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We thought we had prerun the rear diff and suspension swap on Bs Forester as best we could so we did that last weekend. Definitely seemed like it was time to swap the rear diff, it has been making noise (pinion bearing?) for a couple years now and there was more debris on the magnetic drain plug than usual. Everything went smoothly until we got to the rear diff bushings. They weren't completely shot but they almost certainly have 300k miles and 25 years on them and this would be the time to replace them. We tried the hollow hydraulic cylinder again but for some reason it didn't have as much stroke as it should and we couldn't see an easy way to bleed it or add oil. Then the threaded rod we were using snapped. At this point B suggested just removing the subframe. He was able to break loose all four bolts but then three of the four nuts started spinning inside the frame. So we hole sawed in from the top to get at those. That wasn't too bad but we cut into a vent line for the fuel tank so I replaced/rerouted that one later. One of the subframe bolts had a big shoulder on it that fit the subframe bushings fairly well, the other three were just 12mm. We used new bolts, anti seize, sleeves for all four bolts to fit the bushings better, washers and nylocks on the top when we put it back in. Pressed the bushings out and the new ones back in. Even in the 20 ton press removing the bushings took some effort. Reassembly went fairly smooth. B said the drive home was mostly good, pulling to the left which slowly seemed to improve. We were barely able to assemble the brakes with new pads on his worn front rotors we used in the rear, one of them was definitely dragging some. The next week he said everything was working alright and then suddenly on Wednesday it wouldn't rev over about 3000RPM, even in neutral. He tried a different fuel pump, the flow and pressure seemed good. Replaced air filter, plugs and wires, and tried a couple different coil packs, no improvement. He drove it to my house and we did some more troubleshooting. If anything the OBDII indicated it was running rich when it would stall and everything else seemed to be working properly (MAP, TPS, etc). Slammo suggested maybe the cats were plugged so we unbolted those. The front cat was empty. Fired it back up and revved out fine. Figured the plutonium from the front cat had plugged the rear cat so we tried backflushing it with compressed air which did nothing. Then tried backflushing it with the garden hose nozzle, not a drop came out the other end. B's hypothesis is that when we got a bunch of rain this week the moisture in the exhaust turned the plutonium dust into mud and completely sealed off the rear cat. He cut it out and welded a piece of tubing in its place and it runs great now. We also bled his rear brakes and replaced his HVAC fan switch with one that works better and did some other little things. In the meantime I changed the oil, oil filter, and air filter and charged up the AC on the Impreza and did a few other things. It's been awhile since I changed the air filter. That picture makes it look a lot worse than it was, there was just a ring of leaves at the end, filter itself wasn't too bad but I put in a new one. It has been running consistently cool now since the lower temp thermostat and hose rerouting and I think I've fixed a few small coolant leaks.

Okay. Sketchy repair maybe (because I don't know 100% what I did) but it is running as well as it ever has. I set out to shoot a short video of the issue last night and decided to check the IAC one more time. It is NOT a b-metal control. It is an on-off solenoid that has the flow metered by a small adjustment screw that is in the throttle body, not in IAC itself. That screw allows minor adjustments to the idle speed while the IAC is active. I turned it in a few revolutions and then backed out to the same spot where it was. I went to start the engine and then do the same adjustment while it was idling but nothing else was required. The engine started as well as ever but never stuttered or bogged down. It idled perfectly and I've now driven it about 45 miles with zero issues. Maybe the port was blocked inside and turning the screw opened up something that has been blocked or too restricted. It runs like a champ now so we'll see if it ever repeats again. The really cool part about all of this is trouble that I figured out a way to use those reversed TPS sensors (SERA484-10) that others have experimented with. I'll detail that in another thread.

Tach jumping around could mean the pickup module is going bad or the shaft in the distributor has excessive wobble due to worn bushings. I'd toss my MODIS on it and go for a test drive if it were mine, but that's hard to do over the internet...

Yep, will we ever learn? One wonders doesn't one! Bill Rigsby - Florissant, CO - 8,213 feet 1982 Brat

Bar the engine over until the timing marks are visible in the access hole on the bellhousing, wire brush both the flywheel and the pointer, then use a white paint marker to mark the 8 degrees BTDC line. Set timing at idle with the vacuum hose(s) to the distributor unplugged. Set idle speed before setting timing. If idle speed changes while setting timing, re-adjust, re-set timing, etc. But, a miss isn't usually timing. Too advanced timing causes pinging before it causes misses, and too retarded timing causes power loss without misses. Check plugs, wires, cap, rotor in good condition, then look at mixture. A 'scope on the primary is also a quick check for ignition misses.

You only find plutonium in select delorean cats, not subarus...

Yes. 4th gens were available with the 2UZ 4.7l. Mine is a 1st gen, though. I have a 4.0 1UZ in it. Install is far from complete, but it runs and drives (no cooling system, so very briefly).

3 hours start to finish engine trans diff driveshaft axles mirrors ecu tcu fuel pump radiator and condensor out. nothing els worth keeping. and thats including driving it out of the woods and cleanup time.

well i started i opted to just unbolt the trans and pull em seperatly. stripping a car is so much quicker when you dont care about the car the parts are coming out of.

i do not have a lift im honestly not opposed to cutting the subframe and radiator support ither. as far as junk yards not many left. chuck and eddies is prety much the last pick and pull i know of. boyds in norwich will still give a good price on a stripped out car. there wont be much left in this one thats still good. the driveline was the only good part of the car.

Wife and I went on vacation for 11 days through AR, OK, and TX. Didn't really plan on doing any off roading but it's kinda hard to avoid in AR. Met up with slammo for a day in his RAV4 prime. On our way to the beach in TX looking for the camping area he got stuck in soft sand. With the folding recovery ramps and a couple straps I was able to pull him out. Before swapping in a lower temp thermostat, engine seemed to plateau at about 215F CTS / 200F upper radiator temp while driving. If left to idle for a while it would slowly climb up (small fans kick in at 215F) until the large fans kicked in (220F), then they seemed to run indefinitely. Yesterday B came over and test assembled as much as he could of the billet knuckle conversion. Got his pair heat treated and painted. Bore for the long bolt/stud being tight was the biggest issue. I got a couple different ball hones but neither of them seems to remove material very quickly. Calipers with new pads seem to just barely fit his worn front rotors. He already swapped new ones on the front. We also had all of the lateral links painted, he got those anti seized and assembled. My main plans were to figure out the wiring issue on the Impreza and swap in a lower temp thermostat and bleed the coolant. On our recent vacation the delayed accessory power stopped working. Was still getting some voltage from its main battery feed but not enough to actually power anything. At the time I just hotwired it to the stock cig lighter. Turns out it had blown a fuse in the underhood fuse box, not sure if I checked those during my initial diagnosis. Cleaned up the wiring a bit put it back to how we had it and seems to be working now. While I was draining the coolant I had the bright idea to replumb the Ford heater cores we'd added under the hood. It seemed that with both of them in series on the heater core circuit the second one wasn't doing much, the first one seemed to cool it almost to ambient temp, and that circuit is a pretty small portion of the coolant flow. So I decided to plumb one of them into the circuit that goes through the oil cooler, figuring that would also cool the oil better. When I started I didn't realize those fittings are about 1/2”, not 5/8” like the heater hoses and cores we'd added. So I made up a couple of barbed adapters on the lathe (one of them in top of picture). It was a bit of a pain to get the hoses routed but I think it turned out fairly well. Then I drilled a 3/16” hole in the top of the 78C (172F) thermostat and swapped that in. I'd had a stock 82C thermostat in it. Got a bleeder funnel recently too so we used that, no idea how much better that works than the normal method of just filling it up and driving. This all seemed like an improvement. When idling for a long time it would still eventually get up to 215F but once the small fans kicked in it would cool back down to 210F (where the fans shut off) and then slowly go back up. The only issue we noticed was the heater core circuit wasn't getting hot or even warm. I pulled various hoses off in that circuit with the engine running and just a trickle of coolant would come out at idle. I pulled both hoses off at the engine and backflushed it with compressed air and it seemed to flow great. Heater had been working great before all this. Eventually I just decided to drive it and hope it fixed itself. Which it pretty much immediately did. Maybe just needed some revs or jostling around to bleed. Regardless, it now blows hot air when you turn the heat on and both heater cores underhood get hot. Also seems like it takes less time for the little fans to bring the temps back down. While driving the temps seem to plateau at about 200F/180F so that also seems like an improvement. Will drive it a bit like this, maybe lower the fan temp at least for the small fans.

I hate trying to remember things. It's not like I've done this several dozen times or anything. lol. I'll try... The thumbnail (I haven't watched the video) shows the drive flange and caliper mount removed. Don't need to do that if just doing pads. The only bolt you need to remove is the little one on the bottom caliper slide pin, then rotate the caliper up. Squeaker goes on inner pad bottom. If you use the pad from the other side of the car, the squeaker will end up on top, and gets mushed by the caliper and makes noise instantly. Pads go in bottom first, push the spring clip in so it goes in the notch in the pad, angle the top of the pad in, do the same with the upper spring clip. The pads will sit perfectly flush and solid on the rotor when the clips are all properly sprung. Any wiggle at all means one of the clips isn't in the right place. Regrease the slide pins every time you do brakes. On the top one, slide the caliper off, wipe the pin clean, coat with fresh high temperature grease (ceramic, often purple - not wheel bearing grease), put a bit of grease in the caliper, slide caliper back on. For the bottom pin, pop it out from the boots, do the same thing. Failure to regrease will cause them to get sticky and trash your pads. Work back and forth and pop boots back on once sliding nice and smooth. A bit of brake fluid also works well for lubricating the boot. Spin the piston in with any available tool until it's almost flush with the casting. Align the piston so the V notches face parallel with the claws, that is, the short way across the caliper, which will be radially in and out when the caliper is installed. When you rotate the caliper back onto the pads, there's a bump on the back of the inner pad that needs to end up in one of the notches. If you have the piston rotated the wrong way, it will end up on top of the bump, and may mush the piston or your brakes will suck until it self-rotates until it lines up. If the piston is difficult to spin in, the caliper is crusty, and may also drag. If you spin it in, then step on the pedal three times to push it back out, then spin it back in, etc, a few times, you can get it sliding a bit better. Or wear your seal out more. One or the other. Spring clip kits are still available and are dirt cheap if you need them. After you put the new pads in, and spin the piston back in, making sure it's rotated to the position where it'll sit over the bump when you tilt the caliper back down, tilt the caliper down and reinstall the bolt in the lower slider. You'll usually need to push the slider pin back a bit to get the caliper down, then wiggle it around to line the bolt up with the hole. Then, with the car off, step on the brake pedal several times until it gets solid. Then do a visual inspection to make sure the pads are still sitting perfectly flush on the rotor. Then put the wheel back on. The brakes will suck at first; I usually power brake for a little on a quick test drive. You may need to step on the pedal hard a few times to get the e-brake to adjust, depending on caliper crustyness level.