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Good Day, I'm in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I'm retired Military (USN), retired Aircraft Maintenance Training Instructor. I have lots of house construction experience, from the foundation to the roof. Lots of Subaru swaps and maintenance done. 15_ 2.5 DOHC to 2.2 swaps done. This last year, I helped a friend and relative build two garages in Wisconsin. Hot shower and hot coffee in the AM and a cold beer in the evening is about all I need. If you have an interesting location and need some help, let me know. I have flight benefits so I can fly on the cheap most anywhere in the world as long as there is an open seat. Hawaii, EU, Canada.... I love to travel. Larry

Awesome! I'm far, far away from being a Subie expert but I can look at an issue with basic logic. Why would the factory go to the trouble and expense of using 2-piece drive shaft design when a single shaft would have been cheaper and easier? I look at my own 4WD 87 DL wagon or even my 2WD 87 Mazda B2000. Both use 2-piece drive shafts with a center carrier bearing which at first glance just seem like more u-joints and bearings that are going to fail one day. But here comes logic again. Why go to all that trouble? I'll guarantee you the factories had to solve a problem. Why build that extra cost and complexity into a high-production, low-margin vehicle unless you had no other option? Google can find all kinds of reasons why a 2-piece shaft might be better than 1-piece and my guess in this case it was to reduce noise, vibration and harshness (NVH). It could also have been a driveline drop issue on a 4WD vehicle with the exhaust so close and wheel drop in the rear possible leading to interference. Which one is the reason here does not matter to me. Engineers are constantly pressured to reduce cost and complexity so nothing stays in production long-term if it isn't worth the trouble and guess what? Plenty of new vehicles still come with factory 2-piece driveshafts.

Other thought is whether you have the spark leads on the right spark plugs… Cheers Bennie

That surely looks like what we did. Only thing it doesn't show is the marks on the belt.