might bottom out on the back. 70-series are a better bet. The 12″ tires on the early FWD models are getting harder to find, and more expensive when you do find them.
The seats in every Justy I had were adequate for around town driving and sheer torture for long highway slogs. A seat from a second-generation Geo Metro will bolt in fairly easily and will be much more comfortable. Ditto the seats in the Suzuki Swift GT/GTi. The Justy seat rails will have to be dismounted and bolted onto the Metro/Suzuki seat, after which everything should line up well enough to bolt in. Use hardened bolts and make sure it’s securely mounted, of course.
Finally, if you’re looking for pep, the 73-hp Gen II EFI Justy is hard to beat. I prefer the 4WD models as there is considerably more grip than the FWDs – but if you’re in a sunny climate (I’m in Connecticut and lived in New Hampshire during the time I owned a front wheel drive Justy) you probably won’t need the extra capability. However, gas mileage might be disappointing, as the extra weight of the 4WD system, the generally heavier construction of the Gen II models, and the extra 200 ccs of displacement are somewhat taxing. I usually did around 38-42 with the Justies I had – good, but it still can’t touch a three-cylinder Metro (another fun car, especially with the ragtop) or a three-cylinder Daihatsu Charade.
If there’s anything else you want to know, feel free to reply here or drop me a line – raymond.parker@snhu.edu. Hope this helps!
Pure gold. Sir , I am in your debt.
BTW- Roger that on the Charade. I have a ’90 hatchback 5 speed and it returns a steady 47 MPG on the highway. Its a secret weapon in our war with OPEC. I also have a 4 dr. 1.3 autobox that gets much worse mileage. I have it in top nick and can’t coax more than 34 MPG out of it. The 3 speed slushbox is durable and simple,but inefficient.
Thanks again !
I have wanted one of these forever. Lots of clean,low mileage Justy’s around- With the CVT. Every ad that I have seen with the not quite automatic / not quite manual tranny confesses that it “needs transmission” or , less honestly , ” needs tranny adjustment”.
If you go to the Subaru forums, you will see that the CVT is THE weak spot on these cars (followed by the aforementioned oil pump) . They are just not cost effective to fix. Another design flaw ( IMHO) is the 4X4 models that sacrifice fuel efficiency ( The added weight of the extra drive gear is more than hauling around a well fed passenger) for only a very modest gain in traction over the standard FWD.
But still…Every friend that has/had one says that its well built for what it is and if I ever find a 5 speed creampuff, I’ll drive it home and see for myself.
There are some of these driving about here usually with an elderly pilot but none for sale anyone with one of these keeps it till death do us part.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen one of those I forgot they existed! I’m pretty sure the crusher claimed most of the Illinois examples before Ma Nature had a chance to.
There’s still one more “car” that had the distinction of hanging on to it’s carburator until 1990. It’s kinda like the Anti-Justy. 😀
If you include small trucks in the “last to the fuel injection” party, the carbureted 2.3 in the base Isuzu Amigo and Pickup lasted through 1995. My ’94 Pickup has a Hitachi progressive 2 barrel feedback carb. It works quite well once you reaquaint yourself with setting chokes and fast cold idles.
The Justy had a carburetor through the 1992 model year. The base model was 66 horsepower with the Hitachi carb, the GL had 73 horses with three little injectors on a rail. This information comes from working at a Subaru dealership in 1991, plus confirmation from the Fuel Economy guide that 1993 the Justy only had one gas mileage rating, whereas 1991 and 1992 had two.
A buddy had a 4×4 5-speed 1990 model, and it was very fun. But the way he drove, plus the added weight of insane teenagers led to only fair fuel economy. The 9.2 gallon tank didn’t help much. The Metro had 10.6 to work with.
91 Wagoneer?
The best feature of the Justy was the ability to fill the tank without having to get out of your car. Check out the location of the gas filler door…….
I inherited a 1988 Justy GL FWD from my cousin in 1995. It was pretty beat up by then, but it gave me a good year and a half of service before it needed a massive brake job. I was about to inherit my mom’s old 1985 Corolla by then, so I passed it along to a friend who was pretty good with a wrench. He fixed it up for his younger brother, who was about to get his license.
Anyhow, I miss the Justy’s practicality, as it was the only hatchback I had ever owned. I remember going to Sears with my roommate to buy a 27″ TV; we hauled it back home with ease. The big negative for me was the lack of a second safety latch under the hood. One morning I was driving on the interstate when the hood flew open and smashed into the windshield, creating a few lengthy cracks in the glass, not to mention bending up the hood pretty good. Luckily nobody was hurt.
I bought a new 1988 GL 4WD 5 speed, i loved that car, I put that little gem through the grinder and it never let me down, I ran a house cleaning service out of it for years, You could tell when you added a person and so could the car but the gas millage was great. that car kicked butt over today’s fuel friendly cars, i never had any of the listed problems. It was a joy to find this page.
i got 1988 Justy 4wd (manual tranny) donated to me, should get the title in few days, woild like to restore it cuz its so rare. it got 93k miles and i got it from original owner with all the service books. the car was sitting in the garage for 16 years and still starts and runs good.a/c 4wd works great.
Congrats on the donation, check the timming belt ! this car is alot of fun, enjoy!
“There’s no need for such a tiny little machine anymore.”
Maybe, but maybe not. A spike in gas prices and/or a deep recession can change buyer behavior. These things can go in cycles, e.g., once upon a time the VW was a weird little car that Detroit didn’t take seriously.
In my garage days, we saw quite a few of these piloted by Goddess Mother of the Universe (GOMOTU) types. We’d see them full of hay and even goat droppings. Most had the rear seat removed. The major problem with any GOMOTU I had to deal with was none of them ever had any money, so new bake pads instead became the whole shebag, rotors, drums, calipers and wheel cylinders. Parts for these cars are not cheap and we actually got stiffed on a couple of jobs and had to sell the cars on garageman’s liens. This didn’t exactly endear us the the GOMOTU’s who where everywhere in Vancouver Island in those days. From then on, it was cash-on-the-dash when any GOMOUTU came in the door. I actually had one offer me a supply of goat’s milk to do a clutch job!
Every GOMOTU car I have ever had the displeasure of being in smelled of farm animals and dirty feet. No thanks.
I trust that the last headline is an either/or – I would hate to make use of a solar-powered sweat lodge that is a chicken coop at the same time. That sounds unpleasant.
I know hardly anything about the Justy but have been a reader of MEN for years. Finally let the paper edition go and get them all through the email system now.
Mom is the one that told me how to build an electric car. Bill Arthurs amazing 70 mpg car is cited in the article that we published here about the classroom EV project https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/building-an-evhybrid-a-hands-on-classroom-project/
I expect the modern equivalent is the group of trucks that burn wood gas. Mother Earth will tell you how to build a still or, as you say, run stuff of methane from manure. I hope they write forever.
I think you’re right on about lifestyle magazines. Given that some of the most successful ones describe a lifestyle that very few people could actually afford, the fantasy factory is clearly not to be underestimated. (Of course, that goes for car magazines as well — it’s hard to imagine that a lot of the readership is actually in the position to have to make that tough comparison between a 12C and an Aventador!)
I can’t say that the back-to-the-land homesteading thing has any appeal to me (I’m not even so good with houseplants unless they’re unusually hardy), but there is something compelling about the idea of a sturdy and unpretentious little car like this, particularly with optional 4WD. I don’t know that I would want one, since in L.A. I need four-wheel-drive only slightly more than I need snowshoes, but it pleases me that it exists — in a way that I realize is probably about as close as I will ever come to understanding how some of you feel about trucks.
Since you referenced the Muir Volkswagen book, I wanted to point out, to those who don’t already know, that Muir published a similar book for the Subaru by Larry Owens. The book was every bit as brilliant as Muir’s original book, and featured illustrations by Joe Leahy. Neither edition covered the Justy, probably due to the vast difference in engines.
Muir published similar books for Datsun, Honda, water cooled VWs, and the Toyota Pickup, another transportation staple for off-grid types. The books had various authors, but all remained close to the Muir how-to formula. It was not too long ago, when upon hearing a recommendation for a mechanic, that you would ask “do they work on foreign cars?” Most independent minded free spirits, especially those outside of populated areas, had to be very resourceful and these books provided a means.
Now the subject of most of those books are gone, and any direction you need for tackling an ambitious project can be quickly obtained from the internet. Those books are relics and I’m glad to say I secured a copy of each.
Oddly enough, for all it’s Mother Earth News appeal, the Subaru doesn’t seem to be a DIY darling anymore. In fact, it seems to me that most Subaru owners over 30 abhor a socket wrench. Searching the forums for a solution to a problem now seems to only yield accounts of how much someone paid to have this or that done. The interest has shifted to the travel miles you get from using your credit card at the garage than the additional miles you get out of your car from earnest maintenance. That points out the distinction between the back to the land crowd and the Whole Foods crowd. Much like the conversion of Land Rover from accomplished off road vehicle to coveted status symbol.
Nice one on eBay right now for $4300
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221311532628
Ahh, my first new car ever. Mine was an 88 2wd, 5 speed, 3 cylinder, radio delete, with a/c. Bought it specifically because I was a courier in DC. I remember filling up for 10 bucks. Daily.
Head gasket started leaking summer of 89. Not being mechanically inclined at the time, I figured out if I kept the heat on full blast, the temp gauge would stay close to normal. That was a brutal summer…
I see a green one around here with a missing fuel door
I got to ride in a 4WD Justy that a coworker owned, on a 175 mile round trip customer service call. The car was too light, even the little amount of snow that there was, pushed us all over the road. Next to big trucks, no thanks.
I was not impressed. And it was practically brand new.
This one’s a three-peat! First comments are in 2011, the post says it ran in 2013 which is when the second batch of comments are noted. As I get older I’m getting more forgetful, I vaguely recall reading this at least once (or twice), but really it’s like all-new again! I love me some Justy, I wish I had the opportunity to have driven one.
I had a pal with a stripped-out 2wd ’88. Nothing but a radio. The running gag was that the car was “Justy nuff” to get you where you were going.
Here is a pair of Subarus, one old, one modern, that I spotted curbside while bicycling around Portland earlier this year.
A friend in college had one of these. It was a tough little car, and he ran it hard, taking it on forest trails and beaches.
My daily driver is a 2007 Outback, and I occasionally read Mother Earth News, but don’t envision converting my car into a chicken coop anytime soon.
It can feel a bit like a sweat lodge, without the smoke and scantily clad men, when I drive with my wife, who prefers a warmer ambient temperature than I do.
These were dark days for Subaru. Subaru had not yet gone all all wheel drive and was struggling with an identity. It wanted to be Toyota and offer a full line from economy justy to sport coupe xt6/svx but only the awd cars got any traction. Pun fully intended. After some success in the early 80s when anything Japanese sold, the late 80s/early 90s were hard on Subaru. The justy from what I recall was one of the last of the super tiny, cheap, flimsy, punishing Japanese econoboxes and appeared when Americans were sharpening their pricing pencils, a used Buick was a more reliable and better buy, and Hyundai had appeared. The justy had awd but wasn’t that much cheaper in awd form than the larger four door sedan/wagon but was a LOT less car. There were a few around but they disappeared quickly. In Atlanta we have zero-none whatsoever-need for awd but Subarus are remarkably popular.
As a west coast guy, I always assumed Justies were only popular in our ski areas and backwoods, well maybe in the Rockies also. Imagine my surprise when we spent a week in rural Vermont in 1998, and I saw many Justies and early DL’s, AMC Eagles (wagon and hatch), AWD Tempos and other cars of that ilk. A few on the road, most moldering next to a barn. Of all this, I find the Justy and Eagle (Spirit?) hatch the most appealing.
I used to live in Vermont and can tell you that the Justy and all of those small, foreign, AWD cars were quintessential Vermont back in the late 80’s and 90’s. I haven’t been back in years, so I’m not sure what they are driving now, assuming most all of those older cars have long since rusted away. I am confident that the most popular vehicles are still foreign and AWD. Probably small SUV’s.
My two cents on the Justy.
Ours was an 88 FWD base model with the 5 speed. Bought it used in 90, just(y) for commuting 95 miles up and down the I-15 Cajon Pass. Served us well for 3-1/2 years getting 42 mpg. Snow on the pass – no problem. Okay, let’s take it on a trip through the heartland to Oklahoma and Missouri’s Boot Heel. Needless to say, they had never seen one of these in Sallisaw.
Eventually, the daily grind up and down “the hill” caught up with us. Overheated it and popped the cylinder head. Found a used head easy enough, however, the gasket kit was expensive at $140 bucks. Got her running again, but it clattered like a Rabbit Diesel. The Smog Check station refused to test it. They figured it would blow any minute. It never did.
Keep your little Justy cool and stay in the flatlands.
What was the rationale for the Subaru Justy using a 3-cylinder EF development of the 2-cylinder EK23 engine instead of a lower displacement Flat-4?
Additionally wouldn’t the Justy have been a more practical proposition had it feature a 1.6-litre engine whether via the Flat-4 route or even a 4-cylinder development of the 3-cylinder EF engine?
I love me some Justys, but I’m even more intrigued by the back story with Mother Earth News and that “back to the land” movement which I didn’t realize started such a long time ago. The outskirts of Ithaca NY are full of folks like that, I like to think of them as environmentalists that “walk the walk.” The more modest ones live in small older homes with wood fireplaces, the more well off ones build very handsome but basic wood homes with steel roofs and efficient construction (maximizing solar intake, etc). Most do some hobby farming, all seem to drive Subarus and some Priuses and Fits. I always thought this was some kind of Ithacan phenomenon, but reading your description Paul sounds like it’s nothing new, and not an isolated thing by any means.
My own folks fit the bill, but in a ex-Soviet/Siberian way. They don’t consider themselves “green” or tout their motivations for their lifestyle as such, but they have their own 7 acre hobby farm south of town where they keep bees and grow quite a bit of stuff (veggies, potatoes, berries, wine grapes, lavender), and they have a small cabin with a wood stove and small solar panel that powers their irrigation pump. They mostly use their ’07 Fit as the farm hauler, it does okay mostly except when its wet and then it sometimes struggles to make it up the grassy slope. Aside from their gardening/bee-keeping proclivities they are about the most frugal and resourceful people I’ve ever met (aside from my grandparents). My mom air dries laundry, reuses zip lock bags, my dad keeps their 1980s appliances going. Back in ’05 my brother and I helped my dad convert the tool shed in our back yard into a traditional Russian sauna. I’m kind of on the same path I suppose, I picked up gardening last summer, and can see myself moving onto some land and getting more into that “back to the country” lifestyle.
Ah, the first car I ever bought new was a 94 Justy 2wd with the 5 speed. It returned 37-38 mpg on the 55 mph highways where I lived. Reliable. Not that fun to drive or ride in. The most annoying thing was that the valves had to be adjusted just like on the old air cooled VWs, so that meant leaving it overnight at the dealer. Traded off at 50,000 miles for an Olds Achieva as I wanted something more comfortable on trips.
I am a man of many words. Many pointless rambling endless words. I love saying and writing many things. But for this I have but one: No.