Leaderboard

After a (failed - no wind) sailing trip to BC a couple of weeks ago, I renewed my search for an H6 Outback because with the four of us, the (pretty light) boat, and all our gear, my '99's freshly-rebuilt-and-running-great EJ25 was really struggling to maintain 90km/hr through the mountain steeps. Scored an '01 for $500 CAD (about $400 USD): Only 233K km, engine and drivetrain seem really solid, tires less than a year old, body a little nasty. A minor front end incident deprived it of bumper and grille and damaged the headlights and hood - but nothing that a couple of hundred bucks at the wrecker shouldn't set right. Severe wheel well rust. There's other little $h!t to deal with - missing exhaust donut, leaky AC, nonworking CD, and ugly-feeling brakes - but I feel pretty good about it. Except for the stupid locks on two of the wheels - creepy little Simbolz items that I hope a shop with the right extractor can relieve me of. Subaru-specifics aside, nobody told me that having a family meant signing up as a fleet mechanic...

SOA have a plant in Indiana where the *shudder* Baja was made. No idea about the engines or other machined items though, I'm guessing just sheetmetal pressing and assembly. JDM stuff (real JDM, not just stuff that wasn't sold in the US, or Australia, etc) is pretty limited in Subaru-land compared to Toyota. I think even their Kei-cars were readily available in select markets - it's just Subaru offices choose not to import models based on perceived market demand (or in the case of Subaru Australia, it had to be AWD or they wouldn't sell it...the BRZ was a big decision to offer locally).

AUDM doesn’t get half of the JDM goodies that are actually on offer. NZ gets many of them shipped over as second hand vehicles from what I understand. I also don’t know how the Siamese exhaust ports help with emissions, I thought they’d drop the required emissions and that’s why they got rid of them! This could be a long shot - any models or parts made in the US - or is everything built in Japan and shipped stateside? Cheers Bennie

Fair enough. Not intended as a slur, just a short hand that I will be sure to refrain from. My apologies to any offended. And i meant it as a joke more or less about hating USDM market... But realistically lets look at what the USDM market doesn't get compared to JDM or even AUDM

I think the word you are looking for is Japanese. The other way you said it is often used as a slur, not likely to be appreciated here. Also, USDM is their LARGEST and most profitable single market, I doubt they "hate it" Much more likely that the single port is more to do with US emissions and efficiency regulation.

The FWD fuse is not for towing. If you read it that way, you are misreading the Owners manual. Subaru does not advise that, as it's useless without a running motor to drive the AT pump. Never dolly tow any Subaru unless you remove the driveline. Flatbed only. It is there for Donut spare use. Put the Donut on the back and run 2 matching tires on Front. Never use the donut on the front. Manuals trans cars don't have it because they are not electronic, and the basically open center diff in the MT cars will accommodate the tire size difference for a few miles at a time. You can run FWD on the AT cars as much as you want, but it doesn't really help Fuel economy, maybe 1 MPG at most. You are still dragging the rear diff and all it's weight around. I have FWD run to a toggle for convenience, and so I can replace tires in pairs rather than in 4's. I run FWD and then toggle into AWD when on gravel or snow.

It turned out to be the Harmonic Balancer that needed to be replaced.

A caramel wheel is often handy. Caramel coloured rubber buffer wheel with sacrificial rubber but go lightly or can burn paint off

And we all know what resolves this issue... Cheers Bennie

In the past three months my 1977 wagon has come a long way. Look three posts up in this thread to see where I started! It's undergone some cutting and filling of rust holes, a new paint job, coaxing the old engine back into running shape, and it's registered and street legal for the first time since 1984. I've been daily driving it for the last week and it's great. This weekend I installed a Weber and an MSD ignition. I'm still trying to track down the cause of a part-throttle miss/stumble and occasional backfire; I'm hoping that will be solved once I've tracked down all the vacuum leaks and get a new exhaust built, the current exhaust is rusted through and falling apart in many places. And I've got a few boxes with new brake parts ready to go on when I have the time, plus I still have some aftermarket wheels in the plans. First time on the road by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr First time on the road by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr First time on the road by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr First time on the road by Jason Ahrns, on Flickr