edrach

Here's the official word: The final rallycross of 2005 will take place as scheduled on November 6th. The venue will be Portland International Raceway. Please see the website for details pertaining to schedule and which group runs when. Rallymaster and course designer will be April Smith. This event will be a points paying event, the final one for 2005. This event will benefit Rebecca Adams, a four year old girl battling cancer and daughter to one of our Oregon Rally Group volunteers. Please make sure you make this event, and bring friends! More information as it becomes available on this list and at oregonrally.com John Elkin More details can be found at www.oregonrally.com. --ed--

Try www.cvaxles.com. They are in Florida but are an excellent rebuilder also. Board price is $55 plus shipping plus refundable core charge. Talk to Kevin for up to date info.

Is the axle failing on the same side (i.e. passenger side)? If so, the inner boot is right under the catalytic converter and causes the rubber to deteriorate pre-maturely since it is too hot (engine running too rich? causes the cat to run hot since it needs to burn all those extra hydrocarbons). I had that problem with my old '86 GL wagon and fixed it by fabbing a heat deflector shield above the cat to scroop up some extra airflow and deflect the heat elsewhere. I didn't loose another axle until the driver's side went a year later.

It's not expensive; I just paid under $10 to www.1stsubaruparts.com for mine. Common opinion on the USMB is not to buy after market for this part; genuine OEM is best in this case.

My son's Brat was running just fine too; just crappy mileage. When qman tried to adjust the carter-weber mixture nothing changed no matter where he put the mixture screw. So we replaced the carb; better power and gas mileage with the 32/36.

Add another vote for changing it now. A word of advice: use OEM parts for the water pump and belt. We just did the belt and water pump on our '91 Legacy (153K miles) and found a couple of the idlers noisy so we replaced those too. Also, if you have the black cam and crank seals replace them with the brown ones; I've heard the brown seals last forever so if you have them already, no need to replace them. www.1stsubaruparts.com will allow you to replace whatever parts you don't use (you'll still need to pay the shipping, but that's no big deal). Ask for Jason if you call them.

I can get you two more centercaps. $1 each plus mailing sound okay to you? (I'll have to check if I still have them).

Leadfoot!

The sad news is that the engine is indeed toast (sort of expected that)...drained the oil and it's choclate milk shake color. It'll be fixed; next weekend the temporary replacement engine is going in; hopefully I have better luck with that one.

Your best bet is to take it to my favorite emissions guru next to the 6th Ave. South emissions testing place in South Seattle (just south of Spokane St.). $40 plus tax if he can adjust it to pass; no charge if it doesn't pass. Plus if it needs a part he can tell you what it needs and then bring it back to him for "tweaking." You can't go wrong! PM me with a 'phone number if you need more information. Judging from the numbers, it's close and will likely just need tweaking.

Sometimes, it's just a bad carb or too rich a mixture. I replaced the single barrel carter-weber carb on my son's '82 Brat when if got 20 mpg on the highway with a 32/36 weber. Gas mileage now is 27 to 29 on the highway.

Car was facing slightly downhill. Thanks for the tip.

You might try I-5 Autoparts; they have an '86 Brat with a clean front end (it was hit in the right rear); I think they'll ship what you need. They are in Chehalis, WA 1-800-551-4489. Ask for Jack and tell them you saw their number on the USMB; Jack will know who posted it.

Not sure how I could screw in the PCV backwards; only threaded on one end. I used genuine new OEM part.

I replaced the PCV valve two days before the smoke appeared with genuine Subaru part.

Manual tranny.

Last night I was prepping my '91 Legacy for a trip to Portland. It was sitting in my driveway just idling and I was moving tools and stuff for the trip. Suddenly, huge amounts of white smoke came out the exhaust....I mean huge....enough to cover the car behind me. I shut off the engine thinking head gaskets. I let it sit for an hour while I made a trip to PAP. When I got back, I checked the coolent...just fine. I started up the car with the radiator cap off and got no bubbles or coolent out the radiator but still had massive amounts of white smoke. It didn't smell like coolent, more like the acrid smell one gets from burned oil. The car still runs and idles normally but I didn't get a chance to test drive it (getting dark) but I'll run it more when I get home Friday. Two weeks ago we installed a new timing belt and replaced a bad water pump. Two days ago I installed a new PCV since I was loosing oil (about a quart every 1000 miles) and I thought it might be time (car has 153K on the odo). I haven't had a CEL for a week and didn't have one now. Any thoughts as to what caused this or what I should check next. Thanks.

I believe the Nokian website carries a list of dealers in the US and Canada.

If you're 180 degrees out, you will be half a tooth out and only have half the hole available. A skinny cotter pin will go through but not the roll pin.

I'm about to hit 50K on my Nokian WRs. Still sufficient tread left and even last winter they did well in the little snow we had here. For Seattle conditions the all season WRs are outstanding. Regarding the comment about the testing giving the Nokian the lowest rating; that may be true when the tires are brand new....I read that in one of the posts on the Nokian website a few years ago. The difference becomes glaring after 20% of the tread is worn off; the Nokians performed just about the same as when new, the other tires dropped off significantly. I would expect decent snow tires from a country that has snow on the ground 6 months of the year. Back in the day when I was active in rallying, the tire of choice for winter events was the Hakkipollitta (bought out by Nokia since then). Since they were not DOT approved the only way to get them in the USA was through a rally competition place in Michigan who got them from a tire place in upper NY state who brought them over from Canada. They were sold as "for competition use only" and you can bet we paid dearly for them after going through multiple sales.

Check www.nokian.com. Tires are made in Finnland and probably the best snowtires in the world. I'm partial to studless snow tires since there's not enough snow in Seattle to justify the disadvantage of studs and the Nokias have the advantage of lasting multiple seasons for me as well as retaining their traction in snow past the first year.

No problem; I'm glad you had the 'phone number; just put it into craigslist's search function and went right to the listing. I thought that was pretty clever for an old guy!

Ross, is correct. You should pull the axle off the tranny stub axle again and rotate the DOJ 1/2 turn and line up the holes again. Note the small bevel on the stub axle and the bevel on the DOJ...they should be aligned before trying to re-install the roll pin. Doing this is easier than you think. Remove the wheel, remove the one long bolt holding the lower swingarm to the frame. This will allow you to move the strut just enough to let the DOJ come off the stub axle, rotate it and re-install it in the right orientation. When you re-install the long bolt just get the nut on and started; do not tighten the nut yet! Re-install the wheel and let the car back down onto the ground and let the suspension travel normally. Now you can crawl under the car and tighten the nut on the long bolt. Good luck.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/car/101225691.html

Alterntor for an XT6 is 90A and fits in your car; you might need to change the pulley.